Journal of Clinical Question

All articles published in the Journal of Clinical Question are freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription fees or registration barriers. The journal operates under an open-access model, and all articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

As the author of an article published in the Journal of Clinical Question, you retain copyright and grant to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce, or disseminate your work in accordance with the Gleam Publishing Polices. For U.S. government employees or others who are unable to retain copyright due to institutional policies, Gleam Publishing offers accommodations with non-standard copyright lines. Please contact us for further information.

Authors who publish open access in Journal of Clinical Question are required to pay an APC. The APC price will be determined from the date on which the article is accepted for publication. The current APC is 700 USD. However, discounts are available under the following conditions:

Authors from lower-middle-income countries receive a 30% discount, and those from low-income countries receive a 50% discount (World Bank classification of countries by income group). Submissions from institutions affiliated with the editorial board receive a 30% discount.

Note: Only the highest applicable discount will be granted. Discounts cannot be combined.

The Journal of Clinical Question is indexed in the following databases:

• Ichushi
• J-GLOBAL
• J-STAGE
• Crossref
• PORTICO

The Journal of Clinical Question follows a single-blind peer-review process, where reviewers are aware of the authors' names and affiliations, but their own identities remain anonymous to the authors. Submitted manuscripts are typically evaluated by two or more independent experts. Reviewers assess the scientific soundness, originality, and clarity of the work, as well as whether it overlaps with previously published material. Based on these evaluations, the Editors will make a publication decision and may consult with members of the Editorial Board when necessary.

To promote transparency, peer-review records, including reviewer comments, authors' response and editorial decisions, may be published as supplementary material alongside the manuscript, subject to the authors' content. For more details, see Peer-Review Policies.

The editorial board is dedicated to upholding academic integrity and follows the ethical standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All submissions are subject to a fair and unbiased review process. Any form of misconduct, including plagiarism, data falsification, or fabrication, is strictly prohibited. Gleam Publishing also maintains neutrality regarding jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Research involving human participants, materials, or data must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki and receive approval from an appropriate ethics committee. For manuscripts containing identifiable information (e.g., patient details, clinical or biometric data, images, or videos), written informed consent is required. This applies to both living individuals and, in the case of deceased persons, their next of kin. Consent must explicitly permit publication under the CC BY 4.0 open-access license, acknowledging that identifiable content will be publicly accessible online. Manuscripts must include a statement confirming that written informed consent has been obtained. For clinical trials, Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is typically required, and manuscripts must state the IRB approval along with the approval number or ID.

For more details, see Editorial Policies.