The editors are committed to observing zero tolerance for unethical practices and plagiarism. The APMC follows the guidelines of ICMJE (www.icmje.org) and the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (www.hec.gov.pk). All the manuscripts submitted for publication will be screened for similarity index through Turnitin software and immediately rejected in case of plagiarism. In case of any complaint regarding plagiarism in the published article, a notice will be served to the authors demanding an explanation on the matter in the stipulated time duration. In case of an unsatisfactory response, the published article will be retracted, and the retraction will be published on the journal website.

It is the authors' responsibility to apprise themselves of plagiarism in any form, including paraphrasing and self-plagiarism. Manuscripts submitted to APMC can be sent to HEC, other medical journals' editors, and international agencies for authentication of originality. The disciplinary committee of APMC would deal with cases of plagiarism and comprise the staff, editors, and the Chief Editor or his representative. For a plagiarized article in processing, the identification of actions will lead to the dropping of an article from further processing/ consideration of publication. The author will be required to give an explanation on demand. In case of an unsatisfactory reply, the matter will be referred to the disciplinary committee to decide the course of action. The allegedly plagiarized article will be temporarily retracted from publication for published articles. The author will be served an explanation demand. In case of non-response in the stipulated time or unsatisfactory explanation, the article will be permanently retracted, and the author will be on the watch. HEC, PMC, and the author's institute will also be notified. In case of multiple submissions, other editors will also be informed. The author(s) will have to provide documentary proof of retraction from publication if such a defense is pleaded. Those claiming intellectual/idea or data theft of an article must provide documentary proof in their claim.