Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

This journal adheres to rigorous ethical standards based on the recommendations of Elsevier and COPE's Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Ensuring integrity throughout the peer-review and publishing process requires mutual agreement on ethical standards from all involved parties: authors, editors, reviewers, the publisher, and the sponsoring society.

The journal prioritizes its role as a guardian of scientific integrity. Editorial decisions are strictly independent and are never influenced by commercial factors, advertising, or reprint revenues.

 

Duties of Authors

  • Reporting Standards: Authors must present an honest account of original research and an objective analysis of its value. The data behind the study must be accurately represented. Papers must contain enough detail and citations to allow others to replicate the research. Inaccurate or fraudulent statements are strictly unacceptable.
  • Data Access & Retention: Authors may be required to share their raw data during the editorial review process and should keep this data accessible for a reasonable duration post-publication.
  • Originality & Plagiarism: Submitted work must be entirely original. Any content or words borrowed from other sources must be properly cited or quoted. Plagiarism whether it involves presenting someone else’s paper as one's own, copying or paraphrasing large portions of text without credit, or stealing research results is unethical and prohibited.
  • Multiple or Concurrent Publications: Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously, or publishing papers detailing essentially the same research in multiple journals, is unacceptable.
  • Acknowledgment of Sources: Authors must correctly credit work that influenced their study. Private details gathered through conversations or correspondence require explicit written permission before they can be used. Similarly, information obtained while conducting confidential services (like reviewing a manuscript or a grant) cannot be used without explicit permission.
  • Authorship: Credit should be reserved exclusively for individuals who made significant contributions to the study's conception, design, execution, or interpretation. All key contributors should be listed as co-authors; minor contributors should be recognized in an acknowledgments section. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring all co-authors review, approve, and agree to the submission of the final manuscript.
  • Hazards and Subject Protection: Any inherent dangers involving chemicals, dangerous equipment, or unusual procedures must be explicitly detailed. If the study involves human or animal subjects, the manuscript must confirm compliance with institutional guidelines and relevant laws, noting that approvals were secured. Authors must also explicitly state that informed consent was obtained from human participants, respecting their right to privacy.
  • Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose any financial or professional conflicts of interest (such as employment, grants, or stock ownership) that could potentially bias the interpretation of their research. All funding sources must be stated clearly at the earliest possible stage.
  • Correcting Errors: If an author identifies a significant mistake in their published work, they must immediately inform the editor or publisher to coordinate a correction or retraction. If a third party flags an error, the author is obligated to either correct the paper or provide evidence validating the original data.

 

Duties of Editors

  • Publication Decisions: Editors are responsible for choosing which submitted papers will be published, focusing on the work's validity and its significance to readers. They must operate within legal boundaries regarding plagiarism, copyright infringement, and defamation, and may consult with reviewers or other editors during evaluation.
  • Fair Play: Editors must evaluate submissions solely on their intellectual and academic merit, without discrimination based on the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic background, citizenship, or political views.
  • Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, sharing details only with the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers, and the publisher.
  • Conflicts of Interest: Editors cannot use unpublished information from a submitted paper for their own research without the author’s written permission. They must recuse themselves from managing manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest stemming from collaborative, financial, or competitive relationships with the authors or institutions involved. They must also require all contributors to disclose competing interests.

 

Plagiarism Screening Policy

To maintain academic integrity, every article submitted to the journal undergoes automated plagiarism screening utilizing Google.