ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND PUBLICATION POLICY

Studies submitted to the journal for publication should not have been previously published, accepted or evaluated in a journal as a full-text paper or article.

Studies published abroad can be sent to the journal for evaluation by obtaining written permission from the editor of the published journal. Studies presented in a congress or symposium should be indicated in the cover letter.
For the articles to be sent to our journal, a maximum of 20% plagiarism report (iThenticate scan) is expected from the authors "Excluding Abstract, Bibliography, Tables and Figures".
This report will be written and uploaded to the system by the journal publisher "Cetus Publishing" based on the article file sent by the author.
It is obligatory to upload the ethics committee approval and the copyright transfer form of the article, which were obtained within the last five years, to the system.
JICM can be accessed free of charge via the Dergipark Platform in open access and full-text storable format. Instructions for authors are in line with "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publications" (www.ICMJE.org, updated on April 2010).
Please note that the Editors reserve the right to make any necessary changes to the language and style of the original article to comply with the Journal's uniform standards.
Please ensure that you prepare your article in accordance with JICM's general requirements for articles and our specific recommendations on the different article types below.
Please strictly follow these guidelines. Failure to follow these guidelines will delay the editorial and peer-review process and increase the feedback time.
All research submitted for publication in the journal must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki, Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, COPE and ICMJE.
It should be noted that informed consent was obtained from the participants in the submitted studies. It should also be noted that informed consent was obtained from those who are primarily responsible on behalf of individuals (children, comatose patients, etc.) who are incapable of making a decision.
The compliance of the articles with ethical, scientific, legal, etc. rules is the responsibility of the authors. Applications of articles that are under evaluation in another journal are not accepted. The author(s) accept(s) that they have not applied for evaluation of the article in another journal at the application stage, otherwise all responsibility belong to the author(s). The journal reserves the right to take necessary official actions.

Policies & Statements

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Editorial Policy
• Authors Rights and Obligations
• Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
• Conflict of Interest Policy
• Protection of Research Participants (Statement On Human And Animal Rights)
• Advertising Policy
• Editorial & Peer Review Process

Terms of Use

General

These Terms of Use govern your access to and use of digital products and services owned by the Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology (JICM) and its subsidiaries, including but not limited to the offical website (www.jiacm.com), unless other terms and conditions apply.

Copyright Ownership and Permitted Use

Unless otherwise indicated, the content available through the JICM services (and publisher QMEL.org) are protected by copyright and may be used only in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License and other applicable laws. Content available through the JICM services is approved only for your personal noncommercial use. JICM reserves the right to limit, suspend or terminate your access to and use of the JICM sites at any time without notice.

Trademark Ownership

Journal logos and name design are trademarks of the JICM (The publisher QMEL.org). Any use of JICM (and the publisher QMEL.org) trademarks in connection with the sale, offering for sale, distribution or advertising of any goods or services, which is likely to cause confusion, to cause a mistake, or to deceive, is strictly prohibited.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Liability

Content made available through the JICM services is the result of research and/or contribution by independent individuals or organizations. The JICM is not responsible for or endorses the accuracy or reliability of any data or conclusions reported in such content. All contents are intended for guidance and reference purposes only.

The JICM sites and your access to them are provided on an "as is" and "as available basis" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement. In no event will the JICM, its employees, officers, members, or licensors be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, or consequential damages of any kind, or any damages resulting from the inability to use or the use of the services, whether or not advised of the possibility of damages, or on any theory of liability arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of the services.

User-Submitted Content

The following provisions apply to all article submitters to the JICM in connection with its journals and other related services. By submitting content you agree to the following provisions, which may be amended periodically:
1. You agree that you are fully responsible for the content that you submit. You agree that you will not post or submit any content that violates or encourages the violation of any applicable local, state, national or international law, rule, or regulation, or is otherwise inappropriate.
2. The editors of JICM, in their sole discretion, reserve the right to reject, edit, remove or otherwise alter any content submitted for any reason.
3. Once your submission is published, you will not have the right to have it removed or edited.

Login Security

Sharing login information for the JICM services is strictly prohibited.

International Use

Users are responsible for compliance with all local applicable laws, rules and regulations regarding online conduct and data usage of the country you reside in or access from.

Privacy

You confirm that you have read and accept our Privacy Policy.

Modifications of Terms of Use

JICM reserves the right to modify these Terms of Use at any time. The continued use of the JICM services after any such posting shall constitute acceptance of the Terms of Use as modified.

Service Update and Website Availability

The JICM reserves the right to modify, suspend, discontinue or restrict access to all or any part of the services and website at any time.

Privacy Policy

Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology is committed to the protection of your personal information. The privacy policy outlined here applies only to information collected by JICM through the www.jiacm.com website.

Information We Collect

We will request personal information from you to establish your individual user profile that will support all online activities carried out as an author, editorial board member, or other related role. Information such as your name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number and geographic locale are used as unique identifiers to allow access to certain content or to a secure site. All personal information is treated by JICM as strictly private and confidential. JICM will not disclose any personal information to third parties without your permission, unless required by law.

Cookies

Cookies and log files are automatically recorded when you visit our site. These data may include some or all of the following information: IP address, host name, domain name, browser version and platform, date and time of requests, and downloaded or viewed files. This information is used to measure and analyze traffic and usage of the JICM websites and our digital products.
Making Changes to Your Information
Once you have created a user account on the JICM website, you can update your personal information at any time through your account settings.
This statement may be periodically updated.

Editorial Policy

JICM has established a guideline for editorial independence as delineated below.

The editorial and publication processes of the journal are shaped in accordance with the guidelines of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the European Association of Science Editors (EASE).

1. Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology is operated by QMEL, which is publishing organization.
2. The General Chief Editor (currently, Erkan YULA, M.D.) is responsible for independent leadership of JICM editorial operations. The General Publishing Editor reports to the Editor-in-Chief (currently, Erkan YULA, M.D) for all editorial matters.
3. JICM has one or more Editor-in-Chief. These Editors-in-Chief each have their own boards.
4. The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over the content of JICM and its related offerings. This includes summaries and comments on recent medical advances, opinions, blogs and news.
5. Content-related decisions are based on quality, importance, and value to the users of JICM. Contributing authors, editors, JICM staff are free to express responsible positions – even if these views are not in agreement with interests, policies or published research, editorial or commentary of QMEL.
6. Each QMEL journal has editorial operations that are completely separate and independent.
7. Any packaging or combined offering of QMEL Journals does not affect the independence of editorial decision-making.
8. JICM actively seeks input regarding editorial matters from the physician Editors-in-Chief in an advisory capacity, as well as from the other editorial board members, internal editorial staff, and readers.
9. Editors-in-Chief of JICM is empowered to create content and commentary free of commercial and organizational influence. All authors and editors operate without conflict of interest and all potential conflicts are disclosed (please also see Conflict of Interest Policy).

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

The publication of an article in a peer reviewed journal is an essential model for our journal "Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology".
It is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer(s) and the publisher.
Our ethic statements are based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Publication decisions

The editor is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published.
The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

Fair play

An editor at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.

Promptness

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors :

Reporting standards
Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.
The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects

If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Author’s Rights and Obligations

All authors published their research papers in Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology (JICM) are entitled for following rights and obligations:

1. Authors hold full copyright and self archiving rights, they transfer the publishing rights to Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology.
2. We do decline to publish material where a pre-print or working paper has been previously published online.
3. We allow author(s) to get their seminar papers published with a note about the seminar if the paper is not published online.
4. The research and review papers published in Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology can be archived in any private of public archives online or offline. For this purpose authors need to use the final published papers downloaded from http://www.jiacm.com
5. Authors are allowed to archive their article in open access repositories as “post-prints” (Please note that: a post-print is the version incorporating changes and modifications resulting from peer-review comments).
6. The authors need to acknowledge the original reference to the published paper when used in some other format like epub or audio files.
7. Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiologyy offers Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivs 4.0 Unported License to researchers and scholar who uses the content of the published papers.
8. Authors are free to use link to our published papers and share the published papers online or offline in the final format printed on the Journal website.
9. Authors can index and store the published papers in the private or public archives or repositories like university database, internet archived, academia, researchgate etc.
10. We promote sharing of knowledge with due credit to the authors and researchers of the papers published with Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Editorial and Peer Review Processes generally follow these steps:

The publication of an article in a peer reviewed journal is an essential model for our journal "Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology (JICM)".
It is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer(s) and the publisher.
Our ethic statements are based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Publication decisions

The editor is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the JICM should be published.
The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

Fair play

An editor at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.

Duties of Reviewers :

Contribution to Editorial Decisions:
Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.

Promptness

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors :

Reporting standards
Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.
The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects

If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Conflict of Interest Policy

Articles would be published with statements or supporting documents declaring:

- Authors’ conflicts of interest; and
- Sources of support for the work, including sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; the decision to submit the report for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement; and
- Whether the authors had access to the study data, with an explanation of the nature and extent of access, including whether access is on-going.

To support the above statements, editors may request that authors of a study sponsored by a funder with a proprietary or financial interest in the outcome sign a statement, such as “I had full access to all of the data in this study and I take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.” Adopted from Conflict of Interest in Peer-Reviewed Medical Journals which is prepared by WAME Editorial Policy and Publication Ethics Committees and UMJ journals (open access no).

Protection of Research Participants

(Statement On Human and Animal Rights)

When reporting experiments on people, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national), or if no formal ethics committee is available, with the Helsinki Declaration as revised in 2008. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication. Patient consent should be written and archived with the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws. Applicable laws vary from locale to locale, and journals should establish their own policies with legal guidance. Since a journal that archives the consent will be aware of patient identity, some journals may decide that patient confidentiality is better guarded by having the author archive the consent and instead providing the journal with a written statement that attests that they have received and archived written patient consent.

Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are de-identified, authors should provide assurance, and editors should so note, that such changes do not distort scientific meaning.

The requirement for informed consent should be included in the journal’s instructions for authors. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Further guidance on animal research ethics is available from the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare. Adapted from ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals and UMJ journals (open access no).

Advertising Policy

The JICM accepts advertising for their hard copies, web sites and related e-mail services (e-mail alerts) according to the following principles:

Advertising must be separate from content. Content may not be altered, added, or deleted to accommodate advertising. Advertisers have no input regarding any of our editorial decisions or advertising policies. The advertising sales representatives have neither control over, nor prior knowledge of, specific editorial content before it is published.

The JICM reserves the right to decline or cancel any advertisement at any time.

Third-party advertisements may not use The JICM name, logo, or title on their web pages or email alerts.

Advertised products must be compliant with the regulations in the country where the advertisement will be seen. Advertisements for pharmaceutical products (including new drug applications) that are subject to U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversight must comply with FDA regulations regarding advertising and promotion.

Users will be able to distinguish advertising and editorial content clearly on the web site and in e-mail alerts. Commercial advertising does not appear on the same screen as editorial content on the web site or in full-content e-mails.

Advertisers have no control or influence over the results of searches a user may conduct on Journal web pages.

Editorial and Peer Review Processes

Editorial and Peer Review Processes of Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology generally follow these steps:
1. We follow and request from authors, reviewers and editors the "ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals".
2. When an article is submitted to Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology, Editor makes the first check of submitted articles (structure, plagiarism, scientific quality).
3. Articles may be rejected, sent back for structural revision, or sent to at least two reviewers for peer review.
4. After peer review process, articles may be rejected, sent back for revision requested by reviewers or accepted for publication.
5. Revised articles by authors may be accepted, resent to reviewers, resent to authors for additional corrections/revision or rejected.
6. Authors cannot see reviewers’ information. Editor may make authors’ information available to reviewers or not.
7. Accepted articles are forwarded to publishing process.
8. Editor(s) may require additional materials or changes from authors during copy editing, composing, grammatical editing and/or proof reading steps. Adapted from UMJ journals (open access no),

Last updated: May 18, 2016