Publication Ethics
Code of Ethics
We seek to satisfy the ends and needs of our editors, authors, and readers and to constantly improve our journal. Also, as a journal, we champion open access policies for all our publications.
The purpose of this code is to ensure that our journal publishes articles adhere and respect a set of fundamental rules and guidelines that help guarantee its integrity and quality.
All of our collaborators (authors, peer reviewers, editors, etc.) are strongly encouraged to read and adhere to the following guidelines. In addition, COPE flowcharts and guidelines should also be consulted when necessary or relevant.
Peer Review processes
As a journal, we strive to deliver the greatest academic articles available for our audience. Because we want to ensure that all contributions are judged on their relevance, originality, and significance, we expect our journal editors to do just that.
As well as ensuring that the authors and contributions are appropriately acknowledged, there is no conflict of interests, and that any reference to the work of others is correctly cited, submissions should also be reviewed on the basis of their academic merit.
A critical part of the editorial process (and of the ultimate decision of publishing or not a submission) is the peer-review process. In the ABAA Journal, we support the “double-blind” peer-review process (the author doesn’t know who the reviewer is and vice-versa). We believe that this method ensures the most impartiality in the review process, decreasing drastically the chances of a conflict of interests or manipulation. That said, we expect journal editors who are in charge of the review process to be able to identify signs of tampering or bad intentions. To make this method work and protect the privacy of everyone who takes part, any personal information should be handled with the utmost care and confidentiality.
We also recommend that editors and reviewers familiarize themselves with COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
Authorship and contributorship
Authorship is defined as the state or fact of being the writer of a book, article, or document, or the creator of a work of art.
Authorship may be determined based on the following criteria if none have been established in advance:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work,
- Drafting the work or engaging in critical revising for important intellectual content; and
- Final approval of the work, intended for publishing,
- Accountability regarding all aspects of the work, including investigating and resolving any issues that may arise concerning the accuracy and/or integrity of the work, be it in its totality or partially.
Unless previously stated otherwise, the corresponding author serves as the primary author and is authorized to act on behalf of the other authors. The primary author is largely responsible for communicating with the journal during all stages of the publication process (submission, peer review, copy editing, and production) and should be available to answer/resolve any inquiries that may occur.
It is also of vital importance that authors are aware that they should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for which parts of the work and should be confident in the integrity of these parts.
While these four criteria serve as a basis to confer authorship, all contributors to the work that don’t fulfill these (like proofreaders, language editors, advisors, etc...) should still be properly acknowledged, be it individually or as a group and their roles specified.
We also recommend that editors and authors familiarize themselves with COPE’s Authorship and contributorship.
Complaints and appeals
Retractions, Corrections, and Expressions of Concern
Manuscripts are always subjected to (and should be submitted to) peer review by the academic community. It is fairly rare for published papers to need corrections, especially when they are based on truths. This kind of exchange is beneficial for academic development and should be promoted.
In these cases, issues should be addressed through letters to the editor, whether printed or electronic. The editor should be accessible to reply promptly but also collect evidence in order to make an educated choice about whether to accept or reject the suggested adjustment.
If the author finds that a correction is needed, he should issue a corrigendum. If the journal itself makes an error, it should issue an erratum. In cases where an article is considered to be extensively and irreparably flawed, a retraction should be made. We highly recommended reading COPE’s Complaints and appeals.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism can be defined as using someone else’s work as your own without due acknowledgment and constitutes a serious breach of ethics and academic integrity. Any reference to another’s work should be properly referenced.
Plagiarism can occur in many ways, including by quoting or paraphrasing another’s work without proper acknowledgment, copying and pasting from online resources without proper referencing, using someone else’s research and/or concepts on your own work without referencing, or outright submitting another’s work as your own or not giving co-authors proper recognition.
Other media are also susceptible to plagiarism. Any images, tables, code, drawings, (to name the most usually found in academic content) must have their original authors properly identified.
If any sort of submission, in its entirety or partially, is suspected to be plagiarized, it is up to the editor to make the necessary inquiries. In cases of proven plagiarism, we reserve the right to reject the submission or retract it if it is already published.
We also recommend that editors and authors familiarize themselves with COPE’s Text recycling guidelines for editors also How should editors respond to plagiarism? April 2011.
Self-Plagiarism
Redundant publication or “Self-Plagiarism” as is more commonly referred to, happens when an author publishes the same work or significant portion of the work more than once. This can happen even if the media or language are not the same.
These duplicate publications should only be allowed if it improves scientific research in any way. Even in these cases, authors should take care to obtain consent from the editors and publisher and to reference the original work.
Like with plagiarism, we expect that any suspect cases of “self-plagiarism” to be reported so that the journal editors can make their due diligence.
We also recommend that editors familiarize themselves with COPE’s Text recycling guidelines for editors
Falsification or Fraud
If any submission is proven to include any sort of false or fraudulent content, the author must explain how and/or why that happened. If there is clear ill-intent, the editor should contact the author’s institution’s ethics committee. The submission should also be removed and any future submissions from the author may be refused immediately.
Conflict of interests / competing interests
ABAA Journal does its best to ensure that our journal and/or authors are free of any undue influence. Any person involved in the publication process is required to declare beforehand any potential conflict of interest that could, in any way, compromise the objectivity and/or integrity of the work. Conflict of interests may vary in nature, ranging from financial, personal, professional, contractual, etc…
It is also encouraged that anyone who suspects a clear undisclosed conflict of interest please inform the appropriate editor.
We also recommend that editors familiarize themselves with COPE’s Conflicts of interest / Competing interests
Data sharing and reproducibility
As strong supporters of open access in academia, we encourage all our authors to promote transparency and availability to the data associated with their research. Access to this kind of data allows other researchers to understand, test, and reproduce results, giving credence to the original research.
When possible, we also encourage our authors to make their data available in appropriate repositories in order to promote interchange and cooperation between academics.
Ethical oversight
Consent for publication
Our journal will never publish any content without consent from its authors nor will do so if there are any doubts about the integrity of the work, authorship, or any unresolved conflict of interests. Any issues that may come up about this topic should be reported immediately to the appropriate journal editor.
Open access to all
The ABAA Journal strives to offer academic content for free and accessible to all parts of the world. We believe that knowledge and research should be interchangeable and available to all to boost and promote academic research and to allow developing and middle east countries to easily access research content. We also encourage researchers from these countries to submit their research to our journals.
Confidentiality
Journal must obey laws on confidentiality in their own jurisdiction. Regardless of local statutes, however, they should always protect the confidentiality of individual information obtained in the course of research or professional interactions.
Any names, addresses, e-mails, and other personal information provided will be used exclusively for the purposes of publication. No information is provided to third parties or for any other use other than the one mentioned.
It may be possible to publish individual information without explicit consent if public interest considerations outweigh possible harms, it is impossible to obtain consent and a reasonable individual would be unlikely to object to publication.
Marketing and Communication
In order to promote their academic research, we encourage authors and journals to announce new publications via digital means, like e-mail, and through social media. However, caution should be taken that the integrity of the contents, authors, data, or any part of the publication and publication process isn’t compromised in any way.
Intellectual property
ABAA Journal editors should be alert to intellectual property issues and work to handle potential breaches of intellectual property laws and conventions. Intellectual property laws of the local jurisdiction are sovereign.
It should also be noticed that all of our content is published under a Creative Commons license, more specifically an Open Access CC BY license. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation.
Post-publication discussions and corrections
ABAA Journal editors should encourage and be willing to consider cogent criticisms of works published in ABAA Journal. With this in mind, authors of criticized material should be given the opportunity to respond.
If this criticism or the paper itself culminates in some sort of negative result, the article should not be excluded. Instead, there should be either a new version or a reported correction, always maintaining the previous version. Only in severe scientific inaccuracy cases should an article be retracted.
Open discussion and debate are fundamental to advance academic research. We encourage our editors to promote this possibly through proper scientific forums or e-mail.
Notes
This code is based and inspired on: COPE’s guidelines
