Participation and membership
Check the plan or project: paid membership and scientific admission are separate decisions.
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PUBLIC GOVERNANCE CENTER
Know the commitments behind every collaboration.
Find the safeguards that apply before work begins, while research is underway and when results are shared. Clear responsibilities protect patients, collaborators and the integrity of the science.
Policy version GLOBAL-PARTNERSHIPS-2026.10-v3 · effective 2026-09-20
WHO DECIDES AND WHAT TO CONFIRM
Before committing time, data or money.
These public guidelines explain the model. The applicable project or service agreement defines obligations; institutional permissions and jurisdiction-specific requirements are reviewed for each case.
Research and data
The team and source institution must confirm permissions, data quality, consent and applicable ethics review.
Review conditions →Authorship and publication
The team agrees contributions and accountability. The journal independently decides review and acceptance.
Review conditions →Budget and funding
The written agreement identifies scope, costs, resources and obligations. Do not infer coverage from an enquiry.
Review conditions →Acceptance is a beginning. microscopIA approval permits the agreed collaboration. The journal independently decides publication.
Contribution earns credit. Funding, fees and membership do not purchase authorship or control scientific conclusions.
POLICY LIBRARY
Go directly to the agreement that applies.
Research collaboration
Protocols, institutional roles, US/Colombia review, data, IP and project budgets.
Review research collaboration →Observatory membership
ICU applications, admission, project approval and payment after written approval.
Review observatory membership →Privacy and information rights
Personal information, permitted purposes and the route for privacy requests.
Review privacy and information rights →Services and participation
Terms for clinical, educational, membership and support pathways.
Review services and participation →SUBMISSION FORMS
Start with the right inquiry.
GOVERNANCE AREAS
Find the responsibilities that apply to your work.
Open the topic you need. These shared safeguards guide the collaboration; the signed project agreement records its specific responsibilities.
01Observatory admission and scientific review
The ICU Observatory uses a professional admission process under microscopIA and its scientific steering-committee framework.
Applications are submitted through the dedicated microscopIA form. microscopIA coordinates scientific review and replies with a decision or request for missing information within 10 calendar days of receiving the submission.
Membership activation and payment follow written approval; project proposals require separate scientific and resource approval.
02Membership and scientific credit
Students & Young Professionals and Clinicians & Investigators memberships support defined services.
Eligibility is call-specific: Clinical images & AI requires active Clinicians & Investigators membership; clinical case reports and original research accept qualified members and nonmembers under their published conditions.
Students & Young Professionals cannot lead these clinical calls.
Admission, project approval, resources and authorship are separate decisions.
Membership does not confer government recognition or guarantee editorial acceptance.
03Service-specific safeguards
Memberships, clinical services, educational bookings and funded initiatives each have dedicated terms.
The accepted offer identifies which obligations and permissions apply.
04How Partnerships Work
Initial inquiry, scientific evaluation, detailed assessment where required, scope, agreement, activation, work, review and output pathways are explicit.
05Scientific Governance
Responsibilities, decisions, methods, source authority and project-specific oversight are defined before activation.
06Research Integrity
No ghostwriting, guaranteed outcomes, simultaneous journal submissions, purchased authorship or suppression of inconvenient findings.
08Competing Interests
Employment, consultancy, honoraria, funding, grants, equity, ownership, patents, advisory and relevant relationships are disclosed.
09Publication and Open Access
Journal suitability, indexing, authorship, corresponding-author eligibility and a legitimate access route are confirmed before submission.
10Regional Access Pricing
Preferential pricing is determined by primary institutional affiliation only and never changes scientific, authorship or editorial standards.
11Data Governance and Confidentiality
Source-data owners retain ownership/control unless contractually changed.
Public forms never collect patient identifiers or restricted research files.
12Funding Independence
Support does not automatically confer authorship, scientific control, suppression rights, ownership of results or control over conclusions.
13Intellectual Property
AI, device, software, patentable and commercial innovation requires project-specific background IP, inventorship, ownership, licensing and publication terms.
14Re-scoping
Material differences in data, cleaning, objectives, endpoints, workstreams, authors, regulation or prospective collection trigger formal re-scoping.
PROJECT STATE MODEL
No ambiguous status labels.
A publication partnership uses explicit states so each stakeholder can distinguish evaluation, activation, scientific work and independent journal decisions.
- 1Simulation
- 2Submitted
- 3Scientific Evaluation
- 4Accepted by microscopIA
- 5Pending Activation
- 6Activated
- 7Scientific Work
- 8Author Review
- 9Ready for Submission
- 10Journal Review
- 11Revision
- 12Accepted for Publication
- 13Published
PUBLICATION AND OPEN ACCESS POLICY
Choose a transparent publication and access route.
Selected PubMed-indexed journals that are scientifically appropriate for the work
Open access where eligible
microscopIA-funded open access applies only when a qualifying microscopIA author legitimately serves as corresponding author. Funding does not purchase authorship.
Subscription route
When another legitimate corresponding-author arrangement applies, microscopIA ordinarily uses a subscription route where the selected journal offers one.
Fully open-access journals
If a journal is fully open access and the project does not meet the open-access eligibility rule, the team must choose another eligible journal or legitimate arrangement before submission.
Publisher agreements
Publisher arrangements are separate, dated, governed and agreement-specific. Portfolio naming never guarantees that every journal or article is eligible. When an eligible article-processing charge is funded, direct payment to the publisher is preferred. The public planner never adds an imaginary APC.
Never guaranteed: authorship, journal acceptance, publication, indexing, editorial outcome, citation impact, regulatory or policy adoption.
EXTERNAL STANDARDS
Recognized frameworks, stated with their limits.
These references guide relevant controls; they do not imply certification, accreditation, journal endorsement or a substitute for project-specific legal, ethics or institutional review.
Accessibility
WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the active design and testing target, not an unverified conformance certification.
W3C WCAG 2.2 ↗Authorship and contributors
Qualifying authors are expected to satisfy all four ICMJE authorship criteria; other contributions should be acknowledged transparently.
ICMJE authorship guidance ↗Publication ethics
COPE process guidance informs authorship and publication-ethics workflows, subject to the controlling journal and institutional requirements.
COPE authorship discussion document ↗Income classification
World Bank FY2027 is the versioned source for non-regional income tiers. Latin America and Caribbean access is a separate microscopIA policy.
World Bank country and lending groups ↗REGIONAL ACCESS PRICING
Access pricing with the same scientific standards.
Permanent regional baseline
Eligibility basis
The primary institutional affiliations of the proposed external authors—not nationality, citizenship, residence, ethnicity or personal identity.
Majority rule
The Colombia baseline applies when strictly more than 50% of the external team has a primary institutional affiliation in Colombia. Otherwise, the Latin America & Caribbean baseline applies when strictly more than 50% of the external team has a primary institutional affiliation in the region. Exactly 50% or no majority requires individual evaluation.
Scientific independence
Regional pricing does not change scientific evaluation, authorship criteria, peer-review independence, journal selection, publication standards or editorial outcomes.
Boundaries
The Americas promotion applies to current project fees for projects approved by October 31, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Colombia time, thanks to Dr. Agamenón Quintero Villarreal. It excludes the United States and Canada, taxes and third-party charges. Other promotional reductions do not combine with it.
TWO SEPARATE CLOCKS
microscopIA’s delivery target is not the journal’s process.
Where expressly offered in the applicable project terms, standard, accelerated and preferential targets are up to 8, 4 and 2 weeks after complete Project Activation for microscopIA’s submission-ready scientific work. These targets are not a universal timeline for reviews or other programmes.
Editorial screening, peer review, revision, acceptance, production, indexing and publication remain independently controlled by the journal or publisher and have no promised duration.
ACTIVATION PACKAGE
Work starts only when every applicable requirement is complete.
These records are issued through the active project workflow; they are not public contact forms.
Publication Partnership Agreement
Project-specific route after acceptance.
Terms and Conditions
Project-specific route after acceptance.
Confidentiality and Data Governance Agreement
Project-specific route after acceptance.
Authorship and Contribution Declaration
Project-specific route after acceptance.
Competing Interest Declaration
Project-specific route after acceptance.
Ethics / consent / institutional verification
Project-specific route after acceptance.
Complete usable research materials
Project-specific route after acceptance.
Activation Payment, only where applicable
Project-specific route after acceptance.
DATABASE READINESS
Raw unstructured exports are not publication-ready databases.
Original research requires organized structure, clear coding, a data dictionary or codebook, defined missing values, variable definitions, reasonable internal consistency, controlled duplication and appropriate de-identification.
RESEARCH ETHICS
Approvals, exemptions, consent and authority must match the project.
At Initial inquiry, microscopIA asks only whether the required consent or approvals are obtained, not for patient names, signatures or source documents. Actual consent remains under institutional custody; project-specific verification and secure transfer occur only after qualification or activation.
Public-form boundaryNever upload patient data, clinical source material, signed consent, raw datasets or restricted approvals through a public gateway.
EVIDENCE ATTRIBUTION
Understand whose work a record represents.
microscopIA Governed
microscopIA initiates or conducts the project using its scientific network and retains primary scientific governance.
microscopIA Collaboration
Work is conducted jointly with external investigators, institutions or partners.
Independent Network Record
Work belongs to a network participant but was produced independently, without microscopIA affiliation, governance or substantive participation. It is never counted as microscopIA-produced evidence.
SERVICE-SPECIFIC AGREEMENTS
Use the terms that match your participation.
Project and service terms supplement these shared safeguards. Review the applicable version before committing or paying. Free initiatives follow their own written funding arrangements.
Join a Project
Member-exclusive benefits require active membership. External open-call participation follows its accepted agreement. Suspension does not erase qualifying scientific contributions.
Read the terms →Memberships
Plan benefits, payment obligations, cancellation and applicable participation requirements.
Read the terms →Standardized Patient
Educational simulation, assessment, feedback and booking conditions.
Read the terms →Workshops and activities
Group registration, included plan access, conduct and cancellation.
Read the terms →Mental health and minors
Clinical consent, guardian authorization, privacy and crisis response.
Read the terms →Supporting an initiative
Allocation, donor recognition, payment records and independence of clinical and scientific decisions.
Read the terms →WHAT HAPPENS IF?
Governance questions answered directly.
01What is the difference between microscopIA acceptance and journal acceptance?+
microscopIA acceptance approves a project for scope and activation. Journal acceptance is a later, independent editorial decision.
02Does submission create a payment obligation?+
No. Nothing is payable for an initial submission or simulation. Any Activation Payment becomes due only under the executed terms after acceptance. Accepted fully funded initiatives do not charge their beneficiary clinicians.
03Does payment guarantee authorship, open access or publication?+
No. Payment never confers authorship. Open-access eligibility depends on the legitimate corresponding-author arrangement and the selected journal or publisher agreement. No editorial outcome is guaranteed.
04Who controls source data?+
The external institution or investigators retain ownership/control unless a specific contract says otherwise. microscopIA receives only the rights required for the agreed work; unrelated secondary use requires authorization.
05Can support influence conclusions?+
No automatic scientific, statistical or suppression rights arise from support. Commercially sponsored projects may negotiate IP and publication terms while preserving scientific integrity and required disclosures.
06Are tax-deductible donation claims made?+
No. Support, funding, scientific contribution or institutional sponsorship language is used until the receiving entity and jurisdiction have appropriate legal/accounting confirmation.
Un environnement. Des responsabilités claires.
microscopIA gère les contrats, ressources et nominations institutionnelles.
Groupes de recherche
Des responsables désignés développent les programmes et encadrent les travaux approuvés.
Observatoires et initiatives
Les comités scientifiques réunissent groupes et experts pour examiner priorités, propositions, conflits et progrès.
Projets
Les investigateurs principaux répondent des protocoles, autorisations, méthodes et contributions.
Les fonctions de comité nécessitent une nomination formelle. microscopIA coordonne les demandes et désigne les évaluateurs avant exécution. L’adhésion ne confère aucun pouvoir de représentation ou de signature.
Collaboration et gouvernance →From proposal to execution
Every new research project, case report, case series or innovation proposal requires written approval from the Observatory steering committee under microscopIA governance or appointed research group scientific lead. Admission or membership does not replace this approval.
- Submit the aim, methods, proposed team, data, resources and expected outputs to the responsible scientific authority.
- The scientific authority reviews and approves the proposal, documenting its scope and conditions.
- Once approved, the scientific reviewing authority notifies microscopIA to initiate execution of the approved project.
- microscopIA coordinates responsibilities, staff, budget, milestones and data/IP agreements. Activities begin with the required ethics, institutional and regulatory permissions in place.
microscopIA appoints competent reviewers before execution. Reviewers disclose conflicts and recuse themselves where appropriate. Membership does not confer contracting authority or permission to reuse contacts or data for external projects.
Protocols and collaboration agreementsQUESTIONS AND CONCERNS
Know where to ask for a decision.
For unclear responsibilities, contribution disputes or concerns about project conduct, contact Jorge Racedo, Chief Executive Officer. Identify the project and the decision or review you need; exclude patient records and confidential evidence from your initial email.
Where a concern involves patient safety, misconduct or a data incident, also use the responsible institution’s designated reporting route. Follow the applicable project escalation plan; this website is not an emergency reporting system.