Editorial policy

Editorial Policy

The Journal of Ayurveda and Holistic Medicine (JAHM) is committed to maintaining high standards of scholarly publishing, research integrity, transparency, and publication ethics. The journal follows relevant recommendations and best practices of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and Council of Science Editors (CSE).

Key Editorial Principles

• Editorial Independence: Editorial decisions are made independently of the publisher, journal owners, advertisers, sponsors, commercial partners, and other external interests.

• Editorial Decisions: Manuscripts are evaluated on the basis of scientific and scholarly merit, methodological rigor, originality, ethical acceptability, relevance to the journal's scope, and contribution to the field, without discrimination based on authors' nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, or other unrelated characteristics.

• Peer Review: Manuscripts considered suitable for the journal undergo double-blind peer review by qualified reviewers with relevant subject expertise. Reviewer recommendations are advisory, and the final editorial decision rests with the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Editor, or an appropriately delegated editor.

• Research Ethics: Research involving human participants, identifiable human data, or human biological material must have appropriate ethics committee/Institutional Review Board approval or a documented exemption, where applicable. Informed consent must be obtained when required. Animal research must comply with applicable institutional, national, and internationally accepted ethical standards.

• Research Integrity: JAHM does not tolerate research or publication misconduct, including plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, inappropriate image manipulation, duplicate or redundant publication, citation manipulation, or other serious breaches of research integrity. Suspected misconduct will be investigated in accordance with established publication-ethics procedures and may result in rejection, correction, retraction, or other appropriate action.

• Initial Editorial Screening: All submissions undergo an initial editorial assessment. Manuscripts may be rejected without external peer review if they fall outside the journal's scope, lack sufficient scientific or scholarly merit, contain fundamental methodological deficiencies, fail to meet applicable ethical requirements, or do not comply with essential journal policies.

• Policy and Format Compliance: Manuscripts that do not comply with the journal's essential submission requirements, reporting standards, or formatting requirements may be returned to the authors for correction before being considered for peer review.

• Conflicts of Interest: Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose relevant conflicts of interest. Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where a conflict exists.

• Submissions from Editors and Editorial Board Members: Manuscripts submitted by editors or members of the Editorial Board are handled by an independent editor with no relevant conflict of interest. The submitting editor or board member will not participate in reviewer selection, peer review, or the editorial decision concerning the manuscript.

Reporting Guidelines Compliance

Authors should follow the internationally recognized reporting guideline appropriate to the study design, including:

Standard name	Acronym	Website
Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials	CONSORT	https://www.consort-spirit.org/
Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology	STROBE	www.strobe-statement.org
Standards for Reporting Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy	STARD	www.stard-statement.org
Quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies	QUADAS	www.bris.ac.uk/quadas
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses	PRISMA	www.prisma-statement.org
Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research	COREQ	https://academic.oup.com/intqhc/article-abstract/19/6/349/1791966?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Case Report	CARE	www.care-statement.org/
Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence	SQUIRE	www.squire-statement.org
Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards	CHEERS	www.ispor.org/taskforces/EconomicPubGuidelines.asp
Enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research	ENTREQ	https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23185978/
Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs (TREND) statement	TREND	https://www.cdc.gov/hivpartners/php/trend-statement/index.html

Authors may be required to submit the applicable completed reporting checklist with their manuscript. Other recognized reporting guidelines should be followed where appropriate to the study design.

Roles and Responsibilities of Editors

• Editor-in-Chief: Provides overall scholarly and editorial leadership and is responsible for maintaining the scientific quality, integrity, independence, and ethical standards of the journal. The Editor-in-Chief oversees editorial policies and final editorial decision-making.

• Executive Editor: Supports the Editor-in-Chief in implementing editorial policies, coordinating the editorial process, maintaining publication standards, and ensuring the efficient and timely management of manuscripts.

• Senior Editors: Provide subject-specific editorial oversight, assess manuscripts within their areas of expertise, coordinate peer review where assigned, and support the maintenance of scientific and ethical standards.

• Associate Editors: Manage assigned manuscripts within their areas of expertise, including preliminary assessment, selection of suitable reviewers, evaluation of reviewer reports, and recommendations concerning editorial decisions.

• Managing Editors: Coordinate editorial workflows, author and reviewer communications, copyediting, proofreading, production processes, and other administrative aspects of manuscript processing.

• Assistant Editors: Support manuscript screening, editorial coordination, communication, documentation, and other scholarly editorial activities assigned by the senior editorial team.

• International Advisory Board: Comprises distinguished national and international experts who provide strategic and scholarly advice regarding the journal's scope, scientific development, international visibility, editorial policies, and emerging areas of research.

All editors are expected to maintain confidentiality, impartiality, editorial independence, and appropriate management of conflicts of interest throughout the editorial and peer-review process.