Author Guidelines

International Archives of BioMedical and Clinical Research (IABCR) is an open access, international, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary medical journal. The journal accepts original full-length communications, review articles, drug updates related to Medical, Dental and other health related specialties. Authors are required to submit their unpublished original research work and has not been published elsewhere in any language. 

Authors should read the editorial policy and publication ethics before submitting their manuscripts. Authors should also use the appropriate reporting guidelines in preparing their manuscripts.

The guidelines to the authors who wish to submit their works to IABCR have been explained henceforth. These guidelines should be followed when submitting any work. There are various benefits of submitting the work to IABCR as they provide a fair peer review process and language revision services. In addition to these services, it also ensures enhanced visibility and article abstraction by online indexing services.

Research Ethics

International Archives of Biomedical and Clinical Research (IABCR) insists on ethical practices in both human and animal experiments and will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the 'Materials and Methods' section. Evidence of approval by a local Ethics Committee must be supplied by the authors on demand. When reporting studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention the approval of (regional/national/institutional or independent) Ethics Committee or Review Board, and obtaining informed consent from adult research participants. The confidentiality of subjects must be ensured by desisting from mentioning participant names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative materials. Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement (http://www.consort-statement.org).

For details, visit the Link at https://iabcr.org/index.php/iabcr/publicationEthics

Randomized Controlled Trials

All randomized controlled trials submitted for publication in IABCR should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Submitted manuscripts that do not include this flowchart, where appropriate, will be rejected without entering the review process. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. International Archives of BioMedical and Clinical Research has adopted the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which require, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrollment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end of the abstract of the article. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects of health outcomes. Health-related interventions include any intervention used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome (for example drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, dietary interventions, and process-of-care changes). Health outcomes include any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events. Purely observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) will not require registration. Further information can be found at http://www.icmje.org

Author guidelines:

  1. How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers: http://publicationethics.org/files/u2/2003pdf12.pdf

  2. An “author” is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study, and biomedical authorship continues to have important academic, social, and financial implications. http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-therole-of-authors-and-contributors.htmlhttp://www.wame.org/about/wame-editorial-oncoi

  3. The World Association of Medical Editors has provided a statement on conflict of interest: http://www.wame.org/about/wame-editorial-on-coi

  4. The American Chemical Society has provided the following guidance for authors: http://pubs.acs.org/userimages/ContentEditor/1285231362937/jpa_user_guide.pdf

  5. How to deal with text recycling http://publicationethics.org/files/BioMed%20Central_text_recycling_editorial_guidelines_1.pdf

Authorship Criteria

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors are required to define their responsibilities and work done in the research article. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. Acquisition of funding, the collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, by themselves, do not justify authorship. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Authorship credit should be based on

  1. substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data

  2. drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and

  3. final approval of the version to be published.

All the Authors mentioned in the article should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.

For Example, A Manuscript has 3 authors: Turner, Clark and Michael Correct authorship credits: 
Turner
Group 1 - substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data 
Group 2 - drafting the article, revising it critically for important intellectual content 
Group 3 - final approval of the version to be published 
Clark
Group 1 - substantial contributions to conception and design, analysis and interpretation of data 
Group 2 - drafting the article 
Group 3 - final approval of the version to be published 
Michael
Group 1 - substantial contributions to conception and design 
Group 2 - drafting the article, revising it critically for important intellectual content 
Group 3 - final approval of the version to be published

Submission of a manuscript to Journal is taken to mean that all the listed authors have agreed to all of the contents. Including the author list and author contributions statements. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that i) all authors agree to the content of the manuscript. ii) all authors agree to the author list and order of authors in the list. iii) all authors approved the manuscript submission to the journal. The corresponding author is also responsible for managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors before and after publication.

Change in Authorship 
The change in authorship can be:

  • Addition of extra author before publication

  • Removal of author before publication

  • Addition of extra author after publication

  • Removal of author after publication

  • Change in order of authors

In line with COPE guidelines, Journal requires that any changes to the author list after submission, such as addition or deletion of authors or change in the order of the authors needs to be approved in writing by every author of the manuscript. Such written confirmation must be submitted to the editorial office before changes in authorship for a manuscript can be made.

Copyright Form

Any article accepted for publication/published in the Journal will be the copyright of the author(s). The authors give an exclusive unlimited license to IABCR to publish the accepted articles in any media (print, electronic or any other) any number of times. The authors should agree to transfer copyright and sign a declaration to this effect. All authors should declare that they have read the final manuscript and are in agreement with the content. The corresponding author have to submit the scan copy of Copyright form signed from all the authors at the time submission of the manuscript. Articles without copyright form will not be considered for publications. 

Copyright 

The entire contents of the IABCR are protected under international copyrights. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights.

Content License

IABCR publish open access articles under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

For details, visit the link at https://iabcr.org/index.php/iabcr/openaccesspolicy

Plagiarism

Plagiarism in any form, including the touting of material contained in another paper (of the same authors or some other author) with cosmetic changes as a new paper; copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), and claiming results from research conducted by others are among the numerous forms of plagiarism. In all its forms plagiarism constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. 

Conflicts of Interest

IABCR Journal is dedicated to following the highest ethical principles of scholarly publishing and promoting the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct in research and its evaluation. To uphold these principles, it is important to follow the policy for addressing potential conflicts of interest.

For more details, visit the link at https://iabcr.org/index.php/iabcr/publicationEthics

Confidentiality

We are committed to ensuring the integrity of the peer-review process, in accordance with COPE guidelines. All submitted material should be treated as strictly confidential until published. 
The peer-review process is confidential to all parties. Correspondence as part of the review process is also to be treated confidentially by all parties, including authors. 
Authors may provide basic details about the nature of the research presented in manuscripts currently under review. 
Editors and reviewers are required to treat all submitted manuscripts in strict confidence and should not share information about submissions with any other parties unless previously agreed with the editor. The involvement of a third party in the review must be declared at the time of the submission of the review. 
We expect that editors and reviewers will not make use of any material or take advantage of any information they gain through the peer-review process. 
We will follow up on any and all breaches of confidentiality. If there are any concerns about misconduct during the review process, we will follow the COPE guidelines in investigating them.

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" www.icmje.org developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (October 2006). Manuscripts should be submitted in MS Word format, typed in a single column in A4 size page format only.

Presentation and Format

  • 1.5 spacing

  • Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides

  • Use Arial, Font 9

  • Single space between two letters.

  • Title page contains all the desired information (vide supra)

  • Abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript

  • Abstract provided (not more than 150 words for case reports and 250 words for original articles)

  • Structured abstract provided for an original article.

  • Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

  • Keywords provided (three or more)

  • Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS, not underlined)

  • References cited in superscript in the text.

  • References according to the journal’s instructions.

  • Reference style should be both in the text and at the end of the paper as per the Vancouver style.

Language and grammar

  • Uniformly British English

  • To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the spellchecker.

  • Abbreviations spelled out in full for the first time

  • Numerals from 1 to 10 spelled out

  • Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelled out

Tables and figures

  • No repetition of data in tables/graphs and in text

  • Actual numbers from which graphs are drawn, provided

  • Figures necessary and of good quality (color)

  • Figure legends provided (not more than 40 words)

  • A credit note for borrowed figures/tables provided

 

S.No

Manuscript

Word limit for abstract

Word limit for manuscript

Type of Abstract

No. of Tables/Graphs/images & photos.

References

1.

Editorial

25-50

1000–1500

-

-

-

2.

Original Article

250

3000–4000

Structured

4 tables, 4 graphs, 3 images/photos

Atleast 15

3.

Brief Communication

200-250

1200–1500

UnStructured

1 table, 1 graph, 1 image/photo

Atleast 10

4.

Review Article

200-250

Not more than 5000

UnStructured

-

30-50

5.

Case Report

150-200

Not more than 1500

UnStructured

2 tables, 2 graphs, 2 images/photos

Atleast 10

6.

Letter to Editor

25-50

500-800

UnStructured

-

Upto 5

Title page

Title page should include:

  • Type of manuscript: original article, case report, review article, letter to the editor

  • Title of the manuscript (concise and informative)

  • Running title (not more than 50 words)

  • Names of all authors (with their highest academic degrees, designations and affiliations) and name(s) of the department(s) and/or institution(s) to which the work should be credited.

  • The total number of pages, total number of photographs and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references, tables and abstract)

  • Registration number in case of a clinical trial and where it is registered (name of the registry and its URL)

  • Source of Support, if any

  • Declaration of Conflict of Interest.

  • Corresponding Author: Name, address, e-mail, and telephone number.

Cover Letter

Authors are required to include a separate cover letter with their submission explaining the significance and novelty of the work. This cover letter sample (.docx) can be used as a template.

Article types

Journal accepts all types of the manuscript including original research articles, review articles, editorial, medical news, case reports, short communications, correspondence, images in medical practice, clinical problem solving, perspectives and new drug updates. The following types of manuscripts are routinely accepted (please note that word count is from abstract to references but excluding references:

Original articles: An abstract and keywords are required. These include randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with high response rate. The text of original articles amounting to up to 4000 words (excluding Abstract, references and Tables) and maximum 40 references, should be divided into sections with the headings Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables and Figure legends.

Abstract A structured abstract (i.e, an abstract with distinct labeled sections e.g. Introduction, methods, results, discussion; for rapid comprehension) not more than 250 words in length, should be provided with 3-5 keywords. Keywords should be the listed terms in the medical subject’s headings (MeSH) of the Index Medicus, to help in easy indexing.

Review articles: An abstract and keywords are required. The text should be divided into sections by suitable headings. Tables and figures may be used as appropriate for the text. They should be no longer than 5000 words. Reviews are written by researchers of considerable experience in the field concerned. The authors should review the recent trends or advances in that field with up-to-date developments in the field during the past 3-5 years. These articles should contain a covering letter, title page, Abstract (non-structured) and keywords. They should be written under appropriate sub-headings. The authors are encouraged to use flowcharts, boxes, tables, and figures for better presentation.

Case reports: New, interesting and rare cases can be reported under this section. They should be unique, describing a great diagnostic or therapeutic challenge and providing a learning point for the readers. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority. These communications should have the following headings: Abstract (unstructured), Keywords, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, Tables and Legends in that order. The manuscript could be of up to 1000 words (excluding references and abstract) and could be supported with up to 10 references. Case Reports could be authored by up to four authors.

Letters to the Editor Letters to Editor: Headings should not be used in a letter; no abstract or keywords are required. The text should be no more than 800 words; there should be a maximum of 10 references and one table or figure may be included. Letters to the Editor should preferably be related to articles previously published in the Journal or views expressed in the journal. These should be short and decisive observations. The letter could have up to 500 words and 5 references. It could be generally authored by not more than four authors. 
New drug updates: Information on new drugs approved or under investigation can be published.

Manuscript Format

The manuscript should be divided into sections with the headings Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgement, Conflict of Interest, Source of funding, Ethical Committee Approval, References. Tables and Figures should be sent separately.

Introduction
Include why this study was conducted and the author must clearly justify and state the purpose and summarize the rationale for the study. State the aims and objectives of the study.

Materials and Methods
It should include and describe the following aspects: Study settings and design: Describe the study setting, for example, general community, a primary care or referral center, private or institutional practice, or ambulatory or hospitalized care. State the duration and follow-up of the study. Describe the basic design of the study (e.g. randomized controlled trial, case-control study, prospective, cross-sectional, etc.). Selection and Description of Participants: Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Intervention: The essential features of any interventions should be described, including their method and duration of administration. Ethical issues: All studies involving human subjects must address relevant ethical issues. A statement on ethics committee approval and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the Materials and Methods section. Statistics: Specify the statistical methods and the computer software used.

Results Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or figures; emphasize or summarize only important observations.

Discussion and Conclusions Short summary of your data, results of this study compared to other similar studies in the literature, strengths and limitations of this study, implications for practice and policy or implications for future research.

Acknowledgments

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

References Guidelines

References should be according to the Journal guidelines. Referencing is based on the style developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in 1978 in Vancouver. Please note that authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references. Text citations: Cite references sequentially in the text, tables, and legends by superscript Arabic numerals with parentheses, eg, [1] or [3,4] or [10–15]. Numbers should be placed after punctuation marks, full stop. References should be numbered consecutively as they appear in the text. Reference citations in the text should be identified by numbers in superscript after the punctuation marks. When writing a reference list in Vancouver style, you need to remember the following:

  • arrange your list chronologically

  • number all references

  • list the first 6 authors followed by 'et al.' if there are more than 6 authors

  • use official abbreviations for titles of journals (if available)

Journal article:
Format 

Surname Initial(s). Title of article. Journal title/or title abbreviation. Year;volume(issue):page(s). DOI - if available 

E.g., Kapur NK, Musunuru K. Clinical efficiency and safety of statins in managing cardiovascular risk. Vasc Health Risk Manag. 2008;4(2):341–353.DOI: 10.1016/S0001-4575(03)00008-3 

List all authors if six or less, otherwise list first three only, followed by "et al.":
Brandén E, Gnarpe J, Hillerdal G, et al. Detection of Chlamydia pneumoniae on cytospin preparations from bronchiolar lavage in COPD patients and in lung tissue from advanced emphysema. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2007;2(4):643–650. 
Volume with no issue but a supplement: 
Geraud G, Spierings EL, Keywood C. Tolerability and safety of frovatriptan with short- and long-term use for the treatment of migraine and in comparison with sumatriptan. Headache. 2002;42 (Suppl 2):S93–S99. 
Issue with supplement: 
Glauser TA. Integrating clinical trial data into clinical practice. Neurology. 2002;58(12 Suppl 7):S6–S12. Books and other monographs 
Personal author(s): 
O'Brien C. Drug addiction and drug abuse. In: Brunton LB, Lazo JS, Parker KL, eds.Goodman& Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. 11th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2005: 607-629. 
Editor(s), compiler(s) as author: 
Gilstrap LC 3rd, Cunningham FG, VanDorsten JP, eds. Operative Obstetrics. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. 
Chapter in a book: 
Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The Genetic Basis of Human Cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002:93–113. 
Journal article on the Internet: 
Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [serial on the Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12];102(6):[about 3 p.]. http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htm. Accessed April 3, 2003. 
Newspapers and popular magazines
Surname Initial(s). Article title. Newspaper title. Date:page. E.g., Ringen S. La ikke Erna Solberg raseredetlokalefolkestyre. Aftenposten. 2004 March 25:10 
Webpage
Author. Title [Internet]. Place: Publisher; Date of publication [date updated; cited date]. Available from: http://... 
Download Vancouver References Guidelines: click here

Acceptance Certificate

Authors are issued an Acceptance Certificate for manuscripts that have been reviewed and accepted for publication by an editor.

Publication Charges

Once a manuscript has been accepted, the corresponding author will be contacted to make the necessary payment of the manuscript handling fee. Kindly note that authors are required to pay Publication Charges only when his/her Article accepted for Publications.

For more details, visit at https://iabcr.org/index.php/iabcr/publicationCharges

Proof

Prior to publication, a proof is sent to the corresponding author. Authors are advised to read the proof and correct minor typographical or grammatical errors. Authors should promptly return proofs to the editorial office within 48 hours.

Publication

Once proofs are received at the editorial office, the manuscripts are usually included in the next issue of the journal. The article will thereafter be published on the journal’s website.

Publication Notification

After the article is made available on the journal’s website, a publication notice is sent to the corresponding author with links to the issue and article.

Retraction Guidelines (Manuscript Withdrawal Policy)

It is a general principle of scholarly communication that the editor-in-chief of a journal is solely and independently responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal shall be published. In making this decision the editor is guided by policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

Retraction is a mechanism for correcting the literature and alerting readers to publications that contain such seriously flawed or erroneous data that their findings and conclusions cannot be relied upon. Unreliable data may result from honest error or from research misconduct.

This is applied to submitted papers accepted for publication that are for the moment only available in a pre-publication form (“Early Release or Ahead of Print”). These sometime contain errors or are articles that may have already been published and then mistakenly resubmitted for publication elsewhere. In rarer cases, these papers may not observe established ethical requirements, there may be some inconsistency in the declaration of authors’ contributions, or data may have been presented the integrity of which may be in doubt, etc. Articles may also be retracted to allow authors’ to correct any errors that had not been identified before submission. In the case of an article being withdrawn, the article in question will be removed from the IABCR website and a statement issued confirming that this decision has been made in accordance with established IABCR policy on article withdrawal or retraction.

Journal editors will consider retracting a publication if:

  • they have a 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)

  • the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication)

  • it constitutes plagiarism

  • it reports unethical research

Journal editors will consider issuing an expression of concern if:

  • they receive inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors

  • there is evidence that the findings are unreliable but the authors’ institution will not investigate the case

  • they believe that an investigation into alleged misconduct related to the publication either has not been, or would not be, fair and impartial or conclusive

  • an investigation is underway but a judgment will not be available for a considerable time

Journal editors should consider issuing a correction if:

  • a small portion of an otherwise reliable publication proves to be misleading (especially because of honest error)

  • the author/contributor list is incorrect (i.e. a deserving author has been omitted or somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been included)

Withdrawal on Author’s request Manuscripts may be withdrawn at any stage of review and publication process by submitting a request to the editorial office. Manuscript withdrawal will be permitted after submission only for the most compelling and unavoidable reasons. Article once published online, can not be withdrawn.

If the author wants to withdraw a manuscript, the author needs to submit a completed "Article Change Form", signed by all authors of the manuscript stating the reasons for manuscript withdrawal. The form is available from the editorial office of the journal. 
The manuscript will not be withdrawn from the publication process until a completed, signed form is received by the editorial office. Authors must not assume that their manuscript has been withdrawn until they have received appropriate notification to this effect from the editorial office.

If the author withdraws a manuscript after submission to before publication of the Early View version in the journal, the manuscript will be withdrawn within 48 hours of receiving the "Article Change Form". If the author withdraws a manuscript after the Acceptance of the article, the article publication charges, if paid by the authors, will not be refunded. This has been done so that authors submit to us only those manuscripts which they really want to publish. 

Note:- All the Relevant information of the journal is available on the website, therefore please go through before sending your article. This is the responsibility of the authors only to check the journal indexing and other information before sending their articles to the journal. 

If the authors do not reply to communication from the editorial office, even after multiple reminders, at any stage of the publication process; Editor-in-chief of the Journal holds all rights to disclose the conduct of the authors and content of the manuscript without further approval from the authors, and cannot be held responsible for the consequences arising from it.

Responding to Allegations of Possible Misconduct

There will be a chance of Possible Misconduct when Falsification of data is found. The publisher or editor shall follow COPE's guidelines (or equivalent) in dealing with allegations

Falsification of data: ranges from fabrication to deceptive selective reporting of findings and omission of conflicting data, or willful suppression and/or distortion of data. Plagiarism: The appropriation of the language, ideas, or thoughts of another without crediting their true source, and representation of them as one's own original work. Improprieties of authorship: Improper assignment of credit, such as excluding others, misrepresentation of the same material as original in more than one publication, inclusion of individuals as authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work published; or submission of multi-authored publications without the concurrence of all authors. Misappropriation of the ideas of others: an important aspect of scholarly activity is the exchange of ideas among colleagues. Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others during the process of reviewing grant applications and manuscripts. However, improper use of such information can constitute fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.

All allegations of misconduct will be referred to the Editor-In-Chief, who will review the circumstances in consultation with the deputy editors. Initial fact-finding will usually include a request to all the involved parties to state their case and explain the circumstances, in writing. In questions of research misconduct centering on methods or technical issues, the Editor-In-Chief may confidentially consult experts who are blinded to the identity of the individuals, or if the allegation is against an editor, an outside editor expert. The Editor-In-Chief and deputy editors will arrive at a conclusion as to whether there is enough evidence to lead a reasonable person to believe there is a possibility of misconduct. Their goal is not to determine if actual misconduct occurred, or the precise details of that misconduct.

When allegations concern authors, the peer review and publication process for the manuscript in question will be halted while the process above is carried out. The investigation described above will be completed even if the authors withdraw their paper, and the responses below will still be considered. In the case of allegations against reviewers or editors, they will be replaced in the review process while the matter is investigated.

Complaints/Grievances Policy

We aim to respond to and resolve all complaints quickly and constructively. The procedures to investigate and resolve complaints followed by IABCR aims to be fair and balanced for those making complaints and for those being complained about.

Section I: For Appeal against editorial decisions 
If the authors disagree with the editorial decision on their manuscripts, they have a right to appeal. Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision should contact the Editor-in-Chief of the specific journal. In such cases the Editor-in-Chief will review the manuscript, editorial and peer reviewers' comments and give his/her decision for accepting or rejecting a manuscript. Editor-in-Chief may, if so required, send the manuscript to a new handling editor for a fresh editorial review and to new referees for peer review. Decision of the Editor-in-Chief in such case will be final.

Section II: Editorial Matters: For complaints related to policies, procedures, editorial content and actions of the editorial staff 
How to make a complaint. The procedure to make a complaint is easy. The complaint can be made by writing an email. Ideally, the complaint should be made to the person with whom the complainant is in regular contact for the matter being complained about. If due to any reason it is not appropriate or possible to complain to the contact person, please email to: [email protected]

Complaints Handling Policy (Escalation Procedures)
First Contact: The complaints will be resolved by the person to whom they are made. If the person to whom the complaint is made is not able to deal with the complaint he or she will refer it to the Section Editor.

Second Contact: Section Editor 
Section Editor will resolve the complaint. If the complaint cannot be resolved by the Section Editor, it will be referred to the Editor-in-Chief.

Third Contact: Editor-in-Chief
For all matters related to the policies, procedures, editorial content, and actions of the editorial staff, the decision of the Editor-in-Chief will be final. If the Editor-in-Chief is unavailable for any reason, the complaint will be referred to the Managing Editor of IABCR.

Complaint Resolution: All efforts will be made to resolve the complaint as quickly as possible. In some cases, delay in complaint resolution may occur if a response from any third person or organization is required. Until the complaint is resolved, a complaint resolution update will be provided to the complainant, every two weeks, until the complaint is finally resolved.