Editorial policy and ethical guidelines

JCCM complies with CC BY 4.0 license, subscribes to the principles of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and to the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE) recommendations, to review best practice and ethical standards in the conduct and reporting of research and other published materials.

The Journal of Critical Care Medicine (JCCM) addresses the entire community of specialists involved in treating critically ill patients. The Journal accepts high-quality medical research articles, but also accepts manuscripts relating to the basic sciences, review articles, systemic reviews and meta-analysis, case reports, and observational studies of all types, including randomized control trials, editorial commentary, and opinions covering the entire spectrum of research in critical care medicine. The journal is peer-reviewed and is published 4 times a year in both paper and electronic versions. The language of the journal is English. All submitted manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter, stating that the article is original, is not under consideration or has not been previously published elsewhere. Authors document that their research was approved by the appropriate institutional review committee for the protection of human or animal subjects, and that all human subjects or their representatives gave informed consent. All submissions are subject to peer review, and to language- and copy-editing after acceptance. At least two independent scientists act as referees of one manuscript. Reviewers evaluate manuscripts critically but constructively to prepare detailed comments about the research and the manuscript to help authors improve their work. The identities of the reviewers will not be released to authors. Reviewers are asked to make one of four recommendations: accept, accept after minor revision, accept after major revision, reject. The decision to ask for revisions is made in light of the reviewers’ comments and recommendations, and after evaluation by the editor. The editor may reject manuscripts without outside review, for example if the subject matter is outside the scope of the journal, a manuscript on the same topic is just about to be published, the quality of the manuscript is poor, or criteria for the submission of manuscripts are not met.

Copyright policy and Open Access Statement

This journal provides immediate open access to its content under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 license. Authors who publish with this journal retain all copyrights and agree to the terms of CC BY 4.0 license. The journal allows free unlimited access to all its contents without any restrictions upon publication to all users. The published materials are free to be shared and adapted, giving appropriate credit and indicating if changes were made.

Plagiarism Policy and Scientific misconduct

The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System’s users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and AI generation tools, and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process.

Scientific misconduct includes data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, redundant publication, ghost authorship or other fraudulent research practices. In order to prevent plagiarism issues, all manuscripts sent to the journal will be screened using anti-plagiarism soft-ware. Where there is a suspicion of scientific misconduct, the editors will act in conformity with the principles stated in the COPE guidelines and if the fraudulent practice is confirmed the manuscript will be rejected outright and without the editor entering into any further correspondence. If the Editorial Board uncovers possible evidence of such problems, it will first contact the corresponding author in complete confidence, to allow adequate clarification of the situation. If the results of such interactions are not satisfactory, the Board will contact the appropriate official(s) in the institution(s) from which the manuscript originated. It is then left to the institution(s) in question to pursue the matter appropriately. Depending on the circumstances, JCCM may also opt to publish errata, corrections, or retractions. Serious errors in a published manuscript and infringements of professional ethical codes will result in an article being retracted. All coauthors will be informed about a retraction. A Retraction Note detailing the reason for retraction will be linked to the original article.

Informed consent

All research studies involving human subjects must have received approval of the appropriate institutional ethics committee and informed consent must be obtained from all the patients participating in the studies, prior to manuscript submission. The manuscript must contain a statement on the informed consent within the “Material and Methods” section.

In cases where the institutional ethics review committee ruled that approval from them was not required or that the need for informed consent was unnecessary, a statement from the committee to this end should be forwarded to the Editor with the manuscript.

Human and animal rights

Studies involving experimental research on animals or humans must conform to the guiding principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. In case of research involving human subjects, the manuscript must contain a statement within the “Material and Methods” section indicating that the study protocol has been approved by the author(s) institutional ethical committee and that all study participants have given informed consent to participate, or that the ethical committee has waived the need for informed consent. In order to respect patient confidentiality and the right to privacy, identifying information such as patient’s names, images, hospital or hospital record details, should not be included in any published material unless the information is essential for the scientific content. If so, written permission must be obtained from the patient, and this permission should be submitted to the editorial office prior to publication. In the case of animal experiments, both national and the institutional guidelines pertaining to the experimental use of laboratory animals should be rigidly followed.

Clinical trials

In case of manuscripts presenting clinical trials, the clinical trial should be registered in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment, as a condition for consideration for publication. Trials should be preferably registered in ClinicalTrials.gov, but any registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) is acceptable, in accordance with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

Conflicts of interest

Any existing or potential conflict of interest about a manuscript should be disclosed by all participants in the peer-review and publication process (authors, peer reviewers, editors, editorial board members). Authors should disclose any potential conflict of interest at the time of manuscript submission. The statement regarding the disclosure of conflicts of interest should be included in the manuscript and mentioned in the cover letter accompanying the manuscript.

The Managing Editor screen all manuscripts for conflicts prior to peer review.

Upon invitation, reviewers must confirm they have no competing interests and recuse themselves from any submission where bias may occur. Reviewers must maintain strict confidentiality and are forbidden from using privileged information from the review process for their own benefit.

To maintain editorial integrity, any editor with a conflict of interest must recuse themselves. If the Managing Editor is conflicted, the Editor-in-Chief takes over the review process, and vice versa. Should both be conflicted, an independent board member is appointed. Furthermore, all submissions from journal staff or board members are managed by the Editor-in-Chief through a strictly blinded, independent review process.

Submissions from the host institution are assigned to independent board members or external reviewers. This process is strictly managed to eliminate any potential conflict of interest and ensure impartiality and an unbiased evaluation. Internal submissions from the Editorial Board are managed by the editorial office through an independent review process, ensuring the same rigorous standards as external manuscripts.

Confidentiality

All manuscripts submitted to JCCM are treated as strictly confidential. Editors will not disclose details of any submission to anyone other than the authors and assigned reviewers.

Reviewers are instructed to maintain absolute confidentiality regarding the manuscript and its associated materials. They must not discuss the work publicly or retain any portion of the manuscript for personal use.

To ensure an impartial process, the identity of reviewers will remain strictly anonymous under all circumstances.

If a manuscript is rejected, the content is archived and remains undisclosed. If accepted, the journal retains all related materials for a minimum of three years following publication.