Hilla University College Journal For Medical Science
Editorial Policies
The Journal adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and supports the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, as well as the GPP3 authorship guidelines.
Submission of a manuscript to the journal signifies that all authors have read and agreed to the manuscript's content and that the submission complies with the journal's policies.
Advertising Policy and Commercial Independence
To maintain strict editorial independence and ensure that scientific evaluations are never influenced by commercial or financial interests, the Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) maintains a strict policy of not accepting, hosting, or publishing any commercial advertisements from third parties. The journal's website, electronic publications, and any associated materials are entirely free of promotional content. This approach guarantees that our readers, authors, and reviewers can engage with the scholarly record with complete confidence that all editorial decisions are based solely on scientific merit and are entirely free from commercial bias. Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Affiliations
Authors must accurately list all relevant institutional affiliations to reflect where the research or scholarly work was primarily approved, supported, and conducted. For original research, the primary affiliation for each author must be the institution where the majority of the work was performed. If an author has moved to a different institution prior to publication, the original institution must remain the primary affiliation, while the current affiliation may be acknowledged separately within the manuscript. For non-research articles, authors should list their current institutional affiliation or explicitly state their independent status if they do not currently hold a relevant academic or professional affiliation. Accurate attribution is essential for research integrity; the deliberate misrepresentation of an institutional affiliation constitutes a serious form of publication misconduct. To ensure the permanence of the scholarly record, author affiliations will not be updated or changed after the article has been formally accepted and published. The journal reserves the right to verify affiliations and will investigate suspected cases by contacting the relevant institutional authorities in accordance with COPE guidelines. Furthermore, the Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) remains entirely neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims or geopolitical naming conventions in published institutional affiliations. Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Appeals and complaints
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) is committed to fairness, transparency, and resolving grievances in strict accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. We distinctly categorize and handle grievances as either appeals to editorial decisions or formal complaints regarding journal processes and ethics. Authors who wish to appeal a manuscript rejection must email a formal letter to the Editorial Office (SJU@hilla-unc.edu.iq). This appeal must provide a detailed, objective rebuttal containing strong evidence, new data, or proof of a factual error made by the reviewers or handling editor during the initial evaluation. The appeal will be independently reviewed by an editor who was not involved in the original decision; please note that only one appeal is permitted per manuscript, and the decision on the appeal is final. Separately, authors, reviewers, or readers wishing to file a formal complaint regarding publication ethics, prolonged delays in the peer-review process, or the professional conduct of the journal's staff, editors, or reviewers should contact the Editorial Office directly. All complaints will be investigated promptly and confidentially. If a complaint is directed against the handling editor, it will be investigated by the Editor-in-Chief; if the complaint involves the Editor-in-Chief, it will be escalated directly to the Publisher's management team to ensure an impartial resolution.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Acknowledgment
Any individuals who contributed materially to the research or the preparation of the manuscript—such as those providing general supervision, acquisition of funding, data collection, technical assistance, or writing and editing support—but who do not meet the formal criteria for authorship must be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Support that is already detailed in the Funding Statement or the Author Contributions (CRediT) section should not be repeated here.Authors must explicitly describe the specific role or contribution of each person or group named. Because readers may infer that acknowledged individuals endorse the study's data and conclusions, it is the strict responsibility of the corresponding author to notify and obtain explicit written permission from all persons identified in this section prior to submission. Furthermore, any use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools or Large Language Models (LLMs) strictly for writing, formatting, or editing assistance must be transparently declared within this section. Finally, authors should acknowledge all organizations that provided financial support or in-kind resources for the research, including specific grant numbers and funding details where applicable.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Authorship, Contributorship, and Responsibilities
To ensure absolute transparency and appropriate recognition, the Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) strictly adheres to the four criteria for authorship established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). To qualify as an author, an individual must have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content; provided final approval of the version to be published; and agreed to be personally accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the study are appropriately investigated and resolved. Individuals who participated in the research but do not meet all four criteria—such as those providing solely technical help, writing assistance, funding acquisition, or general departmental supervision—must not be listed as authors but should be acknowledged in a dedicated section with their written permission. Furthermore, because authorship implies human accountability and the ability to hold copyright, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and Large Language Models (LLMs) are strictly prohibited from being listed as authors or co-authors.
To foster precise attribution, authors are required to transparently detail the specific contributions of each individual using the standardized Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) during the submission process. The journal does not arbitrarily limit the number of authors on a manuscript, as doing so can inadvertently encourage ghost authorship; however, the corresponding author assumes primary responsibility for verifying that all listed authors meet the ICMJE criteria, that no deserving authors have been omitted, and that the author order was decided collectively by the research group. The corresponding author serves as the primary point of contact during the peer-review and publication process and must ensure that all administrative, ethical, and disclosure requirements are met on behalf of the group.
The journal considers the author list finalized at the time of original submission. Any requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be accompanied by a comprehensive justification and the explicit, signed written consent of all original and newly proposed authors, in strict accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject post-acceptance authorship changes if a valid scientific rationale is not provided. If an authorship change is deemed necessary and approved after the article has been formally published, it will be executed via a permanent post-publication correction notice linked to the original article.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Citations and Reference Integrity
Authors of both research and non-research articles must cite relevant, timely, and verified peer-reviewed literature to adequately support all claims made within the manuscript. Authors must avoid excessive and inappropriate self-citation or prearrangements among author groups to inappropriately cite each other’s work, as this can be considered a form of misconduct called citation manipulation. Read the COPE guidance on citation manipulation.
Authors are expected to provide direct references to original research sources rather than derivations or review articles whenever possible. To maintain the integrity of the scholarly record, authors must strictly avoid citing articles published in predatory or pseudo-journals and bear the full responsibility of verifying that none of their references cite retracted articles, except in the specific context of discussing the retraction itself.
Furthermore, referencing Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated material as a primary source is strictly unacceptable. For non-research articles, such as reviews or opinion pieces, authors must ensure the cited references provide a fair, balanced, and objective overview of the current state of research, free from unfair bias toward any particular research group, organization, or journal. The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) strictly prohibits all forms of citation manipulation, including excessive and inappropriate self-citation, gratuitous citation of the journal itself, or coordinated prearrangements among author groups (citation cartels) to inappropriately boost citation metrics. Any identified citation manipulation will be treated as a severe form of academic misconduct and handled in accordance with COPE guidelines. Authors requiring guidance on source appropriateness are encouraged to consult the editorial office prior to submission.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Conflicts of Interest and Competing Interests
Public trust in the scientific process and the credibility of published articles depend heavily on transparency regarding any relationships that might bias the research or its evaluation. A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning the validity of the research may be influenced by a secondary interest, encompassing both financial and non-financial associations. All participants in the peer-review and publication process—including authors, peer reviewers, and editorial staff—must declare any potential conflicts of interest. Submitting authors are required to disclose all financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or honoraria) and non-financial relationships (such as personal, political, academic, or institutional affiliations) that are directly or indirectly related to the submitted work.
Authors must declare these interests upon submission, preferably utilizing the standard ICMJE Disclosure Form, and include a comprehensive summary in a dedicated "Conflicts of Interest" section within the manuscript prior to the references. If no competing interests exist, the manuscript must explicitly state, "The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest". Furthermore, invited peer reviewers must declare any relevant interests and decline to evaluate a manuscript if a competing interest compromises their objectivity. Editors must entirely recuse themselves from the decision-making process for any submissions where they possess a personal, academic, or financial conflict.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) is deeply committed to maintaining the accuracy, completeness, and integrity of the scholarly record. If a significant error, inaccuracy, or ethical breach is discovered following publication, the Editor-in-Chief will conduct a thorough evaluation in strict accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Depending on the nature and severity of the issue, the journal will issue a formal, permanently archived post-publication amendment. A Correction (Corrigendum or Erratum) is published to address errors of fact or methodology that do not fundamentally invalidate the article's core results and conclusions. Conversely, if the interpretation or conclusion of an article is substantially undermined due to major errors, data fabrication, or ethical misconduct, the article will be formally Retracted.
In situations where serious, credible concerns are raised but an investigation is either ongoing or yields inconclusive evidence, the journal may publish an Editorial Expression of Concern to alert readers. To ensure maximum transparency and adherence to NISO CREC (Communication of Retractions, Removals, and Expressions of Concern) standards, all post-publication notices are made freely accessible to the public, clearly state the objective reasons for the amendment, and are bidirectionally linked to the original article.
Crucially, retracted articles are not deleted; they are retained in the public domain and prominently watermarked as "RETRACTED." The complete Removal of published content is an exceptional action reserved exclusively for instances where an article is defamatory, violates legal privacy rights, or poses an immediate and severe risk to public health. Ultimately, the purpose of these mechanisms is to transparently correct the scientific literature and safeguard public trust, rather than to serve as a punitive measure against authors.
Article Removal, in extremely limited and exceptional circumstances, HUCJMS reserves the right to remove an article from its online platforms. This action, often termed "Retraction with Removal," is only taken when the content is defamatory or violates personal privacy and legal rights or the content is subject to a court or government order or the content, if acted upon, would pose an immediate and serious risk to public health, safety, or the environment. In the event of a removal, the article metadata (title, authors, and DOI) will be retained to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record, but the text will be replaced with a formal notice explaining the specific reasons for the removal.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Consent for Publication
Individuals have a fundamental right to privacy that must not be violated without explicit informed consent. For any manuscript containing personal details, clinical descriptions, or images relating to an individual person, authors must obtain written informed consent for publication from that individual (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of minors under 18, or next of kin if the person is deceased). In strict accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, obtaining informed consent requires that the identifiable individual be shown the manuscript prior to publication. Authors must explicitly disclose to the participant that the journal operates under an Open Access model, meaning their details and images will be permanently and freely available to the general public on the internet under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted redistribution and commercial reuse by third parties. Nonessential identifying details should be omitted; however, if there is any doubt that complete anonymity can be maintained—noting that masking the eye region in photographs constitutes inadequate protection of anonymity—informed consent must be obtained. To strictly comply with international data protection and privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA), the journal does not collect, request, or archive signed personal consent forms. Authors must use a consent form from their own institution, securely archive the signed document locally, and include a formal statement within the manuscript confirming that written informed consent for publication was obtained.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Confidentiality
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) treats all submitted manuscripts as privileged communications and the private, confidential intellectual property of the authors. During the evaluation process, the editorial staff and editors will not disclose any information about a manuscript—including its receipt, content, review status, reviewer criticisms, or ultimate disposition—to anyone other than the corresponding author, assigned peer reviewers, and essential editorial personnel.
Reviewers are strictly obligated to maintain this confidentiality; they must not publicly discuss the authors' work, appropriate the data for personal advantage, or share the manuscript with colleagues without explicit prior permission from the handling editor. Furthermore, in strict alignment with updated ICMJE guidelines, no part of a submitted manuscript or peer-review report may be uploaded into Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms, as doing so violates data privacy and author confidentiality. The only exception to this strict confidentiality policy is in the event of suspected research or publication misconduct; in such cases, the Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to securely share the manuscript and relevant evidence with specific third parties, such as the authors' affiliated institutions, funding bodies, or publisher ethics committees, to facilitate a formal investigation in accordance with COPE protocols.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Copyright Policy
Authors publishing in the Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) retain the copyright of their original work. Upon acceptance of a manuscript, authors grant the publisher a license to formally publish, distribute, and preserve the article in all formats and media, and to be distinctly cited as the original publisher in the event of future reuse.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Data falsification/fabrication
Data fabrication (the intentional invention or making up of data and results) and data falsification (the manipulation, alteration, or selective omission of data, including inconvenient results or images, to create a false impression) constitute severe forms of research misconduct. These deceptive practices fundamentally damage the integrity of the scholarly record and mislead the scientific community. The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) requires all authors to guarantee that the data contained within their manuscript is authentic, entirely accurate, and an honest representation of their work. To facilitate rigorous editorial evaluation and post-publication verification, authors must retain all underlying raw data associated with their manuscript for a minimum of ten years following publication, in accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations. The Editorial Office or peer reviewers may request access to these original, unprocessed datasets at any time during the peer-review process or following publication. If the authors cannot produce the original data upon request to verify their findings, the manuscript will be immediately rejected or, if already published, formally retracted. Furthermore, in strict adherence to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, any credible suspicion or evidence of data fabrication or falsification will not only result in the rejection or retraction of the manuscript but will also be formally reported to the authors' affiliated institutions, ethics committees, and funding bodies for further investigation.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Data Sharing, Reproducibility, and Data Availability
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) is deeply committed to promoting transparency, reproducibility, and open science. To enhance the reliability and verification of the published scholarly record, the journal strongly encourages all authors to make their underlying research data publicly available whenever ethically and legally permissible. Authors are urged to adhere to the FAIR data principles, ensuring that their data are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. To ensure maximum transparency, all submitted manuscripts must include a formal "Data Availability Statement" positioned prior to the references. This statement must explicitly detail whether the underlying datasets are publicly available, provide the name of the hosting repository, and include the exact persistent identifiers (such as DOIs or accession numbers) required to access the data. If the data cannot be shared openly due to strict ethical, privacy, or legal restrictions, the statement must clearly explain the nature of these restrictions and outline the precise conditions under which access may be requested. If the study did not generate or analyze any new datasets, the statement must explicitly declare, "No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study". Furthermore, in strict accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, manuscripts reporting the results of clinical trials must include a comprehensive data sharing statement that specifies whether individual de-identified participant data and data dictionaries will be shared, what related documents (e.g., the study protocol and statistical analysis plan) will be made available, the specific timeframe for availability, and the exact access criteria. HUCJMS endorses the Force 11 Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles. Publicly available datasets used in the work must be formally cited in the reference list. Citations should include the author(s), year of publication, dataset title, version (if applicable), repository name, and a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Last updated on March 8, 2026.(Data Availability Statement is optional in 2026 and will become mandatory in 2027)
Desk rejection policy
To ensure a rapid and efficient publication process, all submitted manuscripts undergo a rigorous initial evaluation by the Editorial Office and the Editor-in-Chief prior to being sent for external peer review. The journal reserves the right to issue an immediate desk rejection for manuscripts that fall outside the journal’s stated aims and scope, lack sufficient scientific novelty or impact, or fail to clearly articulate their research objectives. Submissions will also be declined prior to review if they exhibit fundamental flaws in study design or methodology, or if the English language quality is insufficient to permit a thorough scientific assessment. Crucially, the journal maintains zero tolerance for ethical infractions; manuscripts demonstrating publication ethics violations, non-compliance with international reporting standards, or evidence of plagiarism will be rejected outright. In strict accordance with COPE guidelines, potential plagiarism is assessed by an editor based on the qualitative nature, context, and location of the overlapping text, rather than relying on an arbitrary similarity percentage threshold. Finally, manuscripts that are incomplete or do not strictly conform to the journal’s formatting and submission guidelines may be returned to the authors without scientific evaluation.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Duplicate Submission and Redundant Publication
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) requires all authors to formally declare upon submission that their manuscript is entirely original, has not been previously published, and is not concurrently under consideration by any other journal. In accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations, the journal does not consider the prior posting of early drafts on recognized preprint servers, the presentation of abstracts or posters at scientific meetings, or the dissemination of academic theses to constitute duplicate publication.
However, authors must disclose any such prior distributions in their cover letter. While redundant publication is generally prohibited, acceptable forms of secondary publication—such as an accurate translation into another language or an abbreviated version intended for a distinctly different audience—may be justifiable. For secondary publication to be considered, authors must obtain explicit, written approval from the editors of both journals, secure necessary copyright permissions from the original publisher, and ensure the secondary article prominently cites the primary publication while clearly informing readers of its secondary nature. The journal treats any covert attempt at duplicate or concurrent submission as a severe breach of publication ethics. If duplicate publication or concurrent submission is detected, the journal will immediately initiate an investigation in strict accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Confirmed violations will result in the immediate rejection of the submitted manuscript or the formal retraction of the published article, and the journal reserves the right to notify the authors' affiliated institutions or funding bodies.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Funding and Financial Support
All authors must transparently declare any and all sources of funding or financial support received for the conduct of the research and the preparation of the manuscript. Authors are required to provide the full, official names of all funding agencies and distinctly include any associated grant numbers or unique award identifiers. To ensure precise attribution, the funding statement must explicitly link specific grants to the respective authors who received them. Furthermore, authors must comprehensively describe the exact role of the study sponsor(s) or funder(s) in the conceptualization and design of the study, data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report, and the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funder had no involvement in these stages, the manuscript must explicitly state this. Alternatively, if the research received no specific grant or external financial support from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors, the authors must explicitly declare, "This research received no external funding".
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Images, Figures, and Digital Data Integrity
Authors must ensure that all images and figures included in their manuscript are scientifically relevant, add substantive value to the reported work, and are completely free from inappropriate digital manipulation. The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) strictly prohibits the selective enhancement, obscuration, movement, removal, or introduction of specific features within an image that could alter its scientific meaning or mislead readers. Adjustments to brightness, contrast, or color balance are permissible only if applied equally across the entire image—including controls—and provided they do not misrepresent the original data.
Furthermore, in strict accordance with current scholarly publishing standards, the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to create, alter, or manipulate original research data, figures, or scientific images is expressly forbidden. Authors are required to retain all original, unprocessed digital image files and must be prepared to provide them to the Editorial Office upon request during the peer-review process or post-publication investigations. Authors bear full legal responsibility for securing explicit, written permission from the original copyright holders prior to reproducing any third-party materials, including proprietary illustrations, tables, audio, video, or data. Finally, any images depicting identifiable human participants must strictly adhere to the journal's patient privacy protocols, requiring documented informed consent prior to publication.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Misconduct
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) takes all forms of research and publication misconduct seriously and investigates all allegations in strict accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Misconduct encompasses any practice that severely deviates from accepted ethical standards, including, but not limited to, data fabrication and falsification, plagiarism, text-recycling (self-plagiarism), affiliation misrepresentation, peer review manipulation, unethical research practices, and undisclosed competing interests. The journal strictly prohibits duplicate submission and redundant publication (salami-slicing), requiring authors to transparently cite any previously published foundational work. Citation manipulation—the inclusion of references primarily intended to artificially inflate the citation metrics of a specific author or journal—is similarly treated as a severe ethical breach.
The journal also enforces strict adherence to international authorship criteria; misattributing authorship, such as granting author status to laboratory technicians or students who do not meet all four ICMJE criteria (rather than acknowledging them appropriately), constitutes authorship misconduct. Furthermore, while holistic, linear adjustments to the brightness or contrast of scientific images are permissible provided they do not misrepresent the original data, the selective enhancement, obscuring, removal, or introduction of specific image features is classified as data falsification. Should any suspicion of misconduct arise, the Editorial Office will initiate a formal investigation. If authors cannot produce original, unedited data or images upon request to verify their findings, or if an ethical breach is confirmed, the journal will take definitive action; this includes the immediate rejection of a submitted manuscript or the formal retraction of a published article, alongside the mandatory notification of the authors' affiliated institutions and funding bodies to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Publication Ethics
The journal and its editorial board fully adhere to and comply with the policies and principles of the Committee of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Duties and Responsibilities of Editors
The Editor-in-Chief holds the ultimate and independent responsibility for determining which submitted manuscripts are accepted for publication in the Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS). All editorial decisions are based exclusively on the manuscript's scientific merit, originality, clarity, and relevance to the journal’s scope, entirely free from commercial, financial, or political influence, and without regard to the authors' race, gender, ethnic origin, citizenship, or institutional affiliation. Editors must treat all submitted materials as strictly confidential. During the evaluation process, editors and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, assigned reviewers, and essential editorial personnel. In strict adherence to modern data privacy standards, editors must never upload unpublished manuscripts into public Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. Furthermore, unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be utilized in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the authors.
Editors are strictly required to declare any potential financial, personal, or academic conflicts of interest and must fully recuse themselves from the decision-making process for any manuscript where such a conflict exists. To ensure a fair and robust peer-review process, editors must select appropriately qualified, objective reviewers and actively monitor their performance, permanently removing any reviewers who consistently provide discourteous, delayed, or low-quality reports. The editorial board is firmly committed to safeguarding the integrity of the scholarly record; editors will actively pursue all allegations of research or publication misconduct and will take all necessary steps to issue prompt corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions when significant errors or ethical breaches are identified.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Duties and Ethical Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers
Peer reviewers play a fundamentally critical role in assisting the editorial board with making informed publication decisions and providing authors with constructive feedback to improve their scientific reporting. Invited reviewers must objectively assess their own expertise; any reviewer who feels inadequately qualified to evaluate the research or unable to complete the review within the stipulated timeframe must promptly decline the invitation. Reviews must be conducted objectively, providing clear, well-reasoned, and actionable feedback supported by appropriate evidence. Personal criticism, inflammatory language, or derogatory remarks directed at the authors are strictly unacceptable. Prior to accepting an assignment, reviewers must declare any potential conflicts of interest—whether financial, academic, personal, or collaborative—and entirely recuse themselves from evaluating any manuscript where their objectivity may be reasonably compromised.
All submitted manuscripts are privileged, confidential documents. Reviewers must strictly maintain this confidentiality and must not discuss the manuscript, appropriate the authors' ideas, or share the submission with colleagues or trainees without obtaining prior explicit permission from the handling editor. In strict accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and COPE guidelines, reviewers are expressly prohibited from uploading the manuscript, any of its components, or their own peer-review reports into Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools or Large Language Models (LLMs), as doing so constitutes a severe breach of data privacy and author confidentiality.
During the evaluation, reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately cited and actively alert the editor to any substantial similarity, plagiarism, or overlap between the manuscript and previously published literature. However, the journal strictly prohibits coercive citation practices; reviewers must never suggest the addition of citations to their own work, or that of their associates, solely to inflate citation metrics or enhance visibility. Any recommendations for additional citations must be based exclusively on rigorous and genuine scientific necessity.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Duties and Responsibilities of Authors
Authors of original research must present a meticulously accurate account of the work performed alongside an objective discussion of its scientific significance. Underlying data must be represented authentically, free from fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate manipulation. To facilitate rigorous verification and reproducibility, authors must be prepared to provide public access to their raw data upon request and are strictly obligated to retain all primary datasets for a minimum of ten years following publication, in alignment with ICMJE and CLUE guidelines. Deliberately fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate reporting constitutes severe academic misconduct. Authors must also guarantee that their submitted manuscript is entirely original; plagiarism in any form—including the unacknowledged appropriation of others' ideas, data, or text—is strictly prohibited. Furthermore, concurrent submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously is a serious ethical violation and is entirely unacceptable.
To ensure appropriate recognition and accountability, authorship must be strictly limited to individuals who meet all four of the ICMJE criteria: substantial contributions to the conception, design, or acquisition and interpretation of data; drafting or critically revising the intellectual content; providing final approval of the version to be published; and agreeing to be personally accountable for the accuracy and integrity of all aspects of the work. Because authorship requires legal and moral accountability, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and language models cannot fulfill these roles and are strictly prohibited from being listed as authors. The designated corresponding author assumes the primary responsibility for ensuring that all eligible co-authors, and no inappropriate guest or gift authors, are included in the author list and that all have explicitly approved the final manuscript. Individuals who contributed to the study but do not meet all four criteria for authorship should be recognized in the Acknowledgments section, provided their written consent is obtained.
Transparency is fundamental to the scientific process. Therefore, all authors are required to comprehensively disclose any financial and non-financial competing interests that might be perceived to influence the research, its evaluation, or its interpretation. All sources of financial support, including the specific role of the funding agency in the study design, data analysis, and manuscript preparation, must be explicitly declared upon submission. Finally, if an author discovers a significant error or fundamental inaccuracy in their own published work, it is their ethical obligation to promptly notify the journal's editorial office and cooperate fully with the Editor-in-Chief to issue a formal correction, erratum, or retraction as necessary to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Open Access Policy
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) is a fully Open Access journal, committed to the immediate, permanent, and unrestricted global dissemination of scientific research. All articles are published free of charge to readers and are devoid of any subscription barriers, paywalls, or embargo periods. Articles published in HUCJMS are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Under this open license, users possess the right to freely read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles. Furthermore, users are permitted to adapt, transform, build upon the material, and utilize the work for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is explicitly given to the original authors and the journal is cited as the original source of publication.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Peer Review Process
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) maintains a rigorous, double-anonymized peer-review process to ensure that all published work meets the highest standards of scientific and academic excellence. Following an initial screening by the Editorial Office to confirm scope and basic compliance, all research manuscripts deemed suitable are sent to a minimum of two independent, external expert reviewers. Under the double-anonymized model (Double-blind peer review), the identities of both the submitting authors and the peer reviewers are strictly concealed from one another throughout the evaluation to prevent any conscious or unconscious bias. While the handling editor carefully considers the reviewers' detailed evaluations and recommendations, peer reviewers act exclusively in an advisory capacity; the journal is under no obligation to follow these recommendations, and the ultimate authority and responsibility to accept, revise, or reject a manuscript rests solely with the Editor-in-Chief.
Furthermore, the Editorial Office reserves the right to seek specialized consultation outside the standard peer-review workflow for submissions presenting complex ethical, biosecurity, or broader societal implications. In such instances, the Editor-in-Chief may confidentially consult with external ethics experts or specialized board members before determining the appropriate course of action, which may include recruiting highly specific reviewers, mandating additional ethical oversight, or declining the submission outright.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Submissions by Editors and Editorial Board Members (Editor-as-Author Policy)
To ensure rigorous objectivity and strictly comply with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, the Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) enforces an independent evaluation process for any manuscript authored or co-authored by an editor or Editorial Board member. While the journal welcomes submissions from its own board, submitting editor-authors must explicitly declare their editorial role in both the cover letter and the manuscript's Conflict of Interest section at the time of submission. Upon receipt, the editorial office immediately flags the submission within the manuscript tracking system to bypass standard handling workflows. The manuscript is swiftly reassigned to an independent Senior Editor or Guest Editor who possesses no personal, professional, or academic ties to the submitting author. To guarantee complete recusal, the submitting editor-author is stripped of all administrative access to the manuscript within the editorial management system, ensuring they cannot view reviewer identities, confidential editor notes, or monitor the progress of the peer review.
The manuscript is then subjected to the journal's standard rigorous double-anonymized peer-review process, evaluated by a minimum of two independent, external reviewers who have been thoroughly vetted for potential conflicts of interest and have completed a formal declaration prior to accepting the invitation. The assigned independent Handling Editor exercises sole authority over the final decision to accept, revise, or reject the manuscript, with the editor-author having zero input or influence over the outcome. Prior to any final acceptance, the editorial office conducts a comprehensive integrity screening to verify originality and ethical compliance. If the manuscript is accepted, the final published article will feature a prominent disclosure statement to ensure full transparency for readers. This statement will explicitly acknowledge the author's editorial role, confirm their complete recusal from the peer-review and decision-making workflows, and identify the independent Handling Editor who managed the evaluation process.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Plagiarism
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) maintains a strict zero-tolerance policy against all forms of plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as the unacknowledged appropriation of another individual's ideas, words, data, images, or overall work, presenting them as the author's own original creation. The journal strictly prohibits self-plagiarism (text-recycling), as well as duplicate and redundant publication, whether submitted in the same or a different language. In accordance with international standards, the prior posting of an early draft on a recognized preprint server does not constitute duplicate publication, provided it is transparently disclosed at the time of submission. To safeguard the integrity of the scholarly record, all submitted manuscripts are systematically screened using professional similarity-checking software (e.g., iThenticate) prior to peer review.
Because automated similarity indices cannot determine intent or context, an Editor meticulously evaluates all similarity reports to distinguish between legitimately cited methodological overlap and genuine plagiarism, in strict adherence to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. While all authors share collective accountability for the originality of the work, the corresponding author bears the primary responsibility for ensuring the manuscript is free of plagiarized content. If deliberate plagiarism or an unacceptable degree of unattributed overlap is confirmed following editorial review, the manuscript will be immediately rejected. Furthermore, the journal will initiate a formal investigation according to COPE flowcharts, which may include notifying the authors' affiliated institutions or funding bodies of the ethical breach.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Preprints Policy
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) supports the early dissemination of scientific research and permits authors to post early drafts of their manuscripts on recognized, open-access preprint servers (such as medRxiv or arXiv) prior to or simultaneously with submission. In accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, posting a manuscript on a preprint server does not constitute prior or duplicate publication and will not jeopardize its consideration for peer review.
To ensure absolute transparency, authors must explicitly disclose the existence of a preprint in their cover letter upon submission and provide the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or direct link to the preprint record. During the evaluation process, authors must not post interim, revised versions of the manuscript to the preprint server that incorporate modifications based on the journal's peer-review feedback. If the manuscript is ultimately accepted and published in HUCJMS, it is the authors' responsibility to update the preprint record to formally acknowledge the publication, providing a full citation and a bidirectional DOI link directly to the final Version of Record on the journal's website.
Authors are permitted to cite preprints in their manuscript's reference list; however, the citation must clearly indicate that the source is a preprint to distinguish it from peer-reviewed literature. Finally, if authors are approached by the media or public regarding a posted preprint, they must explicitly clarify that the paper has not yet undergone formal peer review, that the findings are provisional, and that the conclusions may change.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy
Patients possess a fundamental right to privacy that must not be violated without explicit informed consent. Identifying information—including patients' names, initials, hospital numbers, or recognizable details within written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, and genetic pedigrees—must not be published unless the information is strictly essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or their parent or legal guardian) provides written informed consent for publication. In strict accordance with International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, obtaining valid informed consent requires that the identifiable patient be shown the final manuscript prior to publication. Authors should actively omit nonessential identifying details; however, if there is any doubt that complete anonymity can be maintained—noting specifically that masking the eye region in photographs constitutes inadequate protection of anonymity—informed consent is absolutely required. If identifying characteristics are deliberately altered to protect patient anonymity, authors must provide explicit assurance that such alterations do not distort the scientific meaning of the work. To strictly comply with international data protection laws, the journal and publisher do not collect, transfer, or archive signed patient consent forms; it is the sole responsibility of the authors to securely archive these forms at their respective institutions. Consequently, consent forms must never be uploaded with the manuscript or emailed to the editorial office. Instead, if a manuscript contains clinical images, pedigrees, or descriptions that have an obvious indication of a patient's identity, a formal statement confirming that written informed patient consent was obtained must be prominently included within the manuscript text.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Repository and Self-Archiving Policy
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) is a fully Open Access journal committed to the rapid and broad dissemination of scientific research. The journal maintains a comprehensive self-archiving policy that explicitly permits authors to deposit all versions of their manuscript into any institutional or subject repository of their choice. In alignment with modern open science practices, authors are fully permitted to post their initial, un-peer-reviewed manuscript (preprint) on recognized servers or institutional websites at any time prior to or during the submission process. Furthermore, authors may immediately upload their peer-reviewed, accepted manuscript to their institutional repository without any embargo period. Because the journal publishes all articles under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), authors are explicitly encouraged to freely share, distribute, and post the final, publisher-formatted PDF (Version of Record) immediately upon publication. To ensure the integrity and authenticity of the scholarly record, any public archiving of the accepted or final published versions must properly cite the journal and prominently include a permanent Digital Object Identifier (DOI) link directing readers to the definitive Version of Record on the journal’s website.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Research Ethics and Consent
If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki)for experiments involving humans. The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations(sex, age, and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly.
Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.
All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated, and where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study.
Informed Consent and Patient Privacy
Patients possess a fundamental right to privacy that must not be infringed without explicit informed consent. Identifying information—including names, initials, biometric characteristics, or hospital numbers—must not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is strictly essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or their parent/legal guardian in the case of minors, or next of kin if the patient is deceased) provides written informed consent for publication. In accordance with International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, obtaining valid informed consent requires that the identifiable patient be shown the finalized manuscript prior to publication. Authors must explicitly disclose to participants that the journal operates under an Open Access model; therefore, any potentially identifiable material will be permanently and freely available on the internet to the general public, and may be redistributed or reused under a Creative Commons license.
Authors must omit all nonessential identifying details. If there is any doubt that complete anonymity can be maintained—noting specifically that masking the eye region in photographs constitutes inadequate protection of anonymity—informed consent must be obtained. If identifying characteristics are deliberately altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors must provide written assurance that these alterations do not distort the scientific meaning of the work.
Crucially, to strictly comply with international data protection and privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA), the journal does not collect, receive, or archive signed patient consent forms. The corresponding author must securely retain the original signed consent forms at their affiliated institution and must include a formal statement within the manuscript's declarations section explicitly confirming that written informed consent for publication was obtained.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Standards of Reporting and Reproducibility
To facilitate rigorous verification, peer review, and scientific reproducibility, the Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) encourage all submitted manuscripts to adhere to the highest standards of transparent reporting. Authors must provide comprehensive, unambiguous descriptions of their research rationale, protocols, methodology, and statistical analyses. In strict accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations, authors are expected to adhere to the study-specific reporting guidelines hosted by the EQUATOR Network and submit the appropriate completed checklist alongside their manuscript. Depending on the specific study design, authors must comply with the following core standards: CONSORT for randomized controlled trials; STROBE for observational studies (cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional designs); PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses; CARE for clinical case reports; STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies; and ARRIVE for in vivo animal experiments. Furthermore, to promote precision and equity in medical literature, authors are strongly encouraged to utilize the SAGER guidelines to ensure the correct, comprehensive reporting of sex and gender variables throughout their study design, data analysis, and interpretation of findings.
Updated on 8 March 2026 (In accordance with study-specific reporting guidelines provided. The adherence to these guidelines is recommended starting from 2026)
Use of Third-Party Material and Copyright Permissions
Authors bear full legal and ethical responsibility for securing explicit, written permission from the original copyright holder prior to reproducing any third-party material within their manuscript. This requirement encompasses, but is not limited to, extensive text extracts, illustrations, photographs, tables, data sets, audio, video, film stills, screenshots, and musical notation, regardless of whether the original publisher or the author holds the copyright. While the use of short textual extracts for the purpose of scientific critique or review is generally permitted under standard "fair use" provisions without formal permission, any substantial reproduction necessitates documented authorization.
Furthermore, because the Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) is an Open Access journal distributing content under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), authors must ensure that third-party copyright holders consent to this open distribution. If the third-party material is subject to a more restrictive license, the author must explicitly indicate the specific copyright terms within the figure legend or credit line to legally exempt that material from the article's broader CC BY 4.0 license. Procuring permission does not negate the need for proper attribution; all third-party material must be comprehensively acknowledged and properly cited at the point of use. Authors must be prepared to submit documentary evidence of all written permissions to the Editorial Office at the time of submission or upon request.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in Writing
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) acknowledges the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models) may be utilized during the writing process strictly to improve the readability and language of the manuscript. However, AI must never substitute essential human authoring tasks, such as generating novel scientific insights, drawing conclusions, or formulating clinical recommendations. Because authorship implies legal accountability, the ability to hold copyright, and the capacity to approve the final version of a manuscript, AI tools cannot fulfill these requirements; therefore, AI and LLMs are strictly prohibited from being listed as authors or co-authors. Authors must maintain full human oversight over any AI-generated text, verifying all outputs for accuracy, completeness, and lack of bias, and they bear ultimate responsibility for ensuring the text is free from plagiarism and does not infringe upon third-party copyrights. Furthermore, in strict accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, referencing AI-generated material as a primary source citation is entirely unacceptable.
While AI is primarily restricted to language editing, the journal requires absolute transparency regarding any use of AI throughout the entire research process. If AI technologies were utilized for data collection, statistical analysis, or code generation, this must be explicitly and comprehensively detailed within the Methods section to enable replication, including specifying the tool, version, and prompts used. Consistent with strict digital image integrity standards, the use of Generative AI to create, alter, or manipulate original research data, scientific figures, or clinical images is expressly forbidden. All authors must transparently disclose their use of AI in the cover letter upon submission and include a formal statement in a dedicated "Declaration of Generative AI in Scientific Writing" section prior to the references, or within the Acknowledgments. If no AI or AI-assisted technologies were utilized, no statement is required.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
Use of Artificial Intelligence in Peer Review
The Hilla University College Journal of Medical Sciences (HUCJMS) maintains that peer review is fundamentally a human endeavor. The critical thinking, rigorous scientific assessment, and independent judgment required to evaluate a manuscript are responsibilities that can only be attributed to, and performed by, the invited human experts. Consequently, reviewers must not delegate the scientific evaluation of a paper to Artificial Intelligence (AI), keeping in mind that Generative AI tools and Large Language Models (LLMs) can generate authoritative-sounding output that is frequently incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Furthermore, to strictly protect authors' intellectual property, data privacy, and the absolute confidentiality of the review process, reviewers and editors are expressly prohibited from uploading submitted manuscripts, supplementary materials, or any portion thereof into public Generative AI platforms (such as ChatGPT). This strict confidentiality mandate also extends to the reviewer's own peer-review report; reviewers must not feed their reports into public AI tools, even for the purpose of language polishing, as these texts contain privileged, unpublished information. While the journal actively monitors the development of secure, identity-protected AI technologies, current policy demands that reviewers personally bear full accountability for the entirety of their review and refrain from using public Generative AI to assist in the evaluation process.
Last updated on March 8, 2026.
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