Rejection Policy

Articles submitted to Proceedings of Shaikh Zayed Medical Complex are subject to rigorous editorial and ethical review. A manuscript may be rejected at initial screening or at any stage of the editorial/review process if it fails to comply with the journal?s ethical standards, quality criteria, or submission requirements.

  1. Initial Rejection

A manuscript may be rejected immediately upon submission if it:

  1. Prior or Duplicate Publication

Articles are not eligible for publication in Proceedings if they have already been made publicly available in:

  • Blogs, periodicals, or books.
  • Conference reports, symposium proceedings, or technical bulletins.
  • Institutional reports or brochures.
  • Any retrievable source on the internet (other than preprint servers, if clearly declared at submission and consistent with ICMJE guidelines).
  1. Ethical Non-Compliance

Rejection will occur if:

  • The manuscript fails to address ethical requirements, including documentation of Ethics Committee / Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval (number/ID required and certificate provided on request).
  • In multicenter studies, proper permissions from each healthcare facility are not obtained.
  • For non-interventional studies, a waiver certificate from EC/IRB is not provided.
  • For FCPS dissertations, the synopsis approval letter from RTMC of CPSP is not attached.
  1. Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools
  • Authors must disclose any use of AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT or other generative AI) in manuscript preparation, data analysis, or figure generation, in accordance with ICMJE?s guidance on AI.
  • Failure to disclose AI use, or inappropriate reliance on AI for content generation, is grounds for rejection.
  • AI tools cannot be listed as authors and authors remain fully responsible for all content.
  1. Failure to Revise or Comply with Editorial Decisions
  • Authors are required to respond to reviewers? and editors? comments within the stipulated timeline.
  • Failure to provide satisfactory corrections, clarifications, or revisions may result in rejection.
  1. Post-Acceptance Rejection and Retraction
  • A paper may be rejected even after acceptance if serious issues with its scientific validity, originality, or ethical compliance become apparent.
  • In cases of confirmed misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, duplicate submission, or ethical violation), the online version will be removed and replaced with an Editorial Board statement of retraction or disownment.

Retractions, corrections, or expressions of concern will follow the COPE Retraction Guidelines: https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines?utm_source=chatgpt.com