MJAPFN is a peer‑reviewed, open‑access, multidisciplinary biomedical journal publishing research across medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health, epidemiology, and allied health sciences, with emphasis on clinical/basic medical sciences, disaster & military medicine, healthcare management, and medical education. Article types include Original Research, Review Articles, Case Reports/Series, Short Communications/Brief Reports, Clinical Experiences, Medical Education, Viewpoints, and Letter to Editor.
MJAPFN is fully open access. Articles are freely available to read, download, and share upon publication. Authors retain copyright and articles are published under Creative Commons CC BY‑NC 4.0, permitting reuse with attribution for non‑commercial purposes. There are no submission, processing, or publication charges at present; any changes will be announced transparently per DOAJ requirements. License‑to‑Publish: authors grant MJAPFN a non‑exclusive right to publish/distribute under CC BY‑NC 4.0. Third‑party content (figures/tables/images) requires permissions compatible with the article license.
MJAPFN follows international standards including ICMJE Recommendations, COPE guidance, WAME policies, and CSE recommendations. These frameworks inform our policies on authorship, peer review, corrections/retractions, conflicts of interest, and editorial independence.
Authorship criteria (ICMJE): substantial contribution to conception/design or data acquisition/analysis/interpretation; drafting or critical revision; final approval; and accountability for all aspects of the work. MJAPFN uses CRediT to declare contributions and recommends ORCID iDs for all authors. Group authorship should specify group name and guarantor(s).
Requests after submission must include: (i) a written explanation for the change; (ii) signed agreement from all listed authors and the proposed author(s); and (iii) editor approval. Changes are documented in the submission record and, if post‑acceptance, disclosed in a note.
No AI authorship. Only humans can be authors.
Permitted with disclosure: language editing, translation, reference formatting, code assistance, summarization-with author verification.
Mandatory AI Use Statement (if any tool was used), placed in Methods or Acknowledgments and detailing tool name & version, provider, date(s) of use, and purpose/scope.
Prohibited uses: fabrication of data/participants/images/citations; undisclosed generation of analyses or ethical justifications; uploading confidential/under‑review manuscripts to public AI tools.
Reviewers/Editors: must not expose confidential content to public AI systems. Limited internal assistance for language clarity is acceptable without sharing confidential text.
Human/Animal Research: Human/Animal Research: Submissions must include research ethics committee approval (name and reference number) and explicit informed consent where applicable, with privacy safeguards. Animal research must follow recognized welfare standards.
Clinical trials must be prospectively registered in a WHO‑recognized Primary Registry or an ICMJE‑approved registry (see WHO ICTRP). Include the registration number in the abstract and Methods.
Participant protection & clinical images: obtain written consent for publication of any potentially identifiable data or images; ensure de‑identification and state consent in the manuscript.
Data sharing: For clinical trials, include a data sharing statement as per ICMJE Guidance. We encourage depositing de‑identified data/code in reputable repositories (e.g., Zenodo, Dryad, Figshare) and citing persistent identifiers (e.g., DOIs).
Resource identification: Use Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs) for key biological resources where applicable (RRID portal).
Posting to a non‑peer‑reviewed preprint server is permitted but must be disclosed and cited; duplicate/simultaneous submission is prohibited. Update preprint records with the article DOI upon publication.
Process: double‑blind. Initial screening evaluates scope, formatting, originality, and ethics. External review: ≥2 independent subject experts; a third may be consulted if recommendations conflict.
Decisions: Accept; Minor Revision; Major Revision; Resubmit Elsewhere; Decline.
Timelines: initial editorial decision 7–14 days; peer review 6–12 weeks; post‑acceptance publication targeted within 6 months.
Revisions: authors must submit a point‑by‑point response mapping each change to reviewer/editor comments. Confidentiality/COI: reviewers and editors must declare conflicts and maintain confidentiality.
Editors select qualified reviewers, ensure fair and timely assessment, and make final decisions based on scholarly merit and relevance. Editorial independence is upheld consistent with WAME policies and COPE guidance.
All submissions are screened for originality using text‑similarity tools and editorial checks. Suspected fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, image manipulation, citation manipulation, or peer‑review manipulation will be investigated.
We follow COPE guidance for corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions; see COPE guidelines and the COPE Retraction Guidelines.
MJAPFN maintains persistent online access and aims to participate in preservation services with (PKP PN, CLOCKSS, LOCKSS). We provide rich metadata (DOIs, ORCID iDs, funding) and support interoperability for indexers and aggregators.
MJAPFN is committed to meeting recognized criteria for inclusion in leading indexes. Our policies align with: DOAJ application guide; PubMed Central Publisher Portal; MEDLINE journal selection; Scopus content policy/selection; Web of Science journal evaluation criteria; Index Copernicus indexation procedure.
All authors must disclose financial and non‑financial conflicts of interest and funding sources; editors/reviewers recuse when conflicts exist. Transparency declarations for data, materials, and code are encouraged.
Submissions are screened with industry‑standard tools (ithenticate, turnitin); numeric similarity scores are not used as automatic pass/fail. Editors assess context (quotations/methods/references often excluded).
Forms of plagiarism: verbatim copying without quotation; mosaic/patchwriting; inadequate paraphrase or attribution; reuse of visuals/tables without permission; translation plagiarism; and self‑plagiarism (redundant publication) without disclosure.
Guideline triggers for investigation (not automatic rejection): overall uncited overlap ≈15%+ or >2–5% from any single uncited source. Any verbatim overlap without proper quotation/citation is unacceptable regardless of totals.
Outcomes: author clarification and correction; rejection for serious/willful cases; or post‑publication correction/retraction with notification to institutions/funders when appropriate.
No advertising will compromise editorial independence. Direct marketing is limited to journal announcements and calls for papers; personal data are not shared with third parties.
Appeals must be submitted within 14 days to the Editor‑in‑Chief with a reasoned response to reviewer/editor points. Complaints about process or conduct are handled by the editorial office and may be escalated per COPE guidance if unresolved.
Every article receives a DOI; corrections/retractions are linked to the original record. We recommend Crossref Crossmark for version control and update transparency. MJAPFN uses the Vancouver (ICMJE)
Out of scope; instructions not followed; missing documents; insufficient originality; major methodological/statistical flaws; ethical concerns (lack of approvals/consent); plagiarism or image/data manipulation; language impeding review; excessive self‑citation/citation manipulation.
Review Cycle: At least annually.
Versioning: The version number and effective date are displayed at the top; significant changes are summarized on the journal website.
Contact:
Medical Journal of Armed Police Force Nepal (MJAPFN)
Nepal APF Hospital, Balambu, Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone: +977-01-4315224
Email: editor@mjapfn.org.np
गुनासो सुनुवाई