Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Statement on Malpractice

The statement on publication ethics and malpractice is primarily based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011).

Editor Responsibilities:

  • The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
  • Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
  • Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or editorial board members for their own research purposes without the author's explicit written consent.
  • The editor is responsible for deciding which of the submitted manuscripts to the journal should be published. The editor evaluates manuscripts without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, nationality, or political philosophy. The decision will be based on the paper’s importance, originality, clarity, validity of the study, and relevance to the journal's scope. Legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism must also be considered.

Reviewer Responsibilities:

  • Peer review assists the editor and editorial board in making editorial decisions and may also assist the author in improving the paper.
  • Any reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research or knows that timely review will be impossible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.
  • Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
  • Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument has been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. Reviewers should also alert the editor to any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
  • Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Author Responsibilities and Reporting Standards:

  • Authors of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed, as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be accurately represented in the paper. The paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
  • Authors may be asked to provide the raw data for their study together with the paper for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable. Authors should ensure that the data are accessible to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected, and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not prevent their release.
  • Authors should submit entirely original works and must appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others following APA style. Influential work relevant to the nature of the reported research should also be acknowledged.
  • Publishing the same research in more than one journal is unacceptable. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
  • Manuscripts published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. Likewise, manuscripts under review in the journal should not be re-submitted to copyrighted publications.
  • If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

References: Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2011, March 7). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Retrieved from http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf