Authors Rights and Obligations
Publishing in the International Journal of Medical Anesthesiology is a partnership. We have obligations to you, and you have obligations to us and to our readers. This document spells out what each side can expect. We've tried to be straightforward about both—no fine print, no hidden surprises.
Your Obligations as an Author
Conduct Ethical Research
Before you even think about submitting to us, your research needs to have been conducted ethically. For studies involving human subjects, this means obtaining approval from an Institutional Review Board or Ethics Committee. For animal research, appropriate oversight must be in place. If we ask to see documentation of this approval, you need to be able to provide it.
This isn't bureaucratic box-ticking. In anesthesiology, where our work directly affects patient safety and care, ethical standards aren't optional—they're foundational.
Submit Original, Unpublished Work
What you send us should be your own work, and it shouldn't have been published elsewhere. We also expect that you're not simultaneously shopping the same manuscript to other journals. One submission, one journal at a time. If your paper has been rejected elsewhere and you're now sending it to us, that's fine—just make sure it's not still under consideration somewhere else.
If parts of your work have appeared in conference proceedings, preprints, or theses, let us know upfront. We can usually work with this, but we need to know about it.
Prepare Your Manuscript Properly
A well-prepared manuscript helps everyone. Follow our formatting guidelines. Structure your paper logically. Make sure figures and tables are clear and properly labelled. Check your references. Run a spell-check. These things might seem minor, but a sloppy submission slows down the review process and doesn't create the best impression.
Think of it this way: reviewers volunteer their time. Respecting that time by submitting clean, well-organized work is basic professional courtesy.
Disclose Conflicts of Interest
If you have financial interests, consulting relationships, or other connections that could be seen as influencing your research, say so. This includes funding sources, industry ties, patents, and personal relationships. Readers deserve to know. Our separate Conflict of Interest Policy goes into more detail, but the short version is: when in doubt, disclose.
Respond Promptly
If we ask you to revise and resubmit, we'll give you a deadline. Please meet it. If you can't, let us know—we're reasonable people, and extensions are possible when there's a good reason. But if we don't hear from you and the deadline passes, we may close your file. The invitation to revise isn't open-ended.
The same goes for copyedited manuscripts and proofs. When we send these to you for review, turnaround matters. Delays at this stage can push your article to a later issue, or in extreme cases, we may have to publish without your final sign-off—which nobody wants.
Settle Article Processing Charges
International Journal of Medical Anesthesiology charges article processing fees to cover the costs of peer review, editing, production, and open-access hosting. These charges are clearly stated on our website. If your paper is accepted, we expect payment to be made promptly and in full. Publication proceeds once payment is received.
Your Rights as an Author
Acknowledgment of Submission
When you submit a manuscript, you should receive confirmation that we've got it. If you don't hear from us within a few days, something may have gone wrong—check your spam folder, then contact us.
Timely Editorial Decisions
We know waiting is hard. We aim to make decisions as quickly as we reasonably can while still doing justice to the review process. If things are taking longer than expected—a reviewer is late, or there's disagreement that requires additional input—we'll let you know what's happening and give you a revised timeline.
You're welcome to inquire about the status of your manuscript at any time, though we'd suggest waiting at least three weeks before doing so. If you haven't heard anything by then, a polite inquiry is perfectly appropriate.
Withdrawal at Any Time
Changed your mind? Found a critical error? Decided to submit elsewhere? You can withdraw your manuscript from consideration at any point before acceptance. To proceed, simply submit a withdrawal letter signed by all authors.
Right to Appeal
If your manuscript is rejected and you believe the decision was wrong—perhaps the reviewers misunderstood something, or you have additional data that addresses their concerns—you can appeal. Put your case in writing, be specific about why you think the decision should be reconsidered, and send it to the Editor.
We'll consider your appeal carefully. Sometimes we'll seek an additional review; sometimes we'll uphold the original decision. Either way, you'll get a response. But please understand that appeals are for cases where you genuinely believe an error was made—not simply because you're disappointed with the outcome.
Archiving and Sharing Your Published Work
Once your paper is published, you're free to share it. You can deposit the published version in institutional repositories, university databases, or academic networking sites like ResearchGate, Academia.edu, or Semantic Scholar. You can also post it on your personal or institutional website. We want your research to reach the widest possible audience—that's the point of open access.
Standards We Follow
This policy is developed in accordance with guidance from the Council of Science Editors (CSE) and their recommendations for promoting integrity in scientific journal publications.
