Publication Ethics

The Libyan Journal of Dentistry adheres to the internationally recognized standards of publication ethics set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the Council of Science Editors (CSE).

Originality and Prior Publication

All submissions to LJD must be original work that has not been previously published, in whole or in substantial part, in any language, and must not be under consideration by any other journal. Permitted forms of prior dissemination — namely conference abstracts, lectures, academic theses, and preprints posted on recognized servers — must be disclosed at the time of submission.

Authorship

LJD applies the ICMJE criteria for authorship. To be listed as an author of an LJD article, an individual must meet all four of the following criteria:

  • Substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
  • Final approval of the version to be published; and
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to its accuracy or integrity are investigated and resolved.

Persons who contributed to the work but do not meet all four criteria — for example, technical, statistical, or administrative support — should be listed in the Acknowledgements section with their written permission.

Author limits are 6 for original articles, reviews, short communications, and letters, and 4 for case reports and technical notes. Exceptions require written authorization from the Editor-in-Chief.

Research Ethics and Informed Consent

Human-subjects research

All studies involving human participants must comply with the most recent revision of the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by a recognized research ethics committee. The committee name, approval reference number, and date of approval must be reported on the title page. Written informed consent must be obtained from every participant or, where the participant is a minor or unable to consent, from a parent or guardian.

Animal research

Research involving animals must comply with the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines and applicable national legislation. Institutional animal-care committee approval must be reported on the title page.

Patient consent for publication

For case reports, case series, and any submission containing clinical images or identifiable patient information, written informed consent for publication must be obtained from the patient (or guardian) and held on file by the corresponding author. A copy must be supplied to the journal on request.

Conflicts of Interest

Every author must disclose all financial and non-financial relationships within the past three years that could be perceived as influencing the work. This includes, but is not limited to, employment, consultancies, stock or other equity interests, paid expert testimony, patent applications or registrations, and grants or other funding. Where no conflicts exist, the absence must be stated explicitly.

Editors and reviewers are subject to the same standard and must recuse themselves from handling or reviewing any manuscript in which they have a competing interest.

Funding and the Role of the Funder

All sources of funding for the research and the manuscript preparation must be disclosed, including grant numbers where applicable. The role of any funder in the design of the study; in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to submit for publication must be stated. Where the funder had no such role, the absence must be stated explicitly.

Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Other Misconduct

All manuscripts are screened using iThenticate on submission. The acceptable similarity index is ≤ 20% (≤ 15% excluding the reference list). Manuscripts exceeding this threshold may be returned for revision or rejected outright depending on the nature of the similarity detected.

The journal regards each of the following as scientific misconduct:

  • Plagiarism — Presentation of another person's ideas, text, data, figures, or wording as one's own without proper attribution.
  • Self-plagiarism — Redundant or duplicate publication of the authors' own previous work without disclosure and citation.
  • Data fabrication — The invention of data or results that have not been obtained from genuine measurement or observation.
  • Data falsification — The manipulation of materials, equipment, processes, or data such that the research record does not accurately reflect what was done.
  • Duplicate publication — Simultaneous submission of the same work, or substantially overlapping work, to more than one journal.
  • Citation manipulation — Excessive self-citation, coercive citation, or citation stacking intended to inflate journal or author metrics.
  • Image manipulation — Splicing, duplicating, selectively enhancing, or otherwise altering scientific images in a way that misrepresents the data.

Confirmed misconduct is handled in accordance with the COPE flowcharts and may result in rejection of the submission, retraction of a published article, notification of the authors' institutions, and a temporary or permanent ban on submitting future work to LJD. Full procedures are set out in §IV-11.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Generative artificial intelligence and AI-assisted tools may be used by authors only for language editing and minor stylistic refinement. They must not be used to generate or interpret scientific data, to produce original scientific text presented as the authors' own, or to create or alter figures in ways that misrepresent the underlying data. AI tools cannot be listed as authors and cannot accept responsibility for the content.. Full policy in §IV-10.

Image Integrity

All images must accurately represent the underlying observation or specimen. Adjustments to brightness, contrast, or colour balance are permitted provided they are applied uniformly to the entire image and do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original. AI-generated or composite scientific images are not permitted unless their use is scientifically justified, clearly declared, and approved by the handling editor.

Confidentiality

All material submitted to LJD is treated as confidential until the article is published. Editors and reviewers may not disclose any information about a manuscript to anyone other than those directly involved in the review process, nor use unpublished material disclosed in a submission for any purpose other than evaluation.

Reporting Concerns

Concerns about scientific or publication misconduct may be reported in confidence to the editorial office at [email protected]. The editorial office will investigate every credible concern in accordance with the COPE flowcharts and will protect the confidentiality of the person raising the concern wherever the law and the nature of the investigation permit.