Official Publication Affiliation and Editorial Independence

The Fight Medicine Journal

Fight Medicine Research Institute is the founding academic affiliate and sponsor of Fight Medicine Journal, the official publication of Fight Medicine Research Institute. Fight Medicine Journal is an international journal with a published peer-review process, providing a dedicated scholarly forum for combat-sports medicine, fighter health, ringside care, athletic safety and medical research across combat sports.

Fight Medicine Journal is published by Sears Publishing Company, the trading name of Sears, LLC, an Alabama limited liability company. Academic affiliation and sponsorship by Fight Medicine Research Institute do not transfer publishing ownership or editorial authority to Fight Medicine Research Institute.

1. Purpose and governing commitment

This policy protects scientific judgment, fair assessment and the integrity of the published record. Fight Medicine Research Institute’s academic sponsorship must support the journal’s scholarly purpose without directing the acceptance, rejection, revision, scheduling or suppression of a manuscript.

The rules below implement editorial-independence, conflict-management and transparency duties associated with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, the Committee on Publication Ethics and relevant Directory of Open Access Journals principles. The operative requirements are stated on this page. This policy is not a statement of external membership, accreditation or inclusion in an index.

2. Independent editorial authority

The Editor-in-Chief and properly delegated journal editors hold editorial authority under the journal’s own governing arrangements. Acceptance, rejection, requests for revision, reviewer selection, scientific commentary and publication decisions are based on scholarly merit, ethical acceptability and the adequacy of the evidence.

Fight Medicine Research Institute’s Board, Director, Founder, researchers, advisers, sponsors and other representatives must not demand acceptance, favorable review, a particular conclusion, expedited publication or suppression of a finding because of their institutional position or support.

When the Editor-in-Chief or another decision-maker has a relevant interest, the decision is assigned to an eligible independent handling editor with real authority over the case. A conflicted Editor-in-Chief does not retain control of that manuscript through an informal approval or veto.

3. Scientific non-interference

Fight Medicine Research Institute must not intervene in the journal’s confidential peer-review deliberations or direct its editorial content to obtain a preferred scientific or institutional outcome. Critical, dissenting, negative and inconclusive findings receive the same fair assessment as favorable findings.

Fight Medicine Research Institute remains responsible for its own research obligations before submission: scientific quality, participant protection, confidentiality, lawful release and the accuracy of claims made under its affiliation. Those obligations do not confer a right to control a journal’s reviewers or acceptance decision. Required internal research review and a journal’s editorial review are documented as separate processes.

Legitimate concerns about research integrity or safety are communicated through the journal’s stated procedures and documented. They are not used as an undisclosed means of censorship or retaliation.

4. Manuscripts from Fight Medicine Research Institute

Authors affiliated with Fight Medicine Research Institute receive no preferential treatment. The journal applies its published submission, ethics, reporting and review requirements. Institutional support and relevant relationships are declared at submission and in the published work.

The journal’s current ordinary process is double-anonymous peer review: authors and reviewers do not know one another’s identities during that process. Research articles receive at least two qualified independent reviews. A person with a current institutional, commission, promotional, commercial or collaborative relationship that compromises independence does not handle or review the affected work.

The journal has a separate procedure for submissions involving editors, editorial-board members or the publisher. Those covered submissions receive an independent handling editor and open peer review, with reviewer reports, author responses and the handling editor’s decision letter published with the article. Use that actual procedure for covered Fight Medicine Research Institute submissions. Do not describe them as double-anonymous when the journal requires open review.

Every relevant manuscript is assigned to a non-affiliated handling editor with no current relationship of the kinds excluded by the journal’s policy. The handling editor controls reviewer selection, correspondence and the editorial decision. Identify the handling editor and the review model in the published declarations.

5. Access controls and the editorial record

An author or research-team member who holds an editorial or publishing role must not have privileged access to the manuscript’s editorial record. The journal manager removes that access for the duration of review and records the action. The conflicted person does not see confidential reviewer identities, reports or the decision before the authors receive the ordinary communication.

The independent handling editor retains the assignment, reviewer-conflict declarations, review reports, responses, relevant correspondence, dates and decision. Review records are disclosed according to the actual review model and the permissions obtained. Access controls must operate in the manuscript system; a written assertion alone is insufficient.

An appeal on a covered submission is considered by an eligible editor not involved in the original decision and without a relevant relationship to the authors or research team. A conflicted Editor-in-Chief does not decide that appeal.

6. Shared roles and published disclosures

Casey C. Sears is Founder of Fight Medicine Research Institute, Editor-in-Chief of Fight Medicine Journal and owner of the journal’s publisher, Sears Publishing Company. John Parris and several other members of Fight Medicine Research Institute’s Board also hold journal editorial roles. Shared appointments must be disclosed and managed; they do not themselves establish editorial independence.

Declarations accompanying affected work identify each relevant academic, regulatory, editorial, publishing, ownership or financial relationship, the independent handling editor and the review process actually used. A person with an interest does not approve their own conflict-management plan or make the final decision on their own work.

Public rosters must distinguish Fight Medicine Research Institute’s Research Governance Board from the journal’s editorial board. A research appointment does not automatically confer editorial authority, and an editorial appointment does not automatically establish an author’s research contribution.

7. Financial and operational boundaries

Any support from Fight Medicine Research Institute to Fight Medicine Journal must be recorded in a written agreement identifying the amount or in-kind support, purpose, recipient, responsibilities, reporting and term. Support must not be contingent on the number of accepted papers, acceptance rates, favorable findings, citation patterns or a particular editorial outcome.

Relevant budgets, payments, services and related-party arrangements are recorded separately and reviewed by eligible, unconflicted decision-makers. Journal editorial decisions remain outside the control of Fight Medicine Research Institute’s research sponsors or leadership. Support does not provide access to confidential manuscripts or reviewer information.

The journal states its actual fees, waivers, access, copyright, licensing and preservation arrangements. Financial collection and waiver decisions must not influence the scientific merits decision. No person may promise publication in return for institutional support or an author payment.

8. Official statements and clinical-policy positions

Articles, studies, reviews and editorial commentaries represent the work and conclusions of their identified authors. Publication in Fight Medicine Journal does not by itself make an article an official statement, endorsed clinical guideline or policy position of Fight Medicine Research Institute.

An official Fight Medicine Research Institute statement must be explicitly designated as such, have identifiable authors and scope, and pass the documented scientific, clinical and governance approvals required for that type of statement. Its approval date, version, interests and evidentiary basis are recorded. Clinical recommendations require the appropriate qualified clinical review and must remain within the evidence supporting them.

9. Corrections, concerns and breaches

Both bodies maintain their own accountable records and cooperate on credible integrity concerns. The journal controls the status of its published article under its correction, expression-of-concern and retraction procedures. Fight Medicine Research Institute handles institutional conduct and oversight concerns under its own independent process.

No affected author, editor, owner, sponsor or institutional leader directs the investigation of their own conduct. Preserve relevant records, protect good-faith reporters against retaliation and communicate with the appropriate independent recipient. Material corrections to funding, affiliation, review status or editorial handling receive a visible, dated record.

Fight Medicine Research Institute’s Board reviews alleged interference and related-party arrangements through unconflicted decision-makers. Journal concerns and appeals are referred to the independent editorial route applicable to the case. Public statements identify actions actually taken and do not claim that an allegation itself establishes misconduct.

10. Access and submissions

Fight Medicine Research Institute’s affiliation, research and governance information remain on the Fight Medicine Research Institute website. Manuscript submission and journal editorial correspondence use the journal’s actual portal and contact routes.

11. Version and implementation record

This document is version 1.0. The operator records actual adoption and effective dates, the authority adopting the policy, the applicable affiliation or support agreement and the designated responsible officers. Do not invent a Board approval, agreement, system-access control or completed review. Changes to the journal’s review model must be adopted and published by the journal before either website describes the new model as operational.