Publication Ethics

Scope

This page sets out the editorial and publication policies of the Journal of Clinical and Medical Academia. JCMA is published by Wilton Clarke Academic Publishing and operates within the publisher’s ethics framework, which is guided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The publisher’s standards of conduct for authors and for editors apply to everyone involved with the journal.

Editorial independence

Editorial decisions rest with the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial board. Acceptance and rejection are determined by peer review and scientific merit alone. The publisher has no role in decisions on individual manuscripts and does not intervene in them. Payment status, institutional affiliation, and author seniority have no bearing on any editorial decision.

Peer review

All submissions are subject to double-blind peer review. Author identities are withheld from reviewers and reviewer identities from authors throughout.

Manuscripts are first assessed by the editorial office for scope, completeness and adherence to submission requirements. Those passing this stage are sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers. The handling editor takes the editorial decision on the basis of reviewer reports; where reports conflict, an additional review may be sought.

Reviewers are selected for subject expertise and are asked to decline where a conflict of interest exists. Manuscripts under review are confidential and may not be shared or used by reviewers for any purpose.

Article processing charges

JCMA is a gold open-access journal. No charge is made at submission, and no charge of any kind is levied on manuscripts that are not accepted. An article processing charge (APC) applies on acceptance. The charge covers editorial processing, production, hosting, DOI registration, similarity screening and long-term preservation. Acceptance decisions are made independently of payment. Details of APC are available in the author instructions/ guidelines section. Before any change in the APC, a notice will be published on the journal website in advance. Charges are never applied retrospectively: the position at the date of submission governs, regardless of when it is accepted.

APC Waiver till 31-December-2027

APC is waived in full for all manuscripts submitted till 31 December 2027.

Use of artificial intelligence

AI tools may not be listed as authors, as they cannot take responsibility for the work.

Use of AI tools for language editing is permissible but requires disclosure. Use extending beyond this — including generating text, analysing data, producing figures or drafting sections — is not acceptable at the moment. This policy will be reviewed as practices evolve; authors should check the current version before submission.

Authors remain fully responsible for the content of the manuscript, including the accuracy of all references, and must verify anything edited or modified using an AI tool. Reviewers shall not upload manuscripts to AI tools, as this breaches confidentiality.

Authorship

Authorship requires substantial contribution to the conception, design, conduct, analysis or interpretation of the work; involvement in drafting or revising the manuscript; approval of the version submitted; and willingness to be accountable for its accuracy and integrity.

Guest, honorary and ghost authorship are not permitted. All those meeting the criteria must be listed, and no one who fails to meet them may be. Changes to authorship after submission require written agreement from all authors and the handling editor’s approval. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged.

Patient consent and clinical trial registration

Clinical trials must be registered in a prospective, public registry (CTRI, ClinicalTrials.gov, etc.) before recruitment begins. Studies involving human participants/data must have ethical approval documented and patient consent statements included.

Originality and similarity screening

Manuscripts must be original, not published elsewhere, and not under consideration by another journal. Authors confirm this at submission.

Every submission passing initial editorial assessment is screened using an industry standard, licensed tool before peer review. Reports are interpreted by the editorial office in context — JCMA does not apply a fixed similarity percentage but reviews the report meticulously. The similarity report may be shared with the authors along with the editorial decision where deemed appropriate by the journal editor. Substantial unattributed reuse of text, data or figures results in rejection. Where a concern emerges after publication, it is handled under corrections and retractions below.

Conflicts of interest

Authors must declare financial and non-financial interests that could be seen to influence the work, including funding, employment, consultancies, patents and relevant personal relationships. Declarations are published with the article. Where there is nothing to declare, that is stated.

Editors and reviewers must declare conflicts and withdraw from handling submissions where one exists. An editor who is an author on a submission has no access to its review and takes no part in the decision.

Data availability

Authors are encouraged to make research data available in a recognized repository or supplementary files unless restricted by ethics approval or participant confidentiality. A data availability statement must appear in the manuscript.

Copyright and licensing

Authors retain copyright in their work. JCMA is granted a non-exclusive licence to publish, reproduce and distribute the article.

All articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits any person to share and adapt the work, including commercially, provided the original is properly attributed.

Self-archiving

Authors may deposit any version of their work — preprint, accepted manuscript or published version — at any time and without restriction. Institutional and recognised subject repositories are recommended, as these provide stable long-term access; deposit in scholarly networks is also permitted. Deposited versions should cite the published article and include its DOI.

Corrections, retractions and expressions of concern

The journal is highly sensitive towards the integrity of what it publishes. Where an error affects the interpretation of an article, a correction is issued and linked to the original. Where the findings are unreliable — through error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism or serious ethical breach — the article is retracted. The retraction notice states the reason and the article remains available, clearly marked, so that the record stays complete.

An expression of concern is published where a substantiated concern exists but an investigation is not yet concluded. Corrections and retractions follow COPE guidance and are notified to Crossref.

Suspected misconduct is investigated promptly by the handling editor or, where serious or ambiguous, by a committee constituted by the Editor-in-Chief. Readers, authors, and institutions may report suspected misconduct to editor@jcma.in with specific grounds and relevant evidence.

Complaints and appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision by writing to editor@jcma.in with the grounds for appeal. Appeals are considered by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision on the matter is final.

Concerns about publication ethics, editorial conduct or the handling of a submission should also be raised with editor@jcma.in in the first instance.

Where a complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief, or the publisher, or where the Editor-in-Chief is otherwise conflicted, it may be raised directly with the publisher at grievances@wiltonclarke.com.

Preservation

Published content is preserved through the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) for permanent long-term access.

Publication frequency

JCMA publishes two issues a year, in June and December.