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Policies

Contents

Peer Review Process

An editor initially reviews each submitted manuscript to determine whether it aligns with the journal's focus and scope, typically within one to two weeks. If the manuscript is considered suitable for further evaluation, an editorial assistant will verify that all submission requirements are complete, also typically within one to two weeks.

Authors will normally be given one week after receiving notification to complete missing requirements or make necessary corrections to the manuscript. The editor may reject a manuscript at this stage if it falls outside the journal's scope, lacks sufficient scientific or general interest, or is otherwise considered unsuitable for publication. Manuscripts that pass the initial screening will undergo a plagiarism check before being sent for peer review.

Each manuscript that passes the initial screening will normally be evaluated by two or three reviewers through a double-blind peer-review process. At least one reviewer will be affiliated with a different institution or country. The manuscript is provided to reviewers without identifying author information, and reviewer comments are subsequently communicated to the corresponding author through the editorial process.

The peer-review process typically takes approximately 2–6 weeks, depending on reviewer availability, the complexity of the manuscript, the nature of the comments received, and the adequacy of the manuscript.

The editor will consider the reviewers' reports when making an editorial decision but is not bound by the reviewers' opinions or recommendations. Scientific, methodological, ethical, or other concerns raised by reviewers or editors may result in rejection of the manuscript.

Following peer review, the editorial decision may include one of the following outcomes:

  • manuscript accepted;
  • manuscript accepted with minor revisions;
  • manuscript accepted with major revisions; or
  • manuscript rejected.

Authors should carefully review and address all comments provided by the reviewers and editors. Revised manuscripts should be accompanied by a point-by-point response explaining how each comment has been addressed. When a requested revision cannot be made, authors should provide an appropriate explanation.

After revision, the manuscript should be resubmitted through the journal's submission system. The revised manuscript may be assessed by the editor alone or may be returned to the original or additional reviewers for another round of peer review, depending on the nature and extent of the revisions.

The editor will make the final editorial decision after considering the revised manuscript, the authors' responses, and, when applicable, additional reviewer comments. If the revisions adequately address the concerns raised and the manuscript meets the journal's scientific, ethical, and editorial standards, the manuscript may proceed toward publication.

Accepted manuscripts will subsequently undergo copyediting and language editing as part of the journal's production process before publication.

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Publication Frequency

Majalah Kedokteran Bandung (MKB) is published quarterly, with issues released in March, June, September, and December.

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Open Access Policy

Majalah Kedokteran Bandung provides immediate open access to all published articles. Readers and institutions may access, read, and download published content free of charge.

Article abstracts are available in HTML format, while full-text articles are available in PDF format. Each published article is assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) through Crossref.

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) . This license permits sharing and adaptation of published articles for noncommercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and the original source.

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Archiving Policy

Majalah Kedokteran Bandung is committed to the long-term preservation and accessibility of its published scholarly content.

The journal maintains regular backups of published articles, metadata, issues, and publication files. Backup copies are stored separately from the primary journal website to reduce the risk of data loss.

The journal may also use digital preservation services, institutional repositories, and other recognized archiving systems to support long-term access to its content.

Authors may archive the published version of their articles in institutional repositories, academic websites, and other noncommercial scholarly platforms. The archived version should include the complete citation, DOI, and a link to the official published article.

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Plagiarism Policy

Majalah Kedokteran Bandung does not tolerate plagiarism or other forms of inappropriate textual or intellectual appropriation. Plagiarism is considered a form of scientific misconduct and will be handled accordingly.

All submitted manuscripts are screened using Turnitin during the initial editorial checking process. A maximum similarity threshold of 20% is accepted. Manuscripts exceeding this threshold may be returned to the authors for correction and resubmission before further editorial consideration.

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Subscription

Majalah Kedokteran Bandung is a fully open-access journal. No subscription or payment is required to access published articles.

Readers may register on the journal website to receive notifications about new issues and announcements. Registration is voluntary and does not affect access to journal content.

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Retraction, Withdrawal, and Correction Policy

Majalah Kedokteran Bandung follows the principles of the COPE Retraction Guidelines in handling retractions, withdrawals, corrections, and other post-publication amendments.

Retraction. An article may be retracted when there is clear evidence that its findings are unreliable, when substantial plagiarism or redundant publication has occurred, or when the research is found to have been conducted or reported unethically. The original article will normally remain available with a clear retraction notice linked to the published record.

If removal of an article is necessary in exceptional circumstances, an appropriate removal notice will be published.

Withdrawal. Manuscript withdrawal is permitted only for compelling and unavoidable reasons. Authors requesting withdrawal must submit a Manuscript Withdrawal Form signed by all authors and clearly state the reason for the request. A manuscript should not be considered withdrawn until confirmation has been issued by the Editorial Office.

Erratum (Publisher Correction). An erratum is issued to correct errors introduced during the publication or production process. Corrections may be published when such errors affect the scientific meaning, article metadata, authorship information, figures, tables, or the reader's ability to understand the article. Minor typographical or grammatical errors that do not affect meaning normally do not require an erratum.

Corrigendum (Author Correction). A corrigendum may be issued when authors identify an error or omission in a published article that requires correction. Authors should contact the Editorial Office, and the editor will determine whether a formal correction is required.

Publisher's notes may be used when production or metadata errors require correction after publication. Any correction that affects the integrity or interpretation of the published record will be made transparent to readers.

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Data Sharing Policy

Where appropriate, Majalah Kedokteran Bandung encourages authors to make research data available to support transparency, reproducibility, and verification of published findings.

Research data may include raw and processed data, software, algorithms, protocols, models, methods, and other materials necessary to support the reported findings.

Authors who deposit research data in an appropriate repository are encouraged to link the published article directly to the corresponding dataset and provide relevant repository information or persistent identifiers whenever available.

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Authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate informed consent from research participants when required. For manuscripts containing identifiable patient information, photographs, clinical images, case reports, or other potentially identifying material, written consent for publication must be obtained from the patient or the patient's legally authorized representative.

Patient privacy must be protected. Identifying information, including names, initials, hospital numbers, photographs, or other personal identifiers, should not be published unless the information is scientifically essential and written permission for publication has been obtained.

Written consent should be retained by the authors, the journal, or both, as required by applicable institutional policies, regulations, or laws.

Failure to provide required patient consent documentation at the time of submission may result in the manuscript being rejected.

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Authorship and Contributorship Policy

Majalah Kedokteran Bandung (MKB) is committed to ensuring transparency, accountability, and appropriate recognition of contributions to scholarly work.

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to the research and manuscript. Each listed author should:

  • make a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
  • participate in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
  • approve the final version to be published; and
  • agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work and ensure that questions related to its accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Individuals who do not meet the criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors. Their contributions may be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section.

All listed authors must approve the submitted manuscript, the order of authors, and the authorship information provided during submission.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that:

  • the manuscript is original and has not been published previously or submitted simultaneously to another journal;
  • all listed authors have made appropriate contributions to the work;
  • all authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript;
  • the research complies with applicable ethical standards;
  • all required ethical approvals, informed consent, permissions, and supporting documentation have been obtained;
  • funding sources and potential conflicts of interest have been appropriately disclosed; and
  • all authors take responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the work.

Contributors who do not qualify for authorship may be acknowledged for contributions such as technical assistance, data collection, statistical support, language editing, administrative support, or other relevant assistance.

Any addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors after submission must be justified in writing and approved by all authors. The journal may request written confirmation from all authors before approving any authorship change.

Requests for authorship changes after acceptance or publication will be considered only in exceptional circumstances and may require a formal correction notice.

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Complaints and Appeals Policy

Majalah Kedokteran Bandung (MKB) deals with complaints and appeals in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in a fair, transparent, objective, and timely manner.

Complaints and appeals may relate to the editorial process, peer review, scientific content, publication ethics, or journal management.

All complaints and appeals must be submitted in writing to the Editorial Team via email at mkb.fkunpad@gmail.com and will be reviewed objectively by the Editor-in-Chief or another editor appointed as a representative when appropriate.

Complaints and appeals may include:

  • review of rejected manuscripts and appeals against rejection;
  • complaints regarding the scientific content of submitted or published articles;
  • complaints concerning editorial or peer-review procedures, including the time required for the review or publication process; and
  • complaints or appeals concerning suspected violations of publication ethics involving authors, reviewers, editors, or published articles.

Authors submitting an appeal against a rejection decision should provide a clear explanation of the grounds for the appeal and, where relevant, address the scientific or procedural issues underlying the original decision.

All complaints, appeals, and requests for reconsideration will be addressed within a maximum of two weeks, whenever reasonably possible.

The Editor-in-Chief or appointed editor will conduct an investigation in accordance with applicable journal policies and relevant COPE guidance. Where necessary, clarification may be sought from authors, reviewers, editors, members of the Editorial Board, institutions, or other relevant parties.

The outcome of the review will be communicated to the complainant or appellant after the investigation has been completed.

Further guidance is available from the COPE Appeals recommendations .

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Policy of Revenue Sources, Advertising, and Direct Marketing

Revenue Sources. Majalah Kedokteran Bandung receives financial support to maintain editorial management, peer review, publication, website infrastructure, digital preservation, and dissemination of scholarly content.

Sources of revenue may include:

  • manuscript submission fees;
  • article processing or publication charges;
  • institutional support from the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Padjadjaran; and
  • other legitimate institutional or publishing support.

Revenue sources do not influence editorial decisions. Editorial decisions are based on scientific quality, originality, validity, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal's scope, and peer-review evaluation.

Payment of submission, publication, or other journal-related fees does not guarantee acceptance or publication.

Advertising Policy. Majalah Kedokteran Bandung does not currently accept commercial advertising from external parties. If advertising is introduced in the future, advertising decisions will remain independent of editorial decisions and will not influence peer review, manuscript acceptance, rejection, or published scientific content.

Advertisements, if accepted, must be clearly distinguishable from editorial and scholarly content.

Direct Marketing Policy. Majalah Kedokteran Bandung may conduct direct marketing activities for legitimate scholarly and journal-related purposes, including calls for papers, publication announcements, journal updates, academic events, indexing or accreditation information, and other scholarly communications.

All direct marketing activities must be accurate, transparent, professional, appropriate, and non-misleading.

Personal information obtained through journal activities will be used only for legitimate editorial, scholarly, administrative, or journal communication purposes and will not be sold to third parties for unrelated commercial purposes.

Direct marketing activities must remain independent of editorial decisions and the peer-review process.

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Intellectual Property Policy

Majalah Kedokteran Bandung (MKB) respects intellectual property rights and is committed to preventing copyright infringement and unauthorized use of protected materials.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all materials included in their submission, including text, figures, photographs, tables, illustrations, questionnaires, datasets, supplementary materials, and other copyrighted or proprietary content, do not violate the copyright, patent, trademark, privacy, or other intellectual property rights of third parties.

Authors must obtain appropriate written permission before reproducing or adapting copyrighted material when permission is required. Appropriate acknowledgment and citation of the original source must be provided for all reproduced or adapted materials.

Authors are responsible for retaining documentation of permissions, licenses, consent forms, or other authorization related to third-party materials and must provide such documentation to the Editorial Office upon request.

Authors are also responsible for ensuring that the submission does not contain confidential, proprietary, or restricted information that they are not authorized to publish.

The journal reserves the right to reject, withdraw, correct, or retract content if copyright infringement, unauthorized use of intellectual property, or other serious legal or ethical concerns are identified.

Publication of an article does not remove the authors' responsibility to respect third-party intellectual property rights.

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Allegation of Misconduct Policy

Majalah Kedokteran Bandung (MKB) is committed to maintaining the integrity, reliability, and credibility of the scholarly record.

Research and publication misconduct may include, but is not limited to:

  • fabrication of data or results;
  • falsification or inappropriate manipulation of research materials, methods, processes, images, or data;
  • plagiarism;
  • duplicate or redundant publication;
  • citation manipulation;
  • inappropriate or misleading authorship;
  • undisclosed conflicts of interest;
  • manipulation of the peer-review process;
  • unethical research practices;
  • unauthorized manipulation of images or research data;
  • deliberate misrepresentation of findings; and
  • other serious violations of research or publication ethics.

Allegations of misconduct may be raised before or after publication. When an allegation is received, the journal will initially assess whether the concern has sufficient basis to warrant further investigation.

The journal will handle allegations as confidentially, fairly, objectively, and promptly as reasonably possible and will avoid making conclusions before the available information has been assessed.

Where appropriate, the corresponding author, reviewer, editor, or other relevant individual will be informed of the allegation and given an opportunity to provide an explanation and supporting documentation.

The journal may seek additional information from co-authors, reviewers, editors, members of the Editorial Board, independent experts, research institutions, ethics committees, funding bodies, or other relevant organizations.

Where serious concerns require formal institutional investigation, the journal may refer the matter to the author's institution, research integrity office, ethics committee, or another appropriate authority.

The journal does not normally determine whether research misconduct has legally or institutionally occurred. Its primary responsibility is to protect the integrity of the scholarly record and take appropriate editorial action based on the information available.

Depending on the nature and outcome of the investigation, editorial action may include:

  • requesting clarification or supporting documentation;
  • requesting manuscript revision;
  • suspending editorial processing while an investigation is ongoing;
  • rejecting the manuscript;
  • withdrawing a reviewer assignment;
  • correcting a published article;
  • publishing an expression of concern;
  • retracting a published article; or
  • taking other appropriate action in accordance with the journal's publication ethics policies.

Individuals raising concerns in good faith should be treated fairly and their concerns should be assessed objectively. Allegations should not be used for harassment, retaliation, or personal disputes.

The primary purpose of investigating allegations of misconduct is to preserve the accuracy, reliability, transparency, and integrity of the scientific record.

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Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies Policy

Majalah Kedokteran Bandung (MKB) supports the responsible, transparent, and ethical use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in scholarly publishing.

The use of these technologies must not compromise the accuracy, originality, confidentiality, integrity, or ethical standards of scholarly work.

Authors, reviewers, and editors remain fully responsible for their respective roles and decisions throughout the publication process, regardless of whether generative AI or AI-assisted technologies are used.

Authors. Authors must disclose the use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies when these tools have contributed substantially to the preparation of a manuscript.

AI tools may be used to assist with language editing, grammar correction, translation, formatting, or improvement of readability. AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot take responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, or ethical standards of scholarly work.

Authors remain fully responsible for all content generated, revised, or assisted by AI tools, including the accuracy of information, references, data, analyses, interpretations, results, and conclusions.

When generative AI or AI-assisted technologies have been used substantially, authors should include a disclosure statement, preferably in the Acknowledgments or Methods section.

The disclosure should include:

  • the name and version of the AI tool;
  • the purpose for which the tool was used; and
  • confirmation that the authors reviewed and verified the AI-assisted content.

Example:
“The authors used [name and version of AI tool] for language editing and grammar correction. All AI-assisted content was reviewed and verified by the authors, who take full responsibility for the final manuscript.”

The use of AI tools to fabricate, falsify, manipulate, or misrepresent data, images, references, results, or other scholarly content is strictly prohibited.

AI-Generated Content Screening. MKB may use AI-detection software as part of the initial editorial screening process. As a journal-specific editorial policy, submitted manuscripts are expected to have an AI-generated content score of no more than 35%.

Manuscripts with an AI-generated content score above 35% may be returned to the authors for clarification, revision, or further editorial assessment before proceeding to peer review.

The AI-detection score is used as a screening indicator and is not considered definitive evidence of publication misconduct. Final assessment remains the responsibility of the editorial team.

Failure to disclose substantial use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies may be considered a breach of publication ethics and may result in appropriate editorial action.

Reviewers. Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and all materials received during the peer-review process.

Reviewers should not upload unpublished manuscripts, figures, tables, supplementary materials, or other confidential information into generative AI systems when confidentiality and data protection cannot be assured.

Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies must not replace the reviewer's independent scientific judgment, critical evaluation, or professional responsibility.

If such technologies are used substantially in preparing a peer-review report, reviewers should disclose their use to the journal. Reviewers remain fully responsible for the accuracy, fairness, appropriateness, and integrity of their review comments and recommendations.

Editors. Editors must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, author information, reviewer information, and editorial correspondence.

Editors should not upload unpublished manuscripts or other confidential editorial materials into generative AI systems when confidentiality and data security cannot be guaranteed.

AI-assisted technologies may be used for limited administrative or language-related purposes but must not replace independent editorial judgment.

Decisions regarding manuscript screening, reviewer selection, revision, acceptance, rejection, correction, or retraction must remain under the responsibility of qualified human editors.

Accountability. Authors, reviewers, and editors remain responsible for ensuring that the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies does not compromise confidentiality, intellectual property, research integrity, peer-review integrity, or the accuracy of scholarly communication.

Suspected inappropriate, undisclosed, or unethical use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies may be evaluated by the editorial team in accordance with the journal's publication ethics policies.

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