Ethical Standards

ODMJ is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and follows internationally recognized principles of responsible medical and scientific publishing. Authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher are expected to act with integrity, transparency, accountability, and respect for the scientific record.

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Publishing Standards

ODMJ follows the principles and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and other internationally recognized standards for responsible medical and scientific publishing. The journal is committed to ethical editorial decision-making, transparent peer review, proper authorship practices, disclosure of conflicts of interest, protection of research participants, and the correction of the scientific record when necessary.

Authorship and Originality

Authors must ensure that all sources, prior work, and reused material are properly cited. Any overlap with previously published or submitted work must be transparently disclosed at submission.

Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, image manipulation, duplicate submission, peer review manipulation, and inappropriate authorship practices are considered unacceptable.

All listed authors must have made a substantial contribution to the work and must approve the final version of the manuscript. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the data, the integrity of the analysis, and the transparency of the conclusions.

Any changes in authorship after submission must be clearly justified and approved by all authors.

Conflicts of Interest and Funding

Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial conflicts of interest. They must also provide full information about sources of funding and any role of funders in the design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, or reporting of the study.

Editors and reviewers must also declare any potential conflicts of interest and must not participate in the evaluation of manuscripts where such conflicts may affect their objectivity.

Research Ethics and Consent

Research involving human participants, human data, human tissue, or animals must comply with appropriate ethical standards and institutional or national regulations. Where applicable, authors must provide information about ethics committee approval, informed consent, patient consent for publication, clinical trial registration, and data availability.
Identifiable patient information, images, or clinical details may be published only with appropriate consent and safeguards for privacy and confidentiality.

Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, and timely evaluations. They must treat all manuscripts as confidential documents and declare any potential conflicts of interest before accepting a review assignment.

Reviewers must not use unpublished material for personal advantage or share manuscript content outside the peer review process.

Editor Responsibilities and Editorial Independence

Editors are responsible for ensuring fair, independent, and unbiased editorial decisions. Manuscripts are evaluated based on academic merit, scientific validity, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal’s scope. Editorial decisions must not be influenced by nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, race, religion, political views, or personal characteristics of the authors.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

The use of artificial intelligence or AI-assisted tools must be transparent and responsible. Authors may use AI tools only for language improvement or technical assistance under full human oversight, and such use must be disclosed when relevant. AI tools must not replace author responsibility, generate or manipulate research data, or be listed as authors.
Reviewers and editors must not upload confidential manuscripts, peer review reports, or unpublished data to external AI systems.

Misconduct, Corrections, and Retractions

ODMJ investigates suspected ethical violations, including plagiarism, duplicate publication, data manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, authorship disputes, peer review manipulation, and other forms of misconduct. When necessary, the journal may contact authors, reviewers, institutions, funders, or other relevant bodies to clarify concerns.
If errors or ethical issues are identified after publication, ODMJ will take appropriate action to correct the scientific record. This may include publishing a correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other post-publication notice, depending on the nature and severity of the issue.

Complaints and Appeals

ODMJ provides a process for handling complaints and appeals. Authors may appeal editorial decisions by submitting a clear, evidence-based explanation.
Complaints and appeals are reviewed fairly and confidentially by the editorial leadership or by an independent editor when appropriate.
Through these policies, ODMJ seeks to ensure that all published content is reliable, ethically sound, transparent, and valuable to the oncology community.