About the Journal

Aim and Scope of the Journal

The aim of the journal is to publish high quality peer reviewed research in the fields of epidemiology, public health, environmental and occupational health, biostatistics, health care delivery, medical anthropology and social medicine, especially on issues of national and regional importance for developing countries like India and abroad.
The journal typically publishes original research articles and review articles from the areas of public health, preventive medicine, general epidemiology, infectious and non-infectious disease epidemiology, epidemiological diagnosis, maternal health, child health, adolescent health, public health administration, health care service delivery, etc. Research findings relevant to India and the subcontinent are emphasized more. However, it is not limited to that. Invited reviews and comments, invited papers on recent advances, editorial correspondence, and book reviews are also published in the journal.

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Open Access Statement

All articles in the NJCM are published under a CC BY SA license. Click here for more details about our Open Access Policy.

Peer Review Process

The NJCM follows a double blind peer review processfor all Original Articles, Short Articles/ Communications, Review Articles, Perspectives, Technical Reports and CMEs. Click here for more details about our Peer Review Policy.

Copyright and Licensing

For articles published in the NJCM, authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to Medsci Publications.
All articles published in the NJCM are Open access under a CC BY SA license. Click here for more details about our Copyright and Licencing Policy.

Authorship Policies

The NJCM, expect authors to follow recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for the authorship of a paper.
Those who had substantially contributed for the conception or design of the research work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work, drafting the work or revising,and in agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work are eligible for the authorship.
The corresponding author of a research manuscript is responsible for communication with the journal, manuscript submission, authorship criteria of all authors, disclosing any potential conflicts of interest, revision of manuscript, reviewing the proofs and approving the final version of the manuscript before publication.
Acknowledgements: The acknowledgement section may be used to thank anyone who contributed significantly to the work but is not eligible for authorship including source of funding. This section should not be used to mention anonymous referees or editors, superfluous words, or effusive praise in the acknowledgements.

Confidentiality Policy

All information submitted to our journal is considered confidential and will be treated as such. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscript does not contain any confidential information that could compromise the confidentiality of their research participants or institutions. Reviewers are also required to maintain the confidentiality of the manuscripts they review and the comments they provide. Editorial members are responsible for ensuring that all information related to the manuscript, including reviewer comments and editorial decision-making processes, is kept confidential. Unless otherwise declared, the peer review process is confidential and conducted anonymously. The journal reserves the right to take appropriate action, against individuals who breach the confidentiality policy.

Inform Consent Policy

The journal requires that all studies involving human participants obtain informed consent through appropriate methods, such as written, audio, video, or electronic forms. Authors must confirm that participants were informed of the study’s purpose, risks, and rights, including confidentiality and withdrawal options. Ethical approval and consent details must be documented in the manuscript. Exceptions require justification from an ethics committee. Click here for more details about Informed Consent Policy.

Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication

Plagiarism is an act of copying text, or results without proper citation of the original author. The NJCM would not consider any manuscript having any kind of plagiarism including direct plagisrism, ‘patchwork’ plagiarism, mosaic plagiarism, self-plagiarism, auto-plagiarism or duplicate publications. Manuscript sent to the NJCM must be original and must not have been published before or be sent to another publication at the same time.
The submission of manuscripts for peer review is contingent upon the author ensuring that any previously published or unpublished data used in the work have been suitably credited, cited, and that the necessary permissions have been obtained. The journal editors consider all material in good faith and believe that their journals have full permission to publish every part of the submitted material, including illustrations.
In case of any type of plagiarism, the editors of the journal evaluate each of these cases on individual merits and decide further action. When plagiarism is discovered post publication, the original publication will be corrected or retracted, depending on the overall integrity of the published study.
The NJCM uses Similarity Check – Crossref services for assessing plagiarism.

Post Publication Correction & Retraction

The Post Publication Policies formed to address any issues that may arise after a manuscript has been published in our journal.The following are categories of corrections and post-publication updates to peer-reviewed articles.
Publisher’s Correction: A Publisher Correction may be published to correct an important error(s) made by the journal that affects the scientific integrity of the published article, the publication record, or the reputation of the authors or of the journal.
Author’s Corrections: We understand that errors or omissions may occur despite our best efforts to ensure the accuracy of published content. If author identify an error in a published article, it should be brought to our notice promptly. It will be considered after review by the editorial team and will be published, if found suitable.
Withdrawal of article: If we receive credible evidence of any misconduct like plagiarism, fraud or any other breach of ethical conduct, we will promptly investigate the matter and, if necessary, the affected article will be withdrawn from online content with issuance of withdrawal notification.
Changes in Name of Author: For authors who have changed their name for any genuine reason and wish to correct it on their published works, they may request a change in their name and other relevant biographical information.

Publication Ethics and Research Integrity

The fundamental principles of research ethics that require maximising potential benefits and minimising potential harm. The NJCM is committed to uphold highest ethical conduct of research which is guided by the following guidelines:

Click here for more details about our guideline on Publication Ethics and Research Integrity.

Competing interests (COI) Policy

We require all authors, reviewers, and editorial board members to disclose any competing interests (COI) that may influence their judgement or actions in conducting or reporting research. All the authors have to submit prescribed ‘Conflict of Interest (COI) statement’ (click to download). Click here for more details about our policy on Competing interests (COI).

Data Sharing Policy

The National Journal of Community Medicine encourages transparency and reproducibility in research. Authors should make relevant datasets available through public repositories or upon request, ensuring compliance with ethical and privacy guidelines. A data availability statement must be included in the manuscript. Exceptions apply for confidential or proprietary data.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage Policy

The National Journal of Community Medicine permits AI tools for language enhancement and formatting but prohibits their use in generating substantial manuscript content, data manipulation, or plagiarism. Authors must disclose AI tool usage in the manuscript. Undisclosed or excessive AI-generated content may lead to rejection. The journal employs AI-detection tools to ensure compliance.

Author’s Self-archiving

We encourage our authors to share their research publications by self-archiving their work in public repositories, institutional repositories or on personal websites. A self-archived version of the manuscript must include a citation to the published article in our journal.

Preprints

The NJCM do not publish preprints. Posting a preprint does not impact the consideration of the manuscript for publication in our journal. However, authors are required to disclose the existence of any preprint versions of the manuscript during the submission process, including the DOI or other identifier of the preprint, and any subsequent updates or revisions to the preprint.The manuscripts are evaluated for the scientific content of the manuscript independently of any preprint versions.

Manuscript deposition / Archiving

Article published in the NJCM are deposited on the PKP Preservation Network system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries, allowing those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

Average time require for submission to publication

On an avarage 16 weeks require for manuscript submission to article publication (based on the last 6 months data). However, the period from submission to publication varies substantially and is determined by the response of the reviewer and or the author. 

Publication Charges for Author

To cover the costs associated with publication and to ensure the sustainability of our open access model, we charge article processing charges (APCs) to authors upon acceptance of their article. 
Publication charges for Original Research Articles, Review Articles, Systematic Reviews/Meta-analysis, Study Protocol, Short Research Articles and Case Reports are Rs. 15,000/- for Indian Authors and USD 350.00 for foreign Authors. There is no submission charges. Click here for more details about publication charges.