Ethics & Guidelines

i. Author: An author is a person who has made a substantial contribution to the intellectual content of research by participation in at least ONE of the following; conception or formulation of the research idea, designing the study, conducting or implementing the study, analysis of the results or their interpretation, writing or critically reviewing the paper.

ii. Authorship criteria: The center conforms to the guidelines outlined by the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) as to who qualifies for the authorship of a research article including (but not limited to) the original articles, review articles, case reports, etc.

1- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work

2- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content

3- Final approval of the version to be published

Any person who is involved in all the three steps i.e. 1, 2 and 3 of the ICMJE recommendations shall be entitled to the authorship. This means that the authors are also responsible and accountable for the integrity, accuracy and transparency of the research work.

iii. Who does not qualify as an author? Anyone who does not fit in the criteria described above is not eligible to become an author. Some contributions (but not limited to) which are not entitled to authorship include; data collection, data entering, language review of the article etc. Such minor contributions can be acknowledged in the separate section of ‘acknowledgments’ after approval from the relevant person.

iv. Principal Investigator: The principal investigator (PI) is the person who has conceived the idea or has designed the study. The IRB submission and approval are also submitted in the name of PI. The PI is not necessarily the first author.

v. Order of the authorship: It is recommended that the order of authorship must be decided before initiating the research project, but it can be modified later on in the project considering the amount of contribution given by each individual. Generally, the order of authorship correlates to the amount of contribution (not monetary) done in the project e.g. the person who has contributed the most should be the first author and so on. The senior-most person in the group or the one who is reviewing the work critically and supervising the whole project must be the last author. A student should be given any authorship if he or she has made sufficient contribution to be eligible as the author according to ICMJE guidelines.

vi. Corresponding Author: Is the author who is responsible for the submission of the finalized article to the relevant journal for publication. He or she will be responsible for the coordination among the other authors and will communicate with the journal editors etc. A student should not be a corresponding author, instead, someone from the faculty must take this responsibility.

vii. Gift Authorships: This means awarding or gifting authorship to someone who does not qualify for it according to article 1 (ii) of section C. This includes awarding authorship to someone who was not part of the research group or someone who was a part but did not make any intellectual contribution. This also includes (but is not limited to) awarding authorship to someone who does not qualify for it according to article 1 (ii) of section C, but is someone;

- at influential or administrative post

- who needs publications for academic purposes, institutional promotions, acquiring certain jobs or faculty positions

- who is an acquaintance of someone in the research group

- who is a blood relation to someone in the research group or someone sitting at an administrative or influential post

- who has offered financial contributions or compensations against an authorship

Penalty: Gift authorships are unethical and totally unacceptable for any research activity that is being carried out in the settings of CHSR-FMH or under its banner. Anyone who is found involved in such activity of seeking or gifting someone authorship will be permanently barred from the center.

viii. Ghost Authorships: This means including someone‘s name in the publication or research work to falsely enhance the credibility of work, without their consent. This is also unacceptable and can lead to refraction of the article from the journal. The corresponding author is responsible to maintain the accurate list of all authors and keep them in the loop.

xi. Acknowledgments: Those who have minor contributions and do not fit into the authorship criteria as per article 1 (ii) of section C, can be mentioned in the acknowledgment section with their approval. Similarly, any financial contributions involved in the process of research conduction or publication must be declared and mentioned in the acknowledgment section.

All research projects which will be carried out under the banner of CHSR-FMH, whether involving human and/or animal subjects or not, must be submitted to the Institutional Review Board i.e. IRB-FMH for ethical consideration or exemption. Only approved studies should be sent for publication.

Plagiarism is defined as the act of using someone else’s intellectual work or mimicking someone’s text or ideas/thoughts, without authorization or proper acknowledgment and presenting these as your own. It can be deliberate or unintentional but must be accounted for at every stage of writing a research article. The senior authors in the research groups will be responsible for ensuring the authenticity and genuineness of the final work ready for publication.

While submitting your research project to a journal, the authors sign an act of copyright transfer according to which the content becomes the property of the journal/publisher. This work or any of its components cannot be subsequently published anywhere else.

Any situation which can compromise or appear to compromise the researcher’s professional values while conducting or publishing research comes under the title of ‘Conflict of interest’. It can be related to financial or personal considerations. A researcher must always DECLARE any apparent conflict of interest while submitting an IRB proposal or while submitting research work for publication.

Most importantly, the matters of conflicting interests must be sorted out before initiating any research project in a group. All researchers in a group working on a common project must declare their conflicting interests if there are any. If any participant feels at any stage of the research, that their co-researchers have conflicting interests which are affecting them in any way or are compromising the integrity and quality of the work, they can bring this matter into the knowledge of the Director CHSR-FMH and the Advisory board. However, an appropriate way to address any such situation is to seek resolution of the matter within the group or the team with mutual consensus, before bringing it to the Director or the Advisory Board.

Any person who wants to conduct research on the data of FMH or data belonging to any clinician working in FMH must access the data through the proper channel. Also, such data can ONLY be utilized for the purpose of research after formal permission is obtained from the owner of that data. Failure to comply will lead to retraction of paper and expulsion from the center.

All authors who are affiliated with the CHSR-FMH or are doing research work under the CHSR-FMH are required to retain their data for at least up to FIVE years after publication. The corresponding authors will be responsible for reproducing such data in case of any inquiry or audit, or for any critical review.

It is recommended that before initiating a research project of any kind, all the members/authors sign a research commitment letter stating their provisional authorship numbers, assigned tasks and their role in the project. This will help keep all the members on board while initiating a new project.

Download the Research Commitment Letter here!