Enacted: June 30, 2008
First Amendment: January 1, 2013
Second Amendment: November 25, 2016
Third Amendment: October 31, 2020

Article 1 (Purpose) The purpose of these guidelines is to present the ethics regulations of the Korean Medical Education Review (KMER) in accordance with Article 8 of the publication regulations of KMER.

Article 2 (Applicability) These guidelines shall apply to all authors who submit manuscripts to KMER and editors and reviewers of KMER.

Article 3 (Principles of Application)

• 1. The ethics regulations shall ensure research integrity, including honesty in conducting research, ethics in the process of publishing research results, and the responsibilities of researchers. Manuscripts in which misconduct in research and publication has occurred shall not be published.
• 2. The editorial board shall check submitted manuscripts using plagiarism prevention systems, such as the Korean Citation Index (KCI) similarity check system, and reject manuscripts if plagiarism is evident.
• 3. In order to prevent violations of research ethics in advance, the editorial board shall strictly exclude reviewers affiliated with the same institution as the author.

Article 4 (Research Ethics)

• 1. Research ethics for contributors
  • 1) Authors are obligated to submit manuscripts that are free of research misconduct by complying with the Ethics Regulations of KMER, the Guidelines for Securing Research Ethics of the Ministry of Education, and the Good Publication Practice Guideline for Medical Journals of the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors (KAMJE).
  • 2) Authors must submit a document indicating compliance with the KMER Research Ethics Regulations (Appendix 1) to confirm their compliance with all research ethics regulations required by the KMER.
  • 3) Authors must actively cooperate with the investigation of the Research Ethics Committee if issues related to research ethics are raised.
• 2. Research ethics for editors
  • 1) Editors shall be responsible for determining whether to publish submitted manuscripts and must respect authors’ independence.
  • 2) Editors must handle manuscripts submitted for publication based on the quality of the manuscripts and submission guidelines, regardless of the author’s sex/gender, age, and affiliation, as well as any prejudice or personal relationships.
  • 3) Editors must not disclose information about authors or manuscripts until the publication of the submitted manuscripts is determined.
• 3. Research ethics for reviewers
  • 1) Reviewers must sincerely evaluate the manuscripts requested by the editorial board and inform the review results within the period set by the review guidelines.
  • 2) Reviewers must fairly evaluate the manuscripts requested by the editorial board based on objective criteria, regardless of personal academic beliefs or personal relationships with the authors.
  • 3) Reviewers must notify the editorial board if a manuscript requested for review has already been published in other academic journals or is under duplication review, or if any other issues come to light.

Article 5 (Misconduct) Manuscripts with the following types of research and publication misconduct shall not be published.

• 1. Fabrication: An act of creating false data or nonexistent research results and recording or reporting them.
• 2. Falsification: An act that makes research records not conform to the truth by manipulating research data and processes and modifying or deleting data and research results.
• 3. Plagiarism: An act of stealing others’ ideas, procedures, and results without legitimate authorization. An act of self-plagiarism is defined as duplicate submission or publication in the same or other languages using the entirety or part of one’s own articles or books that have already been published without accurately indicating the source or citation.
• 4. Not indicating a citation or reference: An act of not specifying the source when citing or indicating references in academic materials.
• 5. Unjustified authorship: An act of not granting authorship to a person who has directly contributed to research content or results without justifiable reasons, or an act of granting authorship to a person who has not contributed to the research for appreciation or courtesy.
• 6. Duplicate publication: An act of dividing content in the same academic category into multiple articles (salami publication) or an act of publishing a new article by adding research subjects or some results to an already published article (imalas publication)

Article 6 (Research Ethics Committee)

• 1. The Research Ethics Committee shall be established and operated under the editorial board in order to deliberate and resolve all matters related to research ethics.
• 2. The director of the Research Ethics Committee shall be appointed by the Editor-in-Chief, and committee members shall consist of 3 editors and 2 related experts.
• 3. The term of the director and members of the Research Ethics Committee shall be 3 years, and they can be reappointed to a consecutive term.
• 4. Resolutions of the Research Ethics Committee shall be finalized by majority agreement.
• 5. The Editor-in Chief shall individually conduct a preliminary investigation if there are reports from readers or outside and if reviewers raise an issue. If it is judged to be a problem, the Editor-in-Chief must convene the Research Ethics Committee established under the editorial board to deliberate about whether the ethics regulations have been violated.

Article 7 (Investigation of Misconduct)

• 1. Report and request for deliberation: An informant can report an instance of possible misconduct to KMER in written form or via email, and the report must be made under one’s real name.
• 2. Investigation and deliberation: 1) The Editor-in-Chief shall be responsible for receiving and handling reports on misconduct. The Editor-in-Chief shall conduct a preliminary investigation of reported instances of research and publication misconduct, and if it is judged to be a problem, shall convene the Research Ethics Committee to conduct a main investigation, and 2) the guidelines of the Ministry of Education and KAMJE shall be implemented for matters related to preliminary and main investigations.
• 3. Guarantee of opportunity for clarification and confidentiality: 1) The editorial board shall notify any researcher who has been reported for a violation of ethics regulations and give sufficient opportunity for vindication, and 2) the investigation process and results shall not be disclosed until the deliberation and resolution about misconduct are completed, in order to avoid unjustly infringing the honor or rights of those under investigation.
• 4. Follow-up measures: Follow-up measures according to the investigation of misconduct shall be decided by the editorial board, following the guidelines of the Ministry of Education and KAMJE.

Article 8 (Amendment) These regulations can be amended through deliberation by the editorial board and a majority vote.

Article 9 (Enforcement) These regulations shall be in effect from June 30, 2008.

• These amended regulations shall be in effect from January 1, 2013.
• These amended regulations shall be in effect from November 25, 2016.
• These amended regulations shall be in effect from October 31, 2020.