6 The aim of the present study was to evaluate the quality of ethical considerations

in the instructions to the authors of Iranian journals of medical sciences. Materials and Methods This study was conducted on all the journals listed in the ranking file of “The Commission for Accreditation and Improvement of Iranian Medical Journals” (http://www.hbi.ir/Nsite/Service/Special/?Level=21) in October 2011. Checklist items (n=15) were extracted from the national manual of ethics in medical research publications, which was published by the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education and its Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical content validity was assessed by a panel of experts. Additionally, all the questions were checked for relevancy, clarity, and simplicity. The study focused on the instructions to the authors of Iranian journals of medical sciences. Journals were excluded if their instructions to authors were not available Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical online or if they contained no instructions to authors. “Editorial leadership” was assessed on the basis of the most current instructions to authors and editorial policy statements. Fifteen parameters were scored as mentioned or not mentioned: “aim and scope”; “editorial freedom”; “authorship

criteria”; “cover letter”; “redundant publication”; “double submission”; “author’s responsibility for data accuracy”, “principles of medical ethics in Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the use of human samples”, “principles of medical ethics in the use of animal samples”; “conflict of interest”; “respect of the privacy policy”; “principles of

advertising”; “integrity in reporting clinical trial results”; “copyright”; and “review process”. In addition, the impact factors, indexing level, and rating of the journals were assessed to determine Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical their quality. All the accredited Iranian research scientific journals of medical sciences listed in the ranking file downloaded from the website of The Commission for Accreditation and Improvement of Iranian Medical Journals in October 2011 (n=198) were entered into the study. The available online instructions to the authors of 160 Iranian journals were reviewed. The ANOVA, χ2, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Mann-Whitney U, Kendall Correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. Results Of the 160 journals, 76 (47.5%) were in English and 84 (52.5%) were in Farsi. The mean±standard deviation (SD) and the maximum and minimum of the overall score of the publication ethics in the above-mentioned cases were 8.9±2.88, 14, and 0, respectively. The highest impact factor (1.199) belonged to one of the English language (-)-p-Bromotetramisole Oxalate journals. According to table 1, the most frequently mentioned publication ethics items were comprised of “redundant publication and double submission” (85%, 83.8%), “aim and scope” (81.9%), “principles of medical ethics in the use of human samples” (74.4%), and “review process” (74.4%), whereas “principles of advertising” (1.2%), “authorship criteria” (15%), and “integrity in reporting clinical trial results” (30.6%) accounted for the least mentioned items.