Believers Journal of Health Sciences (BJHS) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethical scholarly publishing. The journal promotes integrity, transparency, accountability, fairness, and respect throughout the editorial, peer-review, and publication process. This statement outlines the ethical responsibilities of all stakeholders. The journal follows recognized principles of publication ethics and aligns its editorial practices with internationally accepted standards, including relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Editors make independent decisions based solely on scholarly merit, novelty, and methodological quality. The editorial office is committed to the following mandates:
Reviewers provide independent, objective, and constructive evaluations of submitted manuscripts under the following conditions:
Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest in accordance with the journal's Conflict of Interest Policy.
BJHS does not tolerate plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, data falsification, selective reporting, citation manipulation, or inappropriate image manipulation. All suspected cases of misconduct are assessed fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with the journal's established procedures and COPE guidance. Authors may be asked to provide raw data, supporting documents, or explanations where necessary and will be given an appropriate opportunity to respond before a final editorial decision is made.
BJHS does not consider manuscripts that are simultaneously submitted to another journal. Authors must confirm that the submitted work is original, has not been published previously, and is not under consideration elsewhere. If duplicate or redundant publication is identified, appropriate editorial action will be taken according to the severity of the case.
Clinical Trials: Prospective clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible clinical trial registry before participant enrolment. The registry name and registration number must be included in the manuscript. Patient names, initials, hospital numbers, and other directly identifiable information must not be included. Written informed consent for publication must be obtained when case details, photographs, or videos could identify a patient.
Human and Animal Research: Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical standards and must include ethics committee or Institutional Review Board approval details and informed consent information, where required. Research involving animals must comply with relevant institutional, national, and international animal welfare regulations and must state approval details where applicable.
Authors are encouraged to provide appropriate information regarding data availability, analytical procedures, and supporting materials to promote transparency and reproducibility of research. Editors may request access to underlying data when necessary for evaluation of research integrity.
Generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, or originality of scholarly work. Any material use of AI for writing, translation assistance, coding, or image generation must be clearly disclosed within the manuscript. AI must not be used to fabricate data, generate false references, manipulate images improperly, or alter research findings.
Editors and reviewers must not upload, analyse, summarise, or use confidential manuscript material in generative AI tools without appropriate safeguards and human oversight.
BJHS systematically protects the historical literature record via three distinct corrective channels:
Retraction decisions are made by the editorial team after careful evaluation of available evidence and consultation with relevant parties when required.
Authors may submit an appeal when they believe that an editorial decision involved a procedural error or an unmanaged conflict of interest. Concerns or allegations raised by authors, reviewers, readers, institutions, or other parties are handled confidentially and in accordance with COPE guidance. Where necessary, the Editorial Board may contact the authors, institutions, ethics committees, reviewers, or other relevant bodies to investigate a serious concern. Complaints and appeals should be submitted in writing to the official journal email address. BJHS aims to acknowledge complaints and appeals within a reasonable timeframe and communicates decisions after appropriate investigation.