The Journal of Human Environment and Health Promotion (JHEHP) is an international, quarterly, peer-reviewed, open-access journal that aims to receive and publish high-quality scientific papers involved in environmental health, public health, occupational health, and food hygiene from scientists around the world. This academic journal is published free of charge in both online and print forms and welcomes manuscripts that meet the general criteria of novelty and scientific importance. One of the most important objectives of the JHEHP is to ensure that the papers reflect a wide range of topics regarding journal scopes; perform a fair, scientific, fast, high-quality peer review process; provide a wide and varied geographical coverage of articles worldwide; and publishing articles that have a reliable source of scientific information for the audience. Acceptable types of submissions include original articles, review articles, short communications, case reports, letters to the editor, and editorial and book reviews on the Journal's scope of research areas. JHEHP is an official journal owned by the School of Public Health, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.

 Allegations of Research Misconduct 
 The Journal of Human Environment and Health Promotion (JHEHP) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct in all aspects of its publication process. This includes promptly and thoroughly addressing any allegations of misconduct, such as plagiarism and authorship disputes. the following process and policies outline the steps to be taken in identifying and dealing with allegations of misconduct. 
1. Reporting allegations
any individual who becomes aware of allegations of misconduct related to a submitted or published manuscript in JHEHP should report it to the Editor-in-Chief or the Managing Editor. allegations can be made by authors, reviewers, readers, or any other concerned party.
2. Confidentiality
All allegations of misconduct will be treated confidentially to protect the identities of the individuals involved. only those directly involved in the investigation and resolution process will have access to the information.
3. Initial assessment
upon receiving an allegation of misconduct, the Editor-in-Chief or the Managing Editor will conduct a preliminary evaluation to determine if the allegation merits further investigation. this evaluation will consider the credibility and specificity of the allegation, supporting evidence, and potential impact on the publication.    
4. Desion and resolution 
The JHEHP editorial board will review the investigation report and make a decision based on the evidence and recommendations provided.
If misconduct is confirmed, appropriate actions will be taken, which may include:
 

• Retraction or correction of the affected publication (s).
• Imposition of sanctions on the responsible party, such as banning future submissions or reporting the misconduct to relevant institutions or authorities.
• Notification to the relevant parties, including authors, readers, and funding agencies, regarding the misconduct and its consequences.

 If the allegations are not substantiated or insufficient evidence is found, the case will be dismissed, and the involved parties will be informed accordingly.
 

Conflict of interest

    The authors should declare separately by name that has no conflict of interest. Otherwise, submitting a manuscript must be accompanied by a statement from the authors disclosing all financial and personnel relationships that might bias their work. Besides, they are requested to evident whether impending conflicts do or do not exist. A separate page should cover this proclamation and if there are further details, could be mentioned in the cover letter. You can download the JHEHP Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest by clicking here.

Ethical oversight 

  The JHEHP will follow the COPE guidelines on dealing with any potential misconduct. In order to maintain the research integrity, authors should follow the rules which include:
-Authors should clarify that they have not submitted the manuscript in more than one journal (duplicate submission).
-Authors should not publish the submitted manuscript in the JHEHP elsewhere previously as part or full (duplicate publication) unless some new results would be considered. In this situation, authors should clear the re-use of material to avoid self-plagiarism.
-Authors should avoid "salami-publishing". It means the authors should not split up the results of a work to publish them in more than one journal.
-Authors should not use data that have been fabricated or manipulated such as images to support the conclusions.
-Authors should mention the data, text, or theories by other authors using quotation marks or writing in acknowledgment.
-Authors should be permitted to use the material that is copyrighted and secured.
-All authors should have consent from the responsible authorities.
-Authors in the submitted manuscript should have sufficient contributions to the scientific work and have responsibility for the results.
-Authors should be informed that any changes in authorship or the order of the authors in the submitted manuscript in the JHEHP would not be considered by this journal after acceptance of the manuscript. But, if all authors have written approval with an explanation in detail about deletion or adding another one(s), this journal will consider the changes.
-Authors should prepare and send to the journal the relevant documents or data to verify the validity of the results.
-Authors should avoid self-plagiarism. It means they do not use the previously published materials without acknowledgment of the source.
-Authors should use the relevant references inside the manuscript.
    If the JHEHP finds the potential or suspicion of misconduct, this journal will follow the COPE guidelines. If the journal ensures about the misconduct, this journal will contact the author and request the author to address the issue. After the establishment of the doubt, the Editor-in-Chief will follow:
-If the manuscript is under consideration, it may be returned to the author or rejected.
-If the manuscript has been published, it may retract and therefore the reason in detail will be published as a retraction note. Also, this journal may publish an erratum with an explanation in detail.
-Finally, this journal will contact the author's institution.

Informed consent

    Informed consent of the patients participating in the study should be undertaken. All individuals have individual rights that are not to be infringed. Individual participants in studies have, for example, the right to decide what happens to the (identifiable) personal data gathered, to what they have said during a study or an interview, as well as to any photograph that was taken.

    Hence all participants must give their informed consent in writing before inclusion in the study. Identifying details (names, dates of birth, identity numbers, and other information) of the participants that were studied should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and genetic profiles unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent or guardian if the participant is incapable) gave written informed consent for publication. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve in some cases, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt.

Human and animal rights

    Authors are required to state that all procedures were followed according to the ethical standards of human experimentation and the Helsinki Declaration revised in 2013 (available at: https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/ or here), and informed consent was obtained from all cases included in the research.
    For Animal studies, it should be stated that all guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

Data sharing and reproducibility

Retractions, corrections, expressions of concern, and withdrawal of manuscripts

    Retraction will be published by the JHEHP if errors affect the interpretation of the results or it is proven serious ethical misconduct, including duplication, redundant publication (publishing the data elsewhere without cross-referencing, permission, or justification), disagreement of all authors for publication, plagiarism, miscalculation, experimental error. In order to maintain the integrity and completeness of our scholarly records, JHEHP follows the COPE guidelines when the published contents need retraction. Thus, the editor-in-chief may retract a manuscript in any of the following circumstances:
• They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of a major error (eg, miscalculation or experimental error) or as a result of fabrication (eg, of data) or falsification (eg, image manipulation)
• It constitutes plagiarism
• The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper attribution to previous sources or disclosure to the editor, permission to republish, or justification (ie, cases of redundant publication)
• It contains material or data without authorization for use
• Copyright has been infringed or there is some other serious legal issue (eg, libel, privacy)
• It reports unethical research
• It has been published solely based on a compromised or manipulated peer review process
• The author(s) failed to disclose a major competing interest (a.k.a. conflict of interest) that, in the view of the editor, would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.
    The JHEHP will publish corrections if important errors are found. The corrections should be distinguishable from retractions and statements of concern relating to misconduct. If errors are enough fundamental to make invalid the work, the journal has the right to retract the published paper. Also, this journal will be published correction if the author/contributor list would be incorrect including, a deserving author has been omitted or somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been included.
   Expressions of concern will be published by the JHEHP if editors receive inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors or unreliability of the findings, an investigation will be underway but a judgment will not be available for a considerable time.
    If legal infringements, defamation, or false or inaccurate data occurred especially those that could pose a serious health risk, the JHEHP had the right to remove or withdraw the manuscript. In this circumstance, a retraction statement will be published by this journal and an explanation will be given about the circumstances of removal or withdrawal.

Copyright and plagiarism

    The JHEHP is an open-access journal under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which allows users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, or link to the full text of articles and make derivative works for non-commercial purposes, as long as the author of the original work is cited properly. The manuscript should not be copied or published in any materials contained in the journal without the prior written permission of it or the appropriate copyright owner. The authors should sign the Authors Agreement Form and transfer it alongside with submitted manuscript. If authors submit any material to which they do not own copyright, they will need to secure permission to use the copyrighted materials.
   The JHEHP uses these services to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Results returned by the software may be used as a criterion for the analysis of the manuscript by the editorial board and may eventually result in a rejection due to plagiarism, duplicate, and/or redundant publication. Plagiarism of text from a previously published manuscript by the same or another author is a serious publication offense. Small amounts of text may be used, but only where the source of the material quoted is acknowledged and the text is inserted in quotation marks. If there is an allegation of plagiarism, scientific misconduct, or fraud, the journal will follow the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics/COPE (http://publicationethics.org/) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors/ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org/).

Pre-prints
The following requirements should be observed if a preprint is available:

• The link to the website where the preprint has been published. 
• The DOI code should also be provided.

Open access policy

  The JHEHP is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, or link to the full text of articles and make derivative works for non-commercial purposes, as long as the author of the original work is cited properly. 
All articles published by the JHEHP are made freely and permanently accessible online. All articles to the JHEHP are posted online immediately as they are ready for publication. All articles will be assigned a DOI number (Digital Object Identifier) whereby they become searchable and citable without delay.

Authorship and contributorship

    Individuals claiming authorship should meet all of the conditions by the "International Committee of Medical Journal Editors" (available at: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html). Individuals claiming authorship should meet all 4 of the following conditions:
1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
    Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Any host, guest, or honorary authors must be strictly avoided. Allowing one’s name to appear as an author without having contributed significantly to the study or adding the name of an individual who has not contributed or who has not agreed to the work in its current form is considered a breach of appropriate authorship. In this journal, there is no limitation in authorship numbers. 
    The corresponding author on behalf of all authors (if there is more than one author) should be responsible for:
- All communications;
- Uploading all submissions;
- Revisions of the work;
- Submitting a brief description of all contributions to the manuscript in the Authors Agreement Form;
- Disclosing any information on prior or duplicate publication or submission elsewhere of any part of the work
Dispute Resolution Process

• The JHEHP has established a robust process for managing potential disputes related to authorship or contributorship.
• In the event of a dispute, the journal's editorial office will carefully consider the evidence and arguments presented by the involved parties.
• The journal may seek input from independent experts, reviewers, or editorial board members to facilitate an impartial evaluation of the dispute.
• The JHEHP aims to resolve disputes in a fair and timely manner, ensuring that all parties have an opportunity to present their case and reach a satisfactory resolution.

The contributions of all authors must be described based on the guidelines of CRediT available at: https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles-defined/

     Format of Authors' contributions:

Author 1: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Writing-original draft; Writing-review & editing. Author 2: Conceptualization; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Writing-original draft; Writing-review & editing. ...

     Changes in authorship: The author list and their order should be finalized by all the authors before the first submission. Before submitting the manuscript, the authors should be agreed with the authors listed in the manuscript. Any requested changes in authorship including, order, addition, and deletion should be explained in a letter to the editor signed by all authors or email from each author.
    Ghost-writing is NOT acceptable: No one, other than the authors listed below, should have contributed substantially to the writing and revising of the manuscript. Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgment. Examples include individuals who allowed their laboratory experience to be included, a person who provided purely technical help, copyediting, proofreading, or translation assistance (NO ghostwriters allowed), or a department Chair who provided only general support. Groups of persons who have contributed materially to the paper, but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be listed under a heading such as “participating investigators,” and their function or contribution should be described; for example, “served as scientific advisors,” “critically reviewed the study proposal”. If you have any questions about this, contact that editorial office before submitting your manuscript at jhehpzums.ac.ir or jhehpinfogmail.com.

Editorial independence

    The JHEHP adopts the World Association of Medical Editors' definition of editorial freedom. According to this definition, editorial freedom, or independence, is the concept that editors-in-chief have full authority over the editorial content of their journal and the timing of publication of that content. Journal owners should not interfere in evaluating, selecting, or editing individual articles either directly or by creating an environment that strongly influences decisions. For more information, you can read "The Relationship between Journal Editors-in-Chief and Owners (formerly titled Editorial Independence)" at (http://wame.org/editorial-independence).

Disposal of material

    Once published, all copies of the manuscript, correspondence, and artwork will be held for 6 months before disposal. The editorial board of the journal reserves the right to accept or reject the manuscript at any stage and at any time or delete a part of the text, tables, or figures, if necessary.

Article Publication Charge (APC):

    There is no Article Publication Charge (APC) for publication in this journal.

Archiving policy
All of the digital Journal content is stored on a secure server which is backed up every evening. In the event of a problem, the backup will be restored within 24 hours. Furthermore, authors may archive the final published version of their articles in personal or institutional repositories immediately after publication.

English language editing 
   
   English language editing will be done by experts/editors. However, the manuscript must be of good quality English at the time of submission, otherwise, it will be rejected at the initial stage. The English language editing will be done free of cost. We have taken this step to help the authors who do not bear the cost of English language editing.
Complaints and appeals
Complaints can be submitted via email to the JHEHP editorial office, clearly stating the nature of the complaint and providing supporting evidence whenever possible. Upon receiving a complaint, the JHEHP editorial office will promptly acknowledge the receipt of the complaint in writing. The complaint will be reviewed by the appropriate authority, such as the journal's Editor-in-Chief or an independent committee appointed by the editorial board.

 Advertising policy
    The journal does not carry advertising, either in print or online.