Editorial policies

Editorial team roles and responsibilities:

1- The Editor-in-Chief gets an overall sense of running the journal on the editorial direction, policies, standards, and publication decisions. The EiC supervises the review process; appoints Associate Editors and members of the board; checks the suitability and ethics of submitted manuscripts; assigns manuscripts to an editor and reviewers; and makes the last acceptance or rejection decision. The EIC also resolves disputes involving authors, reviewers and readers.

2- The co-editor-in-chief is responsible for ensuring the scientific quality, editorial quality, and strategic development of the Journal. This job is usually shared with the Editor-in-Chief and has defined responsibility areas.

3- Associate Editors handle submissions in their field of speciality. They choose expert peer reviewers for manuscripts and recommend acceptance or rejection based on feedback after review. Associate Editors help authors improve manuscripts to ensure compliance with the journal’s standards.

4- Editorial Board Members:

Experts from around the world are chosen for their subject expertise who help guide the journal’s policies and scope. They can make proposals and invite quality submissions, and they review the submitted manuscript and provide feedback in their speciality.

5- copyeditors:

examines manuscripts for accurate grammar, spelling, and syntax as well as overall coherence in a copyeditor. They ask authors for clarifications or amendments if needed. Editorial and editorial board recruitment and removal.

Editorial and Editorial Board recruitment and removal:

The BJ-BABS seeks the recruitment of Editors and Editorial Board members who are eminent in their field of research, have published extensively and possess high integrity and professional standards.

Nominations for potential candidates for Editor and Editorial Board positions may be made by the Editor-in-Chief or current members of the board.

Every applicant will be evaluated based on academic credentials, research profile, prior editorial experience, and commitment to the objectives and scope of BJ-BABS.

In addition, geography, sex and academic diversity will also be included in recruitment to achieve broader-based expertise representations. The new Editors and Editorial Board Members will have a clear role description and will undergo an orientation process to learn about the journal’s editorial policies and processes. They will be appointed for a period of time, generally three years, and will be renewable by mutual consent. Each one of the editors will be evaluated from time to time based on the assessment of timely handling of manuscripts, editorial decisions and contributions to the development of the journal.

An Editor or member of the Editorial Board may be removed before the end of their term in cases of serious misconduct, negligence, continuing failure to meet performance expectations, or any other action which brings the journal into disrepute. The Editor-in-Chief will make decisions on removal but only after consultation with the publisher and other members of the Editorial Board as appropriate. If an Editor or a member of an Editorial Board wishes to resign before the end of their respective term, they shall notify the Editor-in-Chief in writing, stating their reasons.

Editorial decisions:

The Editor-in-Chief screens submissions for scope and compliance with the language, reporting requirements and ethics. The Associate Editor takes charge of qualifying manuscripts and conducting double-blinded peer review by at least two independent experts. Reviewers check the work for rigour, validity, and significance, and report back with their conclusion within 2-3 weeks.

The Associate Editor recommends acceptance, rejection, or revision of a manuscript based on input from reviewers and editors, methods utilized by the author, and manuscript impact. Before the formal notification of accepted papers, the Editor-in-Chief carries out the final quality check. A relook of revisions would only happen with major ones. In cases of disagreement, an additional editor arbitrates. Final acceptance or rejection will be at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

Rejection criteria:

The submissions to BJ-BABS will be rejected if:

1) The subject does not fall within the scope of the journal.

2) High percentage of plagiarism and improper AI usage.

3) Findings and concluding remarks lack strong support from the data and analysis.

4) Research methods and analysis exhibit critical flaws.

5) Insufficient data provided for reproducibility.

6) Major ethical issues with experiments or data collection.

7) Significant issue with stealing words with plagiarism and duplicate publication.

8) Flaws in study design, execution, or interpretation.

9) Difficult-to-read writing that obstructs understanding due to language problems.

Appeals Policy: 

Authors can appeal a rejection decision by contacting the Editor-in-Chief via biochemistry.journal@nahrainuniv.edu.iq or editor@bjbabs.org and providing a detailed justification explaining why they believe the manuscript was improperly rejected.

The author must submit appeals within 14 days of receiving the notice of rejection.

The Editor-in-Chief will investigate the situation by reviewing the comments from the peer reviewers, talking with the Associate Editor who received the manuscript and independently reviewing it.

The Editor-in-Chief may reverse the rejection and accept the manuscript if it has been deemed an error. In most cases, however, the original decision will stand since the peer review process is designed to ensure a fair and rigorous assessment of the work. 

Reviewers will indicate whether authors may be offered the chance to resubmit a substantially revised manuscript as a new submission if its identified flaws are sufficiently remedied.

Complaints policy:

Authors or readers seeking to submit a complaint or dispute a journal decision should contact the Editor-in-Chief via biochemistry.journal@nahrainuniv.edu.iq or editor@bjbabs.org with a detailed description and evidence as possible of the issue and associated correspondence.

The complaints will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief, and he/she will involve other editorial staff as required to resolve. The complainant will receive a formal response regarding the result or outcome of the investigation. If the complaint pertains to the conduct of the Editor-in-Chief, authors may contact the publisher (journals@nahrainuniv.edu.iq), who will review the matter independently.

How to deal with allegations of research misconduct:

The BJ-BABS expects high standards of ethical behaviour from its authors, reviewers and editors. The journal is in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct. The BJ-BABS is focused on ensuring the integrity of the research we publish. We consider research misconduct to be a serious matter and are committed to ensuring that allegations of research misconduct are appropriately dealt with. Our process to handle allegations of research misconduct dealing with a manuscript submitted to, or a paper published in, BJ-BABS.

Research misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

-Falsification is manipulating the research data to give a false impression. This means changing images, cutting out outliers or “inconvenient” results, altering, adding or deleting data, etc.

-Fabrication: Making up results and recording them, or reporting them.

-Plagiarism: Taking someone else's ideas and representing them as your own.

Anyone who believes that research misconduct has occurred should report their concerns to the Editor-in-Chief of BJ-BABS via biochemistry.journal@nahrainuniv.edu.iq or editor@bjbabs.org.

The report must contain enough information to allow for an initial assessment of the allegation.

Upon receiving an allegation of research misconduct, the Editor-in-Chief will first assess the nature of the provided evidence. If the allegation appears to have merit, the next steps will take place. The authors will be approached by and given a chance to respond to the allegation. If the authors respond but the above action is not suitable, or if the authors remain unresponsive, the relevant institution or body (e.g. author’s institution, funding body, regulatory body) will be approached next.

BJ-BABS will actively support any investigation and provide any documentation needed for the investigation.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, possible actions may include but not be limited to:

 If the allegation is not upheld: No further action will be taken, or an erratum/correction may be published if a minor error is identified. If the allegation is upheld: The paper may be retracted, or a statement of concern may be published while further investigation is carried out. The authors may be banned from submitting to BJ-BABS for some time (from 5 to 10 years) or may be banned permanently.

BJ-BABS is committed to transparency in its response to allegations of research misconduct. All allegations will be treated seriously and dealt with in a fair, unbiased manner. The privacy of the person making the allegation and the authors will be protected as much as possible.