PCCM Reports adheres to the highest standards of scientific integrity, publication ethics, and editorial transparency. The policies outlined below govern the submission, evaluation, and distribution of all scholarly work published within this journal.

1. Research and Publication Ethics

We align our editorial practices with the core principles established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

  • Plagiarism & Integrity: All manuscripts are screened for text duplication, uncredited reuse of data, and image manipulation prior to entering peer review. Plagiarism or data falsification will result in immediate rejection.
  • IRB Approval: Any original research involving human subjects must explicitly state within the methods section that approval (or a formal waiver) was obtained from an authorized Institutional Review Board (IRB) or ethics committee.
  • Patient Privacy & Informed Consent: In strict compliance with HIPAA standards, all patient identifiers (including names, explicit dates, and medical record numbers) must be completely removed from the text and clinical media. Authors must secure written, informed consent from the patient or their legal proxy for any case details or clinical figures published, available to the editors upon request.

2. Conflict of Interest & Financial Disclosure

Transparency regarding potential bias or commercial influence is a requirement for publication in PCCM Reports.

  • Author Disclosures: Upon submission, authors must disclose any financial or personal relationships with pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, or other biomedical entities that could potentially influence their work. A standardized disclosure statement will be printed at the end of every published article.
  • Editorial and Reviewer Conflicts: If a member of our editorial board submits a manuscript, or if an assigned reviewer identifies a conflict of interest with an author or institution, they will be completely recused from the evaluation and decision-making process for that paper.

3. Open Access and Copyright Policy

PCCM Reports is a fully open-access journal, meaning all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution.

  • Creative Commons Licensing: Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. This allows third parties to read, download, copy, and distribute the material for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work is properly cited.
  • Retained Rights: Authors retain full copyright ownership of their work. They grant PCCM Reports the right of first publication, allowing the work to be permanently archived and indexed.

4. Digital Archiving and Preservation

To guarantee the long-term permanence of the scholarly record for our authors, PCCM Reports commits to secure digital preservation. Published manuscripts are archived as permanent, unalterable PDF files. The journal is actively working to establish partnerships with permanent institutional repositories and digital archives (such as LOCKSS/CLOCKSS) to ensure content remains accessible in perpetuity, even in the event that the journal ceases operations.

5. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

Honesty and accuracy are paramount to medical literature. When errors occur, they are addressed transparently:

  • Errata/Corrigenda: Minor mathematical, statistical, or typographical errors that do not impact the scientific conclusions of a paper will be formally corrected via a publicly posted notice permanently linked to the original article page.
  • Retractions: In rare instances where pervasive data unreliability, dual submission, or unethical research practices are uncovered, the journal will issue a formal retraction following COPE guidelines. The original article page will remain visible but will be clearly marked as “Retracted” to preserve the integrity of the medical record.

For questions regarding these editorial and ethical policies, please contact the editorial office at: editor@pccmreports.com