PUBLICATION ETHICS

PUBLICATION ETHIC

Completeness of the ethical policy of publication in scientific journals must follow established standards COPE (https://publicationethics.org), as:

  1. Allegations of Misconduct,
  2. Authorships and Contributorship,
  3. Complaints and Appeals,
  4. Conflict of Interest / Competing Interests,
  5. Data and Reproducibility,
  6. Ethical Oversight,
  7. Intellectual Property,
  8. Journal Management,
  9. Peer-Review Processes,
  10. Post-publication Discussions and Corrections

Allegation of Misconduct: Journals must have a clearly defined process for handling suspected violations, but they are brought to the attention of the journal or publisher. Journals must take allegations of pre-publication and post-publication violations seriously. The policy must cover how to handle accusations from reporters.

Authorships and Contributions: Journals must have a clear policy (which allows transparency around who contributes to the article and in what capacity) must exist for authorization and contributorship requirements, as well as processes for managing potential disputes.

Complaints and Appeals: Journals must have a clearly defined process for handling complaints against journals (how to deal with complaints / feedback) about editorial staff, editorial boards, or publishers.

Conflict of Interest / Competing Interest: A journal must have a clear definition of a conflict of interest and a policy process for handling conflicting interests of authors, reviewers, editors, journals and publishers, both identified before or after publication.

Data and Reproducibility: The journal must have a policy regarding the availability of research data from published articles and encourage the use of guidelines for reporting and registration of clinical trials and other research designs in accordance with standard practice in the field of science.

Ethical Oversight: Journals must have policies on ethical oversight which must include, but are not limited to: policies on approval for publication, publication of vulnerable populations, research ethics using animal media, research ethics using human subjects, handling confidential data and business practices / marketing.

Intellectual Property: All journal policies regarding intellectual property, including copyright and publishing licenses, must be clearly explained. In addition, any costs associated with publishing must be clear to the writer and reader. Policies must be clear about what is considered pre-publication that will hinder consideration. What constitutes redundant / overlapping publicity and publication must be determined.

Journal Management: A well-described and well-implemented infrastructure is essential, including business models, policies, processes and software to run an editorially independent journal efficiently, and management and training of an efficient editorial board and editorial and publishing staff.

Peer-Review Processes: Journals must have a peer review process policy that is transparently explained and managed properly. The journal must provide training for editors and reviewers and have policies on various aspects of the peer-review process, particularly with regard to the adoption of appropriate models of the review process and processes to deal with conflicts of interest, appeals and disputes that may arise in the peer-review process.

Post-publication Discussions and Corrections: Journals must allow the reader-author's reciprocal publication of articles that have been published by the journal, by letter to the editor (Letter to Editor), which can be answered by the author through the Editor. The journal must have a mechanism to correct, revise, or retract articles after publication.