Ethical Misconduct

The Caucasian Medical Journal adopts the highest ethical standards in academic publishing and firmly opposes all forms of plagiarism and ethical misconduct. To safeguard the originality and integrity of all published works, all submitted manuscripts undergo a rigorous plagiarism screening process.

Definitions of Ethical Misconduct

  • Plagiarism: Republishing the entire content or a portion of another author's work without appropriate citation.
  • Fabrication: Inventing data or results that were never actually obtained and presenting them as legitimate findings.
  • Duplication: Republishing previously published data or articles, including translations, without explicit disclosure and justification.
  • Salami Slicing: Artificially dividing the results of a single research study into multiple smaller publications to increase the number of publications.
  • Data Manipulation or Falsification: Deliberately altering or misrepresenting research data to achieve misleading results.

Detection and Screening Process

All manuscripts submitted to The Caucasian Medical Journal are screened using advanced plagiarism detection software such as iThenticate.

The maximum acceptable similarity index is strictly set at 20%. Manuscripts exceeding this threshold will not be accepted for publication unless appropriately revised.

Authors are required to clearly declare if any part of the submitted manuscript has been previously published (e.g., in abstracts or conference presentations).

Authors’ Responsibilities

  • Authors must guarantee that the submitted manuscript is an original work and that all sources are properly cited.
  • If authors have previously published related data or preliminary findings, they must disclose this transparently at the time of submission.
  • Authors must avoid unethical practices such as gift authorship, inappropriate acknowledgments, or manipulation of references.

Editors’ Responsibilities

Editors are obligated to thoroughly investigate any suspicions or allegations of plagiarism or ethical misconduct in accordance with the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

In cases where ethical misconduct is verified, editors reserve the right to reject the manuscript, request revisions, or retract the published article.

Actions Taken Against Ethical Misconduct

  • If plagiarism or ethical misconduct is detected prior to publication, the manuscript will be immediately rejected, and, if necessary, the authors' affiliated institutions will be notified.
  • If ethical misconduct is discovered after publication, the article may be retracted from the journal, institutional notifications may be issued, and a retraction notice may be published.

Transparency and Accountability

The Caucasian Medical Journal meticulously adheres to COPE flowcharts and guidelines to address ethical concerns in a transparent, consistent, and fair manner.

The journal maintains open communication with authors, reviewers, and institutional representatives to ensure that processes regarding ethical violations are conducted professionally.