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Policy 19 — Editorial Independence and Publication Ethics

PHIG publishes the Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ) but does not direct its editorial decisions; the editors decide on scholarly merit alone. Owner: GMJ Editor-in-Chief, with the Ethics and Compliance Officer (Irakli Pshinashvili) as independent contact.

PHIG Institutional Policy Manual · Consolidated edition, September 2026

Part of the PHIG policy framework. Download the full manual (PDF). To raise a concern: admin@accreditation.ge.

PHIG publishes the Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ) but does not direct its editorial decisions; the editors decide on scholarly merit alone. Owner: GMJ Editor-in-Chief, with the Ethics and Compliance Officer (Irakli Pshinashvili) as independent contact.

Commitments

  1. No interference: PHIG’s management, Board, funders and advertisers have no role in accepting, rejecting or changing any manuscript.
  2. Peer review: research articles undergo double-anonymised review by at least two independent reviewers, as set out in GMJ’s published policies.
  3. Editor conflicts: manuscripts by the Editor-in-Chief, editors or PHIG staff are handled by an independent editor with no involvement of the author in the decision, and the arrangement is stated on publication.
  4. Industry separation: sponsorship or advertising is never linked to editorial content; sponsored material is clearly labelled.
  5. Standards: GMJ follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the ICMJE recommendations, including corrections, retractions and expressions of concern.
  6. Open access: content is published under CC BY 4.0 with persistent DOIs.

Complaints and appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision in writing to the editorial office. Complaints about the conduct of an editor go to the Ethics and Compliance Officer and, for the Editor-in-Chief, to the Chair of the Board.