Editorial Policies

The International Journal of Cardiology Sciences operates under a set of policies designed to ensure fair, transparent, and ethical publishing. This page brings together our key editorial policies in one place. Some of these are covered in more detail elsewhere on our site, but here's the overview.

How Editorial Decisions Are Made

When a manuscript arrives, it's assigned to an Academic Editor whose expertise matches the paper's subject matter. The editor evaluates whether the work has merit and fits our scope. If it does, they identify appropriate reviewers — sometimes from our existing database, sometimes by reaching out to new experts in the field.

After peer review and any subsequent revisions, the handling editor forms a recommendation about whether to publish. The final call rests with the Editor-in-Chief, who considers the editor's recommendation, the reviewers' comments, and the overall fit with the journal.

We use double-blind review throughout this process — authors don't know who reviewed their paper, and reviewers don't know whose paper they're reviewing.

Open Access Policy

International Journal of Cardiology Sciences is a gold open access journal. Everything we publish is freely available to anyone with an internet connection — no subscriptions, no paywalls, no registration required. We believe research should be accessible to everyone who might benefit from it, whether they're at a major university or a rural clinic.

Open access also means our articles are fully citable. You can reference, share, and build upon published work, provided you give proper credit to the original authors and publication.

Content Reuse

Material published in International Journal of Cardiology Sciences is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA). In plain terms, this means:

You can share and adapt our content for academic and non-commercial purposes, as long as you cite the original work and apply the same license to anything you create from it. You cannot republish articles — in whole or in part — without permission from the publisher. And authors themselves should avoid recycling their published text in new submissions, as this constitutes self-plagiarism.

Publication Ethics

We adhere to the ethical guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). In practical terms, this means:

Original work: We expect submissions to be the authors' own work, not previously published elsewhere and not under simultaneous consideration at another journal.

Authorship: Everyone listed as an author should have made substantial contributions to the research. Conversely, anyone who made substantial contributions should be listed. Ghost authorship and gift authorship are both unacceptable.

Data integrity: Results should be reported honestly. Data fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate manipulation of images are serious breaches of research ethics.

Conflicts of interest: Authors must disclose any financial or personal relationships that might have influenced their work. So must editors and reviewers.

Human and Animal Research

Research involving human subjects must have been conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by an appropriate ethics committee. Animal studies should follow relevant guidelines for humane treatment and care.

Clinical trials must be registered in a public registry — we recommend the Clinical Trials Registry - India (CTRI) for studies conducted in India, or the appropriate registry for other countries.

Informed consent is mandatory for clinical trials, case reports, and case series. Authors must state clearly that consent was obtained. Personal details that could identify participants should never be disclosed, and we're especially careful about photographs that might reveal someone's identity.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

Mistakes happen. When errors are discovered after publication — whether by us, the authors, or readers — we publish corrections (errata or corrigenda) promptly. Minor errors that don't affect the scientific conclusions get corrected; the original article is updated with a link to the correction notice.

Serious problems — ethical violations, data fabrication, fundamental errors that invalidate the findings — may require retraction. Retracted articles remain accessible but are clearly marked, with a notice explaining why the retraction occurred.

In some cases, we may issue an Expression of Concern while an investigation is ongoing. This alerts readers to potential problems without making a final judgment before the facts are clear.

Post-Publication Commentary

Science doesn't stop when a paper is published. We welcome post-publication commentary and debate. If you have substantive comments on a published article — criticisms, alternative interpretations, additional data — you can submit them as a Letter to the Editor. If your comments have merit, we'll publish them in a subsequent issue and may invite the original authors to respond.

This kind of ongoing dialogue is healthy for the field. We encourage it.

Further Resources

For more detailed guidance on publication ethics, we recommend the resources available at COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors). International Journal of Cardiology Sciences adheres to the ethical standards recommended by both organizations.

Questions?

If you have questions about any of these policies, or encounter a situation that isn't clearly addressed here, contact us at cardio.submit@gmail.com. We're here to help.