Scientific Misconduct and Complaint Handling Policy

Allied Medical Research Journal (AMRJ) is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics. AMRJ follows the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and Higher Education Commission Pakistan.

What Constitutes Scientific Misconduct

Scientific misconduct includes:

  • Data fabrication, falsification, or selective reporting
  • Plagiarism
  • Improper authorship (gift/ghost authorship)
  • Duplicate or redundant publication
  • Undeclared conflicts of interest or funding
  • Misuse of confidential peer-review information
  • Violation of ethical or regulatory research standards

How AMRJ Handles Misconduct

  1. Allegation received from editor, reviewer, reader, or third party
  2. Manuscript processing is paused
  3. Initial assessment and evidence review (plagiarism/data check)
  4. Authors are contacted for explanation
  5. Editorial Board reviews the case following COPE guidance

Possible actions: rejection, correction, retraction, author ban, or reporting to the author’s institution.

Post-publication issues may result in correction, retraction, or expression of concern.