NBME maintains the highest standards of publication ethics in accordance with guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and international best practices for scholarly publishing.

Editorial Independence: Editorial decisions are based solely on academic merit, methodological rigor, and significance of contribution. Commercial considerations, personal relationships, or institutional affiliations do not influence publication decisions. Editors maintain full independence in manuscript evaluation and publication determinations.

Peer Review Integrity: All manuscripts undergo double-blind peer review by at least two independent experts in the relevant field. Reviewers are selected based on subject matter expertise, publication record, and absence of conflicts of interest. The peer review process maintains confidentiality and provides constructive feedback to advance scholarly quality.

Author Responsibilities: Authors must ensure that submitted work is original, properly attributed, and complies with ethical standards. This includes:

• Verification that the work has not been previously published or simultaneously submitted elsewhere
• Proper citation and acknowledgment of all sources and contributions
• Disclosure of funding sources, conflicts of interest, and ethical approvals
• Compliance with institutional and international guidelines for research involving human subjects or animals
• Provision of raw data and materials when requested for verification purposes

Research Misconduct: NBME employs systematic approaches to detect and address research misconduct including plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, and duplicate publication. All manuscripts undergo similarity checking using professional software. Suspected misconduct triggers formal investigation procedures following COPE guidelines, with potential outcomes including manuscript rejection, publication retraction, and institutional notification.

Editorial Conflicts of Interest: Editors recuse themselves from manuscripts where conflicts of interest exist, including those involving their own research, institutional colleagues, or collaborative partners. Alternative editorial arrangements ensure independent evaluation in such cases.

Post-Publication Corrections: NBME maintains procedures for addressing errors, concerns, or disputes regarding published content through corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions as appropriate. All post-publication notices are clearly marked and permanently linked to the original article.