Research integrity
Integrity commitments
The boundaries governing assessment and any later MedRigor Research engagement.
Authorship and disclosure
MedRigor will not provide ghost authorship or help conceal material contributions. Contributions must be acknowledged or disclosed in accordance with applicable journal, institutional, and professional requirements.
Evidence and methods
Reviews distinguish verified facts, methodological judgments, uncertainties, and preferences. Material references are checked directly when within scope, and analytical limitations are stated.
Pre-submission peer review
Independent pre-submission review is clearly distinguished from confidential peer review commissioned by a journal. Findings are advisory, specialty fit is assessed before acceptance, and no review may be represented as a journal decision, endorsement, or guarantee of publication.
Prohibited work
MedRigor will not knowingly support fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts, deceptive image alteration, manipulated peer review, misrepresentation, or concealment of findings.
Originality, similarity, and responsible AI use
Similarity and AI-detector outputs are treated as screening signals rather than definitive proof of misconduct or authorship. Review may address source attribution, overlap, patchwriting, paraphrasing, quotation, citation, author voice, and required AI-use disclosure. MedRigor does not provide detector evasion, concealment, or guaranteed scores. Tools may assist bounded, documented tasks but do not replace accountable expert review, and their use must respect confidentiality, data-protection duties, journal policies, verification requirements, and necessary disclosure.
Conflicts, competence, and escalation
Projects are screened for expertise, conflicts, risk, and fit. Work beyond available competence is narrowed, referred, or declined. Serious integrity concerns may require suspension and appropriate escalation consistent with contractual, legal, and professional duties.
Client responsibilities
Clients remain responsible for the authenticity of data and materials, author approvals, ethics and regulatory compliance, declarations, final analyses, final manuscript content, and all submission decisions.
Standards and guidance
Where relevant to the confirmed scope, review is informed by current journal instructions, appropriate study-design reporting guidance, the ICMJE Recommendations, resources indexed by the EQUATOR Network, and established publication-ethics guidance. Use of a checklist supports completeness but does not prove methodological validity, ethical compliance, or publication readiness.