Table of Contents
Editorial & Ethical Policies
Ethics Approval & Consent
Authorship & Contributions
Guideline Compliance via the EQUATOR Network
Trial Registration
Publication Integrity
Peer Review Process
Misconduct Handling
Open Access & Licensing
Corrections & Retractions
Advertising Guidelines
Biosafety & Compliance
Article Sharing Policy
Key Features
Editorial & Ethical Policies
Biomedicine Advances follows:
Submission implies authors have read, agreed to the content, and complied with journal policies.
Ethics Approval & Consent
Human and animal Research
Studies involving human participants must be conducted following the ethical standards outlined in the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/). Authors should include a clear statement in the manuscript confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants. The privacy and confidentiality of all human subjects must be strictly maintained.
All experiments involving animals must adhere to the ARRIVE guidelines and be conducted following the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK54050/). Authors should clearly state in the manuscript that these standards and guidelines were followed.
Vulnerable Populations
Explicit informed consent is required for children, prisoners, cognitively impaired individuals, etc.
Patient Confidentiality
Identifiable patient data requires explicit consent for publication. Anonymization must be thorough enough to prevent any possibility of patient identification, including the removal of identifying marks or text. For deceased patients, permission should be sought from a relative, while carefully balancing the public interest with the risk of identification. Medical images such as X-rays, ultrasounds, and similar materials may be used, provided they are properly anonymized.
Authorship & Contributions
Authorship Criteria (ICMJE):
Authorship should follow ICMJE’s four criteria: (1) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or to data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation; (2) drafting or critically revising the work for intellectual content; (3) final approval of the version to be published; and (4) accountability for all aspects of the work, ensuring integrity and accuracy. Authors must meet all four criteria and should be able to identify and trust their co-authors’ contributions. Those not meeting all criteria should be acknowledged, with their permission. All authors must also meet COPE’s international authorship standards.
Non-Author Contributions
Acknowledgment must include permission and funding sources (e.g., technical assistance, writing support). Use of AI tools must be disclosed, specifying the tool used, its purpose, prompts given, and how the output was utilized."
Authorship Changes
Post-submission changes require written consent from all authors. Disputes resolved institutionally.
Unique Identifiers
ORCID/Scopus IDs encouraged for authors, reviewers, and editors.
Competing Interests
Declaration Required
- Financial: Employment, patents, stock ownership, honoraria.
- Non-financial: Political, personal, or academic conflicts.
- Commercial entities must declare sponsorship and follow GPP2 guidelines.
Statement example: "The author(s) declare(s) no competing interests" or full disclosure.
Guideline Compliance via the EQUATOR Network
Specific Guidelines:
Statistical Methods
Full description and justification of statistical tests (SAMPL Guidelines: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/sampl/). A statistical review may be requested.
Trial Registration
- Clinical trials must be prospectively registered in a public trial registry(e.g., WHO ICTRP).
- Registration ID and date must appear in the abstract.
Publication Integrity
Plagiarism & Text Recycling
All submissions are screened for plagiarism using iThenticate. Any reuse of text or ideas without proper attribution may result in rejection or retraction. Instances of self-plagiarism must be transparently disclosed.
Duplicate Publication
Submissions must be original and not under consideration by another publication. Posting on preprint servers (e.g., arXiv, bioRxiv) is permitted, and mandatory registry data are exempt from this requirement.
Image Manipulation
- No enhancement, obscuring, or misrepresentation of data.
- Adjustments (brightness/contrast) must apply globally and be disclosed.
- Original data must be provided upon request.
Peer Review Process
Workflow
All manuscripts submitted to Biomedicine Advances undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process to maintain high content quality. Initially, each submission is subject to a technical check to ensure it complies with the journal’s formatting and stylistic guidelines. If discrepancies are found, the manuscript is returned to the authors for revision. Once formatted correctly, the manuscript is assigned to section editors—based on subject relevance and the decision of the Editor-in-Chief—for an initial screening, typically completed within 1–2 months. During this stage, section editors assess the manuscript's methodological soundness, originality, contribution to the field, and clarity of English. The possible outcomes are immediate rejection, a request for revision and resubmission, or advancement to external peer review.
External reviewers are selected according to their expertise, scientific background, publication history, and, when appropriate, author recommendations. The journal strives to secure at least 2–3 comprehensive reviews per manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief reviews the feedback and communicates the decision and reviewer comments to the corresponding author.
Biomedicine Advances is committed to a fair, efficient, and confidential review process. Reviewers are required to disclose any conflicts of interest and uphold strict confidentiality regarding the manuscripts they assess.
Confidentiality
- Submissions are treated confidentially; shared only in misconduct cases.
Misconduct Handling
Allegations of misconduct are investigated following COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines. If misconduct is suspected, the relevant institutions and/or funding bodies will be notified. Depending on the investigation’s outcome, possible actions include issuing a correction (erratum), retracting the article, or imposing.
Open Access & Licensing
Publication Fees
No fees: Diamond open access model.
Licensing
When submitting an article, authors should agree to follow the terms of the Creative Commons 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows authors to retain ownership of their copyright, while enabling anyone to download, print out, extract, reuse, archive, and distribute the article, provided proper attribution is given to the authors and the original source. The license aims to maximize the article's accessibility and ensure it can be freely included in any scientific archive.
Corrections & Retractions
- Errata: For changes affecting interpretation (e.g., authorship corrections).
- Retractions: Where scientific integrity is compromised (COPE-compliant).
- Original articles remain linked to corrections/retractions.
Advertising Guidelines
All requests to place advertisements are subject to careful review by the Journal Office, which evaluates each case on an individual basis. For advertising opportunities in Biomedicine Advances, kindly contact the journal office at: editor@biomedad.ae, journal.biomedad@gmail.com.
Biosafety & Compliance
Studies involving Genetically Modified Organisms, pathogens, toxins, or radioactive materials must detail regulatory compliance (e.g., Nagoya Protocol).
Article Sharing Policy
Can authors archive submitted articles in an open-access repository?
No. Authors submitting articles to this journal may not share the submitted version in an open repository before peer review and publication.
Exception: Source data that must be publicly available (e.g., clinical trial registries) is exempt from this rule and can be shared before publication.
Can authors archive accepted articles in an open-access repository?
Yes. Authors may deposit the peer-reviewed, accepted manuscript (after revisions) in open repositories.
Can authors archive the final published article (PDF) in an open-access repository?
Yes. Authors are encouraged to share the final published PDF in open repositories, such as institutional or university archives.
Key Features
- Alignment: Adheres to COPE, ICMJE, WAME, and EQUATOR standards.
- Transparency: Clear mandates for ethics, authorship, AI use, and conflicts.
- Rigor: Statistical review, image manipulation checks, and plagiarism screening.
- Accessibility: Diamond OA (no fees) with CC BY 4.0 licensing.
- Accountability: Defined processes for corrections, retractions, and misconduct.
This structure ensures compliance, clarity, and author/reader confidence in the journal’s integrity.