All manuscripts submitted to the Tamil Nadu Journal of Health Research and Innovation (TNJHRI) undergo an initial editorial screening before being considered for external peer review. The editorial team evaluates the manuscript for suitability within the journal's scope, originality, scientific relevance, completeness, methodological quality, ethical compliance, plagiarism or similarity concerns, and adherence to the journal's Instructions for Authors. Manuscripts that are clearly outside the journal's scope, substantially incomplete, or do not meet the journal's basic editorial and ethical requirements may be returned to the authors or rejected at the editorial screening stage.
Submitted manuscripts may be screened using appropriate plagiarism or similarity detection tools as part of the editorial assessment process. Authors are responsible for ensuring that the submitted work is original and that all sources are appropriately acknowledged and cited. Manuscripts containing substantial plagiarism, unattributed duplication, inappropriate text reuse, or other forms of publication misconduct may be rejected or referred for further investigation.
TNJHRI follows a double-blind peer-review process. Manuscripts that pass the initial editorial screening are normally evaluated by independent reviewers with appropriate subject expertise. During the double-blind review process, the identities of the authors and reviewers are concealed from each other to the extent practicable. Reviewers are selected based on their subject expertise, academic or professional experience, and relevance to the manuscript. Reviewers are expected to maintain confidentiality and to disclose any potential conflict of interest before undertaking a review.
Reviewers assess manuscripts using criteria appropriate to the article type and subject area. The assessment may include:
Reviewers may recommend acceptance, revision, or rejection of a manuscript. Recommendations provided by reviewers are advisory and are considered by the editor when making an editorial decision. Where appropriate, authors may be asked to revise their manuscript in response to reviewer comments. Revised manuscripts may be returned to the original reviewers or evaluated by the editorial team depending on the nature and extent of the revisions.
The final editorial decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief or an appropriately designated editor after consideration of the peer-review reports, manuscript quality, ethical requirements, relevance to the journal's scope, and other editorial considerations. Possible decisions include:
The journal may decline publication even when individual reviewer recommendations differ, where the editor determines that the manuscript does not meet the journal's scientific, ethical, or editorial standards.
Reviewers should decline an invitation when they have a conflict of interest that could affect, or could reasonably be perceived to affect, the impartiality of their review. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality and must not use unpublished information obtained during the review process for personal, professional, or financial advantage.
TNJHRI is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and research integrity. The journal follows relevant principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), where applicable. Authors, reviewers, editors, and other participants in the publication process are expected to uphold standards of honesty, transparency, confidentiality, and responsible scholarly communication.
TNJHRI does not tolerate plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, redundant publication, inappropriate manipulation of data or images, unethical research practices, authorship misconduct, or undisclosed conflicts of interest. Where concerns regarding research or publication misconduct are identified, the journal may investigate the matter and take appropriate editorial action.
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical compliance of their manuscripts. AI-assisted tools may be used for appropriate purposes such as language editing, grammar improvement, formatting, or other legitimate assistance. AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Authors should disclose material use of generative AI in manuscript preparation where required by the journal. AI-generated or AI-assisted fabrication of data, images, results, references, or other scientific content is not acceptable.
TNJHRI is an open-access journal providing immediate and unrestricted online access to its published articles. Readers can access, read, download, copy, distribute, and reuse published articles in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) . No subscription or registration is required to access published articles.
TNJHRI does not charge a manuscript submission fee. An Article Processing Charge (APC) of INR 2,000 is applicable to accepted manuscripts submitted by Indian authors. The applicable publication charges are communicated transparently and are available on the journal's Publication Charges page.
Editorial decisions are based on the scientific quality, originality, ethical compliance, relevance, and peer-review outcome of the manuscript. The ability or inability of an author to pay the APC does not determine the scientific or editorial decision.
Authors retain copyright of their published work. By publication, authors grant TNJHRI a non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce, distribute, display, and archive the article. All published articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) . The CC BY 4.0 license permits sharing and adaptation of the published work, including commercial use, provided appropriate attribution is given to the original authors and source.
Research involving human participants, patient information, biological samples, or animals must comply with applicable ethical requirements. Where applicable, manuscripts should provide information regarding approval from an appropriate ethics committee or institutional review board and should include informed consent or other required consent statements. Authors are responsible for protecting participant confidentiality and privacy.
Published articles may be corrected when significant errors are identified that affect the accuracy or interpretation of the published record. Corrections are assessed by the editorial team and may be issued through an appropriate correction notice or amendment to the published article.
TNJHRI may retract a published article when there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable because of major error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, duplicate publication, or other serious publication-ethics concerns. Retraction decisions are made by the editorial team following appropriate assessment of the available evidence.
TNJHRI maintains digital copies of published articles to support long-term preservation and continued access to the scholarly record. Published articles are made available through their individual article pages and associated full-text files.
Manuscripts submitted to TNJHRI are treated as confidential documents during the editorial and peer-review process. Editors and reviewers must not disclose manuscript content or use unpublished information obtained during the evaluation process except as necessary for legitimate editorial purposes.
Editorial decisions are based on the scientific and scholarly quality of manuscripts, their relevance to the journal's scope, ethical compliance, and peer-review outcomes. Editorial decisions should not be influenced by commercial interests, advertising, sponsorship, or the author's ability to pay publication charges.