Editorial Policies

The International Journal of Medical Anesthesiology operates under a set of policies designed to ensure fair, transparent, and ethical publishing. This page brings together our key editorial policies in one place. Some of these are covered in more detail elsewhere on our site, but here's the overview.

How Editorial Decisions Are Made

When a manuscript arrives, it's assigned to an Academic Editor whose expertise matches the paper's subject matter. The editor evaluates whether the work has merit and fits our scope. If it does, they identify appropriate reviewers — sometimes from our existing database, sometimes by reaching out to new experts in the field.

After peer review and any subsequent revisions, the handling editor forms a recommendation about whether to publish. The final call rests with the Editor-in-Chief, who considers the editor's recommendation, the reviewers' comments, and the overall fit with the journal.

We use double-blind review throughout this process — authors don't know who reviewed their paper, and reviewers don't know whose paper they're reviewing.

Open Access Policy

International Journal of Medical Anesthesiology is an gold open access journal. Everything we publish is freely available to anyone with an internet connection — no subscriptions, no paywalls, no registration required. We believe research should be accessible to everyone who might benefit from it, whether they're at a major university or a rural clinic.

Open access also means our articles are fully citable. You can reference, share, and build upon published work, provided you give proper credit to the original authors and publication.

Content Reuse

Material published in International Journal of Medical Anesthesiology is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA). In plain terms, this means:

You can share and adapt our content for academic and non-commercial purposes, as long as you cite the original work and apply the same license to anything you create from it. You cannot republish articles — in whole or in part — without permission from the publisher. And authors themselves should avoid recycling their published text in new submissions, as this constitutes self-plagiarism.

Publication Ethics

International Journal of Medical Anesthesiology is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and follows COPE guidelines carefully. We take publication ethics seriously—not as a formality, but because the integrity of the scientific record depends on it.

Before accepting any manuscript, we require authors to confirm that the work is original, hasn't been published elsewhere, and isn't under consideration at another journal. Authors sign a copyright form that includes statements about originality and proper citation of all referenced work. This form also makes all listed authors accountable for any ethical issues that may arise.

Plagiarism

We have zero tolerance for plagiarism, including text recycling. Manuscripts that pass initial screening undergo plagiarism checks before moving forward. We also rely on our reviewers — who are experts in their fields — to flag anything that looks borrowed or familiar.

If plagiarism is detected at any stage of the publication cycle, we take action. Before publication, the manuscript is rejected. After publication, the article may be retracted. We may also notify the authors' institutions. Our full plagiarism policy is available separately on our website.

Authorship

We follow ICMJE authorship criteria. To qualify as an author, a person must have:

Made substantial contributions to conception, design, data acquisition, or analysis — AND drafted or critically revised the manuscript — AND approved the final version — AND agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Everyone listed as an author should meet all four criteria. We discourage "gift" or "guest" authorship — adding names of people who didn't meaningfully contribute. The positions of first author, last author, and corresponding author should reflect actual roles and contributions.

Changes to the author list after submission require agreement from all originally listed authors and a clear explanation. We don't make these changes lightly.

Conflicts of Interest

We require conflict of interest declarations from everyone involved in the publication process — authors, reviewers, and editors. If an editor or reviewer has a potential conflict with a particular manuscript, they must step aside and let someone else handle it.

Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, or personal relationships that could be seen as influencing their work. Funding sources and sponsorships must be stated clearly. Our separate Conflict of Interest Policy provides more detail.

Human and Animal Research

All research involving human subjects or animals must have appropriate ethical approval. For human studies, this means clearance from an Institutional Review Board or Ethics Committee. We may ask to see documentation of this approval.

Clinical trials involving human participants should be registered prospectively — at CTRI (Clinical Trials Registry - India) for studies conducted in India, or the appropriate registry for other countries.

Informed consent is mandatory for clinical trials, case reports, and case series. Authors must state clearly that consent was obtained. Personal details that could identify participants should never be disclosed, and we're especially careful about photographs that might reveal someone's identity.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

Mistakes happen. When errors are discovered after publication — whether by us, the authors, or readers — we publish corrections (errata or corrigenda) promptly. Minor errors that don't affect the scientific conclusions get corrected; the original article is updated with a link to the correction notice.

Serious problems — ethical violations, data fabrication, fundamental errors that invalidate the findings — may require retraction. Retracted articles remain accessible but are clearly marked, with a notice explaining why the retraction occurred.

In some cases, we may issue an Expression of Concern while an investigation is ongoing. This alerts readers to potential problems without making a final judgment before the facts are clear.

Post-Publication Commentary

Science doesn't stop when a paper is published. We welcome post-publication commentary and debate. If you have substantive comments on a published article — criticisms, alternative interpretations, additional data — you can submit them as a Letter to the Editor. If your comments have merit, we'll publish them in a subsequent issue and may invite the original authors to respond.

This kind of ongoing dialogue is healthy for the field. We encourage it.

Further Resources

For more detailed guidance on publication ethics, we recommend the resources available at COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors). International Journal of Medical Anesthesiology adheres to the ethical standards recommended by both organizations.

Questions?

If you have questions about any of these policies, or encounter a situation that isn't clearly addressed here, contact us at anesthesiologypaper@gmail.com. We're here to help.