Editorial Policies

Publishing Schedule
The Genetics and Clinical Genomics Journal publishes three issues per year (April, August, and December). Articles are released as part of these scheduled issues to ensure timely dissemination of research.

Access Policy
The Genetics and Clinical Genomics Journal is a fully open access journal. All articles are freely available online immediately upon publication, with no subscription fees or pay-per-view charges. Readers are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles without restriction, in accordance with the selected Creative Commons license chosen by the author.

 

Archiving and Digital Preservation
The Genetics and Clinical Genomics Journal ensures the long-term preservation and accessibility of its published content through inclusion in Portico and through deposit in the Biblioteca Nacional de Panamá for permanent preservation. These archiving arrangements guarantee that all articles remain permanently available to the scholarly community, even in the event the journal ceases publication.

Revenue Sources
The Genetics and Clinical Genomics Journal may be financed through a variety of sources, including Article Processing Charges (APCs), institutional support, advertising, sponsorships, reprints, and organizational funding. Regardless of the source, all editorial decisions are made independently, based solely on academic merit and relevance, and are never influenced by financial considerations.

Advertising Policy
The Genetics and Clinical Genomics Journal may include advertising content in its online and print platforms in the future. All advertisements will be clearly distinguished from editorial content and will have no influence on editorial decisions. The types of advertising accepted will be consistent with the journal’s mission and ethical standards. Decisions regarding advertising placement are made by the publisher and are kept completely separate from the editorial and peer review process. No misleading medical products, no ads linked to the editorial board are allowed.

Direct Marketing Policy
The Genetics and Clinical Genomics Journal may occasionally engage in direct marketing activities, such as sending targeted calls for papers or announcements to researchers in relevant fields. All such activities are conducted in a professional, appropriate, and transparent manner, and never include misleading information. Marketing activities are designed solely to promote legitimate scholarly communication and participation in the journal. No Spam or unsolicited marketing practices are implemented or allowed.

Best Practices

The Journal adheres to the best practices, recommendations and procedures proposed by the Committee on Advertising Ethics (COPE) for the publication of scientific journals.

Authors must take into account the principles of the World Medical Association on human research and the well-known Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki- principios-éticos-para-la-investigación-medica-en-sujetos-humanos/).

The Journal also endorses the ICMJE recommendations for the conduct, writing, editing and publication of papers in medical journals (http://www.icmje.org/recomendaciones/).

Clinical studies should use CONSORT or TREND guidelines when appropriate. Meta-analysis studies should follow PRISMA guidelines. Diagnostic reports should follow STARD guidelines. Epidemiological studies should consult with the STROBE Initiative. Microarray reports should follow MIAME guidelines and be published in accessible repositories. In biomedical research, authors can evaluate BioShari guidelines.

Human studies

In the case of clinical experiments in humans, the studies must have institutional and ethics committee approval, statements of the implementation of good clinical practices, and document how informed consent was obtained. If requested by the Journal, authors should provide this material. This includes following the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. In addition, registration of clinical trials with WHO or ICMJE may be requested.

Animal studies

Animal studies must be conducted in accordance with internationally accepted standards. Institutions must obtain approvals from their institutional or equivalent committees (ethics committees). This information should be reported in the manuscript.

Informed Consent

Studies should follow privacy standards and request signed informed consent. The Journal requires the request of consent by the investigators to the subjects of the study, under the WHO/WHO international regulations and compliance with local regulations. Studies containing personally identifiable information will not be accepted.

Declaration of conflict of interest and sources of funding

Authors should also declare any possible conflict of interest in a short paragraph at the end of their manuscript. Our journal is regulated under the guidelines of the International Committee of Medica Journal Editors (ICMJE). This declaration includes owning stock, providing consulting services, organizational memberships, financial partnerships, travel fees, or royalties. A conflict of interest should be identified by any direct or indirect benefit, whether financial or not, derived from the publication and provided by a third party. Likewise, authors should disclose the source of funding for their work or any sponsor that supported the research directly or indirectly.

When the author submits the manuscript, each listed co-author will receive an e-mail with a link to a digital potential conflict of interest form. This form should be filled out by each co-author by clicking on the submit button. The model form was taken from the International Committee of Medical Editors.

Image of the Digital Conflict of Interest form/Image of the Digital Conflict of Interest form

Once the material is received you will be sent an email informing you of this. Your paper will be read by the editors, and if it is accepted for review you will receive a notification. It will be subject to peer review. It will then be forwarded to you with the editors' comments, questions and suggestions. They should return the responses and changes in a separate file, where the changes are shown and marked. When publications are accepted, authors should take into account that this material cannot be published in another journal. The journal reserves the right to require compliance with these rules.

 

Policy on the Use of Generative AI

The Genetics and Clinical Genomics Journal acknowledges the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools in academic publishing. GenAI cannot be credited as an author. Authors may use these tools for language editing or formatting support, but remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and validity of the content. All uses of GenAI must be disclosed in the acknowledgments (e.g., tool and scope). GenAI must not be used to generate data, results, references, or peer reviews. Editors and reviewers may use AI for minor language assistance, but editorial and peer review judgments must be human-made.

Cost of publication

License and Copyright Policy
Genetics and Clinical Genomics Journal is committed to providing authors with flexible open access publishing options that maximize both visibility and compliance with international standards. All articles are published under a Creative Commons license chosen by the author at the time of acceptance. Authors retain copyright while granting the journal an exclusive license to commercialize, publish and distribute the article. To accommodate funder mandates (e.g., NIH, Plan S, Horizon Europe) and to support equitable access to publishing opportunities worldwide, we offer a choice of licenses and article processing charges (APCs) that vary depending on license type and the author’s country income classification (based on World Bank categories). Our recommended license is CC BY, as it ensures the broadest dissemination, indexing compatibility, and compliance with global open access policies.

The first method is to publish through the Open Access (CC-BY, CC-BY-NC) options depending on the license you choose at the moment of submission. The processing fees are only charged once the is accepted for publication by the journal. Any work that has been financed must be submitted through one of the Open Access option. Cosult with your granting institution to determine the best license for your work. 

At the moment, we offer fee waiver for students, residents and non-funded work. This License allows anyone to submit their manuscript, and if the manuscript is accepted, it will be published at no cost. This agreement also grants the Editorial an exclusive license and rights to publish and distribution under the license CC BY-NC-ND. This is specially beneficial for Students, Residents, or groups that are not funded.

Processing fees table

License Option		High-Income Country Authors	Low-/Middle-Income Country Authors*
CC BY		$850 USD	$450 USD
CC BY-NC		$650 USD	$250 USD
CC BY-NC-ND (for students, residents and unfunded research)		Fees waived	Fees waived

Distribution, use and license

Through these licenses, the authors grant exclusive license to the Publisher for the reproduction and distribution of the material. The published content may be used for individual and academic use, and not for commercial use or redistribution. For commercial use of the material, or its distribution, redistribution requires written permission from the Publisher. This may vary depending on the license choosen by the author.

 

Authors’ rights and open access options
The Journal Licence allows authors to use their articles for their own non-commercial purposes without seeking permission from us – the only condition being that a full reference or link to the original is included.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

The Genetics and Clinical Genomics Journal is committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical publishing. We follow the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to ensure integrity, transparency, and accountability in all aspects of the editorial process.

Authors’ Responsibilities
Authors must submit original work, free of plagiarism, fabrication, or falsification of data. All sources must be properly cited and acknowledged. Conflicts of interest must be disclosed. Authorship is limited to individuals who have made a significant intellectual contribution to the work.

Editorial Responsibilities
Editors must ensure fair, unbiased, and timely review of all submissions. Editorial decisions are based solely on academic merit and relevance to the journal’s scope. Editors must maintain confidentiality and avoid conflicts of interest.

Reviewers’ Responsibilities
Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, and timely evaluations. They must treat all manuscripts as confidential documents, refrain from using unpublished material for personal advantage, and declare any conflicts of interest.

Publisher and Journal Responsibilities
The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity of the academic record. Cases of suspected misconduct (plagiarism, duplicate publication, authorship disputes, data manipulation) will be investigated following COPE recommendations. When necessary, the journal will publish corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern.

Malpractice Policy
Any form of unethical publishing behavior is unacceptable. Allegations of misconduct will be taken seriously, investigated promptly, and addressed with appropriate actions to protect the integrity of the scientific record.

Errata

The journal publishes corrections, errata, and retractions when necessary, to maintain the accuracy of the scientific record

Complains

Authors, reviewers, or readers may submit complaints or appeals to the editorial office by email. All cases will be handled fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with COPE guidelines

Version September 2025