Ethics and security
The IJWR editor may seek advice on submitted papers if concerns arise, such as ethical issues or access to data and materials. All parties involved in publishing—authors, editors, peer reviewers, and others—are expected to adhere to agreed-upon ethical standards. Research must be conducted within an appropriate ethical framework.
Authorship and Author Responsibilities
The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with the journal during manuscript submission, peer review, and publication. They must ensure all journal requirements are met, including providing authorship details, ethics committee approvals, clinical trial registration, and conflict of interest statements. The corresponding author should respond promptly to editorial queries and cooperate with post-publication requests.
Changes to authorship are not permitted after final acceptance of the article. If an author wishes to be removed from the byline, they must submit a signed letter along with signatures from all co-authors confirming this request. Changes in the order of authors require a signed agreement from all authors.
Conflict of Interest
Authors must disclose any relationships or interests relevant to their work. All manuscripts must include a “Conflict of Interest” section at the end, listing both financial and non-financial conflicts. If no conflicts exist, the statement should read: “The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.” A conflict of interest exists when personal or financial relationships may influence the authors’ interpretation of data or presentation of information. Authors should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment if they were to become public after the publication of the article. Financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):
In addition, non-financial interests that may be important to readers should be disclosed. These may include but are not limited to political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, and intellectual competing interests.
Editors may ask for further information relating to competing interests. Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any competing interests and will be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.
Note: Given that the journal's review policy is double-blind, any information that identifies the authors should not appear in the main manuscript. Such statements should be included on the title page.
Human and animal rights
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data should include a statement that the studies were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and were approved by an appropriate ethics committee. If a study was exempt from requiring ethics approval, this should be detailed in the manuscript, including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption. Authors are expected to have obtained ethics committee approval and informed patient consent for any experimental use of novel procedures or tools where a clear clinical advantage based on clinical need was not apparent before treatment.
Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor deems that the research was not conducted within an appropriate ethical framework. In rare cases, Editors may seek additional information from the ethics committee.
Informed Consent
For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants. For manuscripts that include details, images, or videos related to individual participants, written informed consent for the publication of these must be obtained from the participants. A statement to this effect should be included in the manuscript. Identifying details (names, dates of birth, identity numbers, and other information) of the participants studied should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or genetic profiles unless this information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent or guardian if the participant is incapable) has given written informed consent for publication. The final decision on whether consent to publish is required rests with the Editor.
Originality and Duplicate Publication
Manuscripts that are under review or have been published by other journals will not be accepted for publication in IJWR. Articles published in this journal cannot be reproduced in whole or in part in any publication without permission from the Editorial Board in English, Persian, or any other language. Figures and tables can be used freely as long as the original source is verified according to the Creative Commons Non-Commercial License. It is mandatory for all authors to resolve any copyright issues when citing figures or tables from a different journal that is not open access.
Process to Manage Research and Publication Misconduct
The editorial board is committed to addressing issues of publication misconduct, including redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fraudulent or fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, ethical problems with submitted manuscripts, reviewers appropriating authors’ ideas or data, complaints against editors, and similar concerns. When the journal encounters suspected cases of research and publication misconduct, the resolution process will follow the guidelines provided by the "Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)." The complete guidelines appear on COPE website: http://www.publicationethics.org.
Plagiarism
Authors are strongly encouraged to check their manuscripts for plagiarism before submitting them to the journal for publication. Authors can use reliable and valid "Plagiarism Checking software" to ensure their manuscripts are free from plagiarism. All submitted papers to the journal will also undergo a plagiarism check upon receipt and before final publication using iThenticate and other plagiarism detection software. If reviewers, the Editor-in-Chief, readers, or editorial staff suspect or detect any plagiarism at any stage of the publication process, the manuscript will be rejected, and all authors, including the corresponding author, will be notified. Self-plagiarism will also be addressed and managed accordingly.