All designated authors should meet the criteria for authorship and be appropriately listed. Authorship credit should be based on substantial contributions to all four categories established by the ICMJE: (1) conception and design, or acquisition, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; (3) final approval of the version to be published; and (4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Each author is required to complete the copyright assignment. Individuals who do not meet these criteria may be acknowledged as contributors in the Acknowledgments section. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, and general supervision of the research group, by themselves, does not justify authorship.

• Role of corresponding author: The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal throughout the submission, peer review, and publication processes. This author ensures that all administrative requirements of the journal are met, including: (1) providing details of authorship, (2) securing ethics committee approval, (3) submitting clinical trial registration documentation, and (4) completing conflicts of interest forms and statements. While some of these tasks may be delegated to coauthors, the corresponding author remains accountable for their completion. They must be available to respond promptly to editorial queries during submission and peer review, and address critiques and journal requests for data post-publication.

• Corresponding author and first authors: KJFM permits multiple corresponding authors and first authors for a single article.

• Correction of authorship: Requests for changes in authorship (adding/removing authors or rearranging order) after submission but before manuscript acceptance must be submitted in writing to the editor with justification, signed by all authors, and require the editor’s approval. Post-publication, authorship changes will not be permitted, even in the case of editorial staff errors, as authors are responsible for verifying authorship during the final proofreading process.

• Author name change: KJFM supports the COPE initiative and guidelines on an inclusive approach to author name changes (https://publicationethics.org/news/vision-more-trans-inclusive-publishing-world). Authors can request to replace their previous name with their current name without being required to disclose the reason for the change or provide legal proof or documentation. Upon request, KJFM will update the author’s name directly in the online version of the article, including both HTML and PDF formats, without issuing a separate correction notice. Updated metadata will also be sent to indexing services.

All submitted manuscripts must be original and not under consideration by other journals. Accepted manuscripts should not be duplicated in any other journal without permission from the Editorial Board. If duplicate publication is detected, the authors will be publicly announced, their institutions informed, and penalties imposed.

Plagiarism: Similarity Check is used to screen manuscripts for plagiarism or duplicate publication. Plagiarism is defined as reproducing another work without attribution. If plagiarism is detected before or after acceptance, or after publication, the author will have a chance for rebuttal. Unsatisfactory rebuttals will result in retraction. Figures and tables can be used freely if the original source is verified according to the Creative Commons Non-Commercial License. Authors must resolve any copyright issues when citing figures or tables from non-open access journals.

Manuscripts can be republished if they meet the ICMJE Recommendations for secondary publication available from https://www.icmje.org/:

(1) Certain types of articles, such as guidelines from governmental agencies and professional organizations, may be published in multiple journals to reach a broader audience with the consent of the authors and editors.

(2) Secondary publication in another language or country is permissible if: both journals' editors approve (the editor concerned with the secondary publication must have access to the primary version), and publication interval of at least one week is maintained, unless otherwise agreed.

(3) The secondary version targets a different readership and may be abbreviated. It must reflect the primary version's data and interpretations accurately. The title page of the secondary version must indicate its secondary nature and cite the primary publication, e.g., “This article is based on a study first reported in [journal title, full reference].”

The corresponding author must ensure that any conflicts of interest related to the submitted manuscript are disclosed in the manuscript and take responsibility for this disclosure. Potential conflicts should be reported even if the authors believe they were not influenced in preparing the manuscript. All authors must disclose i.e., (1) financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony), (2) personal relationship, (3) academic competition, and (4) intellectual passion. These disclosures should be included on the title page. A completed conflict of interest form should be submitted during manuscript submission.

Investigations involving humans must be conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). Clinical studies not adhering to the Helsinki Declaration will not be considered for publication. For animal research, studies must comply with the National or Institutional Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, ensuring the ethical treatment of all experimental animals.

Research involving human participants, data, or tissue must receive approval from the institution’s Research Ethics Committee (REC) or Institutional Review Board (IRB). For studies involving humans, informed consent must be obtained unless waived by the ethics committee. Copies of written informed consent (from the participant, or from a parent or guardian if the participant is unable to consent) and ethics approval should be retained, as editors or reviewers may request these documents. The manuscript must clearly state that ethical approval was obtained, including the reference number, and that written informed consent was secured from all study participants. For research involving animals, approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is required.

Patients have a right to privacy that must not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, such as names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published unless essential for scientific purposes and with written informed consent from the patient (or parent or guardian). Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. If there is any doubt about maintaining anonymity, informed consent is necessary, as masking the eye region in photographs is inadequate. If identifying characteristics are deidentified, authors must assure, and editors must confirm, that these changes do not distort scientific meaning.

Authors are encouraged to use inclusive language that acknowledges diversity, respects all individuals, and promotes equal opportunities. Avoid assumptions about the reader's beliefs or identities, and refrain from language that implies superiority based on factors such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability, or health condition. Writing should be free of bias, stereotypes, and cultural assumptions. Gender neutrality is encouraged by using plural nouns (e.g., "patients") instead of gendered pronouns ("he/she"). Descriptors of personal attributes should only be used if relevant and valid.

When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct, such as redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, ethical problems with the submitted manuscript, a reviewer appropriating an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and other issues, resolution processes will follow the applicable COPE flowchart (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). Suspected cases will be discussed and decided upon by the Editorial Board of KJFM.

KJFM aims to ensure the integrity of the academic record of all published or potential publications. Whenever it is recognized that a significant inaccuracy, misleading statement, or distorted report has been published, it must be corrected promptly and with due prominence. If, after an appropriate investigation, an item proves to be fraudulent, it should be retracted. The retraction should be clearly identifiable to readers and indexing systems.

• Correction: To correct errors in published articles, the corresponding author should contact the journal’s editorial office with a detailed description of the proposed correction. Corrections that profoundly affect the interpretation or conclusions of the article will be reviewed by the editors. Corrections will be published as author correction or publisher correction in a later issue of the journal. Minor errors will be corrected directly in the online version of the article. An indication of the correction, along with the date it was made, will be added to the article information in both the HTML and PDF versions. A separate correction note will not be published.

• Retractions: An article may be retracted when the sincerity of the published work is undermined due to the errors in the conduct, analysis and/or reporting of the study. Violation of publication or research ethics may also result in a study’s retraction. The original article is marked as retracted, but a PDF version remains available to readers, and the retraction statement is bi-directionally linked to the original published paper. Retraction statements will typically include a statement of assent or dissent from the authors.

• Editorial expression of concern: Where a certain amount of doubt arises as to the honesty or integrity of a submitted or published article, journal editors may issue an expression of concern. However, it should only be issued if an investigation into the problems relating to the article has proven inconclusive, and if there are strong indicators that the concerns are valid.

The policy of KJFM is primarily aimed at protecting the authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher of the journal. If not described below, the process of handling complaints and appeals follows the guidelines of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) available from: https://publicationethics.org/appeals.

Submitters, authors, reviewers, and readers may register complaints and appeals in a variety of cases as follows: falsification, fabrication, plagiarism, duplicate publication, authorship dispute, conflict of interest, ethical treatment of animals, informed consent, bias or unfair/inappropriate competitive acts, copyright, stolen data, defamation, and legal problem. If any individuals or institutions want to inform the cases, they can send a letter via the contact page on our website: http://kjfm.org/about/contact.php. For the complaints or appeals, concrete data with answers to all factual questions (who, when, where, what, how, why) should be provided. The consequence of resolution will follow the guidelines of COPE.

The Editorial Board is committed to upholding publication ethics by continuously monitoring and safeguarding ethical standards. This includes retracting articles when necessary, maintaining the integrity of the academic record, and ensuring that business needs do not compromise intellectual and ethical standards. The Board is also responsible for publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed, and for preventing plagiarism and fraudulent data in publications. Editors have the responsibility and authority to accept or reject articles. They must avoid any conflicts of interest with respect to the articles they evaluate and ensure the accuracy of accepted papers. Additionally, editors are responsible for promoting the publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found and for preserving the anonymity of reviewers.