Editorial Policies
Our comprehensive guidelines for publication ethics and standards
Core Principles
All journals published by Barw adhere to the core principles set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) regarding editorship, authorship, and peer review. Additional guidelines can be found on the COPE website.
Manuscripts submitted to Barw journals must fully comply with the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
Peer Review
All manuscripts submitted to Barw journals undergo a thorough evaluation by both external and in-house experts, which is in line with the peer review process and is essential for the credibility of scientific publications.
Initially, the manuscript is assigned to an Associate Editor specializing in the relevant field. The first step in the selection process, performed entirely in-house, aims to:
• Assess the manuscript's suitability for our journal's target audience.
• Determine the manuscript's priority over other submissions, given the volume of submissions.
A manuscript will be swiftly rejected if it does not meet the priority threshold. At least two external referees will review the manuscripts that pass the initial assessment. These experts are tasked with providing a timely evaluation of the article.
Efforts are made to offer editorial decisions within 2 weeks of submission. If revisions are requested, only one version will generally be considered for further review.
Editors are responsible for selecting referees for each journal's peer-review process. Referees' identities are kept confidential, though they will know the authors' names.
All editorial board members and reviewers must declare any potential conflicts of interest in reviewing a manuscript. If authors are dissatisfied with the editorial decision, they may appeal to the Editor, who may seek a second opinion if appropriate.
Authorship and Contributorship
Barw follows the ICMJE criteria for defining authorship. To qualify as an author, an individual must:
• Make substantial contributions to the work's conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation.
• Contribute to drafting or critically revising the manuscript for intellectual content.
• Approve the final version to be published.
• Take responsibility for all aspects of the work, ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the content.
Those who do not meet all four criteria should not be listed as authors but may be acknowledged instead.
Non-Author Contributors
Individuals who do not meet all the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged individually or collectively under a single heading.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Technology
Authors must disclose whether AI-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models or chatbots) were used to create their submitted work.
AI tools like ChatGPT should not be listed as authors, as they cannot be held accountable for the work's accuracy, integrity, or originality, all of which are required for authorship.
Authors must ensure that AI-generated content is thoroughly reviewed, edited, and plagiarism-free.
Changes in Authorship
Any requests to add or remove authors after manuscript submission or during the review process must be accompanied by a letter explaining the rationale for the change.
No authorship changes will be allowed once an article is published, except through a corrigendum.
Written confirmation from all authors is required for any proposed changes in authorship during the submission process.
Conflict of Interest
A conflict of interest exists when an author, reviewer, or editor has personal or financial relationships that could influence their judgment.
Financial relationships, such as employment, consultancy, or stock ownership, are the most easily identifiable. However, conflicts can also arise from personal relationships or intellectual biases.
All participants in the peer-review and publication process must disclose any potential conflicts of interest. Editors may use this information in making editorial decisions.
Authors must declare all competing interests, both financial and non-financial, in a conflict-of-interest statement included in their manuscript.
If there are no competing interests, the statement should read, "The authors declare they have no conflict of interest."
Ethical Approval / Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research
Research involving human subjects, materials, or data must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki (2013) and be approved by an appropriate ethics committee.
For animal research, authors must indicate that institutional and national standards for the care and use of animals were followed.
If a study has received an exemption from ethics approval, the ethics committee's name and the reference number should be included.
All manuscripts submitted to Barw journals must include a statement detailing ethical approval.
Studies lacking prior ethical approval may not be considered for publication. Retrospective approval may not be possible if approval was not obtained before starting the study.
Informed Consent
For research involving human subjects, informed consent must be obtained from participants (or their guardians, in the case of minors).
A statement confirming this consent should appear in the manuscript.
For studies involving images or videos of participants, written consent for publication must also be obtained.
In cases involving deceased individuals, consent must be obtained from the next of kin.
Consent may be unnecessary if a manuscript does not contain identifiable images or personal details.
Barw strictly adheres to the ICMJE Protection of Research Participants policy.
Editors may request a copy of the informed consent form before making an editorial decision.
Ethical AI Use
Barw publications AI policy states that LLMs like ChatGPT cannot be credited as authors due to lack of accountability, but their use must be disclosed in the methods section.
AI-assisted copy editing for readability, style, and error correction does not need disclosure.
Generative AI images are not allowed except in specific cases, and non-generative tools used to modify images must be disclosed.
Peer reviewers are prohibited from uploading manuscripts into generative AI tools and must declare any AI assistance in their reviews.