About This Journal

1. Aims and Scope

The International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Medicine (IJCPM) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to advancing evidence-based practice, research, education, and innovation across the fields of clinical pharmacy, pharmacotherapy, medicine, and multidisciplinary patient care.

IJCPM provides a premier global platform for pharmacists, physicians, nurses, researchers, educators, and other healthcare professionals to disseminate clinically relevant research and scholarly work that contributes to improved medication use, patient safety, healthcare quality, and patient outcomes.

The journal welcomes submissions from all regions of the world and encourages interdisciplinary research addressing contemporary challenges in pharmacy and medicine.

Scope of the Journal

The journal publishes work related to, but not limited to:

Types of Manuscripts Considered

IJCPM considers the following categories of manuscripts:

Editorial Philosophy

The journal evaluates manuscripts according to their scientific quality, originality, methodological rigor, clinical relevance, ethical standards, and contribution to healthcare knowledge.

Editorial decisions are made without discrimination based on authors' nationality, ethnicity, institutional affiliation, geographic location, religion, political beliefs, gender, or professional background. This policy is strictly aligned with international transparency principles for scholarly journals, ensuring all decisions are rooted in scholarly merit (Directory of Open Access Journals).

Audience

The journal is intended for:

• Clinical pharmacists & Hospital pharmacists
• Physicians and Medical Specialists
• Researchers and Academics
• Pharmacy and Medical Educators
• Nurses and Advanced Practice Providers
• Allied Healthcare Professionals
• Healthcare Administrators & Policymakers
• Postgraduate Trainees, Fellows, and Pharmacy/Medical Students

2. Editorial Board and Governance

The International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Medicine is supported by an international editorial team consisting of distinguished healthcare professionals and academics with expertise in clinical pharmacy, medicine, pharmacotherapy, research methodology, and scientific publishing.

Deputy / Associate Editors

Editorial Board Members

Editorial Independence Policy

Editorial decisions are made independently of the journal owner, publisher, advertisers, sponsors, or commercial partners. The journal owner or publisher does not determine whether an individual manuscript is accepted or rejected. This governance adheres strictly to ICMJE recommendations protecting editorial autonomy.

Conflicts of Interest of Editors & Recusal Policy

Editors and Editorial Board members must disclose relevant financial and non-financial relationships. An editor will not participate in the editorial decision for a manuscript when a relationship could reasonably affect—or be perceived to affect—their impartiality (such as recent collaboration with an author, employment at the same institution, personal relationships, or competing financial interests). A conflicted editor is recused, and the manuscript is reassigned.

Manuscripts Submitted by Editorial Board Members

Manuscripts authored by the Editor-in-Chief, editors, or Editorial Board members receive no preferential treatment. They are assigned to independent editors with zero conflict of interest, and the submitting editor has no access to the review file or influence over the decision.

3. Editorial Policies

The International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Medicine is committed to maintaining high standards of scientific integrity, editorial independence, transparency, and ethical publishing based on recommendations from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

3.1 Screening & Editorial Triage

Submitted manuscripts are screened for journal scope, originality, scientific relevance, methodological quality, ethical approvals, complete reporting, and textual overlap. Manuscripts outside scope or lacking scientific validity may be rejected without external peer review.

3.2 Double-Anonymized Peer-Review Model

IJCPM utilizes a double-anonymized peer-review process. Reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors, and author identities are concealed from reviewers. At least two independent expert reviewers evaluate original research and reviews.

3.3 Editorial Decisions

Outcomes include Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, Reject and Resubmit, or Reject. Acceptance is based strictly on scientific quality and merit.

3.4 Authorship Criteria & CRediT Contributorship

In accordance with ICMJE guidelines, each author must meet all four criteria:

1. Substantial contribution to conception/design or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
2. Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content;
3. Approval of the final version to be published; and
4. Accountability for all aspects of the work's integrity and accuracy.

Individuals who do not meet all four criteria should be listed in Acknowledgements.

3.4 Author Contributions (CRediT Taxonomy)

Authors should provide a contribution statement utilizing the 11 CRediT roles: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, and Funding acquisition.

3.5 Changes in Authorship

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors post-submission must include a formal explanation, written agreement from all authors, and approval from the Editor-in-Chief.

3.6 Originality and Duplicate Publication

Submissions must represent original, unpublished work not under consideration elsewhere. Preprints posted on non-commercial servers (e.g. medRxiv) are considered provided transparent disclosure is made upon submission.

3.7 Plagiarism Screening & Sanctions

All submissions undergo automated similarity screening. Substantial unattributed overlap, data fabrication, or duplicate publication will result in immediate rejection, institutional notification, or retraction.

3.8 Research Reporting Guidelines

Authors must adhere to study design guidelines from the EQUATOR Network:

• CONSORT: Randomized Clinical Trials
• STROBE: Observational Studies
• PRISMA: Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
• CARE: Case Reports
• STARD: Diagnostic Accuracy Studies
• CHEERS: Economic Evaluations
• SQUIRE: Quality Improvement Studies
• ARRIVE: Animal Research
• TRIPOD: Prediction Models

3.9 Clinical Trial Registration

Clinical trials must be prospectively registered in a public registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov) prior to or at the time of the first participant enrollment. Registration numbers must appear in the manuscript.

3.10 Data Availability Statements

All articles must include a Data Availability Statement using standardized templates (Open data repository link, Available upon reasonable request, or Restricted for participant privacy).

3.11 Preprints, 3.12 Appeals & 3.13 Complaints

Authors may submit point-by-point appeals regarding procedural or substantive scientific errors.
Complaints: Confidential concerns regarding editorial integrity or reviewer conduct should be submitted directly to contact@ijcpm.com.

4. Ethics and Disclosures

International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Medicine is committed to ethical biomedical publishing and the absolute protection of human research participants and patient privacy.

4.1 Human Participants & IRB Approval

Studies involving human participants must have prospective approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or independent ethics committee. Authors must state the approving committee and approval/reference number.

4.2 Informed Consent

Written informed consent must be documented for all participants. For retrospective audits where consent was waived, the granting ethics committee must be cited.

4.3 Case Reports & Patient De-identification

Direct patient identifiers (names, initials, hospital numbers, specific addresses) must not appear. Written patient consent for publication must be obtained when clinical images or identifiable histories are involved.

4.4 Animal Research

Studies involving animals must comply with institutional and national animal welfare regulations (e.g., ARRIVE guidelines).

4.5 Conflicts of Interest & 4.6 Funding Disclosures

All authors must declare financial relationships (consultancies, grants, honoraria, stock ownership) and relevant non-financial interests. Clear funding disclosures must identify all granting bodies and state that funders had no influence over data or publication.

4.7 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy for Authors

4.8 AI Prohibition for Reviewers and Editors

Unpublished manuscripts under peer review are strictly confidential. Reviewers and editors are explicitly prohibited from uploading manuscripts into external AI tools or cloud LLMs, as doing so violates author copyright and confidentiality.

4.9 Misconduct, 4.10 Corrections & 4.11 Retractions

Fabrication, falsification, image manipulation, and unethical research are not tolerated. When errors affect published work, formal Corrections, Expressions of Concern, or Retractions are published in accordance with COPE guidelines.

5. Rights and Permissions

Publication Policy & Copyright Retention

International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Medicine is a scholarly journal. Published articles are immediately available to readers worldwide. Authors retain copyright of their scholarly work.

Creative Commons License (CC BY 4.0)

Unless otherwise specified, all articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Readers are free to share, copy, and adapt the material in any medium, including commercially, provided proper credit is given to the original author(s) and source with a link to the license.

Author Rights

Authors retain extensive rights, including:

• Depositing published versions in institutional repositories (Green Open Access)
• Distributing copies for teaching and educational purposes
• Posting the published version on personal or university websites
• Reusing figures, tables, or text in subsequent scholarly work with citation
• Sharing articles through research networks (ResearchGate, Academia.edu)

Third-Party Materials & Permissions Contact

Authors are responsible for securing written permissions for third-party copyrighted figures or scales. For any permissions inquiries regarding IJCPM content, contact the editorial office at editor@ijcpm.com.