Publication Ethics and Policies

  • Open Access Policy and DOI use
  • Corrections, Version Control and Scientific Misconduct 
  • Confidentiality
  • Authorship
  • ChatGPT and Chatbots
  • Generative AI Images
  • Allegations of Misconduct
  • Complaints and Appeals
  • Repository Policy, Self-Archiving and Digital Preservation
  • Financial and Non-Financial Relationships and Activities /Conflicts of Interest
  • Predatory or Pseudo Journals
  • Editors and Journal Staff as Authors
  • Intellectual Property
  • Embargo Policy
  • Human and Animal Subjects 
  • Informed Consent
  • Post publication discussion and corrections
  • Journal management policies and teamwork
  • Collection of Data on Editors, Authors, and Peer Reviewers
  • Disclosure of Unlabeled Use
  • Policy on content validation
  • Patient consent
  • Statistical analyses
  • Data Availability Statement
  • Ethics and misconduct
  • Ethical Oversight
  • Social Media and Marketing
  • Production and platform
  • SDG Goals
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

 

Open Access Policy and DOI Use

THMT is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or their 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 in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Articles are published upon the final correction(s) and approval of the final galley proof.

All articles are assigned a DOI number (Digital Object Identifier). 

All THMT articles are open access and at no charge to readers. There are no paywalls.

Corrections, Version Control and Scientific Misconduct 

Honest errors are part of science and scholarly publishing. It may be necessary to change the Version of Record after an article has been published in accordance with guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and ICMJE. 

Minor errors will not have a separate correction notice. A footnote can be added to the article detailing to the reader what has been corrected. These errors do not impact the reliability, or a reader’s understanding of the scholarly content.

Corrections are needed for errors of fact. Matters of debate and evolving science and methods are not errors. Such issues can be best handled as letters to the editor, as print or electronic correspondence, as posts in a journal sponsored online forum, or as new publications.

It may be difficult to adjudicate and correct errors more than 10 years old due to author availability or because the corrections may have less impact on science or clinical practice. In such cases a correction is not warranted.

The journal will issue corrections, retraction statements and other post-publication updates including Editor’s Notes and Editorial Expressions of Concern on published content, new articles or letters to the edior.  Mechanisms for correcting, revising or retracting articles post publication are made on CrossMark - that allows readers to check the article version and any amendments and corrections. This includes:

  • Author Correction(s)
  • Author Name Change
  • Publisher Correction
  • Addendum
  • Editor's Note (this is not indexed)
  • Editorial Expression of Concern (published, indexed and will receive a DOI)
    • Publishing an Editor’s Note or EEoC is recommended by COPE

Retractions

THMT follows newly updated 2025 COPE Retraction Guidelines – this version has been expanded to include image irregularities, fictitious data, undisclosed use of artificial intelligence, and systematic manipulation of the publication process. More specifically:

  • The purpose of retraction is to correct literature and ensure integrity, not punish authors
  • Editors can retract a publication if they lose confidence in results and conclusions reported
  • Retraction may be warranted with clear evidence of major errors, irregularities in data or images, or forms of misrepresentation such as fraud, identity theft or fictitious authorship, that compromise reliability of findings
  • Retractions may occur if findings have been published elsewhere without proper attribution, permission, or material/data has been used without authorization
  • Retractions for unethical research practices, compromised peer review, or undisclosed conflicts of interest that may bias work or recommendations by peer reviewers may be warranted
  • Retraction will link to the retracted article, identify it with title and authors, be published promptly, and be open and accessible to all readers
  • Batch retractions may occur when evidence of systematic manipulation of articles presents from paper mills

The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scientific record and will thoroughly investigate concerns that are directly raised by authors and readers.  Authors will always be given the opportunity to promptly respond to concerns raised. Retraction statements can include a statement of assent or dissent from the authors.

The author’s institution, funders, regulatory bodies, and journals may be contacted in cases of suspected research or publishing misconduct. Post-publication issues and corrections will be investigated and dealt with swiftly. There is no time limit for notifying editors of errors or publishing corrections. Send a detailed email to the managing editor at j.russo@partnersindigitalhealth.com

Matters Arising

  • Post publication commentary on published research is important to advance scientific discourse, and may include challenges, clarifications or replication of the published work. This may be published as Matters Arising, beside a reply from the original journal author(s).

Post publication issues and discussion

THMT encourages questions and debate post publication. This can be exercised as a letter to the editor, opinion piece to the journal, commentary can be viewed across social media platforms where journal content is posted and shared such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Medium and Substack. Additionally, PubPeer can be used as an external moderated site. For details, see https://pubpeer.com/static/about.

All authors are encouraged to register their article on PubPeer by posting the article DOI number and encouraging commentary. The registration link is: https://pubpeer.com/register

Confidentiality

Editors, authors and reviewers are required to keep all details of the editorial and peer review process on submitted manuscripts confidential in double blind anonymous peer review, unless part of open peer review, Identities of reviewers are not released. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality of manuscripts. If a reviewer seeks advice from colleagues, the reviewer must consult with the managing editor to ensure confidentiality. The names of qualified colleague(s) will be provided to the managing editor with the reviewer’s final comments. Correspondence with the journal, editor reviews and comments, and other materials will only be published in open peer review with prior consent and authorization of authors and editors. Journal reviewers are aware of this policy and it is contained in reviewer agreements.  Confidentiality is not guaranteed in legal action.

Reviewers and editors are required to keep manuscript submissions in confidence and disclose financial and non-financial relationships and interests (this includes the journal staff and volunteers) on the Journal Relationships and Activities page here.

Reviewers and editors are also asked to alert the managing editor of any potential conflict(s) identified before peer review.  Additionally, at on boarding a new member to the team, the publisher sends an email outlining expectations, requirements, confidentiality and includes links to COPE, ICMJE, and journal links including details regarding peer review to further emphasize familiarity with journal operations, workflow and the importance of ethics. Click here for details.

Authorship

Authors are expected to comply with ICMJE authorship requirements. Additional details for authors are located on General Information for Authors. There are no exceptions. Non-author contributors should be acknowledged, and contributions specifically noted, in the article.

ChatGPT and Chatbots 

THMT follows WAME Recommendations on ChatGPT and Chatbots. Click here for the full article. Additional references information are located at COPE

  • Chatbots and other generative AI tools cannot be authors, do not meet ICMJE authorship criteria, and cannot hold copyright. Authors submitting a manuscript must ensure that all listed authors meet ICMJE authorship criteria.
  • Authors must be fully transparent about any use of chatbots or automated tools. Use should be described in the cover letter and disclosed in the Acknowledgments section. When generative AI is used to draft new text, convert text into tables or illustrations, perform analyses, generate or assist with reporting results such as tables or figures, or to write code, use must be stated in the Abstract and Methods sections. To support scientific scrutiny and reproducibility, authors must provide the full prompt(s) used to generate results, the time and date of each query, and the AI tool name and version.
  • Authors are responsible for all content produced with AI tools, including verifying its accuracy, ensuring the absence of plagiarism, and providing correct attribution for all sources and materials produced by a Chabot or automated system. Generative AI cannot be cited as a source.
  • Authors must disclose any use of generative AI beyond simple language correction, editing, or formatting. They remain responsible for validating the output of any automated tools used during research or manuscript preparation. Automated tools cannot be credited as authors.
  • Authors should attest there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by AI tools.

THMT encourages the use of Chatbots and ChatGPT to assist with abstracts, Plain Language Summaries (PLS), and generating article keywords.

Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.

An expanded policy has been added to THMT. To review the complete THMT Artificial Intelligence Policy, please click here.

THMT encourages the use of Chatbots and ChatGPT to assist with abstracts and Plain Language Summaries (PLS), and generating article keywords.

Generative AI Images 

Generative AI image creation has resulted in legal copyright and research integrity issues. Partners In Digital Health (PDH) follows existing copyright law and best practices regarding publication ethics and DOES NOT permit its use for publication. Exceptions are images and video that are directly referenced in a piece that is specifically about  AI and will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This policy will be reviewed and adapted as needed.

Note: Use of non-generative machine learning tools to manipulate, combine, or enhance existing images or figures should be disclosed in respective manuscript captions and disclosed upon submission in the cover letter for transparent purposes and ethical review.

Allegations of Misconduct

Research misconduct includes fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism, and journals have a responsibility to investigate any allegations and take appropriate action, including retractions when necessary. Although editors and reviewers are required to maintain confidentiality, this obligation may be lifted if dishonesty or fraud is suspected, with all involved parties informed. Because such misconduct erodes trust in scholarly communication, transparent and decisive handling is essential to uphold the integrity of science. The journal will vigorously investigate allegations of research or publication misconduct and will contact authors, institutions and all those associated to conduct a timely proper investigation following COPE guidelines. Corrective action will be taken, noted, any revisions or article status changes will also be noted on CrossMark. Please email the managing editor with any concerns pre- and post-publication at j.russo@partnersindigitalhealth.com

Complaints and Appeals

  • Editorial

Should reviewers reject the submission or resubmission, the managing editor will alert the Editors-in-Chief (EICs) to determine whether the EICs believe the submission warrants publication and benefits the field. The Editors-in-Chief and managing editor will, together, make a decision based on the reviewers' comments, and may contact the reviewers to discuss in more depth.

  • Appeals

To appeal an editorial decision, contact the Managing Editor and explain your reason(s) for the appeal. When a paper has been revised in response to the review, or when authors appeal against a decision, we ask reviewers to provide follow-up commentary.

All appeals are discussed with the Editors-in-Chief and reviewers assigned to the submission.  In the case of disagreement, THMT may seek external advice on the appeal, but it is most likely the final decision will be left to the Editors-in-Chief.

Only one appeal will be considered. The Editors-in Chief decision will be final.

Please email the managing editor at j.russo@partnersindigitalhealth.com

  • Journal

To report a complaint against the journal, its staff, or editorial board, please email the publisher at t.cenaj@partnersindigitalhealth.com

The journal will vigorously investigate complaints or misconduct with a timely investigation following COPE guidelines. Corrective action will be taken, noted, and reported on CrossMark.

Repository Policy, Self-Archiving and Digital Preservation

Authors may deposit a copy of their paper in an institutional or other repository of their choice for the following versions, without embargo:

  • *Submitted version
  • Accepted version (author accepted manuscript)
  • Published version (version of record)

*Submitted versions may already be available on preprint servers, have undergone open peer review, and have already been assigned a DOI number. THMT accepts these manuscript and article submissions.

Authors should note THMT is a gold open access journal  which makes  research output freely and immediately available online on publication, and automatically deposits open access articles in PubMed Central (PMC). Please note that there may be an interval of a few weeks between publication and the appearance of an article in PubMed Central, depending on the time required to process the deposit.

THMT will also correct known copies of the article in databases such as CorssMark. It is the author’s responsibility to update articles in institutional repositories.

Authors are encouraged to deposit the final published PDF in their institutional repository or any suitable subject repository on publication. A link to THMT’s website is required to ensure integrity, authenticity and provenance of the scientific record, with the online published version identified as the incontrovertible version of record and include the DOI number. 

 Financial and Non-Financial Relationships and Activities/Conflicts of Interest

THMT requires all authors, reviewers and editors to declare financial and non-financial relationships and activities to the journal’s editorial office to ensure transparency is maintained. The journal publishes potential conflicts reported by board members on the Journal Relationships & Activities page. We ask editors to submit updates once a year. Any editor with a conflict must recuse themselves from reviewing submissions presenting a potential conflict.

Professional judgments must not be influenced by financial gain. Purposeful failure to disclose relationships and activities is a form of misconduct. Authors must disclose all as per journal requirements and forms. The ICMJE has developed a Disclosure Form to facilitate and standardize authors’ disclosures. Authors are required to submit this form when a manuscript is submitted.

Examples include:

  • Involvement in a business (such as ownership, employment, contracting or speaking for) that would financially gain from the publication of the work
  • Rivalry in the same research area
  • Potential career advancement based on the publication of the research
  • Being asked to assess the work of a close colleague or relative for the journal

Predatory or Pseudo Journals

Be aware there are a myriad of entities promoting themselves as "scholarly medical journals," and are not. This is of particular interest to THMT's publisher. See the blog post "It’s Time for an Integrity Throwdown: Conflicts of Interests in Scientific Communications,”  here.  Predatory journals do not conduct peer review, are not members of ICMJE, COPE or WAME. Journals may also be hijackeed and cloned. Researchers must avoid submitting papers to them. Authors have a responsibility to evaluate a journal's policies, practices, and reputation for integrity. Reviewers must also vet journals they join to perform peer review. Seek the counsel of mentors and colleagues and reach out to journal editorial board members. Conduct proper due diligence. Use tools such as the Think. Check. Submit. checklist.

More guidance is available to help identify reputable peer-reviewed journals. Please take the time to read www.wame.org/identifying-predatory-or-pseudojournals, www.wame.org/principles-of-transparencyand-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing, or the ICMJE editorial at https://www.icmje.org/news-and-editorials/predatory-journals-editorial.pdf

Editorial Team and Staff

Issues regarding research integrity, publishing ethics, or legal issues relating to the journal may arise pre- or post-publication. The first step for editors and staff members is to discuss an identified issue with journal and staff team members where issues involve legal, defamation, breach of contract, privacy, or copyright infringement. The process for resolution may include: 

  • Seeking guidance or advice from sources such as COPE
  • Involving institutions, employers, or funders to investigate author disputes and alleged misconduct
  • Consult with other journal editors being mindful of confidentiality

Editors or Journal Staff as Authors

Editorial Board Members are required to declare any competing interests and are excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists. Where an Editorial Board Member is author they must declare this in the Financial and Non-Financial Relationships and Activities section on the submitted manuscript. If any other competing interests are identified regarding a specific manuscript, another editor will be assigned to assume responsibility of peer review. These submissions undergo the same review process as any other manuscript. The managing editor ensures no editors that are authors of manuscripts are invited to peer review their own manuscript. 

In addition, if the editor is first author on an accepted manuscript, the student APC will be applied. Editorial and blogs are published at no charge. The journal board is comprised of volunteers. The journal recognizes their efforts, and has chosen to reduce fees in appreciation of the editor’s time.

Intellectual Property

Authors are lawful copyright owners of their articles and retain all rights to IP, patents, and trademarks for their work(s). Sharing articles for professional and personal use is strongly encouraged. 

Embargo Policy 

There is no embargo.  Abstracts of work may be presented at scientific conferences.

Human and Animal Subjects 

THMT follows the guidelines of the ICMJE.

When reporting research involving human data, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed have been assessed by the responsible review committee (institutional and national), and/or in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration (revised in 2013). Authors must explain rationale for their approach and demonstrate the institutional review body explicitly approved any doubtful aspects of the study. Approval by a responsible review committee does not preclude editors from forming their own judgment as to whether the conduct of the research was appropriate. Authors must remember to add the trial registration number to the end of the abstract.

All authors should seek approval to conduct research from an independent local, regional, or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board), and provide documentation of such upon an editors request.

For manuscripts reporting experiments on animals, the corresponding author must confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The manuscript must include a statement identifying the institutional and/or licensing committee approving the experiments, including any relevant details.

The ICMJE Recommendations guide accurate and unbiased reporting of industry-sponsored clinical trial data in medical journals. One update in the current version is:

  • Reporting of trial participants: authors should discuss how representative the study sample is of the larger population of interest; in cases where race or ethnicity data were not collected, authors should explain why not.

Informed Consent

Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects, observing privacy rights of human subjects. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent requires an identifiable patient is shown the manuscript to be published. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. If identifying characteristics are de-identified, authors should provide assurance that such changes do not distort scientific meaning.

Collection of Data on Editors, Authors, and Peer Reviewers

The journal does NOT collect information on race and ethnicity and does NOT permit editorial decisions to be influenced by the demographic characteristics of authors, peer reviewers, editorial board members, or editors. We continuously address equity and inclusion in our portfolio to ensure our ongoing commitment to global equality, diversity and inclusion.

Brief journal management policies and teamwork

Editorial independence: the Editors-in-Chief, board members, and the managing editor make editorial decisions, not the journal owner and publisher. If legal or ethical issues arise with regard to an article or the journal, the owner/publisher will engage.

Preprints will be accepted and evaluated as to whether the journal will place the manuscript in peer review. Previous publication as a preprint should be disclosed in the paper.

Article corrections will be made on CrossMark. Retractions will be made on CrossMark. See Aims and Scope for fees. 

Expressions of concern should be brought to the attention of EICs, managing editor or publisher as soon as possible to info@partnersindigitalhealth.com and j.russo@partnersindigitalhealth.com

New team members are sent details regarding basic journal workflow and operations, confidentiality, expectations, requirements and links to COPE, ICMJE to further emphasize familiarity with journal operations, workflow, the importance of ethics and peer review including links to Publons and ReviewerCredits, and video links for how to conduct peer review.

Journal staff keeps up with industry trends and developments and keeps staff and all editors informed. Staff seeks guidance from its editors and ventures to push boundaries of traditional scholarly publishing.

Collection of Data on Editors, Authors, and Peer Reviewers

The journal does NOT collect information on race and ethnicity and does NOT permit editorial decisions to be influenced by the demographic characteristics of authors, peer reviewers, editorial board members, or editors.

We continuously address equity and inclusion in our portfolio in these areas and others as needed, to ensure our ongoing commitment to global equality, diversity and inclusion.

Disclosure of Unlabeled Use

Articles published by THMT may contain information and discussions of published and/or investigational uses of devices and agents that are not indicated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  Partners in Digital Health, publisher of THMT, does not recommend the use of any device or agent outside lawful and labeled indications.

Policy on content validation

  1. All the recommendations involving clinical medicine must be based on evidence that is accepted within the profession of medicine as adequate justification for their indications and contraindications in the care of animals and patients
  2. All scientific research referred to, reported, or used in a patient care recommendation must conform to accepted standards of experimental design, protocols, data collection and analysis

Patient consent

As recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org/). Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, 01/02/2018.  Available from: http://www.ICMJE.org., authors will ensure the guidelines below are followed. THMT has quoted the text below from ICMJE Protection of Research Participants for authors to know and follow:

"Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information, including patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published.

Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, however, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is usually inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note. When informed consent has been obtained it should be indicated in the submitted article."

Statistical analyses

Ensure the methodology has been accurately described for statistical analysis. Include details and access to original data to verify results. Provide confidence levels, and define terms and symbols.  Include software used. In comparative studies, power calculations are usually required. In research manuscripts, requiring complex statistics, the advice of an expert statistician should be sought at the design/implementation stage of the study. It is appropriate to include statisticians as co-authors. Should you have further questions, please contact the managing editor.

Data Availability Statement (DAS), data sharing, reproducibility and data repositories

THMT encourages all authors around the globe to openly share data for purposes of reproducibility. THMT also asks authors and readers to share articles to encourage broadening the sector’s knowledge base.

Data Availability Statement

  1. What is a Data Availability Statement (DAS)?

A Data Availability Statement (also called Data Access Statement) tells the reader if the data behind a research project can be accessed, where and how. Authors should include hyperlinks to public databases to make it easier for the readers to find them.

  1. What to Include and where?

The DAS should appear in the manuscript immediately after the Disclosures statement. When datasets are included as integral supplementary material in the paper, they must be declared (e.g., as "Dataset 1") and cited in the DAS, and should appear in the references.

  1. What is an example of a data availability statement?

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at [URL], reference number [reference number]. The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article [and/or] its supplementary materials.

Generally, there are four common, and sometimes overlapping, situations that authors should use as guidance (see below).  Authors should feel free to include any additional details that may be relevant.

  1. When datasets are included as integral supplementary material in the paper, they must be declared (e.g., as "Dataset 1" following our current supplementary materials policy) and cited in the DAS, and should appear in the references.

Data availability. Data underlying the results presented in this paper are available in Dataset 1, Ref. [3].

  1. When datasets are cited but not submitted as integral supplementary material, they must be cited in the DAS and should appear in the references.

Data availability. Data underlying the results presented in this paper are available in Ref. [3].

  1. If the data generated or analyzed as part of the research are not publicly available, that should be stated. Authors are encouraged to explain why (e.g. the data may be restricted for privacy reasons), and how the data might be obtained or accessed in the future.

Data availability. Data underlying the results presented in this paper are not publicly available at this time but may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.

  1. If no data were generated or analyzed in the presented research, that should be stated.

Data availability. No data were generated or analyzed in the presented research.

Link Your Datasets to Your Article once your article is published, and update your repository work with the DOI for your article.

THMT encourages uploading code at Code Ocean, a cloud-based computational reproducibility platform. We encourage you to include your code with your manuscript submission for peer review, as well as publish this code to share with all upon article acceptance.

In addition, Dryad has declared its willingness to accept medical datasets. Figshare, Mendeley Data and Open Science Framework  may be considered. To explore other certified data repositories, see FAIRsharing or re3data.org.

Be sure to select a repository that issues a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and has a preservation plan for perpetuity. Researchers are encouraged to consider FAIR Data Principles when depositing data.

Ethics and misconduct

THMT strives to abide by the guidelines and standards prescribed by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), its Code of Conduct, and its Best Practice Guidelines.

  • Authors are expected to be aware of, and comply with, best practice in publication ethics specifically but not limited to, dual submission, plagiarism, manipulation of figures, competing interests, and compliance with policies on research ethics.
  • Reviewers and editors are required to treat manuscripts fairly and in confidence, and to declare competing interests.

THMT will investigate allegations of misconduct and will contact author institutions, funders or regulatory bodies, as needed. THMT will follow COPE flowcharts and seek guidance as per COPE recommendations on resolving issues that may arise. Evidence of misconduct may require corrective action by issuing a correction or retraction.

Address concerns regarding misconduct to a journal Editor-in-Chief, Publisher, or Managing Editor, at info@partnersindigitalhealth.com. We will address the issue with all appropriate person(s) as soon as possible, and send responses to confirm receipt of alleged misconduct.

Additional resources on publication ethics are available from COPE, ICMJE, and WAME

Ethical Oversight: Academic and Research Integrity

The external editor fulfills the role of ethics officer by upholding scholarly integrity, fair peer review, prevents misconduct such as plagiarism and data fabrication, manages conflicts of interest, protects confidentiality, and promotes transparency vis-à-vis manuscript review and publication ethics guidelines (ICMJE, COPE, WAME), to maintain research quality and trust in matters of ethical or misconduct issues that may arise. This external role can adjudicate or engage appropriate parties to address complaints about journal processes that cannot be resolved internally. Relevant scientific experts, editors, and/or journal staff may be consulted, informed, or otherwise engaged during investigations of misconduct.  Adjudication will be conducted swiftly.

Social media and Marketing

The journal is active across a multitude of social media platforms as are editors, authors, and the publisher. THMT encourages high engagement with content, and appreciates open discussion and commentary. Ethical business and marketing practices are maintained and monitored.

The publisher reserves the right to remove any posts or comments deemed inappropriate. The journal is open access and welcomes appropriate comments to posts across platforms. Foul language, coarse, obscene, or otherwise impolite expressions will be deleted by the publisher.  Additionally:

  • No response will be provided for queries regarding medical direction or advice
  • Maintain HIPAA/GDPR guidelines for privileged content
  • Refrain from posts that spam, solicit, advertise, exchange, drug, health service, political or government organization
  • Conduct due diligence and research when using social media platforms and verify users and information
  • The publisher will block users, ads, companies and content that violate guidelines and misuse the privilege of evidence based scientific and professional communications

Authors are also encouraged to magnify work across their professional networks and cite them accordingly. Authors will be alerted to comments related directly to work by the publisher and will be asked to respond.

Authors and journal ecosystem members are encouraged to join or follow THMT across open access platforms. The journal will post, promote, and amplify all articles, podcasts, conference proceedings, editorials, and blog posts across a multitude of social media platforms. This includes but is not limited to updates and news regarding the journal, its annual conference, calls for manuscripts, editors, special issues, market research updates, and news in the field.  

The THMT publisher and editors are free to publish relevant content, are encouraged to tag and comment on posts to generate discussion(s); and amplify the journal, its content, relevant news and opinions, and generate additional followers and awareness around the globe.

The journal amplifies work across the platforms below. Follow us and join the global ecosystem including ambassador chapters around the globe on  YouTube  Podcasts  Facebook  Twitter  Medium  Substack  LinkedIn

Production and platform

Production is outsourced and typically takes 14 days after a manuscript is accepted for publication. If authors are tardy responding to queries it will take longer. Accepted versions may be published in the interim and replaced with the production ready article when available.

The journal platform and workflow is provided by OJS/PKP services and runs on version: Open Journal Systems version: 3.3.0.7

SGD Goals

Partners in Digital Health (PDH) is committed to supporting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and is a signatory of the UN SDG Publisher’s Compact. Part of this commitment entails that all journal articles are to be published online-only, with no print versions for distribution. 

PDH acknowledges medical publishing contributes to carbon emissions which is a threat to planetary health. Stakeholders should work together for a zero emission goal.

Privacy Policy

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this journal falls within the scope of the standard functioning of peer-reviewed journals. It includes information that makes communication possible for the editorial process; it is used to inform readers about the authorship and editing of content; it enables collecting aggregated data on readership behaviors, as well as tracking geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication. This journal’s editorial team uses this data to guide its work in publishing and improving this journal. Data that will assist in developing this publishing platform may be shared with its developer Public Knowledge Project in an anonymized and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. The data will not be sold by this journal or PKP nor will it be used for purposes other than those stated here. The authors published in this journal are responsible for the human subject data that figures in the research reported here. Those involved in editing this journal seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for “data subject rights” that include (a) breach notification; (b) right of access; (c) the right to be forgotten; (d) data portability; and (e) privacy by design. The GDPR also allows for the recognition of “the public interest in the availability of the data,” which has a particular saliency for those involved in maintaining, with the greatest integrity possible, the public record of scholarly publishing.

Cookie Policy

A cookie is a small text file saved on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login, language, font size and other display preferences), so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site or browse from one page to another. THMT website visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using the THMT website. Certain features of the website may not function properly without the aid of cookies.