The Iranian Conference on Biomedical Engineering (ICBME) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) principles. All participants, including Scientific Committee members, reviewers, and authors, must adhere to the following ethical principles.
1. Responsibilities of the scientific committee
The Scientific Committee is responsible for maintaining the scientific quality, fairness, and integrity of the conference. Its responsibilities include:
Evaluating submissions solely based on scientific merit, originality, and relevance.
Ensuring fair, unbiased, and non-discriminatory evaluation.
Enforcing the double-blind peer-review process.
Guaranteeing confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts.
Preventing disclosure or misuse of unpublished information.
Managing the review process transparently and ethically.
Making publication decisions based on conference policies and reviewer evaluations.
Peer review policy
ICBME employs a strict double-blind peer-review process, in which:
Authors do not know the identity of reviewers.
Reviewers do not know the identity of authors.
·Authors are required to submit an anonymized version of their manuscript for peer review.
2. Responsibilities of reviewers
Reviewers are expected to:
Provide objective, fair, and timely evaluations.
Base their review solely on scientific quality and relevance.
Maintain strict confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.
Not attempt to identify authors under any circumstances.
Avoid using external methods to discover author identities.
Provide constructive, evidence-based feedback.
Identify missing citations or relevant prior work.
Report plagiarism, duplication, or ethical concerns.
Declare conflicts of interest and decline review when necessary.
3. Responsibilities of authors
Authors must ensure:
Submission of original and unpublished work.
Full accuracy in reporting data, methods, and results.
No fabrication, falsification, or manipulation of data.
Proper citation of all sources and prior work.
Correct authorship attribution based on substantial contribution.
Approval of the final manuscript by all co-authors.
4. Responsibilities of the corresponding author
The corresponding author is responsible for all communication with the conference.
They must:
Ensure submission of an anonymized manuscript.
Confirm that all co-authors approve the submission.
Maintain integrity and originality of the work.
Provide valid institutional affiliation.
Use institutional email whenever possible.
5. Plagiarism and scientific misconduct policy
ICBME enforces a zero-tolerance policy toward scientific misconduct, including:
Plagiarism (text, ideas, figures, or data)
Self-plagiarism or duplicate publication
Data fabrication or falsification
Simultaneous submission to multiple venues
Improper authorship attribution
All submissions may be screened using plagiarism detection tools.
Confirmed violations may result in rejection or withdrawal.
6. Research ethics
Where applicable, authors must ensure:
Ethical approval for research involving human participants.
Informed consent from participants.
Compliance with animal research regulations.
Adherence to national and international ethical standards.
7. Responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI)
ICBME supports transparency and responsible use of AI tools in research and writing.
7.1 AI in writing and manuscript preparation
AI tools may be used only for language editing and readability improvement.
AI must not be used to generate scientific claims, interpretations, or conclusions without human verification.
Authors remain fully responsible for all content.
AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.
7.2 AI in data generation and analysis
Use of AI-generated synthetic data must be clearly disclosed.
Real experimental or clinical data must not be replaced or misrepresented as AI-generated.
Any AI-based preprocessing, augmentation, or simulation must be described in the Methods section.
Authors must ensure reproducibility and transparency.
7.3 AI in figures and biomedical images
AI-generated or AI-modified images must be clearly labeled.
Image enhancement using AI is only acceptable if:
Scientific meaning is not altered
Full transparency is maintained
Any form of misleading image manipulation is strictly prohibited.
7.4 AI in peer review process
Reviewers should avoid using AI tools that require uploading confidential manuscripts.
Confidentiality of submissions must be strictly preserved.
Manuscripts must not be entered into external AI systems.
7.5 AI usage disclosure requirement
Authors must include an AI usage statement in their manuscript, specifying:
Whether AI tools were used
Which tools were used
How they were used
Example: “The authors used ChatGPT for language editing only. All scientific content was developed and verified by the authors.”
8. Special guidelines for AI-related research papers
For papers focusing on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or Data Science:
Dataset origin must be clearly described (real, synthetic, or hybrid).
Model training and validation must be reproducible.
Ethical issues such as bias, fairness, and privacy must be addressed.
If biomedical or clinical datasets are used:
Data anonymization must be ensured.
Data protection regulations must be followed.
Limitations and generalizability of models must be clearly discussed.
