Journal Policies

1) Access and Availability

The Iraqi Journal of Microbiology and Biomedical Science (IJMBS) provides free access to published articles to support the broad dissemination of scientific knowledge in microbiology and biomedical sciences.

2) Peer Review and Editorial Independence

IJMBS uses a double-blind peer review process. Manuscripts are assessed by independent reviewers with relevant expertise, and editorial decisions are based on scientific merit, originality, clarity, and relevance. Reviewers and editors must keep manuscripts confidential and declare any conflicts of interest.

3) Originality and Similarity Screening

All submitted manuscripts must be original and free from plagiarism. Manuscripts are screened using similarity-check tools such as Turnitin. As a general guideline, the acceptable similarity level for research articles is less than 15%. Standard phrases in references, figure legends, and methods are usually excluded. Similarity is evaluated based on duplicated sentences or paragraphs, not solely on percentage scores.

 

4) Research Ethics

Studies involving humans, animals, or sensitive data must comply with institutional and national ethical requirements. Ethical approval and informed consent statements must be provided when applicable, or clearly stated as “Not applicable” when not required.

5) Online First and DOI

After acceptance and completion of journal requirements, articles may be published online as Online First and assigned a DOI , making them immediately citable.

 

6) Copyright and Licensing

Authors retain copyright of their work and grant IJMBS the right of first publication. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

 

7) Privacy and Confidentiality

Manuscripts, reviews, and editorial correspondence are treated as confidential. Personal data (names and email addresses) is used only for journal operations and are not shared for unrelated purposes.

8) Advertising and Journal Communications

IJMBS does not allow commercial influence on editorial decisions. The journal may announce new publications through official channels and indexing platforms; such communications are limited to journal-related content and updates.