INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF MEDICAL SCIENCES AND RESEARCH (ICMSR)
DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL RESEARCH, ACADEMICS & EDITORIAL SUPPORT
These General Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern the registration, engagement, and contractual framework between the International Center of Medical Sciences and Research (ICMSR) (hereinafter referred to as the “Center/ ICMSR”) and the researcher, author, academic, or student (hereinafter referred to as the “Candidate/Student”). These Terms shall become legally binding upon the Candidate/Student’s acceptance and registration with ICMSR. Both parties explicitly agree to be legally bound by the terms detailed herein.
This document serves as the regulatory baseline for academic and scientific research support services (hereinafter referred to as “Services”) only. Individual operational mandates, specific article objectives, indexing benchmarks target categories and customized financial obligations offered and accepted between the parties. The services shall be provided online.
The Center assumes professional liability solely in relation to the research support services limited to technical, administrative, and processing support. The Center does not provide any warranty or guarantee regarding manuscript acceptance, publication, editorial decisions, publication timelines, citation impact, journal rankings, or continued indexing status, all of which remain subject to the independent decisions of publishers, editors, reviewers, indexing agencies, and other third parties:
2.1 Professional Management: Execute professional handling of the manuscript throughout the submission lifecycle, including data processing, journal formatting, revision compliance, reviewer response coordination, and resubmission processing using reasonable skill and care and in accordance with generally accepted professional practices. The Center’s responsibilities shall not extend to matters beyond its reasonable control, including editorial or publisher decisions, reviewer comments, or publication delays.
2.2 Journal Selection Strategy: Evaluate and select journals matching the academic scope of the manuscript and the agreed indexing criteria. The Center retains the absolute professional right to maintain the confidentiality of the target journal during internal selection, initial submission, and active processing stages, ensuring transparency upon editorial confirmation or explicit professional requirement. The Center further reserves the right to substitute or change the proposed journal where, in its professional judgment, such change is necessary due to changes in journal policies, indexing status, editorial requirements, publication timelines, ethical considerations, legal requirements, or other legitimate academic or operational reasons.
2.3 Limited Liability: ICMSR shall undertake reasonable professional due diligence in verifying, through publicly available and authoritative sources, the operational, editorial, and indexing status of the selected journal at the time of submission. The Candidate acknowledges that journals, publishers, indexing agencies, regulatory authorities, and academic institutions function independently and may subsequently amend their recognition, accreditation, editorial policies, or eligibility criteria. Accordingly, any post-submission or post-publication change in journal status shall constitute an external circumstance beyond ICMSR’s reasonable control. Upon successful publication and completion of the agreed services, ICMSR’s contractual obligations shall be deemed duly discharged. The Center shall not be responsible for any subsequent correction, withdrawal, retraction, delisting, reclassification, suspension, discontinuation, policy changes or withdrawal of recognition affecting the journal after submission. ICMSR’s professional and administrative charges shall remain non-refundable once services have commenced or completed.
2.4 Confidentiality Maintenance: Treat all primary raw data, draft manuscripts, proprietary tables, figures, and academic identities disclosed by the Candidate/Student with strict administrative confidentiality. No data shall be shared with unconcerned third parties without authorization unless required under the law. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Center may disclose such information to its employees, consultants, professional advisers, journal publishers, editors, peer reviewers, software or technology service providers, and other third parties engaged in providing the services, provided that such persons are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.
2.5 Scope Consistency: The Center shall use reasonable professional efforts to perform the services within the offered scope of work, including the applicable indexing parameters formally offered for each Services online. However, the Center does not guarantee manuscript acceptance, publication, maintenance of journal rankings or quartiles, indexing outcomes, or any academic, institutional, regulatory, or professional recognition that may depend on the independent decisions of third parties or subsequent changes beyond the Center’s control.
The Candidate/Student bears primary intellectual, financial, and regulatory liability and represents, warrants and undertakes to:
3.1 Data Integrity and Authenticity: Furnish complete, verified, original, and authentic raw data, study materials, tables, figures, and institutional backgrounds. The Candidate/Student warrants that the content is completely free from plagiarism, duplicate submission, data fabrication, falsification, or unauthorized academic recycling and that all materials submitted do not infringe the intellectual property or other rights of any third party. The accuracy, authenticity, completeness, and integrity of all research data shall remain the sole responsibility of the Candidate, and ICMSR shall not be held liable for any discrepancy, misrepresentation, deficiency, allegation, inquiry, or requirement for clarification arising therefrom.
3.2 Ethical and Institutional Clearance: The Candidate shall bear sole responsibility for obtaining and furnishing all valid ethical approval certificates, Institutional Review Board (IRB) clearances, informed-consent authorizations, regulatory permissions, and institutional approvals required under applicable laws, international research standards, or the policies of the intended journal.
Strictly adhere to the non-negotiable payment milestones structured to protect project momentum as mentioned in the offered study programme and all payments made under these Terms are non-refundable:
4.1 Registration Fee (1st Installment of 10%): 1st installment shall be payable immediately upon registration to secure academic resource allocation of the Services of ICMSR. The registration fee is non-refundable.
4.2 Under Review Fee (2nd Installment of 60%): Payable immediately when the manuscript successfully attains “Under Review” status or equivalent editorial track. Failure to clear this milestone, grants the Center the absolute right to suspend services and remove the candidate from the study without refund of registration charges.
4.3 Acceptance Fee (3rd Installment of 30%): Payable instantly upon formal acceptance of the manuscript. Any delay in payment, refusal to pay, or default at this stage will result in immediate disqualification / termination of related services and full forfeiture of paid amounts. The Center reserves the right to withhold any further services or deliverables until all outstanding payments have been received in full.
In addition to the financial obligations specified under Clause 4 above:
5.1 External Expenses: The Candidate / Student shall bear sole responsibility for all external expenses associated with the publication process, including, without limitation, Article Processing Charges (APCs), open-access publication fees, journal submission or publication charges, specialized third-party statistical review, professional proofreading, and any other externally incurred costs. The nature and estimated amount of such expenses will be communicated to the candidate in advance, where reasonably ascertainable, in accordance with the policies and requirements of the targeted journal.
5.2 Ethical Review by ICMSR: Where the Candidate requests ethical review through Center, and ICMSR is duly authorized to undertake or coordinate such review, the study shall be subject to an independent assessment by suitably qualified experts or the relevant ethics review committee, for which additional evaluation and administrative charges shall apply. The payment of such charges shall not constitute or guarantee approval, which shall remain contingent upon the scientific, ethical, and regulatory acceptability of the submitted study documentation.
5.3 Joint Responsibility: ICMSR may, at its discretion, facilitate the collection, apportionment, or onward payment of APCs; however, the relevant APC liability shall remain payable by the Candidates participating in the research and may be proportionately distributed among them.
5.4 Timely Payment: Each Candidate shall ensure timely payment of the applicable share upon journal acceptance or within the payment period prescribed by ICMSR or the journal. Where ICMSR agrees to administer, finance, or provisionally advance such charges, the Candidate shall remain obligated to comply with the approved payment schedule.
The Candidate/Student hereby expressly agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold completely harmless the Center, its directors, officers, research staff, editors, affiliates, and authorized representatives from and against any and all claims, liabilities, financial losses, regulatory penalties, damages, institutional actions, or legal costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising directly or indirectly from:
This indemnity shall survive the completion, termination, or expiry of the engagement.
The Center reserves the right to suspend or terminate the engagement without liability if the Candidate/Student provides false or misleading information, breaches these Terms, engages in academic misconduct or unethical conduct, fails to cooperate, or otherwise prevents the proper performance of the services.
Any dispute arising shall be treated as a civil dispute and the parties shall use their reasonable efforts to resolve such dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms through amicable discussions and mutual consultation. If the dispute is not resolved within thirty (30) days of one party notifying the other of the dispute in writing, either party shall refer the matter to and finally resolved by binding arbitration in accordance with Arbitration Act, 1940 of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
The Candidate/Student shall retain ownership of the intellectual property in the original manuscript and research data provided by them. The Center shall retain ownership of its proprietary methodologies, templates, formats, reports, editorial processes, training materials, and other intellectual property developed or used in providing the services.
These Terms, and all commitments made pursuant thereto, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Subject to Clause 8, the courts at Islamabad, Pakistan shall have the exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine any dispute, claim, or proceeding arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the services provided by the Center, and the Candidate/Student irrevocably submits to the jurisdiction of such courts.
The Center shall not be liable for any delay or failure in performing its obligations where such delay or failure results from events beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to natural disasters, epidemics, governmental actions, internet or system failures, labour disputes, acts of war, or the actions or omissions of publishers, indexing agencies, or other third parties.
After registration with the Center to use its services by the Candidate / Student, these Terms, together with the applicable commitments, proposals, quotations, or study programme, constitute the entire agreement between the parties and supersede all prior discussions or understandings relating to the services.
No amendment or waiver of these Terms shall be valid unless made in writing and approved by the Center.
Upon registration with the Center for any study programme / services, the Candidate/Student acknowledges that they have read, understood, and accepted these Terms and agree to be legally bound by them.
This document has been prepared, reviewed, and approved by the Legal Department of the International Center of Medical Sciences Research (ICMSR), in accordance with the organization’s internal compliance and legal review protocols. ICMSR is a globally recognized research and public health organization committed to ethical, high-quality clinical research, regulatory compliance, and the responsible conduct of research. All legal and compliance activities are conducted in line with applicable international standards, including ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 15189:2012, and with the principles outlined in the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
Authorization
This statement is issued under the authority of the ICMSR Legal Department, which is responsible for maintaining legal compliance, risk management, and the integrity of ICMSR’s research and operational activities.
Prepared by:
Legal Department
International Center of Medical Sciences Research (ICMSR).
Website: www.theicmsr.com
Email: info@theicmsr.com
Document dated 16 July 2026.
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ALLIED BANK (PVT LIMITED) PAKISTAN
Account number: 10720010095578380019
IBAN number: PK38ABPA0010095578380019
Account Tittle: International Centre of Medical Science Research Pvt Ltd
SWIFT Code: ABPAPKKA
Branch code: 1072
