Ethics and disclosures

Publication ethics

MedicianX is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics and adheres to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All editors, reviewers, and authors are expected to observe these principles.

Research ethics & human subjects

Studies involving human participants must have been conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by an appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee. Authors must state the name of the approving committee and the approval reference number in the Methods section.

Informed consent must be obtained from all human participants (or their legal guardians). For case reports and any material that could identify a patient, written consent for publication is mandatory.

Animal research

Research involving animals must comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and applicable national/international regulations for the care and use of laboratory animals. Ethical approval details must be stated in the Methods.

Clinical trial registration

All prospective clinical trials must be registered in a public trial registry (e.g. ClinicalTrials.gov, CTRI, or WHO ICTRP) before the enrolment of the first participant. The registration number must be quoted in the abstract.

Conflict of interest

All authors must declare any financial, personal, or professional relationships that could reasonably influence, or be perceived to influence, the interpretation of their work. Declarations should include research funding, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, expert testimony, patents, or memberships relevant to the topic. Where no conflicts exist, authors must explicitly state so.

Funding disclosure

The role of any funding source — study design, data collection/analysis, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit for publication — must be declared. If the funder had no such role, this must be stated.

Plagiarism and originality

All submissions are screened using industry-standard plagiarism-detection tools. Manuscripts with substantial overlap with previously published material — including self-plagiarism — will be rejected or retracted if discovered post-publication.

Data availability

Authors are strongly encouraged to make the data underpinning their findings available through a suitable public repository. A data-availability statement must be included in every original research article.

Corrections and retractions

When honest error, misconduct, or ethical breach comes to light, MedicianX will issue a formal correction, expression of concern, or retraction as appropriate, following COPE guidance. Retracted articles remain accessible but are prominently watermarked.

AI and generative tools

Large language models and other generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Any use of such tools in manuscript preparation, data analysis, or image generation must be transparently disclosed in the Methods or Acknowledgements, specifying the tool, purpose, and extent of use.