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Ethics Statement

The Journal of Innovation in Health Sciences Education (JIHSE) is committed to maintaining and enforcing established principles of ethical conduct at all levels of journal publication. These core practices are clearly outlined in the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, issued jointly by the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

All allegations of misconduct on the part of submitting authors, peer-reviewers, or our editorial board, either pre- or post-publication will be investigated and handled in accordance with COPE recommendations. These guidelines ensure that allegations are handled in a manner fair to all parties.

JIHSE will likewise cooperate with any investigations into misconduct at other institutions that are brought to our attention. Where misconduct is found, disciplinary action will be taken in accordance with best practices established by the COPE. Disciplinary action may include retraction of work, reporting of misconduct to the authors' home institution and/or the sharing of information with other journal editors where appropriate.

• Author misconduct may include abuse of credited authorship, data manipulation or fabrication, statistical manipulation, plagiarism, abuse of informed consent, or other research misconduct. Author misconduct should be reported directly to the editor-in-chief of the journal for investigation. See the Editorial Board for contact information.
• Peer-reviewer misconduct may include intentional violation of double-blind review policy, failure to disclose financial interest or conflicts, or unethical bias in publication recommendations. Peer-reviewer misconduct should be reported directly to the editor-in-chief of the journal for investigation. See the Editorial Board for contact information.
• Editor misconduct may include assertions of publication bias, abuse of the blind peer-review policy, manipulation of journal impact ratings, failure to disclose conflicts, or other unethical publication management behavior. Editor misconduct should be reported to the journal’s independent publication ombudsperson, Brian Goldstein, Chief Academic Officer and President, University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (cao@usa.edu.)

The COPE has published detailed flowcharts which clearly outline the steps to be taken following reports of misconduct. The journal, the editors, and University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences Library are committed to following these established practices to ensure the integrity of the journal, while providing a fair process to all concerned in investigations and decisions regarding misconduct.