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Publishing Policies

Duties of Editors

Publication decisions

The Journal of Geriatric Emergency Medicine editorial board is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. Members of the board confer and refer to reviewer recommendations in making this decision, constrained by legal requirements related to libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. Editorial decisions are not affected by the origins of the manuscript, including the nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, or religion of the authors.

Confidentiality, Disclosure, and Conflicts of Interest

During the review process, editors must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and other editorial advisers. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's, reviewer’s, or any other reader’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Readers should be informed about who has funded the research or other scholarly work and whether the funders had any role in the research and its publication and, if so, what this was.

Author Relations

Editors strive to ensure that peer review at JGEM is fair, unbiased, and timely. The journal has established policies for handling submissions from editorial board members to ensure unbiased review. Author instructions provide guidance about criteria for authorship.

Reviewer Relations

JGEM encourages reviewers to comment on ethical questions and possible misconduct raised by submissions (e.g. unethical research design, insufficient detail on patient consent, inappropriate data manipulation), and to be alert to redundant publication and plagiarism. Reviewers’ comments should be sent to authors in their entirety unless they contain offensive or libelous remarks. Contributions of reviewers to the journal are regularly acknowledged, and JGEM ceases to use reviewers who consistently produce discourteous, poor quality, or late reviews.

Quality Assurance

Editors should take all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the material they publish, recognizing that different sections have different aims and standards. Editors should seek assurances that the research they publish has been approved by an appropriate body (e.g. research ethics committee, institutional review board) where one exists. Editors should be alert to intellectual property issues and work with their publisher to handle potential breaches of laws and conventions. Errors, inaccurate, or misleading statements must be corrected promptly and with due prominence.

Duties of Reviewers

Reviewers assist the editorial board in making editorial decisions. JGEM uses a blind peer review model, where the authors do not know the identity of the reviewers, but reviewers do know the identity of the authors. JGEM typically uses two peer reviewers per article. Reviews should be conducted objectively, and observations should be formulated clearly with supporting arguments so that authors can use them for improving the paper. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate.

Qualification of Reviewers

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Acknowledgements

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. References to the ideas of others should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Reviewers acknowledge that during the peer review process, the use of Microsoft Word track changes or comments is NOT allowed.

Duties of Authors

Reporting standards

Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. Review articles should be objective, comprehensive, and accurate accounts of the state of the art. Authors should be prepared to provide public access to raw data in connection with a paper and retain such data for at least two years after publication. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Originality, plagiarism and concurrent publication

Authors should ensure their work is entirely original and that any work and/or words of others have been appropriately acknowledged. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Submitting essentially the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Authorship of the paper

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. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

Fundamental errors in published works

JGEM adheres to the retraction guidelines recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE.) When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in the published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor and work with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

JGEM supports the efforts to create a more welcoming environment for all people and to foster more diverse, inclusive and equitable communities. Diverse perspectives offer new ideas, avenues of discovery, and solutions to research problems and scholarly communication. Expanding equity and inclusivity initiatives increase the likelihood that research will benefit everyone in our global communities. Journal editorial teams and publishers therefore have a responsibility to foster these values within the research communities they represent, ensuring diverse representation and an equitable and inclusive experience for all involved.

JGEM aims to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the editorial processes and policies, within the journals’ editorial team, reviewer pools, and authorship base. Harassment or discrimination against an individual on the grounds any of the following will not be tolerated: age, ancestry, color, religious creed, physical or mental disability, marital status, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, national origin, race, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, or any other category protected by law.

Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics

JGEM aims to support all those involved in scholarly publishing with a summary of best practice guidance with respect to editorial policies regarding research integrity and publishing ethics. Our best practice guidelines on research integrity and publishing ethics are written for researchers, in their various roles as editors, authors and peer reviewers; societies; librarians; funders; corporations; publishers; and journalists.

Human & Animal Rights Policy

All Original Research submissions that involve human subjects and/or animals are required to have quality improvement designation or an IRB waiver/approval.

Data Sharing

JGEM supports the growing movement to make research more open. This leads to a fairer, more efficient, and more accountable research landscape, ultimately driving a more effective and faster pace of discovery. We are committed to improving the openness, transparency, and reproducibility of research. We support a standard-level policy of “ENCOURAGES” data.

JGEM encourages authors to share data supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors may provide a data availability statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published in their paper. Shared data should be cited.” All accepted manuscripts may elect to publish a data availability statement to confirm the presence or absence of shared data. If you have shared data, this statement will describe how the data can be accessed and include a persistent identifier (e.g., a DOI for the data, or an accession number) from the repository where you shared the data. You may use the Standard Templates for Author Use license or draft your own.

Informed Consent Policy

Patient identifiers will not be published in JGEM unless written informed consent is given and the content is essential for the scientific purpose and merit of the manuscript. Photographs of subjects showing any recognizable features must be accompanied by their signed release authorizing publication, as must case reports that provide enough unique identification of a person (other than name) to make recognition possible. Failure to obtain the informed consent of the patient prior to submission would result in manuscript rejection.