After an initial evaluation by journal’s Editorial team, suitable manuscripts are sent out for peer review. We highly recommend authors to provide a proper cover letter and indicate why they think the manuscript is suitable for publication which could help our Editorial team in their initial evaluation. At Canadian Online Publication Group (COPG), we use a double-blind system for peer-review. Manuscripts will be peer-reviewed by our experts and this process may take up to SIX to EIGHT weeks. We highly recommend our reviewers to consider the following matters before accepting to review a manuscript:
1) Potential conflicts of interests: Please disclose all conflicts of interest to the editor before reviewing the manuscript.
2) Confidentiality: All submissions are confidential; please do not discuss any parts of the submission with a third party.
3) Time to review the submission: The reviewer should finish evaluating the manuscript within two-three weeks. If additional time is required, please contact the editor as soon as possible or feel free to recommend alternative reviewer/s.
Based on the comments provided by the reviewers, our Editorial team will then decide to accept, reject or send back to the author/s for initial revision. Accepted articles will be published on a rolling basis and will be posted online immediately after appropriate proofreading and formatting.
If the Editorial team submit their own manuscripts for potential publication, the review process and final decision will be handled by other members of the Editorial team.
AUTHORSHIP
At COPG, we adhere to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics recommendations (COPE FLOWCHARTS).
“The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:
– Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
– Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
– Final approval of the version to be published; AND
– Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.”
All individuals who don’t meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgment section along with a brief description of their contributions. Because acknowledgment may indicate endorsement, the ICMJE encourages written permission from acknowledged individuals.
CHANGES IN AUTHORSHIP
(a) Corresponding author requests addition of extra author before publication
(b) Corresponding author requests removal of author before publication
(c) Request for addition of extra author after publication
(d) Request for removal of author after publication
DECLARATIONS
At the end of your manuscript the following declaration statements should be included:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: All individuals who don’t meet criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgment section along with a brief description of their contributions. Because acknowledgment may indicate endorsement, the ICMJE encourages written permission from acknowledged individuals.
DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTERESTS: At COPG, we use the ICMJE Conflict of Interest form. Please download and complete the ICMJE conflict of interest form. The signed form (by corresponding author) must be submitted along with the manuscript files. All authors are required to reveal at the end of the manuscript, under a subheading ” DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTERESTS”, any financial and personal relationships with organizations or individuals that might have influenced their research.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION : Publishing authors contribution statements is recommended by COPG to increase transparency. Please indicate the type of contribution that each author has made.
SOURCES OF SUPPORT: Please indicate all grants, equipment, or other support that facilitated conduct of the research work.
MEDICAL ETHICS
At COPG we follow the ICMJE’s Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. For more information please visit the ICMJE’s website (Preparing for Submission).
In research studies involving human subjects, the research protocol must be submitted for consideration, comment and approval to an appropriate research ethics committee. Medical ethics approval must be declared in the manuscript under the methodology section.
PLAGIARISM AND DATA INTEGRITY
Plagiarism in all its forms is unacceptable and unethical. COPG considers all forms of plagiarism and copyright infringement a serious offence. Appropriate author acknowledgment must be clearly indicated in the submitted manuscript. In-text citations must be inserted appropriately and citations must be correctly associated with a corresponding reference list. In cases of plagiarism, inappropriate data processing, disputed authorship, or duplicate publication, the COPG reserves the right to retract the published article and if necessary, take legal action. Based on the retraction guidelines of COPE, the retracted article (including the title and authors in the retraction heading) and the reason for retraction will be specified promptly in the journal website. If due to honest error a small part of an article proves to be misleading, we consider issuing a correction.
COPE RECOMMENDATIONS
(a) Suspected plagiarism in a submitted manuscript
(b) Suspected plagiarism in a published manuscript
Editorial Expressions of Concern
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Retraction Guidelines describe when journals could issue an Editorial Expressions of Concern. We may consider issuing an Editorial Expressions of Concern if our Editors receive indication of possible research or publication misconduct. If after our investigation, more evidence becomes available, the Editorial Expressions of Concern will be replaced by a retraction notice. However, if after our investigation the article is shown to be reliable, the Editorial Expressions of Concern will be replaced by an exonerating statement. For more information, please see Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Guidelines.
Data Sharing Policy
The COPG publishes research article that is reliable and follows the international standard for scientific research. Figures/Images should precisely replicate the original data. We may contact corresponding author and request source data for any figure/image before publication. We encourage authors to submit their database used in the research study as supplementary files (appendix) or host database on the authors’ personal or institutional website.