JoMI Policy - F to P

All authors must clearly disclose all sources of financial support for their research at the time of manuscript submission. This includes grants, institutional funding, industry sponsorship, fellowships, equipment support, and any other financial contributions. The funding information must be included in a dedicated "Funding Statement" within the manuscript.

The Funding Statement should include:

► The full name of the funding organization(s)

► Grant or project numbers (if applicable)

► The name(s) of the author(s) who received the funding

► A description of the role of the funder(s) in the research

If the research did not receive any external funding, authors must include the statement:

"This research received no external funding."

Authors must explicitly state the role of the funding body in the study, including involvement in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or decision to publish. If the funder had no role in any aspect of the research, this must be clearly stated. This ensures transparency and allows readers to evaluate potential biases.

JoMI maintains strict editorial independence. Funding sources must not influence the peer review process, editorial decisions, or publication outcomes. All manuscripts are evaluated solely on their scientific merit, originality, and relevance to the journal's scope, regardless of funding status or source.

Funding disclosures are closely linked to conflict of interest declarations. Authors must ensure that all financial relationships are transparently reported in both the Funding Statement and the Conflict of Interest section, where applicable. Any undisclosed funding or financial influence identified during or after publication may result in corrective actions.

Authors are responsible for ensuring compliance with the requirements of their funding agencies, including mandates related to open access, data sharing, and repository deposition. JoMI supports compliance with major funding body policies and encourages authors to provide grant identifiers and repository links where applicable.

The editorial office may request supporting documentation related to funding disclosures at any stage of the submission or review process. Failure to provide accurate and complete funding information may result in delays, rejection, or withdrawal of the manuscript.

All funding information will be published alongside the article to ensure full transparency. If inaccuracies or omissions in funding disclosures are identified after publication, JoMI may issue corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions, depending on the severity of the issue.

This policy ensures that all research published in JoMI is supported by transparent and responsibly reported funding sources. By requiring full disclosure and maintaining editorial independence, the journal upholds the highest standards of ethical publishing and fosters trust in the scientific record.

The Journal of Medico Informatics (JoMI) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and ethical practice in the presentation of visual data and scientific imagery. All images, figures, graphs, tables, and illustrations submitted for publication must accurately and faithfully represent the underlying data without misleading alteration, selective enhancement, or inappropriate manipulation. This policy is aligned with internationally recognized standards for image integrity in scholarly publishing, including the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the Council of Science Editors (CSE), and ensures that all visual materials published in JoMI are authentic, properly attributed, reproducible, and scientifically valid.

All figures, images, diagrams, graphs, and graphical content submitted to JoMI must be original works created by the submitting authors, unless otherwise explicitly disclosed. The journal requires the use of original illustrations, data visualizations, and scientific diagrams that have been specifically prepared for the submitted manuscript and have not been previously published elsewhere. The reuse of previously published figures is not permitted unless the content is essential to the scientific narrative of the manuscript, proper written permission has been obtained from the original copyright holder, and full attribution is provided in accordance with the applicable licensing terms. Authors must clearly indicate the source and licensing status of any reproduced figure both within the manuscript text and in the corresponding figure legend.

Authors bear full and sole responsibility for obtaining all necessary permissions for any third-party images, figures, or graphical materials incorporated into their manuscript prior to submission. Where copyrighted visual material is included, authors must secure written permission from the copyright holder, covering rights for both print and electronic publication, and provide appropriate acknowledgment within the manuscript, including in the relevant figure legend. Figures released under open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, must be used strictly in accordance with the applicable license terms, and the license type and original source must be clearly cited. JoMI accepts no responsibility for copyright infringement arising from the unauthorized use of third-party visual materials. Any identified violation may result in rejection of the manuscript, post-publication corrective action, or retraction, in accordance with COPE guidelines.

All submitted figures and images must represent the original data accurately and completely. The following practices constitute serious breaches of scientific integrity and are strictly prohibited:

► Fabrication or falsification of data, including the artificial creation or alteration of images to misrepresent experimental results.

► Selective enhancement, adjustment, or suppression of specific regions of an image in a manner that alters the scientific meaning or interpretation of the data.

► Inappropriate duplication of images, including the reuse of the same figure or image to represent different experimental conditions, datasets, or results.

► Image splicing, compositing, or digital morphing that distorts, conceals, or misrepresents the original findings.

► Removal, addition, or rearrangement of elements within an image, including lanes in gel images or signals in microscopy data, without transparent disclosure.

► Contrast or brightness adjustments applied selectively or non-uniformly to specific regions of an image.

Limited global adjustments, such as uniform changes to brightness, contrast, or color balance applied equally across the entire image, are permitted only when they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original. All such adjustments must be explicitly disclosed in the figure legend or Methods section. Where images from multiple sources are assembled into a single composite figure, panel boundaries must be clearly delineated using visible dividing lines, and the composite nature of the figure must be disclosed in the legend.

Authors must not reuse, duplicate, or republish figures across multiple submissions, manuscripts, or publications without explicit disclosure, appropriate citation of the original source, and, where required, written permission from the original publisher or copyright holder. Any form of image duplication, whether within the same manuscript or across different published works, is considered a breach of publication ethics unless transparently disclosed and properly referenced in accordance with COPE guidelines on redundant publication. The journal employs dedicated image screening tools to detect undisclosed duplication, and confirmed instances will be treated as scientific misconduct subject to formal corrective action.

JoMI does not permit the inclusion of AI-generated images, figures, illustrations, or graphical content in submitted manuscripts, unless the manuscript itself specifically investigates the application of artificial intelligence in image generation or visual data representation. In such cases, all AI-generated content must be clearly identified, fully disclosed, and critically evaluated within the manuscript. AI-generated visual content produced by generative artificial intelligence tools, including but not limited to image synthesis models and large multimodal models, may lack verifiable scientific authenticity, reproducibility, and methodological traceability, and therefore does not meet the evidential standards required for scholarly publication. All visual materials submitted to JoMI must be derived from actual experimental data, empirical observations, or scientifically validated analytical methods, and must be independently reproducible. Graphical abstract can be generated by AI.

All figures submitted to JoMI must meet the technical quality standards required for professional scholarly publication. Specific requirements include the following:

► Resolution: A minimum of 300 dots per inch (DPI) for photographs and color images, and a minimum of 600 DPI for line art and graphical figures, measured at the intended print size.

► File Formats: Accepted formats include TIFF, EPS, PDF, and high-resolution JPEG or PNG files, as specified in the journal's author guidelines.

► Legibility: All text, labels, symbols, scale bars, and annotations within figures must be clearly legible at the intended publication size and must employ terminology consistent with that used in the manuscript body.

► Figure Legends: Each figure must be accompanied by a concise, self-contained legend that clearly describes the content, identifies all components and abbreviations, specifies the source, and states any applicable permissions or licensing information.

► Color and Accessibility: Authors are strongly encouraged to use color-blind-friendly palettes when color is used to convey scientific information. Where color alone distinguishes data categories, an accessible alternative, such as patterns, textures, or direct labels, must also be provided to ensure equitable readability.

All submitted images and figures are subject to mandatory editorial screening and integrity verification, which may include the use of dedicated image analysis software to detect manipulation, duplication, contrast alteration, or other forms of inappropriate post-acquisition processing. The journal reserves the right to request original, unprocessed raw data files or source image files at any stage of the submission, peer review, or post-publication process for independent verification purposes. Authors are required to retain all original data and image files for a minimum of ten years following publication and to make these available upon reasonable request from the editorial office or relevant oversight authorities.

Manuscripts that do not comply with this policy may be rejected at any stage of the submission or peer review process without further consideration. Where image-related concerns, including manipulation, duplication, or misrepresentation, are identified after publication, JoMI will act in full accordance with COPE guidelines and take appropriate corrective measures. These may include issuing formal corrections or errata, publishing expressions of concern, retracting the article, and notifying the authors' affiliated institutions and relevant funding bodies where the nature or severity of the breach warrants such action.

This policy reflects JoMI's unwavering commitment to ensuring that all visual content published in the journal is accurate, transparent, reproducible, and trustworthy. By enforcing rigorous and internationally aligned standards for image preparation, manipulation, attribution, and verification, consistent with the guidelines of COPE, ICMJE, and CSE, the journal upholds the credibility, reliability, and long-term integrity of the published scientific record and contributes to the sustained global effort to maintain trust and accountability in scientific communication.

These are separate requirements. Consent to take part in research does not by itself permit publication of material from which an individual could be identified.

Where a manuscript contains photographs, clinical images, case descriptions, pedigrees, video, audio, genetic information or any other material from which a person could be identified, written consent to publication must be obtained from that person, or from their legal representative where they lack capacity or are a minor. The manuscript must state that consent was obtained.

Identifying details that are not essential to the scientific argument must be omitted. Dates, places, occupations and rare combinations of characteristics can identify a person even where a name is absent. Masking the eye region of a photograph is not adequate anonymisation and is not accepted as a substitute for consent.

Data must not be altered or falsified in order to achieve anonymity.

Authors retain signed consent forms and produce them only if the editorial office requests them. The journal does not routinely collect them, in order to avoid holding identifiable personal data unnecessarily.

Consent must be informed: the individual must have been shown the material to be published, or a fair description of it, and must understand that it will be freely available on the internet under an open licence and cannot subsequently be withdrawn from those who have already accessed it.

All articles published in JoMI are published open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). The licence is identified on the article itself and recorded in the article metadata deposited with Crossref and other services.

Under CC BY 4.0 any person may copy, redistribute, adapt, translate, remix, build upon and commercially exploit the article in any medium or format, provided appropriate credit is given to the authors and the journal, a link to the licence is given, and any changes are indicated.

Authors retain copyright. On acceptance the authors sign the journal's Licence to Publish and Author Agreement, granting the publisher a non-exclusive licence to publish and distribute the article and to deposit it with indexing, discovery and preservation services. Copyright is not transferred to the publisher.

Where an article contains material that cannot be released under CC BY 4.0, that material is identified within the article together with its own copyright and licence terms, and the open licence does not extend to it.

Authors must obtain permission covering commercial reuse and adaptation for any third-party material intended to be distributed under the article's licence. Permission restricted to non-commercial use, or to a single journal or edition, is not sufficient.

CC BY 4.0 cannot be revoked once an article is published. Neither the authors nor the publisher can impose further restrictions on rights already granted to the public under it.

The Journal of Medico Informatics (JoMI) is a fully open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal committed to the unrestricted dissemination of scientific knowledge. All content published in JoMI is made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without any subscription fees, registration requirements, or pay-per-view barriers. This ensures equitable access to research outputs for a global audience, including researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and the general public.

All articles published in JoMI are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This license permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, reproduction, and adaptation of the work in any medium or format, including for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, a link to the license is provided, and any modifications made are clearly indicated. This licensing framework facilitates maximum dissemination, reuse, and impact of published research while maintaining proper attribution standards.

Authors publishing in JoMI retain full copyright ownership of their work. By submitting and publishing in the journal, authors grant JoMI a non-exclusive, irrevocable license to publish, archive, and disseminate the work. Additionally, authors grant third parties the right to use, reproduce, and build upon the published material in accordance with the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license. This approach ensures both author rights protection and broad usability of scholarly content.

JoMI guarantees immediate open access to all published articles without any embargo period, thereby supporting the rapid communication of research findings and enhancing their visibility, accessibility, and citation potential. The journal adheres strictly to internationally recognized standards of editorial quality, transparency, and ethical publishing practices, following the principles and guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and other global best practices.

Through its open-access policy, JoMI actively promotes inclusive knowledge exchange, supports compliance with the mandates of major research funding agencies, and contributes to the advancement of science by enabling unrestricted access to high-quality, peer-reviewed research.

The Journal of Medico Informatics (JoMI) is owned and published by Aayvu Publications Private Limited (APPL), a legally registered private limited company incorporated in India in accordance with applicable corporate and publishing regulations. The ownership of APPL rests with the BOSE family, comprising

► Dr. Chandrabose Selvaraj

► Dr. Chandrabose Yogeswari

► Mr. Chandrabose Arunraj

This ownership structure is fully disclosed in the interest of transparency and adherence to international publishing standards. For all inquiries related to journal ownership, governance, or publisher policies, correspondence may be directed to: drselvaw@gmail.com.

The governance and academic oversight of JoMI are entrusted to an independent Editorial Board composed of internationally recognized scholars, researchers, and domain experts in medical informatics, computational biology, and allied health sciences. The Editorial Board operates under clearly defined roles and responsibilities, ensuring that all editorial processes are conducted in a fair, unbiased, and academically rigorous manner.

JoMI maintains strict editorial independence. All editorial decisions, including manuscript evaluation, peer review, acceptance, and rejection, are made solely by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Board. These decisions are based exclusively on the scientific merit, originality, methodological rigor, and relevance of the submitted work. The publisher, owners, sponsors, or any affiliated institutions have no influence or involvement in editorial decision-making processes.

The journal adheres to internationally recognized best practices and ethical standards in scholarly publishing, including the principles outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics, as well as recommendations from global indexing and open-access bodies. Clear policies are in place to manage and disclose any potential conflicts of interest involving editors, reviewers, authors, or the publisher. This governance framework ensures a transparent separation between editorial and commercial functions, safeguarding the integrity of the peer review process and upholding the highest standards of academic freedom, accountability, and publication ethics.

The Journal of Medico Informatics (JoMi) follows a single-blind peer review process, in which the identities of authors are visible to reviewers, while reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors. All manuscripts submitted to the journal are assessed initially by the Editor-in-Chief, who may consult Associate Editors or other members of the editorial team to determine whether the submission fits the journal's scope, scientific standards, and author guidelines before it is sent for external peer review. Manuscripts considered suitable for review are assigned to an Associate Editor or handling editor and are ordinarily evaluated by at least two independent expert reviewers. The final decision on publication is made by the Editor-in-Chief on the basis of the reviewers' reports, the recommendation of the Associate Editor, and, where relevant, the advice of the Editorial Council.

Editors select reviewers on the basis of subject expertise, independence, and the absence of disqualifying competing interests, in line with good editorial practice recommended by international publication ethics guidance. Manuscripts may be rejected without external review if they are outside the journal's scope, do not meet minimum scientific or ethical standards, are insufficiently prepared for review, or fail to comply with the journal's submission requirements. All manuscripts are treated as confidential documents during editorial assessment and peer review. Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, and timely evaluations focused on scientific quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, clarity of presentation, and relevance to the field of medico informatics.

Reviewers are selected on the basis of their expertise in the relevant subject areas. The Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors identify potential reviewers from the journal's reviewer database, recent literature, and author-suggested or excluded nominees. The following principles apply:

► A minimum of two independent reviewers is assigned to each manuscript.

► Reviewers must declare any conflicts of interest prior to accepting an invitation to review.

► Individuals with direct personal, professional, or financial conflicts of interest with the submitted work will not be invited to review.

► Reviewer identities are kept confidential throughout and after the review process.

Editors and reviewers must disclose any financial, institutional, collaborative, academic, or personal relationships that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, their judgment on a manuscript. Individuals with relevant conflicts of interest will not participate in the editorial handling or peer review of the affected submission, and alternative editors or reviewers will be appointed where necessary. If a submission is authored by an editor, editorial board member, or other person closely associated with the journal, that individual will be excluded from all editorial decisions and peer review management for that manuscript. The manuscript will instead be handled independently by another qualified editor to ensure fairness, transparency, and editorial independence.

Each manuscript is ordinarily permitted a maximum of five rounds of peer review (fully based on reviewer suggestions and Editor decision). Authors may submit one revised version after the first round of review, and in exceptional circumstances a further minor revision may be invited after the second review round if the editors determine that the remaining issues are limited and clearly addressable. When submitting a revised manuscript, authors must provide a separate point-by-point response letter explaining how each reviewer and editor comment has been addressed, or giving a clear reason where a suggestion has not been adopted. Revised manuscripts must be submitted through the journal's online editorial system within the deadline of the revision decision; submissions received after this period will normally be treated as new submissions. Also, kindly note, authors asking for extension via email jomi@aayvu.com will be granted for extension. Editorial decisions may include rejection, major revision, minor revision, acceptance, or acceptance subject to editorial amendments. Acceptance is based on the manuscript's scholarly merit, ethical soundness, originality, methodological quality, and relevance to the journal, and not on commercial considerations or personal interests.

The Journal of Medico Informatics (JoMI) is committed to safeguarding the privacy, confidentiality, and security of personal data of all individuals involved in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, and readers. The journal ensures that all personal information is collected, processed, and stored in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner --- strictly for legitimate scholarly publishing purposes. JoMI adheres to internationally recognized data protection standards, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and applicable national regulations.

JoMI may collect personal data during the manuscript submission, peer review, editorial communication, and publication processes. This includes, but is not limited to, names, email addresses, institutional affiliations, ORCID iDs, contact details, areas of expertise, and other relevant professional information necessary for editorial workflow and publication management.

All personal data collected by JoMI is used exclusively for legitimate academic and publishing purposes, including manuscript processing, peer review coordination, editorial decision-making, publication, indexing, archiving, and communication with authors, reviewers, and editors. In addition, reviewer-related information --- including areas of expertise and review history --- may be used to develop and maintain an internal reviewer database. This enables the journal to efficiently identify and invite suitable reviewers for future submissions in related subject areas. Personal data will not be used for commercial activities, advertising, or marketing unrelated to the journal.

JoMI does not sell, trade, or share personal data with third parties without the explicit consent of the individual concerned. Limited data sharing may occur only when necessary for journal operations --- such as with indexing services, DOI registration agencies, manuscript management systems, or technical service providers --- and strictly in compliance with applicable data protection regulations. Personal data may also be disclosed where required by law, legal proceedings, or regulatory authorities.

The journal implements appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. All editorial and peer review communications are treated as strictly confidential. Access to personal data is restricted to authorized personnel directly involved in the publication process.

Personal data is retained only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including maintaining the scholarly record and ensuring the integrity of published research. Data retention practices comply with all legal, regulatory, and archival requirements.

Authors, reviewers, and other individuals have the right to access, correct, update, or request the deletion of their personal data, subject to legal and publishing obligations. Requests regarding personal data may be submitted by contacting the editorial office. JoMI will respond to all such requests in a timely manner and in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

The journal website and publishing platforms may include links to third-party services --- such as indexing databases, repositories, and ORCID integration. JoMI is not responsible for the privacy practices of these external services, and users are encouraged to review their respective privacy policies independently.

JoMI reserves the right to update this Personal Data Protection Policy as necessary to reflect changes in legal requirements, technology, or publishing practices. Any updates will be published on the journal's official website, with appropriate notification provided where applicable.

This policy reflects JoMI's commitment to responsible data management, ethical publishing practices, and the protection of individual privacy. By ensuring compliance with international data protection standards, JoMI fosters trust, accountability, and transparency across all aspects of its editorial and publishing activities.