JPCCS Policies

Journal of Perioperative and Critical Care Sciences (JPCCS)

Journal Policies

The Journal of Perioperative and Critical Care Sciences (JPCCS) maintains a structured policy framework to protect research integrity, author rights, reader access, and editorial independence. These policies govern the full publication lifecycle, from submission and peer review through licensing, data transparency, archiving, post-publication corrections, and ethical oversight. Together, they clarify expectations for authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher, and they ensure that published work remains accessible, citable, and reliable as part of the permanent scholarly record.

Authors and reviewers are strongly encouraged to read the Open Access, Licensing, Copyright, Peer Review, Publication Ethics, and Author Charges policies before submission. For specific situations, preprints, repository deposits, AI-assisted writing, appeals, anonymity requests, corrections or retractions, or conflicts of interest, please consult the relevant policy.

Principal Contact: Dr. Sumbal Rana, editor@jpccs.org

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

JPCCS is committed to immediate, free, and unrestricted access to scholarly research in perioperative medicine, critical care, anaesthesia, emergency and trauma care, pain medicine, resuscitation science, and allied perioperative disciplines. All articles published in JPCCS are made available online immediately upon publication, with no embargo period. This open access model supports timely dissemination of clinical evidence, strengthens transparency and reproducibility, and maximises the reach and impact of research across perioperative and critical care practice.

Users may access and use journal content for any lawful purpose, including reading, downloading, copying, distributing, printing, searching, and linking to the full text of articles, without financial, legal, or technical barriers and without requesting prior permission from the publisher or authors, provided appropriate attribution to the original work is maintained.

Licensing

All articles published in JPCCS are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license permits others to share the work in any medium or format and to adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use, provided that proper credit is given to the authors and the journal source, a link to the license is included, and any changes made are indicated.

Access and Charges

Readers have free access to all JPCCS content. No registration is required to view published articles, and article downloads are available without charge. The journal does not levy subscription fees on readers or institutions.

JPCCS operates on an open access publishing model supported through an Article Processing Charge (APC) applied only after acceptance. The APC is PKR 25,000 (or the equivalent in USD) and becomes payable once a manuscript has successfully completed the editorial and peer review processes and a formal acceptance decision has been issued. Administrative procedures and fee-related clarifications are provided in the APC Policy.

Copyright

Authors retain full copyright in their published work in JPCCS. By publishing in the journal, authors grant JPCCS a non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce, and disseminate the article online and through indexing and archiving systems under the CC BY 4.0 license terms. Authors retain the freedom to reuse and share their work in accordance with the same license conditions.

Archiving and Availability

JPCCS is committed to ensuring permanent access to all published content. Long-term digital preservation is ensured through the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), which supports ongoing availability of published articles over time. Further details regarding preservation arrangements and continuity of access are provided in the journal's Archiving Policy.

Compliance with Funders

This open access policy is intended to remain compatible with common funder and institutional open access requirements. Where specific funder-mandated conditions apply, authors are encouraged to review the journal's licensing and archiving provisions to ensure that deposit, reuse, and attribution requirements are satisfied under the CC BY 4.0 framework.

LICENSING POLICY

JPCCS publishes all articles under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) as its default publishing license. This licensing approach is intended to maximise lawful reuse, dissemination, and scholarly impact while ensuring that authors receive appropriate credit for their work and that the integrity of the scholarly record is maintained.

Permitted Uses Under CC BY 4.0

Under CC BY 4.0, readers and users may copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and may remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use. These uses do not require prior permission from the publisher or the author(s), provided that appropriate attribution is given to the author(s) and the original source, a link to the license is included, and any changes made are clearly indicated.

Author Rights

Authors retain full copyright of their work published in JPCCS. By submitting a manuscript and proceeding to publication, authors grant JPCCS a non-exclusive license to publish and disseminate the article under CC BY 4.0. This arrangement ensures that authors remain free to reuse, share, and distribute their work broadly while allowing the journal to publish, archive, and index the Version of Record.

Authors may deposit the submitted version (preprint), the accepted version (postprint), and the published Version of Record in repositories, personal websites, and institutional platforms in accordance with the journal's Self-Archiving provisions. Authors may also reuse their work in books, theses, institutional repositories, teaching materials, and conference outputs without restriction, provided that proper citation to the original publication in JPCCS is maintained and the CC BY 4.0 terms are respected.

License Display and Article-Level Licensing

For transparency, discoverability, and consistent indexing, JPCCS displays the CC BY 4.0 license clearly at the article level. The license statement and link are presented on each article landing page and within the full-text formats provided by the journal, including PDF and HTML versions. A standard license notice accompanies each article to clearly communicate reuse permissions and attribution expectations.

Third-Party Content

Authors are responsible for ensuring that they have appropriate permission to reuse, reproduce, or adapt any third-party content included in their manuscript, including figures, tables, images, clinical scales or scoring instruments (for example APACHE, SOFA, NRS/VAS, validated quality-of-recovery or pain scales), questionnaires, extensive quotations, or other copyrighted materials. Where third-party material is included, the article must present an appropriate credit line and, where relevant, identify any separate licensing terms applicable to that material. If third-party content is not covered by CC BY 4.0, this must be made clear to readers to prevent unintended reuse beyond the permissions granted.

Funder Compliance

The CC BY 4.0 license is compatible with common open access requirements and supports compliance with a broad range of funder and institutional policies that require immediate open access and flexible reuse rights. Where authors are subject to specific funder or institutional conditions, they should ensure that acknowledgements, repository deposit expectations, and attribution requirements are satisfied in line with the CC BY 4.0 framework and the journal's related policies.

COPYRIGHT POLICY

JPCCS respects and protects authors' intellectual property rights and recognises that authors should retain ownership of their scholarly work. All authors publishing in JPCCS retain full ownership of their articles, while the journal applies publishing and dissemination rights only to the extent required to publish, preserve, and index the scholarly record.

Author Copyright Ownership

Authors retain 100% copyright of their articles published in JPCCS. Upon acceptance and publication, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive right to publish, archive, reproduce, and disseminate the work in all formats used by the journal and through lawful indexing, aggregation, and preservation services. The author remains the legal copyright holder, may reuse the article in future scholarly or professional works, and the journal's rights are limited to publishing the Version of Record and keeping it accessible as part of the permanent scholarly record. JPCCS does not require authors to transfer copyright as a condition of publication.

License for Publication

All articles in JPCCS are published under CC BY 4.0. Under this license, others may share, copy, redistribute, adapt, and build upon the work for any purpose, including commercial use, provided that proper attribution to the author(s) and citation to the original publication in JPCCS are maintained, a link to the license is provided, and any changes are indicated.

Author Rights After Publication

After publication, authors may share and reuse their work without requesting additional permission from the journal, provided that the original publication in JPCCS is properly cited and the CC BY 4.0 terms are respected. Authors may deposit the submitted version (preprint), accepted version (postprint), and the published Version of Record in institutional repositories, subject repositories, and personal or departmental websites. Authors may incorporate their article into books, theses, dissertations, and teaching or training materials, and may share the article through scholarly networking platforms and professional channels. Authors remain free to present the work at conferences, seminars, and professional meetings while maintaining accurate citation to the published article.

Third-Party Copyright

Authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate written permission for any copyrighted third-party material included in a submission, for example figures, images, tables, questionnaires, clinical assessment tools, severity or outcome scales, or substantial excerpts, unless that material is already licensed for reuse in a manner compatible with the intended use. Where third-party content is included, authors must ensure that the manuscript contains a clear credit line identifying the source and, where applicable, the license terms or permission statement governing that material. If third-party material is not covered by CC BY 4.0, this must be explicitly indicated to prevent unintended reuse beyond the granted permissions.

Copyright Notice Display

JPCCS ensures that a clear copyright and licensing notice is displayed at the article level to support transparency, reuse clarity, and indexing requirements. Each article page and the published PDF include a copyright statement indicating that copyright is retained by the author(s) and that the work is published under CC BY 4.0, along with the year of publication and the journal name. This notice is presented consistently across article landing pages and full-text formats so that readers and downstream services can reliably identify the licensing terms.

Publisher Responsibilities

JPCCS, published by BMU Ventures (Private) Limited, is responsible for maintaining the integrity and availability of the scholarly record. The journal ensures long-term preservation of published content through its preservation arrangements, maintains accurate attribution to authors, and does not alter an author's content after publication except through clearly documented correction mechanisms and standard publishing practices. Where post-publication updates are necessary, corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions, JPCCS follows established ethical and editorial procedures to ensure transparency, traceability, and fairness to all parties.

Protection Against Misuse

JPCCS takes appropriate action in cases of plagiarism, unauthorised republication, systematic scraping, impersonation, or other forms of misuse that compromise authors' rights or the integrity of the journal. Where credible concerns are identified, the journal may issue formal notices, request removal from infringing platforms, and notify relevant hosting services or indexing providers as appropriate. These actions are undertaken to protect authors' rights and the reliability of the scholarly record, while recognising that author ownership remains fully intact under applicable copyright principles and international norms.

SELF-ARCHIVING (GREEN OPEN ACCESS) POLICY

JPCCS permits and encourages authors to self-archive their manuscripts to support wider dissemination, earlier visibility, and long-term preservation of scholarly work. Self-archiving is consistent with the journal's open access model and is intended to help authors meet institutional and funder requirements while ensuring that the Version of Record published in JPCCS remains clearly identifiable as the authoritative final publication.

Authors Are Allowed to Deposit the Following Versions

Preprint. Authors may deposit the preprint version, the version submitted prior to peer review, immediately and without embargo. Preprints may be archived on institutional repositories, disciplinary or subject repositories (including preprint servers such as medRxiv where eligible), personal websites, and academic networking platforms. When sharing a preprint, authors should clearly indicate that the manuscript has not yet undergone peer review, using a disclosure statement that makes the status of the work unambiguous to readers.

Postprint (Accepted Manuscript). Authors may deposit the postprint, the peer-reviewed version accepted for publication but prior to copyediting, typesetting, and final formatting, immediately and without embargo. This version may be archived in university repositories, national archives, disciplinary repositories, personal websites, and professional or academic networking platforms. When archiving the accepted manuscript, authors should include a clear note indicating that the archived file is an accepted manuscript and should provide a citation to the final published article in JPCCS once available, so that readers can access and cite the Version of Record.

Published Version (Version of Record, PDF). Authors may deposit the published Version of Record, including the final journal-formatted PDF, immediately and without embargo. The published PDF may be deposited in institutional repositories, government or national repositories, third-party repositories, personal and professional websites, and funding agency archives where applicable. When depositing the Version of Record, authors should retain the journal's copyright and licensing notice and ensure that the archived version is accompanied by the correct citation details and persistent link to the article on the journal website.

License Applied to Self-Archived Versions

All self-archived versions of JPCCS articles must retain the same reuse permissions associated with publication in the journal, namely CC BY 4.0. Self-archived content may be shared and reused in lawful ways, including redistribution and adaptation for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given, the license is linked, and any changes are indicated. Authors remain responsible for ensuring that any third-party content included in archived files is shared only under terms consistent with the permissions obtained for that material.

Mandatory Citation of Published Article

To protect accurate attribution and to support indexing and scholarly discovery, authors must include a complete citation to the published JPCCS article whenever archiving any version of the manuscript, especially once the Version of Record is available. The citation should include the article title, full author list, journal name (JPCCS), year of publication, volume and issue information where applicable, the DOI (if assigned), the publisher name, and an indication that the work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 together with the license link. This ensures that readers can identify the authoritative version and cite the correct publication.

Embargo Period

JPCCS imposes no embargo period for self-archiving. Authors may archive the preprint at submission, the accepted manuscript upon acceptance, and the Version of Record immediately upon publication.

Allowed Repositories

Authors may deposit manuscripts in a wide range of repositories and platforms, including institutional or university repositories, disciplinary repositories (for example medRxiv, or relevant anaesthesia and critical care archives where eligible), national library systems, funding agency repositories, and reputable general repositories such as Zenodo, Figshare, and the Open Science Framework. Authors may also post their work on personal websites and academic networking platforms, provided that the required citation, licensing, and version identification statements are included so that the publication status and authoritative Version of Record remain clear.

Responsibilities of the Journal

JPCCS supports self-archiving by maintaining stable article landing pages, ensuring that article metadata remains available for discovery, and preserving the published Version of Record as part of the permanent scholarly record. Where applicable, JPCCS assigns persistent identifiers and maintains publication records to facilitate correct citation and to help authors comply with repository deposit requirements under the CC BY 4.0 framework.

PEER REVIEW POLICY

JPCCS applies a rigorous peer review process to safeguard scientific integrity, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, and editorial objectivity. JPCCS uses a double-blind peer review model in which author and reviewer identities are not disclosed to each other during the review process. The editorial team administers the workflow to maintain anonymity, reduce bias, and ensure that editorial decisions are made primarily on the basis of scholarly merit, relevance to the journal's scope, and the quality and transparency of reporting.

Type of Peer Review

JPCCS uses a double-blind peer review system. Reviewers are not informed of author identities and authors are not informed of reviewer identities. To support anonymity, manuscripts are processed in a way that minimises identifying metadata and removes obvious author identifiers from the files sent to reviewers. Where a submission contains unavoidable identifying information due to the nature of the work, for example a single-site ICU protocol that is widely known, or prior preprint posting that makes authorship discoverable, the journal still applies the same review standards and editorial safeguards, recognising that perfect anonymity cannot always be guaranteed in practice.

Scope-Specific Reporting Standards

Because JPCCS publishes across perioperative medicine and critical care, manuscripts are evaluated against the reporting framework appropriate to the study design. Authors are expected to follow recognised reporting guidelines, including CONSORT for randomised trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, CARE for case reports, SQUIRE for quality improvement work, CHEERS for economic evaluations, STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies, and ARRIVE for preclinical animal research. Clinical trials must be prospectively registered in a recognised public registry, and the trial registration identifier must be disclosed at submission.

Peer Review Workflow (Step-by-Step)

The timelines below represent typical targets and may vary depending on reviewer availability, manuscript complexity, revision quality, and the number of revision rounds required. JPCCS prioritises timely decisions without compromising review quality, and it communicates with authors when delays are anticipated or when additional review steps are necessary.

Step 1, Initial Submission Check (0–3 days). On submission, the editorial office conducts an administrative and technical screening to confirm that the manuscript fits the journal's general aims and scope, that required files and declarations are complete, and that the submission is suitable to proceed for editorial evaluation. This stage includes a similarity screening using plagiarism-detection software, basic checks for formatting and submission compliance, and an initial review of ethical declarations such as institutional review approval, informed consent, trial registration, and statements regarding conflicts of interest and funding. If the submission is incomplete, outside scope, or fails baseline policy requirements, it is returned to the author for correction or may be declined prior to external review.

Step 2, Editor-in-Chief / Handling Editor Screening (3–7 days). The Editor-in-Chief or a designated Handling Editor evaluates the manuscript for suitability for peer review. This screening focuses on scientific relevance to JPCCS's scope, originality or contribution value (including confirmatory or negative/null findings when well-justified), methodological credibility, reporting clarity, and ethical acceptability. The editor may decide to send the manuscript for external review, request targeted revisions prior to review where the study is promising but not yet review-ready, or issue a desk rejection when the manuscript does not meet the journal's standards or is not a good fit. Desk rejection letters communicate the primary reasons to support author understanding and potential resubmission elsewhere.

Step 3, Reviewer Selection and Invitation (7–10 days). If the manuscript proceeds to external review, JPCCS invites at least two independent reviewers with relevant subject-matter and methodological expertise. Reviewer selection aims to balance clinical or content expertise with methods and statistics competence where appropriate for the study design. When specialised expertise is required, for example regional anaesthesia techniques, paediatric or obstetric critical care, haemodynamic monitoring, mechanical ventilation, echocardiography, advanced airway management, extracorporeal support, or complex trial methodology, the journal may invite additional reviewers or consult a specialty editor to ensure an informed evaluation. Reviewers are required to disclose conflicts of interest prior to accepting an invitation, and invitations may be declined or reassigned if conflicts, availability constraints, or inadequate expertise are identified.

Step 4, Double-Blind Peer Review (14–21 days). During peer review, reviewers assess the submission's scientific validity, methodological rigour, statistical analysis (where applicable), completeness of reporting, ethical safeguards, novelty or contribution value, clarity of presentation, and alignment with the journal's scope and readership. Reviewers are asked to provide constructive feedback that is specific enough for authors to act upon, including recommendations to strengthen design justification, transparency of methods, interpretation of findings, and appropriate citation and contextualisation within the literature. Reviewers provide a clear recommendation that supports editorial decision-making, typically indicating whether the manuscript is suitable for acceptance as is, acceptance after minor revision, reconsideration after major revision, resubmission for new review after extensive changes, or rejection.

Step 5, Editorial Decision (within ~5 days of receiving reviews). The Handling Editor synthesises reviewer feedback and reaches a decision based on the overall strength of the evidence, the seriousness of identified issues, the feasibility of addressing concerns through revision, and the manuscript's fit with JPCCS's editorial priorities. Decision letters include anonymised reviewer comments and a clear outline of required revisions, including any methodological clarifications, reporting improvements, or additional analyses needed. Where reviewer recommendations diverge substantially, the editor may seek an additional opinion or provide a structured editorial rationale to reconcile differences and guide the author effectively.

Step 6, Revision Process (7–21 days). For manuscripts invited for revision, authors are expected to respond comprehensively and transparently to reviewer and editor comments. Revisions must be accompanied by a point-by-point response document describing how each comment was addressed, with explicit references to manuscript changes, and clarifying where suggestions could not be implemented and why. Authors should provide a clean revised manuscript and an annotated version showing changes (such as tracked changes) to facilitate efficient re-assessment. Depending on the nature of the revisions, the editor may make a decision based on the revision set alone or may return the manuscript to one or more original reviewers for re-evaluation, particularly when major methodological, analytical, or interpretive changes are involved.

Step 7, Final Decision (3–7 days). Once revisions are deemed satisfactory, the editor issues a final decision. Acceptance is granted when the manuscript meets the journal's quality thresholds for scientific rigour, ethical compliance, clarity, and completeness of reporting. Acceptance may be conditional upon minor editorial refinements or technical corrections that do not materially affect the scientific content. Rejection after revision may occur when critical concerns remain unresolved, when revisions introduce new major problems, or when the manuscript no longer meets the journal's standards following re-assessment.

Step 8, Production and Publication. After acceptance, manuscripts proceed through production processes that may include copyediting, formatting and typesetting, proofreading, and final author approval of the proof version. JPCCS aims to publish accepted work promptly after production completion, while ensuring that the Version of Record is accurate, clearly presented, and consistent with the journal's publishing standards. Where ahead-of-issue publication is used, articles may be made available online prior to issue compilation, and the journal applies consistent metadata practices to support indexing and discoverability.

Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, and timely evaluations grounded in scholarly standards. Their scientific responsibilities include assessing whether the research question is meaningful, whether the study design and methodology are appropriate, whether analyses are correctly applied and transparently reported, and whether conclusions are supported by the data and appropriately contextualised. Reviewers are also expected to identify limitations, ethical concerns, potential data integrity issues, and citation gaps, and to recommend improvements that enhance clarity, rigour, and reproducibility without imposing unreasonable demands unrelated to the study's aims.

Reviewers also carry ethical responsibilities. They must treat manuscripts as confidential documents, avoid any use of manuscript content for personal advantage, and disclose conflicts of interest promptly. Where reviewers suspect plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated or manipulated data, unethical research conduct, or undisclosed competing interests, they should alert the editor through confidential reviewer comments so the journal can investigate appropriately using established editorial procedures.

AI and Confidentiality

To protect confidentiality, intellectual property, and unpublished scientific ideas, reviewers must not upload, paste, or otherwise disclose manuscript content, whether in full or in part, into generative AI tools or third-party automated systems that may store, learn from, or redistribute that content. If reviewers use any computational tools to support their work, they are expected to ensure these tools do not compromise confidentiality and that their use aligns with the journal's ethical expectations for peer review. The journal may decline reviews or remove reviewers from consideration if confidentiality safeguards are not respected.

Editorial Responsibilities

Editors are responsible for ensuring that peer review is fair, unbiased, and focused on scientific merit. Editorial responsibilities include selecting appropriately qualified reviewers, maintaining confidentiality, managing conflicts of interest transparently, and making decisions that are proportionate to the severity of concerns raised in review. Editors are expected to avoid discriminatory or inappropriate decision-making and to ensure that submissions are evaluated consistently, including confirmatory studies and well-justified negative or null results. Editors also oversee post-decision communication, ensuring that decision letters are clear, respectful, and actionable, and they manage complaints and appeals through a structured process that maintains procedural fairness.

Editorial Independence (Handling Submissions from Editors / Board Members)

JPCCS maintains editorial independence and seeks to minimise editorial endogeny. Submissions authored or co-authored by editors, editorial board members, or individuals involved in the journal's peer review operations are handled through an independent editorial pathway. Such individuals are excluded from any editorial decision-making related to their manuscript and are not granted access to reviewer identities or confidential editorial deliberations. Where necessary, the journal assigns an alternative handling editor and applies additional safeguards to ensure that the process remains impartial and credible.

Reviewer Record Retention

Peer review records, including reviewer reports, decision letters, revision correspondence, and editorial notes, are retained securely within the journal's editorial system for a minimum period consistent with standard scholarly publishing practice, to support integrity inquiries, appeals, and post-publication concerns. Access to retained records is restricted to authorised editorial staff, and reviewer identities are protected in accordance with the journal's confidentiality safeguards.

Plagiarism and Ethical Screening

All submissions are subject to similarity screening prior to external review and may be re-screened after revision if substantial changes occur. Similarity reports are interpreted in context, recognising that legitimate overlap may occur in methods, references, standardised terminology (for example ventilator settings, resuscitation algorithms, ASA physical status definitions, or standard monitoring descriptions), and ethical statements. However, when similarity indicates substantial unattributed overlap or inappropriate text recycling, particularly when concentrated in the Introduction, Results, or Discussion, or when it suggests non-original work, the manuscript may be declined or returned for correction prior to further evaluation. As an internal screening guide, similarity above approximately 18% may trigger enhanced editorial review, but decisions are based on the nature, location, and attribution status of the overlap, not on a percentage alone.

Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision by submitting a reasoned request to the journal, addressing specific points in the decision letter and, where relevant, providing evidence or clarifications that were not previously considered. Appeals are evaluated by a senior editor or an independent editor who was not involved in the original decision, to support impartial reassessment. The journal aims to resolve appeals within approximately 2–4 weeks, depending on complexity and whether additional expert input is required. Complaints about editorial conduct, bias, or process irregularities are handled through structured editorial review to ensure fairness, transparency, and appropriate corrective action where warranted.

Confidentiality

All submitted manuscripts, peer review reports, editorial correspondence, and decision materials are treated as confidential and are shared only with individuals directly involved in the editorial and peer review process. The journal does not disclose reviewer identities to authors under the double-blind model and does not disclose manuscript content publicly prior to publication. Confidential information obtained during peer review must not be used outside the review context by editors or reviewers, and any suspected breaches are handled as serious ethical concerns.

Peer Review Transparency

JPCCS promotes transparency by publicly stating its peer review model, editorial roles, and general processing expectations on the journal website. The journal communicates decision categories and provides reasonable timeline guidance while recognising that individual cases may vary. Where policy updates are implemented, the journal documents changes clearly so that authors and reviewers understand current expectations, including requirements related to conflicts of interest, ethical approvals, corrections and retractions, and confidentiality safeguards.

Special Issues and Guest Editors

For special issues and guest-edited content, JPCCS applies the same peer review standards, anonymity safeguards, and editorial oversight as for regular issues. Guest editors may support topic development and reviewer identification, but editorial decisions remain subject to independent oversight to preserve integrity and consistency with journal policy. Guest editor submissions are handled through an independent pathway to avoid conflicts of interest, and special issue articles are clearly labelled to ensure transparency to readers and indexing services.

PUBLICATION ETHICS & MALPRACTICE STATEMENT (PEMS)

JPCCS is committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethical scholarly publishing and to protecting the integrity of the scientific record. JPCCS applies established international best practices for editorial governance, peer review, authorship accountability, research integrity, and post-publication stewardship. This statement defines the ethical responsibilities of authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher, and describes how the journal responds to suspected misconduct before and after publication.

JPCCS expects all stakeholders to act in good faith, to communicate transparently, and to prioritise accuracy, reproducibility, and fairness. Ethical compliance is considered an essential condition of consideration for publication and is assessed throughout the editorial lifecycle, at submission, during peer review, during production, and after publication when concerns are raised.

Duties of Authors

Originality and plagiarism. Authors must ensure that all submitted work is original and that any material derived from other sources is appropriately cited and clearly distinguished from the authors' own contributions. Unattributed copying, inappropriate paraphrasing, and reuse of text, data, or images without proper acknowledgement are not acceptable. Redundant publication and inappropriate text recycling, including self-plagiarism that misrepresents novelty, are also prohibited. JPCCS screens manuscripts using similarity-checking tools and editorial assessment; where overlap is detected, authors may be asked to provide explanations, revise the manuscript, or the submission may be declined depending on severity and intent.

Data accuracy and integrity. Authors must present research findings honestly and accurately. Fabrication, falsification, selective reporting intended to mislead, and inappropriate manipulation of images or data, including intraoperative monitoring traces, ventilator waveforms, ultrasound or echocardiographic images, histology, and radiology, are unacceptable. Methods and analyses must be described with sufficient clarity to allow evaluation and replication where feasible. Where necessary for verification, editors may request raw data, analysis outputs, de-identified datasets, or supporting documentation. Authors are expected to retain study records and essential data for a reasonable period after publication and to cooperate with legitimate editorial inquiries.

Multiple or duplicate submission. Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time, and must not publish substantially similar work in multiple venues without transparent disclosure and proper cross-referencing. Prior dissemination as a preprint should be declared at submission where applicable, and any overlap with previously published or submitted work must be clearly explained. Duplicate or redundant publication, including "salami slicing" that fragments results from a single cohort, trial, or ICU dataset to create multiple papers without scientific justification, may result in rejection or post-publication action.

Authorship criteria. Authorship must reflect genuine intellectual contribution and accountability. All listed authors should have made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation; should have participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript; should approve the final version; and should accept responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the work. Gift, guest, and ghost authorship are not permitted. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that author order is agreed upon, that all eligible contributors are appropriately acknowledged, and that contributor roles are accurately stated. Where disputes arise, the journal may pause evaluation until authors provide a unified, documented resolution or institutional clarification.

Conflicts of interest. Authors must disclose all relationships that could reasonably be perceived to influence the work, including financial interests, employment or consultancies, patents, institutional ties, personal relationships, or any other competing interests. Funding sources must be declared and the role of funders (if any) in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and publication decisions should be stated. In perioperative and critical care research, authors must also disclose any relationships with manufacturers of anaesthetic agents, monitoring devices, airway or vascular access equipment, mechanical ventilators, extracorporeal circuits, infusion systems, or pharmaceutical products evaluated in the study. Failure to disclose relevant competing interests may result in rejection, correction, or other actions depending on the impact on interpretation and trust.

Ethical approval and participant protection. For studies involving humans, human data, human biological material, animals, or sensitive datasets, authors must confirm compliance with applicable ethical standards and regulatory requirements. Where required, approval from an ethics committee or institutional review body must be obtained before the study begins, and the approval details (committee name, reference number, date) must be provided in the manuscript. Informed consent must be obtained and documented when applicable. For critical care and perioperative research, authors must describe the consent process used when patients are unconscious, sedated, or otherwise unable to provide consent at the time of enrolment, including deferred consent, proxy consent from legally authorised representatives, or waivers approved by the ethics committee, and must protect privacy through appropriate de-identification, recognising that small case series, rare diagnoses, admission dates, and unit-level details can combine to make patients identifiable. For case reports and images where individuals may be identifiable, explicit written permission for publication is required. If ethical approval was not required, authors must provide a clear justification aligned with local governance.

Corrections, retractions, and cooperation. Authors are expected to notify the journal promptly if they discover a material error in their submitted or published work. When serious concerns are raised, authors must cooperate with editorial investigations by providing clarifications, documentation, and data where appropriate. Where errors are confirmed, authors are expected to participate in issuing corrections. Where findings are unreliable due to serious error or misconduct, authors must cooperate with retraction processes to protect the scholarly record.

Use of generative AI and automated tools. If authors use automated tools (including generative AI) to support language editing, summarisation, or other non-substantive assistance, such use must not compromise confidentiality, patient privacy, or proprietary data, and must not introduce fabricated citations or unverifiable claims. Automated tools must not be listed as authors and cannot take responsibility for the work. Authors remain fully accountable for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all content, including text, data, analyses, and references.

Duties of Reviewers

Confidentiality. Reviewers must treat all manuscripts, associated files, and editorial correspondence as confidential documents. Manuscript content must not be shared, discussed externally, or used for any purpose outside the review process. Where a reviewer believes external consultation is necessary for a competent review, this must be disclosed to and approved by the editor in advance.

Objectivity and constructive review. Reviews must be fair, impartial, and grounded in scientific merit. Reviewers should provide clear, evidence-based critiques, identify methodological or interpretive weaknesses, and recommend improvements that strengthen rigour, transparency, and reporting quality. Personal criticism, discriminatory language, or irrelevant commentary is not acceptable. Reviewers should distinguish between essential revisions that affect validity and optional suggestions that improve presentation.

Conflicts of interest. Reviewers must decline invitations when conflicts of interest could compromise objectivity or create a reasonable perception of bias, including close collaboration with authors, direct competition, financial interests, or personal relationships. Where uncertainty exists, reviewers should disclose the situation to the editor, who will determine whether reassignment is appropriate.

Timeliness. Reviewers should submit reviews within the agreed timeline and promptly notify the journal if delays are expected. Timely peer review supports efficient editorial decisions and respects authors' time while preserving the quality of scientific evaluation.

Ethical vigilance. Reviewers should alert editors to suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, manipulated images, questionable data patterns, unethical research conduct, undisclosed competing interests, or citation practices that appear coercive or inappropriate. Reviewers must not use knowledge gained through peer review for personal advantage and must not attempt to influence editorial decisions outside official review channels.

AI and confidentiality in peer review. Reviewers must not upload, paste, or otherwise disclose any part of a manuscript into generative AI tools or third-party systems that could store, learn from, or redistribute confidential content. Reviewers remain responsible for protecting unpublished ideas, methods, and data. Any breach of confidentiality may result in removal from the reviewer pool and further actions deemed necessary to safeguard authors and the journal.

Duties of Editors

Editorial independence and fair decision-making. Editors make publication decisions based on scientific merit, methodological quality, relevance to the journal's scope, ethical acceptability, and clarity of reporting. Decisions must not be influenced by discriminatory factors or by commercial considerations such as author fees, institutional prestige, or geographic origin. Editors are responsible for ensuring that peer review is applied consistently and that submissions are evaluated using appropriate expertise for the study design and topic area.

Integrity of the review process. Editors must manage peer review in a way that is objective, confidential, and free from conflicts of interest. This includes selecting suitably qualified reviewers, minimising bias through the journal's review model, and ensuring that reviewer comments are substantive and respectful. Editors should address peer review manipulation risks, including inappropriate reviewer suggestions, fabricated reviewer identities, or coercive citation behaviour, using verification and oversight where necessary.

Confidentiality. Editors must protect manuscript confidentiality throughout submission handling, peer review, decision-making, and post-decision communications. Unpublished content must not be disclosed outside those directly involved in editorial evaluation and peer review, and confidential reviewer identities must be protected under the journal's review model.

Handling allegations of misconduct. Editors are responsible for responding to suspected misconduct in a timely, consistent, and evidence-based manner. Allegations may involve plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, image manipulation, authorship disputes, undisclosed competing interests, ethical approval deficiencies, reviewer misconduct, or duplicate publication. Editors may request explanations and documentation from authors, seek additional expert assessment, and, where appropriate, refer concerns to affiliated institutions or oversight bodies.

Corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern. Editors may issue corrections when errors are confirmed but do not invalidate the core findings, and may issue retractions when findings are unreliable due to serious error, misconduct, unethical research, or duplicate publication. When serious concerns exist but an investigation is incomplete or inconclusive, the journal may issue an expression of concern to alert readers while due process proceeds. These notices are published transparently, are linked to the affected article, and remain part of the permanent scholarly record.

Duties of the Publisher (BMU Ventures)

The publisher of JPCCS, BMU Ventures (Private) Limited, supports editorial independence and the integrity of the scholarly record. The publisher is responsible for providing a stable publishing environment, ensuring appropriate preservation arrangements, and enabling transparent post-publication actions such as corrections and retractions. The publisher works with editors to address confirmed misconduct, to protect authors' intellectual property rights, to uphold reader trust, and to ensure that published content remains accessible through recognised preservation mechanisms. The publisher does not interfere in editorial decisions regarding acceptance, rejection, or retraction, except to ensure that due process and policy consistency are maintained.

Misconduct Handling Procedure

When potential misconduct is suspected or reported, JPCCS follows a structured process designed to be fair, confidential, and evidence-based. Initial assessment typically involves verifying the allegation, reviewing similarity reports, checking image integrity where relevant, and examining editorial records and peer review history for irregularities. Authors may be contacted for explanation, clarification, or provision of underlying data and approvals. If concerns appear credible and material, the journal may pause review or publication, consult independent experts, and request institutional input when appropriate.

Outcomes may include rejection prior to publication, publication of a correction, issuance of an expression of concern, retraction, notification to institutions or funders where warranted, and proportionate sanctions such as temporary submission restrictions in cases of serious or repeated misconduct. The journal prioritises correction of the literature and protection of research participants and readers, while respecting due process for all parties.

AUTHOR CHARGES | PUBLICATION FEE POLICY

Article Processing Charges (APC) and Publication Fee Disclosure

For open access transparency and indexing purposes, the publication fee described in this policy is treated as the journal's open access publishing charge (APC). JPCCS applies this charge only to support the costs of producing and maintaining open access publication and does not allow payment status to influence editorial decisions.

Author Charges Policy

JPCCS is committed to transparent, ethical, and fully disclosed publishing practices. The journal clearly declares any charges that may apply from submission through publication and ensures that all editorial and peer review decisions are made independently of any payment considerations. No fees are requested or accepted at submission, and the journal does not impose charges that could be perceived as purchasing editorial outcomes.

Publication Fee (Charged After Acceptance Only)

JPCCS charges a Publication Fee (APC) of PKR 25,000 (or equivalent in USD) per accepted article. This fee is charged only after the manuscript has successfully completed peer review and has received a formal acceptance decision. The publication fee is the same for national and international authors, ensuring consistent treatment across author groups. Payment is required before final production processing begins, including copyediting, formatting, and scheduling for publication, and authors are provided with payment instructions after acceptance through the journal's official communication channels.

What the Publication Fee Covers

The publication fee supports the services necessary to publish and sustain open access articles at professional standards. These services include editorial and administrative processing after acceptance, professional copyediting and language polishing where required, typesetting and formatting into the journal's publication layout, online hosting and platform maintenance, preparation and management of article metadata for indexing and discoverability, and long-term digital preservation arrangements. Where DOI registration is applied for published articles, associated metadata handling and registration processes are included within the scope of publication operations. JPCCS does not apply additional mandatory charges beyond the stated publication fee.

Fast-Track or Priority Review Fee

JPCCS does not charge any fee for fast-track review, accelerated publication, priority handling, or preferential editorial treatment. All submissions follow the same editorial screening and peer review workflow, and all authors are evaluated under the same scientific and ethical criteria regardless of payment capacity. The journal does not offer paid review speed upgrades or paid acceptance services.

No Hidden or Additional Charges

The only mandatory fee charged by JPCCS is the publication fee applied after acceptance. JPCCS does not charge submission fees, does not charge for peer review, and does not impose pre-acceptance processing charges. The journal also does not levy hidden or supplementary charges such as page charges, colour figure charges, excess length charges, supplementary file charges, editorial handling fees, or fees for routine corrections and minor post-publication updates. The journal's fee structure is intended to be fully transparent so that authors can make informed decisions prior to submission.

Waiver Policy (Case-by-Case)

JPCCS may grant partial or full waivers in exceptional circumstances based on demonstrated need, while maintaining strict separation between editorial decision-making and financial considerations. Waiver requests may be considered for authors with genuine financial hardship, early-career researchers or postgraduate trainees without funding support, authors based in resource-constrained settings, or specific special issues where fee support is explicitly announced by the journal. Waiver requests should be submitted after acceptance and before payment, accompanied by a clear justification. Decisions regarding waivers are final and are handled administratively so that they do not influence peer review outcomes or editorial judgements.

Funding Disclosure

If authors receive grant support or institutional funding that covers publication costs, this information must be disclosed in the manuscript's funding acknowledgement section. Funding statements are published with the final article to support transparency regarding potential influences and to align with good reporting practice for research support and sponsorship.

Compliance and Transparency

This policy is designed to meet transparency expectations commonly applied to open access journals and indexing evaluations. JPCCS publicly declares that a publication fee is required to publish only after acceptance, that the fee is consistent for national and international authors, that no fees are charged during submission or peer review, and that waiver provisions exist on a case-by-case basis as described above.

DATA SHARING & RESEARCH TRANSPARENCY POLICY

JPCCS supports responsible research transparency and encourages authors to make research data accessible, reusable, and verifiable where this is appropriate, lawful, and ethically permissible. JPCCS recognises that transparent practices strengthen scientific credibility and reproducibility, but also acknowledges that data sharing must not compromise privacy, confidentiality, consent conditions, intellectual property, contractual obligations, or legal restrictions. This is particularly important for perioperative and critical care research, where datasets frequently involve sensitive physiological monitoring, ICU electronic health records, ventilator and haemodynamic traces, anaesthetic records, trauma registries, and patient-level outcome data that can carry meaningful re-identification risk. Authors remain responsible for ensuring that any shared data, code, instruments, or supplementary files comply with ethical approvals, informed consent commitments, and applicable data protection principles.

Where feasible, authors are encouraged, and where justified by study type, funder expectations, or research norms may be expected, to share materials that allow verification and reuse, including raw data, processed datasets, statistical code or syntax, questionnaires and measurement tools, study protocols and analysis plans, metadata and data dictionaries, and supplementary materials that are necessary to interpret or replicate the work. When sharing is not possible, authors must explain the restriction transparently through a Data Availability Statement.

Where Data Can Be Deposited

Authors may deposit supporting data and materials in any recognised repository that provides stable access, appropriate governance, and a persistent identifier or permanent link. Acceptable repositories include general-purpose repositories such as Zenodo, Figshare, Dryad, and the Open Science Framework, as well as institutional repositories including university repositories and national digital archives. Where an appropriate domain-specific repository exists, authors are encouraged to use it, examples relevant to JPCCS include PhysioNet for physiological and waveform data, trial registries and associated results platforms for clinical trials, and controlled-access repositories for linked electronic health record datasets. Repository selection should reflect the sensitivity of the data and the need for open, restricted, or controlled access, and authors should ensure that repository terms align with ethics approvals and consent provisions.

Data Availability Statement (DAS)

A Data Availability Statement (DAS) is required for all research articles published in JPCCS so that readers can understand whether data are available and under what conditions. The statement must be accurate, consistent with the manuscript, and aligned with ethical and legal constraints.

When data are publicly available, the DAS should name the repository and provide a DOI or permanent link using clear wording such as: "The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [repository name] repository at [DOI/permanent link]."

When data are available upon reasonable request, authors should state the request pathway and any access conditions, for example: "The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request."

When data cannot be shared publicly due to confidentiality, ethical, legal, or contractual restrictions, authors must state the restriction and, where feasible, indicate whether controlled access may be possible with approvals, such as: "Data cannot be shared publicly due to confidentiality and ethical restrictions, but may be available upon request with institutional approval."

If no new data were generated or collected, authors should state this explicitly, for example: "No new data were collected or created in this study."

Confidentiality and Ethical Considerations

For studies involving human participants, clinical records, sensitive personal information, or any data with a meaningful risk of re-identification, data must be de-identified and shared only with appropriate safeguards. This is especially important in perioperative and critical care research, where the combination of admission date, unit type, rare diagnosis, procedure, length of stay, and outcome can identify a patient even when names and hospital numbers are removed. Authors must ensure that data sharing aligns with informed consent requirements, ethics committee approvals, and applicable data protection principles and local regulations. Where de-identification is insufficient to mitigate risk, authors should use restricted or controlled-access repositories and describe the access process and safeguards in the Data Availability Statement. JPCCS expects authors to avoid sharing any data that could reasonably enable identification of individuals or expose participants or communities to harm.

Data Citation Requirements

When datasets or other reusable research outputs are shared, they should be cited in a way that enables attribution and discovery. JPCCS expects that shared datasets are cited in the reference list where appropriate, including the dataset creator(s), year, dataset title, repository name, and DOI or permanent link. This practice supports proper credit for data creation and ensures that readers can locate the exact version of the dataset associated with the published findings.

Code, Software, and Algorithm Transparency

JPCCS encourages authors to share analysis code and computational workflows whenever feasible and safe, including scripts and syntax used for reproducible analyses (for example R, Python, and SPSS syntax) and key algorithm parameters relevant to primary findings. This is particularly relevant for studies using predictive models, severity or risk scores, waveform analysis, or machine-learning approaches applied to perioperative and ICU data. Where possible, code may be shared through established version-controlled platforms and archived in repositories that provide persistent identifiers and versioning. If code cannot be shared due to licensing, security, or confidentiality constraints, authors should still describe the analysis procedures and parameters in sufficient detail to allow informed evaluation and, where feasible, replication using equivalent tools.

Research Reproducibility

Authors must describe methods and procedures with sufficient clarity for readers to evaluate the work and, where feasible, reproduce key elements. This includes transparent reporting of study design, data sources, inclusion and exclusion criteria, measurement tools, and the analysis workflow, including how data were cleaned, transformed, and handled for missingness and sensitivity analyses where relevant. For perioperative and critical care studies, authors should also report governance constraints relevant to reuse, such as consent limitations, controlled-access conditions for linked EHR or registry data, institutional data-sharing agreements, or restrictions on redistributing proprietary waveform or monitoring outputs.

Misconduct Related to Data

If concerns arise regarding falsified, fabricated, manipulated, selectively withheld, or otherwise unverifiable data, JPCCS may request supporting documentation, de-identified raw data where ethically permissible, analysis outputs, or other materials required to evaluate integrity. Where authors cannot provide reasonable assurance of data integrity, the journal may reject the manuscript or, if issues are discovered post-publication, may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction as appropriate. In serious cases, the journal may notify relevant institutions or oversight bodies where necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Journal Responsibilities

JPCCS supports responsible data sharing by requiring Data Availability Statements for research articles, encouraging deposit in appropriate repositories, and linking published articles to datasets and supporting materials where provided. The journal reviews Data Availability Statements for clarity and consistency and may request revisions where statements are incomplete, ambiguous, or inconsistent with the reported study. JPCCS aims to promote transparency while respecting ethical and legal constraints, particularly where clinical, sensitive, or high-dimensional perioperative datasets require careful governance.

Exceptions

Data sharing is not required when confidentiality or ethical restrictions apply, when legal agreements or contractual obligations prohibit disclosure, or when sensitive security considerations make public release inappropriate. However, even when data cannot be shared, authors must still include a Data Availability Statement explaining the restriction and, where feasible, describing whether controlled access or mediated access may be possible through institutional or ethics-approved processes.

PRIOR PUBLICATION POLICY

JPCCS applies recognised ethical publishing standards to prevent redundant or duplicate publication and to protect the integrity of the scholarly record. JPCCS requires transparency regarding any prior publication or public dissemination of a manuscript or any substantial part of it. Authors must disclose relevant prior dissemination at the time of submission so that editors can assess originality, novelty, eligibility for peer review, and whether appropriate citation and attribution practices have been followed.

Disclosure Requirements at Submission

At submission, authors must disclose any prior publication, posting, or public distribution of the manuscript in whole or in part. Authors must ensure that any quoted or reused material is clearly marked and appropriately attributed, and that all related prior outputs are cited where relevant. Authors must describe the nature, extent, and location of previously disseminated versions, including whether the manuscript has appeared as a preprint, working paper, thesis or dissertation, conference abstract, poster, institutional repository deposit, or other public distribution. This disclosure allows the journal to determine whether the submission remains eligible and whether the manuscript appropriately distinguishes new contributions from previously disseminated material.

General Rule

If a substantial portion of the manuscript has already been formally published elsewhere as a peer-reviewed journal article, it is generally not eligible for publication in JPCCS. The journal considers duplicate and redundant publication to be incompatible with scholarly integrity because they can distort the evidence base and create confusion in indexing and citation. However, JPCCS recognises that certain forms of prior dissemination do not necessarily constitute prior publication, provided that full disclosure is made, the submission meets novelty and scope expectations, and the manuscript is appropriately informed by and cites the earlier dissemination.

Acceptable Forms of Prior Distribution

Preprints and working papers. Posting manuscripts on preprint servers or scholarly collaboration platforms (including medRxiv and similar platforms relevant to clinical medicine) may be acceptable, provided that authors disclose the posting and provide a link or identifier during submission. Authors should recognise that public dissemination through a preprint may reduce or eliminate anonymity under a double-blind peer review model because authorship may be discoverable through online searches; however, this does not automatically disqualify the submission. Where a preprint exists, authors are expected to ensure that the journal submission is consistent with ethical standards, that any substantive differences between versions are transparent, and that the published Version of Record in JPCCS is properly linked or cited where appropriate.

Theses and dissertations. Manuscripts derived from theses or dissertations (including FCPS, MS, MD, MPhil, and PhD theses in anaesthesiology, critical care, emergency medicine, pain medicine, and allied disciplines) may be considered for publication when the thesis has not already been formally published as a peer-reviewed journal article and when the submitted manuscript is appropriately revised for journal publication. Authors must disclose the thesis source, ensure that overlap is handled transparently, and cite the thesis where appropriate. The journal expects that a thesis-derived manuscript demonstrates a clear scholarly contribution as a journal article, including improved structure, refined analysis where applicable, and presentation aligned with peer-reviewed publication standards.

Conference presentations. Manuscripts based on conference abstracts, posters, or oral presentations, for example work presented at national or international meetings in anaesthesia, critical care, pain, or emergency medicine, may be considered when the conference output was not published in full as a peer-reviewed journal article and when the manuscript is substantially developed beyond the presented material. Authors must disclose the conference dissemination and provide citation or documentation as appropriate. The journal expects that the submitted manuscript contains sufficient additional methodological detail, analysis, and scholarly context to stand as a complete and original journal article, rather than a lightly expanded conference summary.

Clinical trial registries and raw data. Use of previously registered trial information or publicly available datasets is acceptable when permissions and ethical requirements are met and when relevant prior publications using the same dataset are disclosed and appropriately referenced. Authors must ensure that registry information is accurate and that any trial registration identifiers are included in the manuscript. Where analyses are conducted on public datasets or shared trial data, authors must transparently describe data provenance, governance constraints, and how their analysis differs from or builds upon existing publications.

Restrictions After Submission

Once a manuscript is submitted to JPCCS, authors should avoid publicly posting new or revised versions in a manner that could create duplication concerns during evaluation or compromise the integrity of the peer review process, including the practical anonymity of double-blind review. If a preprint already exists, authors should generally avoid posting major revisions while the manuscript is under review unless there is a compelling reason; where updates are made, authors should inform the journal to maintain transparency. After acceptance and publication, authors may share the work in accordance with JPCCS's Open Access, Licensing, and Self-Archiving policies, noting that reuse and distribution of the published Version of Record are governed by the journal's CC BY 4.0 licensing terms and repository deposit provisions.

Questions and Clarification

If authors are uncertain whether prior dissemination may affect eligibility, they are encouraged to contact the editorial office before submission at editor@jpccs.org. Editors reserve the right to determine whether prior dissemination compromises novelty, originality, or the integrity of the scholarly record, and may request clarification or supporting documentation as part of this assessment.

SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS POLICY

JPCCS strictly prohibits simultaneous or duplicate submissions in order to uphold the integrity of scholarly publishing, protect the efficiency and fairness of peer review, and avoid redundant publication. By submitting to JPCCS, authors confirm that the manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part, and that the work has not been submitted concurrently to another journal, conference proceedings venue that conducts journal-style review, or any other formal publication outlet that would create duplication in editorial evaluation.

This policy is intended to prevent waste of reviewer and editorial resources, reduce the risk of conflicting copyright or licensing arrangements, and protect the scholarly record from duplicate or fragmented publication that can distort indexing and evidence synthesis.

Investigation and Action

If the editorial office becomes aware of a possible simultaneous or duplicate submission, manuscript processing may be paused while the journal conducts an assessment consistent with recognised publication ethics procedures. The journal may request clarification and supporting information from the author(s), including submission timelines, correspondence with other venues, and explanations regarding any overlap with related manuscripts. If simultaneous submission is confirmed, the manuscript will be rejected without further review because the submission would be in breach of journal policy. Where violations are serious, intentional, or repeated, JPCCS may take additional actions proportionate to the misconduct, which may include temporary restrictions on future submissions for a defined period and, where necessary, notification to relevant institutions or oversight bodies when the integrity implications are significant.

Author Responsibility

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all submissions to JPCCS comply with this prohibition and for proactively disclosing relationships between manuscripts that could create overlap concerns. Authors are strongly advised to disclose any related submissions, overlapping manuscripts, and closely linked outputs that may be under consideration elsewhere, as well as relevant prior dissemination such as preprints and conference abstracts or presentations. Failure to disclose material overlap or related submissions may trigger an ethics review and may lead to rejection or other corrective action, even when the overlap is discovered after initial evaluation has begun.

Contact

Questions regarding this policy, including whether a particular prior dissemination or related submission may create eligibility concerns, may be directed to the editorial office at editor@jpccs.org.

POLICY FOR THE USE OF GENERATIVE AI AND AI-ASSISTED TECHNOLOGIES

Purpose and Scope

JPCCS recognises that generative AI and AI-assisted technologies are increasingly used in scholarly workflows. This policy defines permitted and prohibited uses of such tools across manuscript preparation, submission, peer review, and editorial processing. The purpose is to protect the integrity of the scholarly record, ensure transparency, safeguard confidentiality and intellectual property, including sensitive perioperative and critical care patient data, and clarify accountability. This policy applies to all authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and any staff involved in processing manuscripts for JPCCS.

Authors

Permitted use. Authors may use AI-assisted tools to improve language quality, including grammar correction, spelling correction, readability enhancement, and translation support, provided that the scientific meaning is not altered and that the final text is reviewed and approved by the authors. Where such tools are used in a limited manner solely for routine language polishing, authors remain responsible for ensuring that the manuscript accurately reflects the study and does not introduce errors, omissions, or misrepresentations.

Prohibited uses. Generative AI must not be used to fabricate or falsify data, results, or analyses, and must not be used to generate citations or references that are inaccurate, unverifiable, or not actually consulted by the authors. Authors must not use AI tools to produce misleading scientific content, including claims that are unsupported by data, distorted interpretations, or fabricated methodological details. AI-generated or AI-manipulated images, graphs, figures, or visual material, including radiology, ultrasound, echocardiography, monitoring traces, waveforms, or histology, must not be submitted unless the use of AI is central to the research question and is transparently described in the methods, including the tool used, parameters, and validation approach. Authors must not upload identifiable patient data, raw clinical records, or confidential study materials to public AI tools that may retain or learn from submitted content. Any use of AI that materially affects the scientific content, presentation of results, or evidentiary basis of the manuscript is subject to editorial scrutiny and must meet standard expectations for reproducibility, transparency, and ethical acceptability.

Human oversight and accountability. Authors remain fully responsible for the entirety of the submitted work, including the accuracy of statements, data integrity, originality, ethical compliance, and completeness of citations. AI tools cannot be credited as authors and cannot assume responsibility for any part of the manuscript. Authorship remains limited to humans who meet the journal's authorship criteria and who can take public accountability for the work. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that any AI-assisted contributions are appropriately managed, reviewed, and disclosed where required.

Mandatory disclosure. Any use of AI tools beyond straightforward language correction must be disclosed within the manuscript in a dedicated section titled: "Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process." This declaration must identify the tool(s) used, describe the purpose and the extent of use, and confirm that the authors reviewed the output and remain fully responsible for the content. Where AI is used in analytic workflows, image generation, clinical decision support, risk prediction, waveform analysis, or other substantive research processes, authors must describe these uses transparently in the methods and provide sufficient detail to allow evaluation and, where feasible, replication.

Peer Reviewers

Reviewers must protect confidentiality and must not upload, paste, summarise, or disclose any manuscript content, whether in full or in part, into generative AI tools or third-party systems that may store, learn from, redistribute, or otherwise compromise confidential material. Reviewers must conduct evaluations using secure practices and must not use AI in ways that would expose unpublished data, methods, or ideas. If a reviewer believes computational assistance is necessary for a competent review, the reviewer must ensure that confidentiality is not compromised and should communicate with the editor if uncertainty exists about permitted use.

Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editors and editorial board members must treat submissions, peer review materials, and internal editorial communications as confidential. They must not input manuscript text, figures, supplementary files, or confidential reviewer reports into external generative AI tools or third-party systems that could compromise confidentiality, data protection obligations, or intellectual property. Any internal use of tools to support editorial operations must be consistent with confidentiality protections and must not replace human editorial judgement. Editors remain responsible for decision-making and must ensure that any technology used does not introduce bias or undermine fairness.

Compliance and Updates

Violations of this policy may be treated as research misconduct or publication ethics breaches, depending on severity and intent. Consequences may include rejection prior to publication, requests for correction or clarification, withdrawal of reviewer privileges, editorial sanctions, publication of corrections, expressions of concern, retraction of published articles, and notification to institutions or funders when warranted. JPCCS may update this policy as community standards, ethical expectations, and technological capabilities evolve, and updated versions will apply to new submissions from the effective date stated on the journal website.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST (COI) POLICY

JPCCS is committed to ensuring integrity, transparency, and impartiality across editorial assessment, peer review, and publication. Conflicts of interest are common in modern research environments, and particularly common in perioperative medicine and critical care, where close relationships with manufacturers of drugs, devices, and monitoring technologies are routine, and are not inherently unethical. However, failure to disclose relevant relationships can undermine trust, distort interpretation, and compromise the credibility of decision-making. JPCCS therefore requires full disclosure of any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest from authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial staff, and applies structured management procedures to protect the objectivity of editorial outcomes and the integrity of the scholarly record.

Definition of Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest exists when professional judgement regarding research conduct, manuscript evaluation, editorial decision-making, or publication could be influenced, or reasonably perceived to be influenced, by financial, personal, academic, institutional, or professional relationships. JPCCS treats perceived conflicts as important because they can affect reader confidence even when no improper influence has occurred. Disclosures are used to enable transparent interpretation and to allow the journal to manage risk through recusals, additional oversight, or disclosure statements, rather than to exclude research solely because relationships exist.

Conflicts of Interest Categories

Financial. Financial conflicts include relationships or interests that involve monetary benefit or financial exposure connected to the topic, intervention, device, service, or outcomes reported in the manuscript. Such interests may include research funding from commercial entities, consulting fees, honoraria or paid speaking engagements, stock ownership or equity interests, patents, patent applications, licensing arrangements, royalties, paid advisory roles, or any other financial relationship that could be affected by the publication's findings or conclusions. For JPCCS submissions, this expressly includes relationships with manufacturers of anaesthetic agents, neuromuscular blockers, analgesics, sedatives, vasoactive drugs, airway devices, vascular access products, ultrasound and monitoring systems, mechanical ventilators, infusion and patient-controlled analgesia systems, extracorporeal and renal replacement equipment, and perioperative or ICU software platforms.

Non-financial. Non-financial conflicts include relationships or circumstances that may influence objectivity without direct monetary benefit. These may include close personal relationships, family connections, academic rivalry, professional competition, strongly held intellectual positions that may impair neutrality, political or ideological commitments relevant to the manuscript topic, or affiliations with advocacy, specialty society, or stakeholder groups that could benefit from a particular interpretation of results.

Institutional. Institutional conflicts arise when an author, reviewer, or editor is employed by, supervised by, trained within, or otherwise closely linked to an organisation that has an interest in the manuscript's outcomes. These may include employment at hospitals, universities, or departments with commercial or reputational stakes related to the subject matter, training or supervisory relationships within the same anaesthesia or critical care unit, institutional funding or incentives tied to study outcomes, or departmental or organisational commitments that could influence study reporting or interpretation.

COI Disclosure by Authors

Authors must disclose all conflicts of interest that could reasonably be viewed as influencing the work. This includes all sources of funding and support, financial relationships past or present that relate to the manuscript topic, personal or professional relationships that could affect interpretation, institutional or departmental incentives, and any role of sponsors or affiliated organisations in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript drafting, or the decision to submit for publication. JPCCS expects authors to provide disclosures that are specific and complete, and to update disclosures if circumstances change during review or after acceptance.

Where Disclosure Appears

Conflict of interest disclosures must be provided during submission through the journal's submission system and must also be included within the manuscript in a designated "Competing Interests" or equivalent section. Where a paper is accepted, the disclosed conflict statement is published with the final article to ensure transparency for readers. JPCCS may request clarification or revision of disclosures if a statement appears incomplete, overly general, or inconsistent with funding and contributor information.

No Conflict Statement

If no conflicts exist, authors must explicitly state that there are no competing interests. JPCCS accepts a clear statement such as: "The authors declare that they have no competing interests." This statement should appear in the manuscript and be consistent with information declared during submission.

COI Disclosure by Reviewers

Reviewers must disclose any conflict of interest that could affect, or be perceived to affect, their ability to provide an impartial review. Where a conflict is material, reviewers must decline the invitation. Conflicts that typically require declining include recent collaboration with the authors, employment in the same department or institution, current supervisory or trainee relationships, financial or professional ties to the study sponsor or device/drug manufacturer, direct competition where professional benefit could arise from acceptance or rejection, or strongly held personal beliefs that prevent neutrality. As an operational safeguard, reviewers are generally expected to decline when they have collaborated with an author within the last three years or have another relationship that would reasonably call impartiality into question. Reviewers must communicate potential conflicts to the editor immediately so that the journal can decide whether reassignment is necessary.

COI Disclosure by Editors

Editors must recuse themselves from handling any manuscript when a conflict of interest could compromise impartial decision-making or create a reasonable perception of bias. Circumstances that typically require recusal include recent collaboration with the authors, employment at the same institution, close personal relationships, financial stakes in the results or related products, direct academic competition, or any other relationship that could influence editorial judgement. When recusal occurs, the manuscript is reassigned to an independent editor without relevant conflicts, and appropriate safeguards are applied to ensure that confidential information and reviewer identities remain protected.

COI and the Publisher

The publisher of JPCCS confirms that it does not influence editorial decisions and that financial operations are separate from editorial processes. Publication fee payments have no role in acceptance, rejection, or editorial prioritisation decisions, and the journal maintains editorial independence to protect the integrity of peer review and to prevent real or perceived financial influence on publication outcomes.

Handling Undisclosed COI

If an undisclosed conflict of interest is discovered during review or after publication, JPCCS evaluates the severity and materiality of the omission and determines the appropriate corrective action. Depending on the circumstances, actions may include requesting an updated disclosure, rejecting the manuscript prior to publication, publishing a correction or erratum to disclose the conflict, issuing an expression of concern when the integrity of interpretation is in doubt, or retracting the article in serious cases where non-disclosure is judged to have materially compromised trust or the validity of the scholarly record. In cases involving significant misconduct or repeated non-disclosure, the journal may notify the author's institution or apply proportionate submission restrictions in line with its ethics governance.

COI for Special Issues and Guest Editors

Guest editors must complete conflict of interest disclosures and must not handle submissions from colleagues, close collaborators, students, trainees, supervisors, or individuals with whom a relationship could compromise impartiality. Where conflicts exist in special issues, JPCCS assigns an independent editor to manage the submission and ensures that peer review and decision-making follow the same standards applied to regular issues. Sponsorship of special issues, where applicable, is disclosed transparently, and sponsors are not permitted to influence editorial decisions, reviewer selection, or journal policies.

EDITORIAL ENDOGENY AND SELF-PUBLICATION POLICY

JPCCS is committed to maintaining editorial objectivity, diversity of authorship, and the highest standards of academic integrity. JPCCS seeks to serve as a credible international platform for broad scholarly participation in perioperative and critical care sciences, rather than a channel for disproportionate self-publication by its own editorial leadership. To protect the integrity of editorial decision-making and to reduce real or perceived conflicts of interest, JPCCS applies safeguards to limit editorial endogeny (sometimes referred to as endogamy) and to ensure that manuscripts submitted by individuals involved in journal governance are handled through fully independent processes.

Definition of Editorial Endogeny

Editorial endogeny refers to the proportion of articles published in the journal that are authored or co-authored by individuals who hold formal roles within the journal's editorial and peer review ecosystem. For the purposes of this policy, this includes the Editor-in-Chief, associate editors, section editors, editorial board members, advisory board members, guest editors involved in special issues, and individuals who serve as regular reviewers for the journal in an ongoing capacity. JPCCS treats these categories as potential sources of power imbalance because they may have privileged access to editorial processes, insider knowledge of standards, or relationships that could compromise impartiality if not properly managed.

Endogeny Limits

JPCCS enforces an endogeny limit designed to protect editorial diversity and the credibility of peer review. No more than 5% of articles published in any given volume year may be authored or co-authored by members of the journal's editorial team as defined above. This limit is intended to maintain broad representation of the scholarly community, preserve objectivity in peer review and editorial outcomes, reduce conflicts of interest, and support transparency expectations commonly applied during indexing evaluations and journal assessments. The limit is applied at the volume-year level to reflect the full publication output of the journal rather than isolated issues, and it is implemented as a governance safeguard rather than as a measure of the scientific merit of any individual submission.

Monitoring and Compliance

Annual monitoring. JPCCS monitors editorial endogeny as part of its governance and quality assurance practices. The editorial office tracks the total number of articles published within each volume year and identifies articles authored or co-authored by individuals covered under this policy. The journal calculates the annual proportion of such publications and maintains internal records that can support audits, evaluations, and continuous improvement. A summary of annual endogeny monitoring is reported through journal governance channels to ensure visibility and accountability in management oversight.

Periodic reviews. To reduce the risk of exceeding the annual threshold late in the publication year, JPCCS may review endogeny status periodically as part of routine editorial operations. When the proportion approaches the threshold, additional caution is applied in scheduling and handling submissions from covered individuals, including deferring consideration to a subsequent volume year where appropriate and where this does not compromise fairness or scientific integrity. These reviews are intended to support proactive compliance rather than reactive correction.

Transparency. JPCCS maintains transparency regarding endogeny safeguards. Endogeny statistics and the governance approach used to manage self-publication risks may be disclosed upon request, and the journal may present these records as part of evaluations conducted by indexing services, academic bodies, or other assessment frameworks. The journal treats transparency as a tool for accountability and reputational integrity, while still maintaining confidentiality of peer review records and personal data as required.

Handling Submissions From Editorial Team Members

Mandatory recusal. When an editorial team member submits a manuscript to JPCCS, mandatory recusal applies immediately and comprehensively. The submitting editor or board member must not handle their own manuscript in any capacity and must not participate in reviewer selection, editorial deliberation, or decision-making for that submission. They must not access reviewer identities, confidential reviewer comments, internal editorial notes, or any non-public system records relating to the manuscript. Recusal is intended to remove both actual influence and the perception of influence, and it applies regardless of the seniority or role of the submitting individual.

Independent handling. Manuscripts submitted by individuals covered under this policy are assigned to an independent handling editor who has no relevant conflict of interest. Where feasible, the handling editor should not be affiliated with the same institution as the submitting editorial member and should not have a recent collaboration or supervisory relationship with them. If a suitable internal editor cannot be assigned without conflicts, JPCCS may appoint an external guest handling editor for the specific manuscript to ensure independent oversight. The handling editor exercises full editorial authority over the submission, including reviewer selection, revision decisions, and final recommendation.

Rigorous peer review. Submissions from editorial team members are subjected to the same peer review standards, ethical checks, and decision thresholds applied to all manuscripts, and they are not granted preferential timelines or procedural advantages. To protect credibility and reduce perceptions of favouritism, such submissions undergo double-blind peer review with at least two independent external reviewers, and additional review may be requested if reviewer reports are inconclusive or conflicting. The handling editor may apply heightened scrutiny to ensure that methodological and reporting standards are met and that the editorial record clearly demonstrates fairness and independence.

Conflict of interest declaration. Authors who hold editorial or governance roles within JPCCS must disclose their relationship to the journal in the manuscript's competing interests statement. The disclosure should clearly state the individual's role and affirm that they had no involvement in handling the manuscript, reviewer selection, or editorial decision-making. This disclosure is intended to inform readers transparently and to support trust that the journal applied appropriate safeguards.

Special Issues and Guest Editors

Guest editor submissions. For special issues managed by guest editors, JPCCS applies the same principles of independence and proportionality. No more than 5% of articles within a special issue should be authored or co-authored by the guest editor(s), and guest editors must not handle, review, or influence decisions on their own submissions. Guest editor manuscripts are assigned to the Editor-in-Chief or an independent handling editor, and peer review is administered with the same rigour applied to standard submissions, including independent external review and conflict-of-interest controls.

Independent oversight. All special issues remain subject to oversight by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated senior editor to ensure consistent standards across the journal. Oversight includes confirming that peer review was properly conducted, that conflicts of interest were managed, that endogeny safeguards were applied, and that final publication decisions reflect scientific merit and ethical compliance rather than sponsor or editor influence. Special issue governance is documented to support transparency and accountability.

Reviewer Manuscripts

Regular reviewers. If a reviewer who regularly reviews for JPCCS submits a manuscript, the journal applies safeguards to prevent reciprocal influence and to preserve fairness. Such individuals must not review manuscripts for JPCCS while their own submission is under review, and their manuscript is handled through an independent editorial pathway with careful reviewer selection to avoid conflicts. The journal treats ongoing reviewers as part of the journal's governance ecosystem because repeated involvement in review processes can create reciprocal expectations if not properly controlled.

No quid pro quo. JPCCS strictly prohibits reciprocal reviewing arrangements, peer review rings, trading of authorship or citations, and any behaviour intended to manipulate editorial outcomes. The journal treats coercive citation practices, coordinated reviewer behaviour, or undisclosed reciprocal agreements as serious breaches of publication ethics. Where credible evidence of such activity exists, the journal may reject the manuscript, remove individuals from editorial or reviewer roles, apply sanctions, and take additional integrity actions consistent with its ethics and misconduct procedures.

Consequences of Non-Compliance

If the endogeny limit is exceeded. If the annual endogeny threshold is exceeded within a given volume year, JPCCS implements corrective measures promptly. Such measures may include deferring additional manuscripts authored by covered individuals to a subsequent volume year, tightening internal scheduling controls, and preparing a documented corrective action plan for governance and evaluation purposes. Where a third-party evaluation requires disclosure of corrective actions, the journal may provide an objective summary of the steps taken to restore compliance while maintaining confidentiality of peer review records.

Individual violations. If an editor, board member, guest editor, or reviewer is found to have influenced the handling of their own manuscript, violated recusal requirements, attempted to manipulate peer review, or engaged in quid pro quo arrangements, JPCCS may apply proportionate sanctions. These may include rejection of the manuscript, retraction of a published article where the integrity of the process was compromised, removal from editorial or reviewer roles, notification to affiliated institutions where warranted, temporary or permanent submission restrictions, and other governance actions necessary to protect the journal's credibility and the scholarly record.

Contact for Concerns

Concerns regarding editorial endogeny, self-publication safeguards, conflicts of interest, or suspected process manipulation may be reported confidentially to the journal at editor@jpccs.org. JPCCS evaluates such concerns under its Complaints and Appeals procedures and applies confidentiality protections appropriate to the seriousness of the allegation and the need to preserve due process.

REQUEST FOR ANONYMITY POLICY

JPCCS recognises that, in exceptional circumstances, authors may have legitimate reasons to request publication without public disclosure of their identity. JPCCS considers such requests only when they are necessary to protect individuals facing credible personal safety risks, serious privacy concerns, or other sensitive circumstances that could reasonably lead to harm if authorship were disclosed. The journal approaches anonymity requests with confidentiality, respect, and care while safeguarding academic integrity, authorship accountability, and the reliability of the scholarly record.

Making a Request

Authors who seek anonymous publication must submit a formal written request to the journal editor using the official correspondence channel editor@jpccs.org. The request should clearly state the reason for seeking anonymity and provide sufficient context for the journal to assess whether the request is legitimate and proportionate. Examples of circumstances that may justify consideration include credible threats to personal safety, political or social sensitivity that creates a realistic risk of harm, risk of discrimination or persecution, or sensitive personal circumstances where disclosure would cause undue harm. JPCCS does not require authors to disclose unnecessary personal details publicly and will limit internal access to the request information to those directly involved in evaluating and implementing the decision.

Note: Anonymous publication is not available for articles requiring public trial registration or public accountability disclosures where identity is essential.

Review Process

Each anonymity request is evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated senior editor, and the journal may consult governance or ethics oversight pathways where appropriate to ensure consistency and fairness. The identity of the requesting author(s) remains confidential within the editorial process and is disclosed only to a strictly limited set of authorised individuals who need the information to manage authorship accountability, conflicts of interest, ethics checks, and publication record integrity. The journal may request additional information if required to evaluate the credibility of the request, but it seeks to minimise burdens and protect privacy as much as possible while maintaining responsible oversight.

Important Considerations

Although JPCCS aims to support anonymity where warranted, anonymity must not compromise academic integrity, accountability for the work, compliance with ethical approvals, legal obligations, or the credibility of the publication record. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, and ethical compliance of the work, and the journal must be able to verify authorship identity internally even when public disclosure is limited. Authors should also understand that anonymous authorship may be incompatible with certain indexing, metadata, institutional reporting, or funder requirements, and it may reduce discoverability or citation attribution in external systems.

Where full anonymity cannot be granted without compromising publishing standards, JPCCS may discuss alternative risk-reduction approaches with the author. Such alternatives may include limited disclosure mechanisms, publication under a pseudonym where permissible and ethically acceptable, or the use of carefully worded author notes that protect privacy while preserving accountability. Any alternative approach is considered only when it remains consistent with ethical publishing principles and when the journal can maintain a trustworthy scholarly record.

Contact Information

Requests for anonymous authorship should be submitted to the journal editorial office at editor@jpccs.org. The journal handles such requests confidentially and evaluates them in line with its broader ethics and governance policies, including conflicts of interest management and integrity safeguards.

COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS POLICY

JPCCS is committed to maintaining high ethical standards and a fair, transparent, and accountable editorial process. This policy explains how authors, reviewers, and readers may raise complaints or submit appeals, and how the journal will handle these matters in a manner that preserves editorial independence, procedural fairness, confidentiality, and the integrity of the scholarly record. JPCCS evaluates complaints and appeals using established publication ethics principles, ensuring that concerns are addressed proportionately, evidence is assessed carefully, and decisions are communicated clearly with reasons.

Types of Complaints Accepted

Editorial decisions. JPCCS accepts complaints and formal appeals relating to editorial decision-making, including concerns that a rejection was issued without adequate rationale, that reviewer comments were materially misinterpreted in the decision process, or that there were excessive or unreasonable delays during editorial screening, peer review, or revision assessment. Where delays occur due to reviewer availability or the complexity of evaluation, the journal aims to communicate updates, but it also recognises that authors may reasonably request review of processing timelines if delays become disproportionate.

Peer review conduct. JPCCS accepts complaints relating to reviewer conduct and peer review integrity. These include concerns regarding perceived reviewer bias, inappropriate or unprofessional reviewer language, potential conflicts of interest that were not declared, or evidence suggesting manipulation of the peer review process. The journal treats allegations of compromised peer review seriously because such issues can undermine fairness to authors and trust in editorial outcomes.

Publication ethics. JPCCS accepts complaints involving publication ethics, including allegations of plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication or falsification, image manipulation, unethical research practices, undisclosed competing interests, authorship disputes, reviewer misconduct, or editorial misconduct. The journal also accepts post-publication ethics concerns submitted by readers, such as credible allegations that a published article contains unreliable findings, undisclosed conflicts, or ethical approval deficiencies.

Journal management issues. JPCCS accepts complaints related to journal management and administrative operations, including technical website errors, access problems, archiving or preservation concerns, publication fee billing disputes, and undue communication delays. The journal recognises that operational concerns can materially affect authors and readers and therefore addresses them through a structured administrative pathway distinct from editorial decision-making.

How to Submit a Complaint

Complaints and appeals must be submitted in writing by email so that the journal can maintain a traceable record and evaluate evidence properly. For editorial complaints and appeals, correspondence should be sent to editor@jpccs.org. For publisher-level or administrative complaints, including billing or technical operational issues, correspondence should be directed to the publisher's official contact route as published on the journal website; where authors prefer a single entry point, editor@jpccs.org may be used and the journal will route the matter appropriately while protecting confidentiality.

To support efficient and fair handling, complainants should include their full name and contact email, the manuscript ID or article citation where applicable, a clear description of the concern, the dates and timeline of relevant events where possible, and any supporting documentation such as emails, screenshots, reviewer comments, or other records that substantiate the claim. Submissions that lack essential identifying information or sufficient detail may be returned with a request for clarification so that the journal can proceed responsibly.

Acknowledgement and Response Time

JPCCS acknowledges receipt of complaints and appeals within approximately three working days. The journal aims to provide a full response within two to four weeks, depending on the complexity of the matter and whether additional fact-finding is required. Where a complaint involves complex allegations, multiple stakeholders, or potential research integrity investigation, the journal may require additional time; in such cases, JPCCS provides interim updates to the complainant so expectations remain clear and the process remains transparent.

Complaints Handling Process

Initial screening. All complaints and appeals undergo an initial screening to confirm the category of concern, assess whether the journal has jurisdiction, and determine whether immediate protective actions are required. This screening is typically overseen by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated senior editor for editorial matters, or by a designated administrative officer for operational matters. The journal evaluates whether the complaint is made in good faith, whether it is supported by adequate information for review, and whether the issue is best handled as an appeal, an ethics inquiry, or an administrative correction.

Investigation. When a complaint proceeds beyond screening, JPCCS conducts an investigation proportionate to the claim. This may include review of editorial logs, peer review records, decision correspondence, reviewer invitations and reports, similarity screening results, and relevant file histories. Where appropriate, the journal may communicate with reviewers, editors, or authors to clarify points of fact, while protecting confidentiality and avoiding disclosure of sensitive information beyond those who need to know. If additional information is required from the complainant, JPCCS will request it and pause adjudication until sufficient information is available to proceed responsibly.

Decision. Following investigation, JPCCS issues a written decision that explains the outcome and the reasoning, to the extent permitted by confidentiality obligations. Where an error is confirmed, the journal implements corrective action, which may include administrative correction, process adjustment, reviewer management actions, or post-publication notices such as corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions where warranted. Where a complaint is not upheld, the decision letter will explain the basis for that conclusion in a clear and professional manner.

Appeals Against Editorial Decisions

Authors may appeal editorial decisions, including rejections and ethics-based decisions, when they believe a material error has occurred in evaluation or process. Appeals are not intended as a mechanism to re-litigate scholarly disagreement alone; rather, they are considered when there is credible indication of procedural irregularity, demonstrable misunderstanding of key scientific or methodological elements, significant new information, or concerns about fairness or bias. Appeals are reviewed by a senior editor who was not involved in the original decision, and the journal may seek independent external input where specialised expertise is required to evaluate the appeal fairly.

Possible outcomes of an appeal include upholding the original decision with an explanation, overturning the decision, appointing new reviewers, or initiating an additional review round under a different handling editor. An appeal does not guarantee acceptance, and the journal retains discretion to determine whether additional review is justified based on the evidence and the journal's standards.

Conflict of Interest in Handling Complaints

If a complaint or appeal involves an editor, reviewer, editorial board member, or any individual with a potential conflict of interest, JPCCS transfers handling to an independent senior editor or an appropriate oversight pathway to ensure neutrality. Individuals named in a complaint are excluded from decision-making and from access to confidential adjudication materials beyond what is strictly necessary for fact-finding and due process.

Confidentiality

JPCCS treats complaints and appeals as confidential and limits access to information to those directly involved in resolution. The journal protects reviewer identities consistent with its peer review model and does not disclose confidential peer review information to complainants except where disclosure is necessary, lawful, and ethically appropriate. JPCCS may share limited information with institutions, funders, or oversight bodies when serious integrity concerns require external investigation or notification, and such actions are taken in a controlled manner that respects due process.

Corrective and Preventive Actions

Where a complaint is upheld, JPCCS may implement corrective and preventive actions appropriate to the nature and severity of the concern. These actions may include correction or retraction of a published article, publication of an expression of concern, issuance of clarifying statements, adjustment of editorial workflow, replacement or suspension of reviewers, targeted training for stakeholders involved in process failures, formal apologies where warranted, and policy updates to reduce recurrence. In serious cases involving confirmed misconduct, JPCCS may notify relevant institutions or funders and may apply proportionate sanctions such as temporary submission restrictions, while ensuring that any action taken is justified, documented, and consistent with ethical governance.

Alignment with Ethical Standards

JPCCS handles complaints and appeals in a manner aligned with widely adopted publication ethics principles and best practices for dispute resolution in scholarly publishing. The journal's objective is to correct the record when needed, safeguard fair treatment of authors and reviewers, maintain editorial independence, and preserve trust in the journal's processes and published content.

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Chunk 5, Retraction & Withdrawal, Commentaries/Critiques/Responses, Name & Pronoun Change, Jurisdictional Neutrality

RETRACTION AND WITHDRAWAL POLICY

JPCCS maintains a structured approach to post-publication corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, and pre-publication withdrawals. The purpose of this policy is to protect the integrity of the scholarly record, safeguard patients, clinicians, and researchers who may rely on published perioperative and critical care evidence, and ensure that any changes to the record are made transparently, traceably, and fairly.

Retraction Conditions

An article may be retracted when there is clear evidence that findings are unreliable. Grounds for retraction include fabrication or falsification of data; major error that invalidates the conclusions (for example serious statistical error, protocol misapplication, or misidentification of study samples, cohorts, or patient groups); unethical research conduct, including absence of valid ethical approval or informed consent where required; plagiarism; duplicate or redundant publication; image or data manipulation; and proven authorship misconduct that materially affects accountability. In clinical contexts, retraction may also be warranted when reported perioperative or critical care outcomes cannot be substantiated on re-examination and continued citation could influence patient care decisions.

Retractions are implemented in a manner that preserves the scholarly record. The retracted article remains accessible but is clearly labelled as retracted, with a prominent notice on the article landing page, a visible watermark or header on the PDF indicating retracted status, and a bidirectional link between the original article and the retraction statement. The retraction notice explains the reason for retraction in objective, non-defamatory language, identifies who is issuing the retraction (the authors, the editor, or both), and is published as a citable record that is indexed alongside the original article. Where necessary to prevent misuse, the journal may apply additional visible marking while maintaining access to the historical record.

Expressions of Concern

Where credible concerns about an article exist but investigation is ongoing, inconclusive, or awaiting external institutional input, JPCCS may issue an Expression of Concern to alert readers while due process continues. An Expression of Concern is not a retraction; it is a transparency measure. It is linked to the article, identifies the nature of the concern in neutral terms, and is updated or replaced (for example with a retraction or a correction) once the inquiry concludes.

Corrections and Errata

Where an article contains an error that does not invalidate the core findings, JPCCS issues a correction (erratum for author-originated errors; corrigendum for publisher-originated errors). Corrections are published as citable notices linked to the original article and describe precisely what has changed. Typical corrections include numerical errors, figure labelling errors, affiliation or funding corrections, reference errors, or minor methodological clarifications. The original article remains available and is annotated to indicate that a correction has been issued.

Article Withdrawal

Withdrawal requests are generally considered only prior to acceptance and must be justified in writing. Authors requesting withdrawal before acceptance should contact the editorial office at editor@jpccs.org with a clear explanation and, where applicable, confirmation from all co-authors. After acceptance, withdrawal is rarely permitted and may be considered only in exceptional circumstances, such as legal constraints, confirmed ethical violations, or serious integrity concerns that require formal editorial action rather than withdrawal. JPCCS does not support withdrawal as a means to avoid peer review outcomes, publication ethics inquiries, or legitimate post-publication correction processes.

Authority and Process

Decisions to retract, issue an expression of concern, or publish a correction are made by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated senior editor, in consultation with relevant parties as appropriate. Where a retraction is initiated by the editor rather than the authors, the journal seeks to inform the authors, provide an opportunity to respond, and document the rationale before the notice is published. Where institutional investigations have taken place, JPCCS considers their findings in its editorial decision-making, while retaining independent authority over post-publication actions within the journal.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

JPCCS adheres to widely adopted ethical publishing principles and best practices expected of reputable peer-reviewed journals. The journal continuously refines its editorial safeguards and policies to align with evolving standards in research integrity, privacy protection, transparency, and responsible publication, particularly in areas central to perioperative and critical care research, including clinical trials, sensitive patient data, physiological monitoring, and advanced analytical methods applied to perioperative and ICU datasets.

POLICY ON COMMENTARIES, CRITIQUES, AND AUTHOR RESPONSES

Policy Statement

JPCCS accepts scholarly commentaries, critiques, and author responses that provide informed perspectives, constructive challenges, or clarifications relating to previously published work. These submissions contribute to academic debate, improve interpretation of the scientific record, and support the advancement of knowledge through transparent scholarly exchange. JPCCS expects all such submissions to be evidence-based, focused on scientific discourse, and respectful in tone, and it applies consistent editorial standards to ensure fairness for all parties.

Scope and Eligibility

JPCCS considers constructive commentaries or critiques addressing articles previously published in JPCCS and may also consider critiques of work published in other reputable scholarly outlets where the topic is directly relevant to JPCCS's scope and readership, including anaesthesia, perioperative medicine, critical care, emergency and trauma care, pain medicine, resuscitation science, and perioperative nursing. The journal also considers responses submitted by original authors addressing critiques of their work and may permit rejoinders by commentators responding to author replies when further scholarly clarification is justified.

Commentaries and critiques may include primary research data where relevant, for example re-analysis of publicly available trial data, independent reproduction of a reported analysis, or supporting evidence from registries or cohort datasets, provided that the data are ethically obtained, appropriately governed, and used solely to support scholarly analysis of the claims under discussion.

Editorial and Review Process

All commentaries, critiques, and related submissions are first evaluated editorially for clarity, relevance, scholarly value, and appropriateness of tone. Where the submission raises complex technical issues, introduces primary research data, alleges substantive methodological flaws, or could reasonably affect interpretation of the scientific record, the journal may send the submission for peer review by independent subject-matter experts selected by the editorial team.

When a critique concerns an article published in JPCCS, the original article's corresponding author is normally notified and offered an opportunity to submit a response. Author responses are evaluated under the same editorial standards and may be peer reviewed where necessary to ensure accuracy, fairness, and scientific rigour. Where a rejoinder is permitted, it is evaluated under the same principles, with peer review applied when complexity or evidentiary claims justify it.

Process Flow

When a critique is submitted, the editorial office first assesses suitability and determines whether peer review is required. If the critique proceeds, the journal invites the original author(s) to respond within a defined timeframe appropriate to the matter's complexity and urgency. If both critique and response are accepted, the journal may consider a rejoinder from the critique author, particularly where important issues remain unresolved or where the response introduces new claims requiring scholarly reply. When feasible and appropriate, the journal may publish the critique and response together, and may include a rejoinder, to provide readers with full context and to support balanced interpretation. Once this exchange is published, JPCCS may determine that further correspondence on the same matter is unlikely to add scholarly value and may decline additional submissions to avoid indefinite serial debate.

Ethical and Transparency Considerations

JPCCS applies ethical safeguards to ensure that scholarly debate is conducted responsibly and that all parties are treated fairly. Original authors are ordinarily notified and given an opportunity to respond before a critique is published, particularly when critique content could affect the interpretation of the original work or the reputations of involved parties. All submissions in this category are held to comparable standards of scrutiny, evidence, and professional tone.

If a critique addresses an article published in another journal, JPCCS expects appropriate citation and accurate representation of the original publication context, and may include a neutral note where necessary to clarify that the original work appeared elsewhere. If a critique identifies plausible serious errors, omissions, or integrity issues in a JPCCS-published article, the editorial team evaluates whether a correction, expression of concern, retraction, or editorial note is warranted in line with the journal's post-publication procedures.

For critiques that raise concerns about clinical safety, for example regarding drug dosing, device use, airway or resuscitation technique, or interpretation of perioperative or ICU outcomes, the journal may prioritise handling to reduce the risk of ongoing reliance on potentially unsafe or misinterpreted content, while still applying full editorial and peer review standards.

Submission Requirements

Commentaries and critiques are generally subject to section-based limits to maintain focus and readability. As a typical standard, JPCCS applies word limits in the range of approximately 1,000 to 2,000 words, with up to around 10 references and a small number of tables or figures when necessary for clarity; however, limits may vary by section and the nature of the scholarly issue.

Submissions must clearly identify the article being discussed (title, authors, year, DOI where applicable) and must state the purpose and scope of the commentary, critique, or response. Authors should submit a cover letter explaining the reason for submission, disclosing conflicts of interest, and confirming ethical compliance, particularly if new data are included. The journal may request revisions to improve clarity, tone, and evidentiary support prior to final consideration.

NAME AND PRONOUN CHANGE POLICY

JPCCS supports the right of authors to update their name and pronouns on previously published articles. JPCCS recognises that name and pronoun changes may occur for many reasons, including personal preference and life circumstances, and the journal is committed to supporting author dignity, privacy, and accurate attribution in the scholarly record. This policy is intended to enable authors to maintain continuity of their academic identity while minimising unnecessary disclosure and reducing barriers to requesting updates.

Policy Overview

JPCCS will honour requests to update an author's name and pronouns without requiring disclosure of the reason for the change and without requiring supporting documentation. When a request is approved, JPCCS will update the author's name and pronouns across journal-controlled records to the extent feasible, including the article landing page, article PDF and HTML formats where applicable, and associated journal metadata used for indexing and discovery. The DOI will remain unchanged so that citations remain valid and persistent links continue to resolve correctly.

To protect author privacy and reduce the risk of unintended disclosure, JPCCS will implement name and pronoun updates without issuing a public correction notice or editorial statement, unless the author explicitly requests otherwise. In contrast, spelling mistakes or factual errors unrelated to identity are handled through the journal's standard corrections process to maintain transparency of content changes.

Indexing and Third-Party Platforms

JPCCS will update its own records promptly after processing an approved request and will take reasonable steps to notify relevant indexing and discovery services where the journal has an established update pathway. However, the journal cannot guarantee the timing or completeness of updates on third-party platforms because external services apply their own synchronisation schedules, metadata refresh cycles, and policy constraints. JPCCS encourages authors to allow reasonable time for external propagation and, where necessary, to update their researcher profiles and identifiers on third-party services to improve consistency across systems.

Request Requirements

Authors requesting a name or pronoun change should contact the journal at editor@jpccs.org and provide sufficient information to identify the relevant publication records. The request should include the author's previously published name, the updated name and pronouns to be applied, an email address for verification and follow-up, and the DOI(s) or precise citation details of the affected article(s). Because name changes may affect co-author records and citation practices, authors may also indicate their preference regarding whether co-authors should be notified; JPCCS will respect this preference to the extent possible while maintaining appropriate publication record integrity and operational clarity.

JURISDICTIONAL NEUTRALITY POLICY

JPCCS is committed to maintaining neutrality on jurisdictional and geopolitical matters. The journal serves a global scholarly community across anaesthesia, critical care, emergency medicine, pain medicine, and allied perioperative disciplines, and aims to provide an inclusive publishing environment that respects the rights, identities, and academic contributions of all authors, editors, reviewers, and readers. JPCCS's role is to evaluate and disseminate scholarly work based on scientific merit and ethical integrity, not to endorse or oppose political positions, territorial claims, sovereignty disputes, or the legal status of any country, region, or territory.

Geographic Designations and Institutional Affiliations

JPCCS requests that all individuals involved in the journal, authors, reviewers, and editors, provide their current institutional affiliation and the associated country or region to support accurate scholarly attribution, accountability, and indexing. The journal uses affiliation information as provided by contributors for identification and bibliographic purposes and does not interpret such information as indicating any editorial or publisher position regarding geopolitical status or jurisdictional claims.

Neutral Stance on Disputed Territories

JPCCS does not take a position on territorial boundaries, sovereignty disputes, or contested jurisdictional status referenced in institutional affiliations, funding statements, data sources, maps, or manuscript text. Where manuscripts include geographic references, maps, or boundary depictions, for example in multi-country epidemiological studies, cross-border trauma registries, or regional outcome comparisons, such material is published for scholarly and informational purposes only, and its inclusion should not be understood as expressing any view of the journal or publisher concerning legal status, borders, or political claims.

Author Responsibility

Authors are responsible for ensuring that geographic terminology, institutional naming, and location references used in their manuscripts are accurate, respectful, and appropriate to the scholarly context. Where a geographic designation may be ambiguous or contested, authors may include a neutral explanatory note or footnote to clarify meaning for readers without making political assertions. Authors are also expected to use terminology that supports clarity for international audiences, particularly in multi-site studies, epidemiological reporting, health-system comparisons, and policy-related work in perioperative and critical care.

Editorial Discretion

Editors may request clarification, neutral wording adjustments, or explanatory notes when geographic references could reasonably be interpreted as politically sensitive, misleading, or inconsistent with scholarly attribution practices. Any requested changes are intended solely to preserve academic clarity, reduce ambiguity, and maintain the journal's neutrality and inclusiveness, while respecting the author's factual reporting and the integrity of the scholarly record.

PRIVACY POLICY / DATA PROTECTION AND CONSENT POLICY

JPCCS is committed to protecting the privacy and personal data of authors, reviewers, editors, and readers. JPCCS collects and processes personal information only to the extent necessary to operate a scholarly publishing workflow and to maintain the integrity, security, and permanence of the scholarly record. The journal applies widely recognised data protection principles, including purpose limitation, data minimisation, confidentiality, transparency, and reasonable security safeguards, while recognising that scholarly publishing requires certain public disclosures to support attribution, accountability, indexing, and research integrity.

This policy explains what personal information may be collected, how it is used and protected, what information becomes public after publication, how long data may be retained, and how individuals can request access, correction, or removal of personal data where appropriate.

Information We Collect

Author information. JPCCS collects author information necessary for manuscript handling, peer review administration, publication, and indexing. This may include author names, email addresses, institutional affiliations, country information, ORCID iD where provided, manuscript files and associated revisions, metadata required for publication, and administrative declarations such as funding information and competing interests statements. Where authors provide additional information within the manuscript or submission forms, the journal processes that information only for publication-related purposes and integrity safeguards.

Reviewer information. JPCCS collects reviewer information necessary to administer peer review and maintain the integrity of the editorial process. This may include reviewer names, email addresses, areas of expertise, affiliations, and review activity within the journal system, including invitation status and completion history. Reviewer reports and confidential editorial correspondence are stored within the journal's secure workflow environment and are used to support editorial decision-making and quality assurance.

Reader data. JPCCS may collect limited non-identifiable reader and website usage information to support platform performance, security monitoring, and basic service improvement. This may include aggregated website traffic analytics, download statistics, and technical information associated with cookies used for website functionality. JPCCS does not require users to register to read published content, and it does not seek to collect unnecessary personal information from readers.

Patient data in manuscripts. JPCCS does not collect patient-level data directly from readers or the public, but manuscripts in perioperative and critical care research commonly involve information derived from patient records, physiological monitoring, anaesthetic charts, ICU observation, imaging, and outcome registries. Authors are responsible for ensuring such information is appropriately de-identified, ethically approved, and compliant with applicable data protection and consent requirements before submission, as detailed in the journal's Publication Ethics and Data Sharing policies.

How We Use Personal Data

Personal data collected by JPCCS is used strictly for scholarly publishing purposes. This includes managing manuscript submission and editorial workflows, communicating with authors and reviewers, administering peer review, selecting reviewers based on expertise, processing accepted manuscripts for publication, managing publication metadata and persistent identifiers where applicable, supporting indexing and archiving processes, handling publication ethics inquiries, and issuing post-publication updates such as corrections or retractions when necessary. JPCCS does not sell personal data and does not use author or reviewer information for unrelated marketing activities or commercial profiling.

Data Storage and Security

JPCCS uses reasonable administrative and technical safeguards to protect personal data stored within journal systems. These safeguards may include controlled access for authorised editorial staff, secure authentication practices, encrypted data transmission where available (such as HTTPS), password-protected systems, routine backup procedures, and server maintenance measures intended to reduce risks of unauthorised access, data loss, or service disruption. Access to editorial and reviewer records is restricted to individuals who require access to perform journal functions, and the journal seeks to minimise exposure of personal data in routine operations.

Use of Cookies

JPCCS may use cookies to support essential website functionality and to improve usability. Cookies may support user sessions, preference retention where applicable, and basic analytics that help the journal understand aggregated platform usage. Users can typically manage cookie permissions through browser settings, including blocking or deleting cookies; however, restricting cookies may affect some site functionality depending on the user's environment.

Data Sharing With Third Parties

JPCCS does not share personal data with third parties except where necessary for legitimate journal operations and scholarly dissemination. This may include sharing limited metadata and publication information with services that support indexing, discovery, preservation, and repository interoperability, as well as service providers involved in DOI or identifier registration where applicable. Where third-party services are used, JPCCS seeks to ensure that the sharing is limited to what is necessary, that reasonable privacy safeguards are applied, and that the processing remains consistent with the purposes described in this policy.

Publicly Available Information

Scholarly publishing necessarily involves public disclosure of certain information to enable attribution, accountability, and discovery. Upon publication, author names, affiliations, article metadata, and acknowledgements such as funding disclosures become publicly available as part of the published article record. ORCID iDs may also be displayed if provided by the author. Reviewer identities remain confidential under the journal's peer review model unless the journal explicitly adopts an open peer review approach for a specific article or section and all relevant participants have been informed accordingly.

Reviewer Confidentiality

JPCCS protects reviewer confidentiality as a core element of its peer review process. The journal maintains reviewer anonymity within its double-blind peer review model, stores review reports securely, limits access to reviewer records to authorised editorial users, and does not disclose reviewer identities to authors or the public except under explicit policy conditions that are communicated in advance. Any suspected breach of reviewer confidentiality is treated as a serious integrity concern and is addressed through editorial governance procedures.

Data Retention

JPCCS retains personal data for as long as necessary to operate the journal, maintain publication records, support the scholarly record, comply with ethical and legal obligations, and resolve disputes or integrity concerns. Because published articles form part of the permanent scholarly record, published content and core publication metadata cannot generally be deleted. However, individuals may request removal or anonymisation of personal data that is not essential to the published record, subject to the journal's operational obligations and the need to preserve audit trails for editorial integrity.

Consent

By submitting a manuscript, registering with the journal system where applicable, or accepting an invitation to review, individuals provide consent for the journal to process their personal information for publication-related purposes. This includes storing and using information within editorial systems, communicating about manuscript handling and publishing updates, and publishing author identifiers such as ORCID where provided. The journal relies on this consent and on legitimate publishing purposes to administer peer review, produce publications, maintain records, and ensure compliance with research integrity requirements.

Right to Access, Correct, or Delete Personal Data

Individuals may request access to personal data held by the journal, request correction of inaccurate information, and request deletion of personal information that is not part of the permanent published record or required for legitimate operational and integrity purposes. Requests relating to published authorship metadata are generally not deletable due to record integrity, except through approved identity-update processes (see the Name and Pronoun Change Policy). Requests should be submitted by email to editor@jpccs.org. Where a request requires publisher-level administrative handling, the journal will route the request appropriately while maintaining confidentiality and ensuring that the requester's identity and authority are verified where necessary.

Data Breach Policy

If JPCCS suspects a data security incident or breach that may affect personal information, the journal will take reasonable steps to investigate, secure systems, and limit further exposure. Where appropriate and proportionate to the risk, affected individuals may be notified, and corrective actions will be implemented to strengthen safeguards and prevent recurrence. The journal's response approach is guided by the seriousness of the incident, the type of data involved, and the practical steps required to protect stakeholders.

Alignment with Data Protection Principles

JPCCS manages personal information using widely recognised principles of privacy, confidentiality, and data protection appropriate to scholarly publishing workflows. The journal seeks to collect only what is necessary, protect data with reasonable safeguards, limit use to publication-related purposes, maintain transparency about processing, and balance privacy interests with the need to preserve a reliable, permanent scholarly record.

ADVERTISING AND SPONSORSHIP POLICY

JPCCS maintains strict ethical standards for advertising and sponsorship to protect editorial independence, reader trust, and the integrity of the scholarly record. Any advertising or sponsorship activity associated with the journal must remain transparent, clearly distinguishable from editorial content, and fully independent from manuscript evaluation, peer review, and editorial decision-making. JPCCS treats advertising as a limited, controlled activity that must not compromise the journal's scientific mission or create real or perceived conflicts of interest.

Acceptance of Advertising

JPCCS may accept limited, non-intrusive advertising that is appropriate for an academic perioperative and critical care journal and relevant to its scope and readership, for example notices related to anaesthesia and critical care conferences, training courses, clinical skills workshops, academic tools and research services, and ethically marketed professional products. All advertisements are subject to review and approval through the journal's publishing administration to ensure alignment with applicable legal requirements and ethical standards. The journal reserves the right to decline any advertisement at its discretion, including where relevance, accuracy, tone, or reputational risk is a concern.

No Influence on Editorial Decisions

Advertising and sponsorship do not influence the editorial process in any form. Editorial decisions are based solely on scientific merit, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal's scope, and the quality and clarity of reporting. Acceptance or rejection of manuscripts is not affected by whether an author, institution, advertiser, or sponsor has any commercial relationship with the journal or its publisher. This separation is maintained to ensure impartial peer review and to protect the credibility of JPCCS's editorial governance.

Types of Advertising Allowed

Where advertising is accepted, it may appear in formats that do not interfere with reading and do not create ambiguity between editorial and commercial content. Acceptable formats may include website banner placements, clearly labelled announcements, conference notifications, training or workshop promotions, and limited promotional placements that are relevant to the journal's audience. Any advertising displayed by JPCCS must remain professional, evidence-respecting, and consistent with the standards expected in scholarly publishing.

Prohibited Advertising

JPCCS does not accept advertising that conflicts with medical and public health ethics, violates applicable law, or risks misleading readers. This includes advertising for tobacco products, alcohol promotion, illicit or unsafe drugs, political or religious campaigning, misleading or non-evidence-based health claims, unverified medical treatments, products or services that violate applicable Pakistani law, and questionable or predatory publishing or conference activity. Given the journal's clinical scope, JPCCS also does not accept advertising that makes unsupported claims about the safety, efficacy, or comparative performance of anaesthetic agents, airway devices, monitors, ventilators, infusion systems, or other perioperative or critical care products. The journal additionally rejects advertising that is deceptive, sensationalised, discriminatory, or inconsistent with the professional expectations of an academic journal. Where uncertainty exists, JPCCS applies a precautionary approach and may reject the advertisement to protect readers and the journal's reputation.

Editorial and Advertising Separation

JPCCS maintains a strict separation between editorial functions and advertising management to prevent conflicts of interest. Advertising decisions and administrative handling are managed independently of the editorial team, and editors do not participate in advertising selection, pricing, or placement. Advertising content is not inserted into peer review files, reviewer materials, editorial evaluation documents, or author correspondence related to editorial decisions. Advertising is also not placed within the body of scholarly articles, so that commercial content does not appear to be endorsed by authors or by the journal.

Sponsored Content and Supplements

If JPCCS publishes sponsored supplements, special issues, or externally supported collections, the journal applies the same editorial standards, peer review procedures, and ethical checks used for regular issues. Sponsorship is disclosed clearly at the issue level and, where relevant, at the article level so that readers can understand the nature of the support. Editorial leadership retains full authority over content selection, peer review outcomes, and publication decisions, and sponsors are not permitted to influence editorial policies, reviewer selection, or acceptance decisions. Where a special issue is guest edited, the journal applies conflict-of-interest controls and independent oversight consistent with its peer review and editorial independence policies.

Transparency

JPCCS requires that all advertising and sponsorship content be clearly labelled and visually distinct from editorial content. Advertisements are displayed in non-intrusive areas of the journal platform and are presented in a manner that avoids confusion with scholarly material. The journal does not place advertisements inside academic articles and does not design advertising in a way that mimics editorial content, author communications, or peer review notices.

Advertising Fees

If advertising fees apply, they are managed by the publisher as an administrative matter and are not linked to editorial evaluation or publishing outcomes. Fee information may be provided upon request through the journal office, and all discussions regarding advertising placements and charges are handled separately from manuscript processing and editorial correspondence.

Complaints About Advertisements

Concerns or complaints about advertising content, including claims of misleading information, inappropriate placement, or perceived conflict with journal standards, may be submitted to the journal at editor@jpccs.org. JPCCS reviews such concerns promptly and may remove or revise advertisements where warranted to protect readers and uphold ethical publishing standards.

ARCHIVING AND DIGITAL PRESERVATION POLICY

JPCCS is committed to ensuring permanent, secure, and reliable preservation of all published content. The journal's digital preservation strategy is designed to protect the scholarly record and to maintain long-term accessibility of articles even in circumstances such as technical disruption, cyber incidents, platform migration, or journal closure. Preservation is treated as a core publishing responsibility, and JPCCS implements both external preservation services and internal continuity controls to reduce the risk of content loss and to support enduring access for readers, authors, and indexing systems.

Long-Term Digital Preservation Systems

PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN). JPCCS participates in the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) as its primary long-term digital preservation mechanism. Through PKP PN, published content is preserved using an automated and distributed preservation approach designed for Open Journal Systems (OJS) journals, supporting redundancy across geographically distributed preservation nodes and reducing the risk of single-point failure. This system strengthens the durability of published articles over time and provides a structured pathway for maintaining long-term access under circumstances that may affect the journal platform.

Internet Archive (Wayback Machine). In addition to PKP PN preservation, the JPCCS website and its publicly available article pages may be periodically captured by the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) as an additional layer of public redundancy. While the timing and coverage of captures depend on the Internet Archive's crawling and preservation processes, such archival snapshots can provide supplementary access pathways for readers and can support verification of the historical record in the event of site disruption or migration.

Self-archiving and repository preservation. JPCCS supports broad repository-based preservation through author self-archiving. Authors may deposit the preprint (submitted version), postprint (accepted manuscript), and the published Version of Record (published PDF) in institutional repositories, subject repositories where eligible, national digital libraries, and personal or professional websites, in line with the journal's Self-Archiving provisions and the reuse permissions of the CC BY 4.0 license. This distributed deposit approach strengthens preservation by ensuring that scholarly outputs remain discoverable and accessible across multiple independent platforms.

Local server backups. To support operational resilience and rapid recovery from technical failure or security incidents, JPCCS maintains routine backup procedures for journal systems and published content. These measures are designed to protect against accidental data loss, corruption, or infrastructure disruption, and typically include incremental backups, periodic full backups, secure storage practices, and recovery protocols. Access to backups is restricted and managed to reduce risk of unauthorised modification, while maintaining the ability to restore services and content when required.

Metadata Preservation

JPCCS preserves published articles together with structured metadata to support long-term discoverability, interoperability, and reliable indexing. Article records are maintained with persistent identifiers and standard bibliographic fields, and the journal supports metadata exposures used by scholarly discovery systems and repositories. Where applicable and provided by authors, JPCCS maintains identifiers and metadata elements such as DOI registration data, ORCID information, funder identifiers, and standardised metadata formats used for indexing and harvesting, including OAI-PMH and widely adopted bibliographic schemas, to ensure that article-level records remain findable and citable over time.

Article Permanence

Once an article is published in JPCCS, it forms part of the permanent scholarly record and is intended to remain accessible indefinitely. Published content is not removed or replaced, except through formal post-publication actions that preserve transparency and traceability, such as corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions. Where retractions occur, the article remains publicly accessible with clear labelling and is linked to an explanatory notice so that readers can understand the status and reasons while maintaining continuity of the historical record.

Distributed Global Archiving

To strengthen preservation pathways and global discoverability, JPCCS may make article metadata and records available through reputable scholarly indexing, harvesting, and discovery services where eligible. By enabling standardised metadata exposure and participating in established preservation and discovery ecosystems, JPCCS supports long-term access and reduces dependence on any single platform for findability and retrieval.

OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT DISCLOSURE

JPCCS is owned, managed, and published by BMU Ventures (Private) Limited, Pakistan, which provides the legal, administrative, technical, and financial infrastructure required for journal operations. The publisher is responsible for maintaining the journal's publishing platform, ensuring stable access to journal content, supporting production and administrative workflows, and enabling long-term preservation arrangements. Journal correspondence is managed through the official journal contact address, and publisher-level information is made publicly available to support transparency and trust in the journal's governance.

Publisher: BMU Ventures (Private) Limited, Pakistan Registered address: 8 Commercial, Sunny Park, Lahore 54000, Pakistan Publisher website: https://bmuventures.com Journal contact: editor@jpccs.org Principal Contact: Dr. Sumbal Rana

Journal Ownership

JPCCS is wholly owned by BMU Ventures (Private) Limited, which is responsible for the journal's operational sustainability and continuity. This includes providing financial and administrative support for publishing operations, maintaining the journal website and journal management system, supporting staff functions related to manuscript processing and production, and ensuring that published articles remain accessible and preserved through the journal's stated preservation arrangements. The publisher may also support participation in recognised preservation services, platform security practices, and continuity planning to protect the scholarly record.

Management Structure

Editorial independence. JPCCS maintains strict editorial independence as a foundational governance principle. Editorial decisions are made solely on the basis of scientific merit, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal's scope, and the quality and clarity of reporting. The publisher does not interfere with editorial decision-making and does not influence the acceptance, rejection, or retraction of manuscripts. This separation is maintained to protect the credibility of peer review, ensure fairness to authors, and safeguard the integrity of the scholarly record.

Editorial team. The editorial leadership of JPCCS, led by the Editor-in-Chief and supported by associate editors and the editorial board, manages the editorial process from submission through decision-making. This includes overseeing peer review, selecting appropriate reviewers, evaluating reviewer reports, issuing editorial decisions, ensuring adherence to ethical requirements, and applying consistent quality standards. The editorial team is responsible for managing corrections, retractions, and post-publication updates in accordance with the journal's ethics and integrity policies. Editorial board members are listed publicly on the journal website with their affiliations to support transparency of journal governance.

Separation of roles. JPCCS maintains transparent separation between editorial responsibilities and publishing and administrative responsibilities. Editors retain full authority over acceptance and rejection decisions, while the publisher provides administrative, technical, and financial support necessary for journal operations, including production and online dissemination. Publication fee payments are handled administratively after acceptance and are not used as an input to editorial evaluation. This separation is intended to prevent real or perceived financial influence on editorial outcomes and to ensure that peer review standards are applied uniformly.

Transparency

JPCCS is committed to clear public disclosure of its governance and operating model. The journal discloses its publisher identity and ownership information, editorial structure, peer review model, funding mechanisms and author charges, and the ethical standards and integrity safeguards applied throughout publishing. This disclosure is intended to support accountability, enable informed author decisions, and meet transparency expectations commonly applied to reputable open access journals and indexing evaluations.