The Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ) is a peer-reviewed, open-access medical journal committed to the highest standards of editorial independence, research integrity, transparency, and accountability. This policy defines the ethical, editorial, and procedural framework governing manuscript handling, peer review, publication, and post-publication oversight.
GMJ aligns its practices with internationally recognised standards, including:
the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE);
the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE);
the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME);
reporting guidance promoted by the EQUATOR Network.
GMJ is published by the Public Health Institute of Georgia (PHIG) and is led by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Giorgi Pkhakadze, MD, MPH, PhD.
Editorial decisions are made independently of the publisher, sponsors, advertisers, or any institutional, political, or commercial interests. The publisher does not interfere in the evaluation, selection, acceptance, rejection, or timing of publication of manuscripts.
Editors have full authority over editorial content and are free to publish evidence-based and responsible views, including those that may be controversial.
Editors are responsible for:
safeguarding scientific quality, integrity, and relevance;
ensuring fair, unbiased, and timely peer review;
maintaining confidentiality throughout the editorial process;
addressing ethical concerns in line with COPE guidance;
issuing corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern when necessary.
Editors are appointed with clearly defined responsibilities, authority, and mechanisms for resolving conflicts. Editors must adhere to GMJ policies and disclose any competing interests.
GMJ expects accurate reporting, responsible research conduct, and full transparency regarding methods, data, funding, and competing interests.
Research involving humans must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki. Animal studies must comply with relevant animal-welfare regulations and humane-care standards.
All parties involved in the publication process—authors, editors, reviewers—are accountable for maintaining ethical and professional standards.
Authorship requires meeting all four ICMJE criteria:
Substantial contribution to conception/design or data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation;
Drafting or critical revision of the manuscript;
Final approval of the version to be published;
Accountability for the integrity of the work.
Each author’s contribution must be specified using the CRediT taxonomy (e.g. Conceptualization, Methodology, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision, Funding Acquisition).
Non-author contributors should be acknowledged with their permission, and their role clearly described.
Manuscripts must state the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board and the approval number/date.
Informed consent is required for participant involvement and for publication of identifiable data or images.
Authors must remove direct identifiers and describe measures taken to protect participant privacy.
Authors must provide evidence of institutional approval and describe humane-care measures.
Interventional clinical trials must be prospectively registered in a publicly accessible registry (e.g. ClinicalTrials.gov, ISRCTN, EudraCT). The registry name and identifier must be reported in the manuscript.
A Data Availability Statement is mandatory. Authors should provide a repository link and a persistent identifier (e.g. DOI) where feasible, or justify any legal or ethical restrictions.
Authors should report software names and versions and share analysis code where possible.
All authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose financial and non-financial competing interests. Author disclosures are published with the article.
All funding sources and grant numbers must be declared, including the role of funders. If funders had no role in study design, analysis, or publication, this must be stated explicitly.
Editors recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where a conflict of interest exists.
Artificial intelligence systems cannot be listed as authors.
Any use of AI tools (e.g. language editing, translation, figure generation) must be fully disclosed, including tool name and version. Authors remain fully responsible for originality, accuracy, ethical compliance, and protection of confidential or personal data.
GMJ uses double-anonymised (double-blind) peer review for research articles. At least two independent reviewers are invited. Statistical review may be requested when appropriate.
Invited content and editorials may be reviewed at the editor’s discretion.
Editors aim for efficient processing and prompt decisions. Manuscripts deemed unsuitable are rejected as early as possible to avoid unnecessary delay.
Manuscripts undergo similarity checks (e.g. Crossref Similarity Check/iThenticate or Turnitin) at submission and, if necessary, after revision.
Submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. Editors and reviewers must not disclose manuscript content, status, or reviewer comments outside the editorial process.
Reviewer identities are protected according to journal policy and ICMJE guidance. Confidential information must not be used for personal or third-party advantage.
These include plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, undisclosed text recycling, data or image fabrication/manipulation, peer-review manipulation, and citation manipulation.
Allegations are handled in accordance with COPE flowcharts. Actions may include requests for correction, rejection, retraction, notification of institutions or funders, and temporary or permanent submission bans.
Corrections address errors that do not invalidate findings.
Retractions are issued for unreliable or unethical work.
Expressions of Concern may be published while investigations are ongoing.
All notices are permanently linked to the original article and assigned Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs).
GMJ accepts submissions previously posted on public, non-peer-reviewed preprint servers. Authors must disclose the preprint DOI or URL at submission.
Images must not be manipulated in ways that could mislead. Permitted adjustments must be applied uniformly and described upon request. Editors may request original, unprocessed files.
Authors may appeal editorial decisions with a point-by-point response. Appeals are handled, where possible, by an editor not involved in the original decision.
Ethical or procedural complaints, including those concerning editors, should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief. Unresolved cases may be escalated following COPE guidance.
Advertising and sponsorship do not influence editorial decisions. Sponsored supplements, if any, are clearly labelled and subject to the same peer-review, ethical, and disclosure standards as regular content.
GMJ is an open-access journal. Unless otherwise stated, articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
Authors retain copyright and grant GMJ the right of first publication. Third-party material must be licensed compatibly with CC BY 4.0 or accompanied by appropriate permissions.
GMJ ensures long-term digital preservation through the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), which uses distributed archiving via the LOCKSS system.
All published articles are assigned Crossref Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to ensure persistent identification and reliable linking.
Editorial Office — Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ)
Email: editor@gmj.ge
Website: https://gmj.ge
A new scientific commentary published in the Georgian Medical Journal examines the ethical and legal foundations for including critically ill patients in clinical research. The article is based on international standards and the Georgian regulatory context and is available in English with a DOI.
An overview of the evolution of ISO 15189—from a technical laboratory standard to a foundation of patient safety and health system trust—highlighting the roles of international organisations, WHO, and modern accreditation frameworks.
