Editorial Process

The Author should ascertain that the manuscript is sent to one journal at a time. Manuscript sent to other journal simultaneously with IJMSPH will not be reviewed. The manuscript should be original work of authors and correspondence author will act as guarantor. 

The Editors-in-Chief in consultation with the Managing Editor, Section Editors and Advisory Board Members will review all submitted manuscripts initially. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific and technical flaws, or lack of significant message will be rejected. All manuscripts received will be duly acknowledged.

In majority of the cases, peer reviewing is done by the editorial board members but in some cases article is also sent to two or more peer reviewers for comments. Chief Editor will take final decision regarding the suitability of manuscript for publication. The contributors will be informed about the reviewers' comments and acceptance/rejection of manuscript. On an average, the submission to first decision period will be around 30 days. Statistical editors may be consulted as per the discretion of the Editor-in Chief and on advice from Section Editor/ Reviewers.

Articles accepted by peer reviewers should be a copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. At this stage the Managing and Technical Editors will also do a Plagiarism Check. (IJMSPH is strictly against plagiarisms. Please read our Plagiarism Policy). Page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author, just before the publication of article in the journal, which has to be returned within three days. Correction received after that period may not be included.

The contributor may (not mandatory) provide names of two qualified reviewers who has experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but who are not affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. As a routine we will not send the manuscript to that particular reviewer . It is kept in database for review of future articles.

Plagiarism Policy

By submission to IJMSPH entails that authors automatically attest that, none of the parts of manuscripts is plagiarized from any other source. Proper reference should be provided whenever anything is extracted from a source. Technical editors use Plagiarism detection tools/ softwares to ensure the originality of the article. 

If any article is proved to be plagiarized, IJMSPH committee would take immediate and strict actions against the authors ranging from rejection of the manuscript to preclusion of the authors from any future publication in the journal.  For serious fraud or plagiarism the journal may also report to the authors/s affiliating institution.

Commitment to Publish Negative Study

Being committed to the highest level of medical publication IJMSPH is in obligation to Publish Negative Studies as set by ICJME. Any study of an important topic, relevant to our readers, is seriously taken into consideration for publication, provided the results for the primary or any additional outcome are statistically significant. Authors will be encouraged to submit such articles to our journal.

Policy on Communication on the General Media (based on COPE and ICJME guidelines)

Pre-Publication release of studies when detected by IJMSPH journal will be rejected summarily. However the appropriate authorities responsible for public health will decide whether to disseminate information to physicians and the media in advance, incase if important clinical implications have to be released even before the journal is published. If the author and the appropriate authorities wish to have a manuscript considered by IJMSPH, the Editor-in-chief should be informed before any public release when the policy of limiting prepublication publicity is waived clear and urgently important clinical implications for the public’s health that the news must be released before full publication in a journal.

If the author/journalist wishes to use the article journal for general media, explicit permission from the Editor-in Chief should be taken. Such a release should coincide with its publication online or in print. IJMSPH follows the ICJME policy on this