Kerala Medical Journal is an Open open-access journal with Creative Commons licensing, published by the Indian Medical Association – Kerala State Branch (IMA-KSB). The journal is published online and in print form and has 4 issues per year. Articles are selected from original research in clinical medicine, public health, and clinical epidemiology and undergo a strict process of peer review before confirmation. Authors are to pay a publishing fee of Rs. 5000 on acceptance. The publishing fee is partially waived for IMA-KSB lifetime members and medical students. The journal access is fully open online.

Aims and Scope

• • • • To promote and publish original research in all areas of modern medicine
      • To create active discussions and initiate debates on topics of importance in health policy and health decision-making
      • To propagate safe, evidence-based, and ethical practices of modern medicine popularising guidelines for management.

Open Access Policy
This 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, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is by the BOAI definition of open access.

Copyright Notice
When publishing with Kerala Medical Journal (KMJ), authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal. Work includes the material submitted for publication and any other related material submitted to KMJ. If KMJ does not publish said work, the author(s) will be so notified and all rights assigned hereunder will revert to the author(s).

The assignment of rights to KMJ includes but is not expressly limited to rights to edit, publish, reproduce, distribute copies, include in indexes or search databases in print, electronic, or other media, whether or not in use at the time of execution of this agreement.

Authors can enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

The author(s) hereby represents and warrants that they are the sole author(s) of the work, that all authors have participated in and agree with the content and conclusions of the work, that the work is original, and does not infringe upon any copyright, propriety, or personal right of any third party, and that no part of it nor any work based on substantially similar data has been submitted to another publication.

Peer Review Policy
To ensure that the articles published in KMJ adhere to the highest standards in medical publishing, we advocate and implement a rigorous at the same time author friendly open peer review process for all our articles. This review process is unique in that it not only ensures the quality of papers published in our journals but also provides credit points and recognition to reviewers who contribute their valuable time and expertise.

Plagiarism Policy
Plagiarism is a very common pitfall while writing scientific papers, and it often happens inadvertently. We use the robust and highly accurate iThenticate plagiarism checking engine. Please make sure to avoid all kinds of plagiarism including auto-plagiarism before submitting.

Archiving Policy
Kerala Medical Journal is archived in PKP Preservation Network (PN), LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) systems to ensure a secure and permanent archive for the journal.

Submitted version

• • • • Accepted version (Author Accepted Manuscript)
      • Published version (Version of Record)
      • Repository Policy

KMJ allows the Submitted version, Accepted version (Author Accepted Manuscript), and Published version (Version of Record) of the articles to be deposited in an institutional or other repository of the author’s choice.