Editorial, peer review, authorship, and publication processes of MUJSS are organized in accordance with the recommendations of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (https://www.icmje.org/) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/). Furthermore, the journal complies with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (https://doaj.org/bestpractice).

Research Ethics

Manuscripts submitted to MÜSBD must be original, unpublished, and not under review simultaneously by any other journal.

Human Subjects Research Ethics:

Authors conducting research involving human participants must adhere to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (2013) (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/). Ethical approval must be obtained from an institutional review board (the approval code and date must be specified in the Methods section), and informed consent must be secured from all participants.

Animal Subjects Research Ethics:

Research articles and case studies involving animal subjects must comply with the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare. Ethical approval from a research ethics committee is mandatory. Animal studies must prioritize animal welfare by minimizing pain and adhering strictly to the 3Rs principles (replacement, reduction, and refinement).

Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

• Editors are responsible for upholding all ethical components established by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/).
• Editors ensure impartiality in accordance with the double-blind peer review policy and maintain the confidentiality of reviewers' identities.
• Editors make editorial decisions based primarily on the manuscript's originality and its contribution to the scholarly literature.

Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of Authors

• The originality of the work is the sole responsibility of the authors.
• Authors must explicitly disclose any financial relationships and potential conflicts of interest.
• In studies involving human subjects, authors must clearly state in the Methods section that informed consent was obtained.

Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers

• The evaluation process follows a double-blind peer review system, and reviewers are typically allocated 30 days to complete their reviews.
• Reviewers must notify the editor immediately if they identify any conflict of interest.
• It is deemed unethical for reviewers to request that authors cite the reviewers' own publications.

Correction and Retraction Policy

COPE guidelines are followed to address errors and ethical issues:

• Erratum / Corrigendum: A correction notice is published to address minor errors.
• Retraction: In cases of severe ethical violations (e.g., data fabrication, plagiarism), the article is retracted, and the retraction is formally reported to relevant indexing databases.

Plagiarism Detection

The MUJSS editorial team enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy against plagiarism. All submitted manuscripts are screened using intihal.net (https://intihal.net/) or iThenticate (https://www.ithenticate.com/). The similarity index must be below 20%.

Open Access Policy

To support the free global exchange of scientific knowledge, MUJSS provides immediate open access to all of its content. Articles are published under a Creative Commons (https://creativecommons.org/) license and are permanently archived online.