Focus and Scope

Journal of Nobel Medical College (JoNMC) is DOAJ, Hinari, NepJOL, NepMed indexed, a peer-reviewed, open access, Scientific and Medical journal. It is published biannually in English by the Research and Publication Unit of Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital, Biratnagar, Nepal. JoNMC publishes articles in the field of medicine and allied health sciences covering all perspectives of health and diseases including clinical and experimental studies along with medical education as well. The journal was first published in 2012 and has been regularly published till date. Contributions are accepted for publication on the condition that their substance has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. 

Types of articles

Articles are invited for the following sections
• Review articles
• Original Research Articles
• Case Reports
• Brief Communications
• Letters to the editor

 Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Articles are freely available to both subscribers and the wider public with permitted reuse. It adheres to the BOAI definition of open access: that users have the right to "read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles" or that it is open access and applies a Creative Common license. 

Copyright and Licensing Information
JoNMC applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license to works we publish. Under this license, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content, but they allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute and/or copy the content as long as the original authors and source are cited. JoNMC allows authors to retain copyright of their content without restriction and grant the journal right of first publication.

Publication Frequency
The journal publishes two issues in a year, each in the month of June and December.

Publisher
Research and Publication Unit, Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital, Biratnagar, Nepal

Archiving Policy

All the digital version of the published articles of JoNMC is currently archived in NepJOL and also on its own official website. The print version of the journal is archived in the library of Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital. In future, JoNMC is planning for making digital archive and access to the articles of journal through the most trusted platform like CLOCKSS or LOCKSS or Pub Med central.

Current Archiving Site: NepJOL 

https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JoNMC/issue/archive

Research and Publication Ethics Policy:

Authors have to follow and maintain the standards with respect to publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)

Authorship
All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

Changes to authorship
Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.

Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Plagiarism Policy
Whether intentional or not, plagiarism is a serious violation. Plagiarism is the copying of ideas, text, data and other creative work (e.g. tables, figures and graphs) and presenting it as original research without proper citation. We define plagiarism as a case in which a paper reproduces another work with at least 25% similarity and without citation. If evidence of plagiarism is found before/after acceptance or after publication of the paper, the author will be offered a chance for rebuttal. If the arguments are not found to be satisfactory, the manuscript will be retracted and the author sanctioned from publishing papers for a period to be determined by the responsible Editor(s). We are currently using iThenticate as a plagiarism detection software. 

Conflicts of interests
A conflict of interest exists if authors or their institutions have financial or personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their actions. A conflict can be actual or potential, and full disclosure to the Editor is absolute requirement. All submissions must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors may state so.

Policy on Human and Animal Rights and informed Consent
The authors must obtain prior approval for human subject’s research by an institutional review board or equivalent ethics committee, if the work involves the use of human subjects. The author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly.

Studies involving animals must be conducted according to internationally-accepted standards. Authors must obtain prior approval from their Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent ethics committee. The name of the IACUC or equivalent ethics committee, as well as relevant permit numbers, must be provided at submission.

Informed Consent
Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed. The author has to submit the report details on how informed consent for the research was obtained (or explain why consent was not obtained).

Policy on cases requiring corrections, retractions and editorial expressions of concern:
JoNMC publishes corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern as appropriate, and as quickly as possible. We follow the ICMJE and COPE guidelines where applicable.

Corrections
JoNMC issues a notice of correction like “Erratum”, when there is the mistake, which can be corrected in the article or “Addendum”, if there is addition to what has been published.

Retractions
JoNMC goes for retracting a publication if there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error). It can be also retracted if the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross referencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication). In case of plagiarism and unethical research, publications are retracted.

Expressions of concern
JoNMC issues an expression of concern if there is receival of inconclusive evidence of research, publication misconduct by the authors, evidence that the findings are unreliable but the authors’ institution will not investigate the case. It can be also applied in the condition that an investigation into alleged misconduct related to the publication either has not been, or would not be, fair and impartial or conclusive. Expression of concern is also issued when an investigation is underway but a judgment will not be available for a considerable time.

Complaint Policy

All are cordially requested to email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for a complaint or any concern regarding publication misconduct like plagiarism, Falsification or fabrication of data, duplicate publication of the authors etc. JoNMC will take immediate action very seriously according to the nature of the complaint.

Advertising Policy

JoNMC doesn't have any advertising policy. Therefore we don't offer an option of placing any banner adverts and messages on journal homepage and in print version.

Other links:

Message from Editor-in-Chief  Message from MD