Ethical Consideration
This Journal uses the COPE's flowcharts and guidelines. It also follows the guidelines mentioned in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/#privacy).

Authorship Criteria and Contribution

 The journal adheres to the definition of authorship set up by The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The ICMJE recommends that authorship should be based on the following 4 criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content
3. Final approval of the version to be published
4. 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.

The authors also must certify that the manuscript represents valid data, has not been published or submitted elsewhere. If similar or related work has been published or submitted elsewhere, then the author must provide a copy with the submitted manuscript. The author may not submit his manuscript elsewhere while it is under consideration at Toloo-e-Behdasht Journal.

All authors must sign the  Toloo-e-Behdasht  Authorship Form (typed or printed name is not acceptable) and include the form on initial submission. 


Ethical approval
Approval of the ethical committee should be mentioned in the article, and sent to the journal office.

Conflict of interest
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. If you have no competing interests, please state 'I/We have no conflict of interests. Authors must acknowledge and declare any sources of funding and the potential conflicting interest, such as receiving funds or fees, or holding stocks and shares in an organization from which they may profit from or lose through publication of their paper.
At the time of submission, the corresponding author must include a disclosure statement in the body of the manuscript. All authors are required to disclose all potential conflicts of interest, including specific financial interests, relationships, and affiliations (other than those affiliations listed in the title page of the manuscript) relevant to the subject of their manuscript. This information should be provided under the heading titled ‘Conflicts of interest’, which should appear before the ‘References’ section.

Scientific Misconducts
Scientific misconduct includes fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism with the intention to deceive on the part of the authors. Honest error or differences in interpretation are not considered misconduct.

Fabrication: Fabrication is the intentional misrepresentation of research results by making up data, as reported in a journal paper. As with other forms of scientific misconduct, its intent is to deceive. This marks fabrication as highly unethical, which is different from the scientists' self-deceit. In some jurisdictions, fabrication may be illegal.

Falsification: Falsification is the changing or omission of research results (data) to support claims, hypotheses, other data, etc. Falsification can include the manipulation of research instrumentation, materials, or processes. Manipulation of images or representations in a manner that distorts the data or “reads too much between the lines” can also be considered falsification.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism of text from a previously published manuscript by the same or another author is a serious publication offence. Small amounts of text may be used, but only where the source of the material is quoted and clearly acknowledged. Fraudulent data or data stolen from other authors are also unethical, and will be treated accordingly. Any alleged offence is initially addressed by the editorial board.

 The journal employs a plagiarism detection system to check all manuscripts for plagiarism against previously published works.

Retraction Policy
  The TBJ for retraction of a published article uses the COPE guidelines:  https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines

The Journal Policy about Misconduct and Handling of Complaints
Report of research misconduct may be related to a published article or a manuscript under peer-review process. The procedure for the application and management of complaints of author misconduct should proceed with sensitivity, tact, in confidence, and in the following manner:

• A letter of explanation (and education) sent only to the person(s) against whom the complaint is made, where there appears to be a genuine and innocent misunderstanding of principles or procedure.
• A letter of reprimand to the person(s) against whom the complaint is made, warning of the consequences of such instances in the future, where the misunderstanding appears to be not entirely innocent.
• A letter of reprimand to all co-authors on the paper informing them of the findings of the Panel and warning of the consequences of such instances in future.
• A formal letter as mentioned above, including a written request to the supervising institution(s) that an investigation be carried out and the findings of that inquiry be reported in writing to the journal.
• Notice of redundant publication or duplicate publication or plagiarism, if they are appropriately and unequivocally documented. Such publication will not require approval of authors, and may also be reported to their institution and, if appropriate, funding agency.
• Formal withdrawal or retraction of the paper from the scientific literature, published in the journal.

Research Involving Human Subjects
When reporting on research that involves human subjects, human material, human tissues or human data, authors must declare that investigations were carried out following the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/), revised in 2008. According to clause 23 of this declaration, approval from an ethics committee should be obtained before undertaking the research.
Research involving animal subjects
The editors demand that the potential benefits derived from any research causing harm to animals be significant in relation to any cost endured by animals, and that it should be unlikely for the procedures followed to cause offense to the majority of the readers. Authors should particularly ensure that their research complies with the commonly-accepted '3Rs':

• Replacement of animals by alternatives wherever possible,
• Reduction in the number of animals used, and
• Refinement of the experimental conditions and procedures to minimize the harm to animals.

Any experimental work must also have been conducted in accordance with relevant national legislation on the use of animals for research.
Manuscripts containing original descriptions of research conducted in experimental animals must contain details of approval by a properly constituted research ethics committee.