The relevance of the international committee of medical journal editors recommendations to emerging journals

Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (IJMBS) has been since its inception following the recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals, issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Also, IJMBS has been on the ICJME list since 2010, and the editorial board is committed to adhering strictly to these guidelines.[[1]] ICMJE is a nonprofit working group of biomedical journal editors.[[2]] ICMJE is widely recognized as a leading institution providing guidance for the reporting of biomedical research and health-related issues in biomedical journals.

ICMJE was established in 1978, and it is widely noted for its recommendations originally named “The Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” intended to help all those involved in peer review and biomedical publishing create and distribute accurate, clear, unbiased medical journal articles. This document has since been revised several times, and the latest update was released in December 2018.[[3]] It has recently been named “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” to reflect its wider coverage. The full recommendations are freely available in the www.icmje.org and citable as “ICMJE Recommendations.”[[3]] The ICMJE guidelines discuss and provide guidance on several aspects of scholarly publishing [[Table 1]].

Table 1: The outlines of contents of the updated International Committee of Medical Journal Editors recommendations (December 2018)

ICMJE is constituted by editors of fourteen major general medical journals from different countries, plus one representative for the US National Library of Medicine and one representative for the World Association of Biomedical Journal Editors.[[2]]

Although the ICMJE is not an open membership organization, a vast number of medical journals, worldwide, adopted the ICMJE's recommendations as rules. The ICMJE encourages all relevant individuals and entities to use the recommendations and reproduce them provided a link is included to allow access to the latest updates from the world-class medical editors.[[2]] Indeed, for emerging journals, adopting these recommendations saves time and effort and provides a readily available framework for inception, development, and progress using international standards. At IJMBS, we found these recommendations very helpful for many years. For instance, in addition to the online declarations made during the submission process, we also incorporate the four cardinal disclosures within each article on an individual basis [[Table 2]]. In addition, the responsible editors and peer reviewers are also named on the articles they handle for transparency. Also we suggest that the recommendations are used to construct the core curriculum for educational events in effective writing, a skill that is seriously lacking in many developing regions.[[4]]

Table 2: The Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciencesʼ Mandatory disclosures in all articles٭

Perhaps one of the issues of great relevance to research and publishing in developing regions is that the four cardinal ICMJE recommendations on authorship criteria seem to be ignored as was discussed recently in this journal and elsewhere.[[5]],[[6]] The recommended four criteria carry both legal and ethical implications as they aim to ensure the reward of the authors for the work they wrote and the accountability of authors for all aspects of the work published under their names.[[7]] The ICMJE expects authors to have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their coauthors. By adhering to these recommendations, authorship misconduct in all its forms can be avoided,[[7]] and many incidents of authorship conflicts and disputes are minimized or totally abolished.[[8]]

Of particular relevance to developing regions and emerging journal that the ICMJE recommendations on the authors' responsibilities in the submission and peer-review process addressed the threat caused by predatory journals to the scholarly publishing movement. Predatory journals are advertising themselves as “scholarly medical journals” yet do not function as such. These journals seem to accept and publish almost all submissions and charge article processing (or publication) fees in return.[[9]] Developing regions seem the main target for many for these journals. Unfortunately, there is a low awareness among authors and editors of this serious matter.[[9]] The recommendations reminded authors of their responsibility to evaluate the integrity, history, practices, and reputation of the journals to which they submit manuscripts and if in doubt to seek help from senior colleagues or reputable websites.[[10]] In support of the struggle against predatory journals and publishers, IJMBS has published several recent articles addressing this issue.[[5]],[[7]],[[9]]

Finally, before we strongly urge our authors, reviewers, and editors to study these updated ICMJE recommendations carefully and follow them strictly. IJMBS will persevere with its mission and commitment to the principles and good practices in scholarly publishing.[[11]]

Author's contribution

Equal.

Compliance with ethical principles

No human or animal experiments are reported.

Conflict of Interest

None.

• References

• 1 Beshyah SA, Aburawi EH, Alshammakhi N, Elkhammas EA. Why should you publish in Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences? Ibnosina J Med Biomed Sci 2017;9:99-100.
• 2 ICMJE. About ICMJE. Available from: http://www.icmje.com. [Last accessed on 2018 Dec 25].
• 3 Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals; Updated December 2018. Available from: http://www.icmje.com. [Last accessed on 2018 Dec 25].
• 4 Elkhammas EA, Beshyah SA, Abdelmannan DK. Introducing the “Ibnosina medical writing project.” Ibnosina J Med Biomed Sci 2018;10:147-8.
• 5 Beshyah SA. Predatory publishing: A wake-up call for editors and authors in the Middle East and Africa. Ibnosina J Med Biomed Sci 2017;9:123-5.
• 6 Nnaji JC. Illegitimate academic publishing: A need for sustainable global action. Publishing Res Q 2018;34:515-28.
• 7 Beshyah SA, Ibrahim WH, Aburawi EH, Elkhammas EA The rules and realities of authorship in biomedical journals: A cautionary tale for aspiring researchers. Ibnosina J Med Biomed Sci 2018;10:149-57.
• 8 Beshyah SA, Abdelmannan DK, Elzouki AN, Elkhammas EA. Authorship disputes: Do they result from inadvertent errors of judgment or intentional unethical misconduct? Ibnosina J Med Biomed Sci 2018;10:158-65
• 9 Beshyah SA, Hajjaji IM, Elbarsha AW. Awareness of predatory journals among physicians from Africa and the Middle East: An exploratory survey. Ibnosina J Med Biomed Sci 2018;10:136-40.
• 10 Beshyah SA. Authors' selection of target journals and their attitude to emerging journals: A survey from two developing regions. Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J (in press).
• 11 Elkhammas EA, Beshyah SA. Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences steps into the second decade of life. Ibnosina J Med Biomed Sci 2019;11:1-2.

Publication History

Received: 28 December 2018

Accepted: 01 January 2019

Article published online:
07 July 2022