Zagazig University Medical Journal (ZUMJ) adheres to the ethical standards and best practices recommended by the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Immediate Access
ZUMJ provides immediate open access to its content to promote global knowledge sharing. All articles are freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), allowing unrestricted non-commercial use with appropriate citation.
Users may:
Read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts
Use the content as long as the original work is properly cited
Compliance
This policy aligns with the Budapest Open Access Initiative. Key features include:
Free availability of peer-reviewed literature without subscription
Immediate open access publication
Unrestricted reuse with proper attribution
Authors' and Publisher’s Rights
Authors retain copyright and grant only commercial rights to ZUMJ. Authors may:
Share their article for non-commercial purposes, including teaching and academic use
Retain intellectual property rights, including rights to research data
Ensure proper attribution for their published work
Only individuals who made substantial contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study should be listed as authors. Contributions should be transparently stated.
Acknowledgment of Contributions
Individuals who do not meet authorship criteria but contributed in other ways (e.g., funding acquisition, supervision, editing) should be acknowledged in the manuscript.
Verification of Authorship
Authors must confirm the author list, order, and corresponding author at submission.
Changes to Authorship
Requests to add or remove authors post-submission must be justified and signed by all authors. No changes are permitted after manuscript acceptance.
Human Research: Must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki and have Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and informed consent.
Vulnerable Populations: Research involving vulnerable groups must be ethically justified and obtain guardian consent.
Animal Research: Must follow ARRIVE guidelines and receive approval from institutional animal ethics committees.
Reporting Guidelines: Use standardized guidelines such as CONSORT (clinical trials), STROBE (observational studies), and EQUATOR Network recommendations.
Disclosure
All sources of funding and potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed. Compliance is required for studies involving hazardous materials or procedures.
Conflicts may arise from financial ties, personal relationships, academic rivalry, or intellectual beliefs. Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any such conflicts.
Authors should:
Disclose any financial or personal relationships that may influence their work
List all sources of funding and affiliations relevant to the study
Authors must properly acknowledge all relevant prior work and cite influential studies.
Information obtained through confidential peer review or grant evaluation must not be used without permission.
Authors must ensure:
Submitted work is original
All use of others’ work is appropriately quoted or cited
Permissions are secured for reused figures/tables
Manuscripts pass Crossref Similarity Check (powered by iThenticate)
Plagiarism Allegations will be handled per COPE guidelines.
Manuscripts should not be under consideration elsewhere
Republishing similar content in multiple journals is discouraged
Exceptions include prior publication as an abstract or thesis
Authors may be asked to provide raw data during editorial review and must retain data for future reference.
Authors must report significant errors in published articles. The editorial board will determine whether to issue a:
Correction (Erratum)
Expression of Concern
Retraction, depending on the severity of the issue
Editorial Guidelines
ZUMJ editors follow COPE’s flowcharts and ethical guidelines to ensure integrity and fairness.
Editorial Freedom
Editorial decisions are based solely on academic merit, free from commercial influence.
Confidentiality
Editorial staff and reviewers are required to maintain manuscript confidentiality at all stages.
ZUMJ employs a double-blind peer review system:
Initial Screening by the Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editor
Plagiarism Check via Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate)
Editorial Assignment to a subject-specific editor
External Review by at least two independent experts
Decision: Accept, Minor/Major Revision, or Reject
Revisions: Authors revise and resubmit; further rounds may occur
Final Acceptance: Followed by free language editing
Galley Proofs: Sent to the corresponding author for approval within 2 working days
ZUMJ follows ICMJE Recommendations for handling author and reviewer confidentiality.
Editors and staff must not share manuscript information
Reviewers must not disclose content or copy material
Reviewer comments cannot be shared without consent
Editors make the final decision on manuscript acceptance or rejection
ZUMJ supports the ethical responsibilities of editors as outlined by the Council of Science Editors (CSE):
https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3286
We also encourage reviewers to follow:
COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers
https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/cope-ethical-guidelines-peer-reviewers