Integrity
Submissions must be original, accurately reported, and free from fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, deceptive image manipulation, citation manipulation, and other practices that could compromise the scientific record.
Publication Ethics
EDITORIAL POLICIES
Publication Ethics and Research Integrity
The Journal of Digital Health and Advanced Biomaterials — JDHAB is committed to research integrity, responsible authorship, transparent reporting, editorial independence, and the protection of the reliability of the scholarly record.
JDHAB evaluates submissions according to scientific merit, methodological rigor, ethical adequacy, transparency, and compliance with the journal’s editorial policies.
The journal’s publication-ethics policies are informed by internationally recognized principles and guidance, including those of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.
Ethical Framework
Responsibility
Authors, reviewers, and editors share responsibility for maintaining scientific reliability, professional accountability, confidentiality, and appropriate scholarly conduct.
Transparency
Competing interests, funding, ethical approval, consent, trial registration, data and code availability, permissions, and the use of artificial intelligence must be disclosed when applicable.
Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions must be based on the scholarly merits of the submission and remain independent of inappropriate commercial, institutional, personal, or other external influence.
Authorship and Responsibility
Authorship, Contributorship, and Accountability
Authorship must reflect substantial scholarly contribution, participation in manuscript preparation or critical revision, approval of the submitted version, and acceptance of accountability for the work. JDHAB does not permit gift, guest, or ghost authorship.
All listed authors must approve the submitted version and accept responsibility for the aspects of the work for which they contributed. Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be recognized appropriately and only with their permission.
Authors should provide an accurate contributorship statement when requested. The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and for ensuring that all authors have reviewed and approved the submission and required declarations.
Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be justified in writing, approved by all affected authors, and accepted by the Editorial Office before any change is made. Authorship changes after acceptance are exceptional and may require further editorial review.
Transparency and Disclosure
Competing Interests and Funding
Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose financial, commercial, institutional, academic, collaborative, or personal relationships that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, the evaluation, interpretation, or presentation of a manuscript.
All sources of funding must be reported, together with the role of the funder in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit for publication when applicable. The absence of funding or competing interests should also be stated.
Undisclosed Interests
Relevant competing interests identified during or after the editorial process may result in requests for clarification, reassessment, correction, an editorial notice, recusal, or other proportionate action required to protect the integrity and transparency of the scholarly record.
Research Ethics, Consent, and Registration
Research Involving Human Participants
Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical, institutional, and regulatory requirements and with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must report approval by an appropriate ethics committee, institutional review board, or equivalent authority and provide the committee name, approval identifier, and relevant approval date when available.
Where ethical approval is not required, authors must state this and provide an appropriate legal, institutional, or methodological explanation when requested by the Editorial Office. Editorial acceptance is not guaranteed solely by the existence of ethics approval.
Consent, Privacy, and Identifiable Information
Informed consent to participate must be obtained and reported when applicable. Written consent for publication is required when photographs, clinical images, case information, or other material could reasonably identify an individual, including when identifying content may be available online.
Authors are responsible for protecting participant privacy, omitting nonessential identifying details, and retaining consent documentation in accordance with applicable law and institutional requirements. The journal may request written confirmation that valid consent has been obtained and archived.
Animal Research and Welfare
Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional and national standards for animal care and use and must report approval by the appropriate oversight body when required. Authors should apply recognized animal-welfare principles and relevant reporting guidance, such as ARRIVE, when applicable.
Clinical Trial Registration
Applicable clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible registry accepted by the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform or in ClinicalTrials.gov at or before the first participant gives consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.
Retrospective registration does not satisfy prospective-registration requirements. Any exception or discrepancy must be fully disclosed and will be evaluated editorially; consideration does not guarantee acceptance.
Originality, Images, and Research Misconduct
Originality and Redundant Publication
Submitted manuscripts must represent original scholarly work and must not be under simultaneous consideration by another journal.
Previous dissemination, related publications, preprints, theses, conference material, or substantially overlapping content must be disclosed when relevant so that the Editorial Office can assess the relationship between the submitted work and the existing scholarly record. Sources must be appropriately cited, and permissions must be obtained when required.
Digital Image and Figure Integrity
Misleading manipulation of clinical photographs, radiographic images, scans, micrographs, figures, or other visual records is not permitted.
Adjustments intended to improve clarity are acceptable only when they do not alter, obscure, selectively enhance, fabricate, or misrepresent the information contained in the original material. Any substantive processing, compositing, or AI-assisted generation or modification must be methodologically justified and transparently disclosed.
The Editorial Office may request original, unedited, or intermediate files when image or figure integrity requires verification.
Research and Publication Misconduct
JDHAB takes seriously concerns arising before or after publication. The journal may investigate suspected plagiarism, redundant or fragmented publication, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate image manipulation, citation manipulation, authorship misrepresentation, undisclosed competing interests, manipulated peer review, or other conduct capable of compromising the scientific record.
Similarity Screening and Source Verification
Text-Similarity Assessment
The Editorial Office may use text-similarity screening tools when available as part of the evaluation of originality and textual overlap.
Similarity reports are interpreted editorially and are not used as automatic evidence of plagiarism or misconduct. Context, legitimate quotation, methods terminology, cited reuse, and the nature and extent of overlap are considered.
Source Data and Original Files
The Editorial Office may request raw data, analytical records, original figures, unedited images, protocols, ethics documentation, registration records, or other source material when necessary to clarify questions concerning accuracy, originality, reproducibility, or research integrity.
Failure to provide reasonably requested documentation may affect the continuation of editorial assessment and may lead to further action when concerns arise after publication.
Data Integrity and Reporting
Data Integrity and Reproducibility
Methods, analyses, and results must be reported with sufficient clarity and completeness to permit critical appraisal and, where feasible, reproducibility. Selective reporting, undisclosed outcome switching, and presentation of unsupported or fabricated data are not permitted.
A Data Availability Statement is required for original research. The statement should indicate where supporting data may be accessed or explain legitimate ethical, legal, privacy, proprietary, or other restrictions on availability.
When appropriate and ethically permissible, data, code, protocols, and supporting materials should be deposited in trusted and persistent repositories. Shared materials must respect consent, privacy, confidentiality, intellectual-property rights, and applicable data-protection requirements.
Reporting Guidelines
Authors are expected to follow reporting guidelines appropriate to the design and nature of the study when applicable, including recognized standards such as PRISMA, CONSORT, STROBE, CARE, ARRIVE, or other relevant guidance.
Artificial Intelligence
Use of Artificial Intelligence by Authors
Authors must disclose the use of artificial intelligence-assisted technologies in the production of submitted work and identify the tool, version when known, purpose, and extent of use when applicable.
Use involving writing assistance, data processing or analysis, image or figure generation, translation, coding, literature support, or another substantive contribution must be reported in the appropriate section of the submission. Routine spelling, grammar, and reference-formatting tools that do not generate or materially alter scholarly content generally do not require disclosure.
Artificial intelligence systems cannot be listed as authors or cited as responsible sources. Human authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, attribution, validity, confidentiality, and integrity of all submitted content, including material produced or modified with AI assistance. AI output must not be used to fabricate data, images, citations, participants, results, or sources.
AI Use in Editorial Assessment and Peer Review
Editors and reviewers must preserve the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, peer-review reports, and unpublished editorial information.
Submitted manuscripts or confidential review material must not be uploaded to external artificial intelligence systems when confidentiality cannot be assured without the authors’ explicit permission and authorization under the journal’s policy. Reviewers must follow the journal’s instructions or obtain permission before using AI to assist with a review.
Any authorized use of artificial intelligence in editorial assessment or peer review must be disclosed to the journal and remain subject to human verification, professional judgment, transparency, and accountability. AI tools must not make editorial decisions.
Editorial Independence
Editorial Independence and Recusal
Editors and reviewers must disclose relevant competing interests and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts when a financial, academic, institutional, collaborative, personal, or other relationship could compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, impartial judgment.
Editorial decisions must remain independent and based on the scientific and scholarly merits of the submission. Information obtained through editorial work must not be used for personal advantage.
Submissions from Editors and Editorial Board Members
Manuscripts submitted by JDHAB editors, Editorial Board members, reviewers recognized by the journal, or journal staff may be considered for publication only through an editorial process independent of the submitting individual.
Such manuscripts must be assigned to an independent handling editor who has no role in the authorship and who assumes responsibility for reviewer selection, peer-review management, and the editorial decision.
Editor-Authored Manuscripts
An editor who is an author or co-author of a submission must have no access to confidential review information beyond that available to other authors and no involvement in evaluation, reviewer selection, peer-review management, or the editorial decision.
The journal may publish an editorial-independence statement with the article when appropriate.
Allegations, Investigations, and Cooperation
Reporting Concerns
Concerns about a submitted or published work may be reported in writing to the JDHAB Editorial Office through the journal’s official Contact page. Reports should identify the work or editorial process involved and provide sufficiently specific information or documentation to permit an initial assessment. Anonymous concerns may be considered when they contain verifiable evidence.
Fair and Confidential Assessment
Allegations will be assessed impartially, confidentially, and in proportion to their seriousness. The journal will distinguish concerns requiring correction from potential misconduct and will provide affected parties a reasonable opportunity to respond when appropriate.
Editors directly involved in the matter or affected by a relevant conflict must recuse themselves. Records of the assessment and relevant communications may be retained by the journal.
Institutional Referral and Editorial Action
The journal does not replace institutional or regulatory investigation. When necessary, JDHAB may request clarification or source documentation and may contact authors’ institutions, ethics committees, funders, publishers, or other appropriate bodies.
Depending on the evidence and stage of publication, action may include continuation or suspension of review, rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, notification of relevant institutions, or another proportionate measure. Retraction is intended to correct the literature and protect its integrity, not to punish authors.
Cooperation and Record Preservation
Authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to cooperate with legitimate integrity inquiries and to preserve relevant data, files, approvals, consent records, correspondence, and other documentation. Failure to cooperate may be considered in editorial decision-making and post-publication action.
Appeals and Complaints
Appeals of Editorial Decisions
Authors may submit a reasoned appeal through the Editorial Office when they believe that a decision resulted from a material factual, procedural, or ethical error. The appeal should identify the manuscript, state the specific grounds, and provide supporting information.
Appeals are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or, when a conflict exists or the Editor-in-Chief made the disputed decision, by another qualified editor who was not involved in the original decision. An appeal does not guarantee reconsideration, external re-review, or acceptance.
Complaints about Editorial Conduct or Process
Complaints concerning editorial conduct, peer-review administration, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, or application of journal policy should be submitted in writing through the official Contact page.
Complaints will be acknowledged and assessed by an appropriate person who is not directly implicated whenever practicable. The journal will communicate the outcome or the available next step while protecting confidential information.
Post-Publication Integrity
Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions
JDHAB may publish corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or other editorial notices when necessary to preserve the accuracy, transparency, and reliability of the scholarly record.
A correction may be issued when an error affects the article or its interpretation but does not invalidate the principal findings. An expression of concern may be issued when substantial questions remain unresolved and an investigation is pending or inconclusive. Retraction may be considered when findings are substantially unreliable because of major error or misconduct, when serious ethical or legal concerns are identified, or when plagiarism, redundant publication, or another breach materially compromises the work.
Post-publication notices should be dated, clearly identify and link to the affected article, explain the nature of the editorial action when legally and ethically appropriate, and remain part of the permanent scholarly record. The purpose of correction and retraction is to maintain the integrity of the literature.
Post-Publication Discussion
Well-founded scholarly comments or integrity concerns about published work will be evaluated on their substance. When appropriate, the journal may invite authors to respond, seek additional expert advice, or publish correspondence or an editorial notice.
Commitment to Publication Integrity
JDHAB is committed to research integrity, ethical reporting, responsible authorship, transparent editorial processes, independent scientific evaluation, fair handling of concerns, and appropriate post-publication action when necessary to preserve trust in the scholarly record.
