Jurisdictional Neutrality Policy

This policy may apply to:

• author affiliations;
• institution names;
• country or territory names;
• city or regional designations;
• maps and cartographic boundaries;
• study-site descriptions;
• geographic datasets;
• population labels;
• institutional addresses;
• metadata submitted to indexing services; and
• other geographic or jurisdiction-related references.

Publication of a geographic or institutional designation should not be interpreted as a statement by JPMHR concerning:

• international recognition;
• sovereignty;
• territorial ownership;
• border legitimacy;
• statehood;
• government recognition;
• constitutional status;
• administrative control; or
• political legitimacy.

JPMHR's role is scholarly publishing, not adjudication of geopolitical disputes.

Affiliations should ordinarily identify:

• department or unit;
• institution;
• city or locality;
• country or territorial designation where relevant; and
• other information needed for scholarly identification.

An author should not list an affiliation merely to increase perceived prestige or conceal the actual institution from which the work arose.

Editors should avoid unnecessary alteration of geographic terminology solely to impose a political interpretation unrelated to the scientific content.

However, JPMHR may request clarification where terminology:

• is factually inaccurate;
• misidentifies an institution;
• creates ambiguity about the study location;
• is inconsistent within the manuscript;
• prevents accurate indexing;
• appears intentionally provocative rather than descriptive; or
• could materially mislead readers concerning the research setting.

Depending on context, JPMHR may:

• retain the institution's official address;
• retain the author's reasonable geographic designation;
• use a neutral descriptive form;
• avoid adding political qualifiers unnecessary to the research;
• seek clarification from the author; or
• use metadata conventions required by a technical indexing system without presenting those conventions as journal endorsement.

JPMHR may request clarification if:

• an institution cannot be reasonably identified;
• the name appears fabricated;
• the institution has changed names;
• the submitted affiliation conflicts with the author's actual relationship;
• the name creates indexing ambiguity; or
• the institution itself uses a different formal designation.

Correction of a factually inaccurate institution name is not a jurisdictional or political endorsement.

Authors should ensure that maps:

• are relevant to the research;
• use appropriate source attribution;
• respect copyright and licensing;
• identify data sources where relevant;
• do not contain misleading geographic manipulation;
• use boundaries consistently with the analytic purpose; and
• avoid unnecessary political symbolism unrelated to the study.

Boundary lines appearing in a scientific map should be interpreted as cartographic or analytical representations rather than statements by JPMHR concerning legal territorial status.

Authors should provide sufficient geographic information to allow readers to understand:

• the research setting;
• health-system context;
• population characteristics;
• sampling environment;
• regional epidemiology where relevant; and
• external validity of the findings.

Neutrality does not require removal of scientifically relevant geographic detail.

Technical systems may require:

• standard country codes;
• controlled geographic fields;
• fixed institutional identifiers;
• repository metadata conventions;
• DOI metadata fields; or
• indexing-service taxonomies.

Use of such technical categories does not necessarily represent JPMHR's political or jurisdictional position.

Examples of factual corrections may include:

• incorrect city name;
• incorrect institutional spelling;
• wrong country entered by mistake;
• incorrect department;
• outdated institution name where clarification is required;
• incorrect study-site designation; or
• metadata inconsistent with the actual article.

Such corrections are made for bibliographic and scholarly accuracy, not political endorsement.

JPMHR may decline a requested form where it:

• is demonstrably false;
• misidentifies the institution;
• creates significant indexing problems;
• uses offensive or discriminatory terminology;
• misleads readers concerning the research location; or
• conflicts with another necessary factual record.

Editors may request removal or revision of language whose primary purpose is:

• political advocacy unrelated to the research question;
• territorial provocation;
• nationalistic messaging;
• denigration of populations;
• propaganda; or
• another non-scholarly political intervention unrelated to the manuscript's scientific content.

Scientifically relevant policy, conflict, demographic, or geographic context may still be reported objectively where necessary.

Manuscripts should be evaluated according to:

• scientific quality;
• methodological rigor;
• ethical acceptability;
• relevance to JPMHR's scope;
• reporting quality;
• originality;
• research integrity; and
• other legitimate editorial criteria.

Editorial decisions should not be based on geopolitical disagreement with an author's country, region, institution, or nationality.

If a credible dispute arises, JPMHR may request:

• clarification from the author;
• confirmation from the institution;
• documentation of affiliation where necessary;
• correction of the publication record; or
• institutional resolution where the journal cannot independently determine the facts.

The journal's role is to maintain an accurate scholarly record rather than determine employment or political rights beyond what is needed for publication accuracy.

Depending on materiality, JPMHR may:

• correct article metadata;
• correct the PDF or HTML version;
• update DOI metadata;
• update the author affiliation;
• publish a correction notice where appropriate; or
• take another proportionate scholarly-record action.

Minor formatting differences that do not affect identification may not require a formal correction notice.

A complaint should identify:

• the publication concerned;
• the specific terminology disputed;
• why the terminology is materially inaccurate or misleading;
• supporting evidence where available; and
• the requested correction.

JPMHR is not required to alter scientifically accurate terminology merely because a party prefers a different political interpretation.

BMU Ventures (Private) Limited may support administrative and publishing functions but should not require editors to alter valid scholarly content solely to advance a territorial or political position.

Geographic designations, institutional affiliations, maps, and territorial boundaries appearing in JPMHR content are presented for scholarly identification and do not imply any position by the journal or publisher concerning jurisdictional claims or territorial status.