The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recently updated their guidelines for publishing in the scientific literature. The ICMJE guidelines, or as they’re more formally known “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publishing of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals,” were updated to include new information related to reputable journals and data sharing, among others.
The full version of the ICMJE guidelines are available here and ICMJE also provided an annotated copy to help readers understand what changed since the previous version.
In relation to predatory or pseudo-journals, ICMJE guidelines stress that authors investigate the journals in which they choose to publish and offer several resources to aid that process.
As of July 1, 2018, manuscripts that are submitted to ICMJE journals are required to have a data sharing statement. The updated guidelines offer suggestions as to what information should be in the statement.
As always, if you’d like to discuss the details of the ICMJE guidelines and how they impact your publication plan, please get in touch.