Haematology Journal of Bangladesh is committed to uphold the integrity of the scientific record and follows the COPE guidelines to deal with potential acts of misconduct. The misconduct includes fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, selective omission of data and claiming that some data are missing, ignoring outliers without declaring it, not reporting data on side effects / adverse reactions in a clinical trial, publication of post-hoc analysis without declaring it, gift authorship, not citing others’ work, not disclosing conflict of interest, redundant publication, and failure to adequately review existing research. 

Originality of the articles: The article(s) must not be previously or simultaneously published or under consideration for publication in another scientific journal, except in the form of an abstract or review, or unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of publications. Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation. By submitting articles to Haematology Journal of Bangladesh, the author attests the following:

• None of the parts of the manuscript are plagiarised from other sources,
• Proper reference is provided for all contents extracted from other sources,
• Firm action can be taken against cases of plagiarism.

Plagiarism: Authors should not present others’ data, text, or theories as if their own. Authors should acknowledge properly to others’ works, should use quotation marks for verbatim copying, and should secure permissions for material that is copyrighted. All the submitted papers are passed through an initial screening process by the editorial board to avoid plagiarism that also includes online plagiarism check. Currently we are using PlagScan by turnitine, an online plagiarism checking tool; however, we are on the way establish automated plagiarism check. 

Authors' responsibility: Although every effort is made by the editorial board to avoid plagiarism, it is the sole responsibility of the author(s) for such scientific fraudulent act and the members of the editorial board shall accept no liability whatsoever for the consequences of any such act. Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour.

Data sharing and reproducibility: Because reproducibility of scientific claims is integral to the integrity of published research, the original data from which the results are obtained should be available and accessible in need e.g., in handling authorship dispute or complaints. Authors should remain ready to send relevant document or data on request to verify the validity of the results presented. Authors are requested to write a data availability statement in their manuscript that the data are available any time if requested by the editor, although it will not be published. This policy does not mean that the data sharing is mandatory but aims to make the scientific work transparent and trustworthy.

Conflicts of interest / competing interests:  Public trust in the scientific process and the credibility of published articles depend in part on how transparently an author’s relationships and activities, directly or topically related to a work, are handled during the planning, implementation, writing, peer review, editing, and publication of scientific work. We follow ICMJE and COPE guidelines for competing interest policy to be applicable for all participants in the peer-review and publication process, i.e., authors, peer reviewers, editors, and editorial board members of journals. Interests that should be considered and disclosed may be financial e.g., employment, consultancies, stock ownership or options, honoraria, patents, and paid expert testimony, or non-financial e.g., personal relationships or rivalries, academic competition, and intellectual beliefs.

Authors: Authors must disclose all relationships and activities that might bias or be seen to bias their work during submission of a manuscript. Declaring a competing interest will help the editor assess work and invite reviewers who do not have the same competing interest. Editors may ask for further information relating to competing interests. If an undisclosed competing interest is identified later, it may delay peer review process of the manuscript or even lead to rejection. If it is identified after publication, an Erratum may be issued to the article or even it may be retracted from the journal. Authors are encouraged to download a disclosure form developed by ICMJE and to upload or send to journal editor after it has been filled up. 

Reviewer: Reviewer should ensure absence of any potential competing interests as a prerequisite to agree to critique a manuscript. The reviewer can subsequently identify any potential competing interest after reading the article that may complicate their review. In such case, the reviewers should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts and should notify the editor. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work they’re reviewing before its publication to further their own interests.

Editorial board members: Editorial Board Members are welcome to submit papers to the journal, but their submissions are not given any priority over other manuscripts. When an editorial board member is on the author list or he/she has any other type of competing interest regarding a manuscript, they must declare this in the competing interest section on the submitted manuscript. In such case, another editor will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. These submissions are subject to the exact same review process as any other manuscript. Editorial staff must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain. Guest editors should follow these same procedures.

Ethical Principles: Haematology Journal of Bangladesh is obliged to respect for human dignity and to protect rights and welfare of human subjects for a research work. It follows the BMRC and COPE guidelines regarding the ethical aspects for a research paper to be published.

Informed consent: The author must obtain a freely given informed consent from the participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children) to participate in the study and to publish their data to a journal. The informed consent must reflect The Nuremberg Code for the human research subject, and a statement to this effect must appear in the manuscript.

Vulnerable population: Special attention will be given regarding informed consent for the manuscripts reporting studies involving vulnerable groups where there is the potential for coercion or where consent may not have been fully informed. This people include children, pregnant and nursing women, mentally ill and/or defective persons, prisoners, subjects in rural communities, and other vulnerable social and ethnic groups. 

Research involving animal: As currently there is no international consensus for use of non-human animals in medical research and the practice is regulated to various degrees in different countries, the author must submit the ethical clearance or IRB approval certificate along with the manuscript, in case of article that contain research involving non-human animals. However, the IRB approval should reflect some well accepted principles in animal research, including – replacement: the preferred use of non-animal methods over animal methods whenever it is possible to achieve the same scientific aim; reduction: use of fewer animals to obtain maximum or comparable levels of information; refinement: use of methods to minimise potential pain, suffering or distress for the animal subjects; and Rehabilitation: proper attention for rehabilitation and retirement centres for animals who have survived medical experiments for the sake of humans.

Image: Images will be removed from publication if authors have not obtained informed consent, or the paper may not be accepted for publication or may even be removed after it has been published with a notice explaining the reason for removal. This is especially concerned for images of vulnerable people or the use of images in sensitive contexts. Identification features should be appropriately camouflaged.

Confidentiality: The degree of importance of confidentiality depends on the nature of research study. However, the authors are expected to be respectful to the research subject (individual) regarding the confidentiality of research data that should not be divulged. The research participants should be remained unidentified. The editors will not disclose the confidential data if they have access to it such as in case of handling of dispute.

Ethical clearance: All manuscripts of the research articles should include a statement of confirmation that the study was approved by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee (including the name of the ethics committee). The letter of permission should be submitted to the editorial board if asked. The ethical approval board should follow the ethical standards as adopted by the Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC), and also The Nuremberg Code, The Declaration of Helsinki, and other comparable ethical standards. The National Research Ethics Committee (NREC) in Bangladesh set standards for research ethics involving Bangladeshi population and arbitrate on the matters of ethics. Authors should check with their institution to make sure they are complying with the specific requirements of their institution and seek ethical approval where needed. 

Case reports require ethical approval based on specific policies of the institutions and/or informed consent from the individual (or parent or guardian if the participant is a minor or incapable). 

Retrospective ethics approval: This usually cannot be considered for peer review of the manuscript. Ethical approval for retrospective studies on already available data or biological material (for which formal consent may not be needed or is difficult to obtain) may be required depending on the law and the national ethical guidelines of the country. 

Exemption from ethical approval: If a study was granted exemption from requiring ethical approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the reasons for the exemption). 

Editors’ rights: The editorial board reserves the rights to change the writing into customary style and, if necessary, to shorten the material accepted for publication and to determine the priority and time of publication. The editorial board also holds the right to reject any article at any time before publication, including after acceptance if concerns arise about the integrity of the work.