Enhanced Integrity Screening Policy

To safeguard the scholarly record and maintain the highest ethical standards, Journal of the Faculty of Medicine Baghdad is implementing an enhanced screening protocol. This policy addresses instances where a significant volume of submissions originates from individuals with a history of serious ethical breaches.

The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to decline any manuscript regardless of peer review outcome if the "risk signal" (based on past behaviour and current manuscript quality) suggests a threat to the journal’s reputation or the integrity of the scientific literature.

Scope and Criteria
While we believe in the potential for academic improvement, a pattern of "serious ethical issues" creates a heightened risk signal. For the purposes of this policy, serious ethical issues include:
•    Data fabrication or falsification.
•    Image manipulation with intent to deceive.
•    Participation in "paper mills" or unethical authorship trading.
•    Plagiarism that resulted in a formal retraction.

Mandatory Disclosure
All submitting authors must disclose any prior retractions involving themselves or their co-authors during the submission process. Failure to disclose a known retraction for ethical misconduct may result in immediate desk rejection and a temporary ban on future submissions.

Enhanced Review Process
Submissions involving authors with a history of ethical retractions will undergo an Integrity Audit prior to standard peer review:
•    Raw Data Verification: Authors may be required to provide original, unprocessed data and metadata for all figures and tables.
•    Institutional Verification: The editorial office may contact the authors' home institutions to confirm the validity of the research conducted.
•    Deep Forensic Screening: Manuscripts will be subjected to advanced AI-assisted image and text analysis to detect subtle patterns of manipulation.

Paper Guard System Usage

To maintain the highest standards of scholarly integrity and protect the journal from the increasing sophistication of academic fraud, the Paper Guard system is used for all submissions.

1. Purpose and Scope

The Paper Guard system is integrated into our editorial workflow to detect:

• AI-Generated Content: Identifying text produced by Large Language Models (LLMs).
• Image Manipulation: Detecting unauthorized cloning, splicing, or enhancement of figures and data visualizations.
• Paper Mill Signatures: Recognizing structural patterns common in commercially produced fraudulent manuscripts.
• Plagiarism: Cross-referencing against internal and external databases.

This policy applies to all manuscripts submitted to the journal.

2. Mandatory Screening Process

All manuscripts must undergo a Paper Guard screening at two specific stages:

• Initial Submission: Before being assigned to an editor, the Technical Office will run a "Preliminary Integrity Check."
• Post-Revision: If significant changes are made during the peer-review process, the revised manuscript must be re-screened to ensure no problematic content was introduced.

3. Interpretation of Results

Paper Guard provides a "Risk Score" and detailed reports. Editors should interpret these as follows:

Risk Level	Score Range	Action Required
Low	0% – 15%	Proceed to standard peer review.
Moderate	16% – 40%	Manual Audit required. The editor must check for false positives (e.g., standard methodology descriptions or common terminology).
High	> 40%	Immediate Investigation. The author may be asked for raw data or a formal explanation.

Note: A high score is a "flag," not an automatic rejection. Human oversight is mandatory to distinguish between sophisticated fraud and legitimate technical writing.

4. Author Transparency & Privacy

• Confidentiality: Manuscripts uploaded to Paper Guard are processed in a secure environment. They are not added to public databases without explicit consent.
• Right to Appeal: If a manuscript is rejected based on Paper Guard findings, authors have the right to provide original data (e.g., raw Western Blot files, original survey data) to contest the finding.
• Disclosure: Authors must disclose any use of AI tools in their "Materials and Methods" or "Acknowledgements" sections, even if Paper Guard does not flag the content.

5. Ethical Guidelines

Misuse of Paper Guard by editorial staff such as sharing reports with third parties or using the tool to bypass critical reading is strictly prohibited. The tool is a supplement to, not a replacement for, the expertise of our reviewers and editors.