This charter is a letter of commitment that outlines some ethical limits and responsibilities related to carrying out scientific-research activities and publishing them in journals in order to prevent the occurrence of deliberate and unintentional research violations by the authors of the papers.
This charter is derived from the "Charter and Standards of Research Ethics" approved by the deputy of Research and Technology of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran, and internationally accepted publishing standards, and also existing experiences in the field of scientific-research publications.
1. Introduction
Authors, reviewers, editorial board members and editors of journals are required to understand and commit to all the principles of research ethics and related responsibilities in the field of publishing. Submitting a paper by the authors, reviewing the papers and deciding on the acceptance or rejection of the paper by the members of the editorial board and the chief editor means knowing and obeying these rights, and in the case of violating these principles and responsibilities by any of the aforementioned people, journals are allowed to take any legal action.
2. Authors' Responsibilities
- Submitted papers should be aligned with scope of the journal and should be scientifically and coherently prepared according to the journal's standards.
- The submitted papers must be the original research of the author/authors of the paper. Accuracy in research, correct reporting of data and citation of other people's research are mandatory in the paper.
- The author(s) are responsible for the correctness and accuracy of the content of their papers.
Note 1. The publication of the paper does not mean that its contents are approved by the journal.
- Authors do not have the right to "duplicate submission" of a paper. In other words, the paper or part of it should not be published in any other journal inside or outside the country or in the process of being reviewed and published.
- Authors are not allowed to "Overlapping Publication". The meaning of overlapping publication is to use the data and findings of your previous papers with a little change in another paper with new title.
- The author/authors are required to use other people's writings with accurate citation, and if necessary, after obtaining written and explicit permission, use the required sources. When the exact content of another researcher is quoted, direct quotation marks and methods should be used, such as putting the phrase inside quotation marks (" ").
- The corresponding author of the paper should ensure that the names and information of all the authors (after their confirmation) are mentioned in the paper and irrelevant name should be omitted.
Note 2. Do not include the words "Gift Authorship" and avoid removing "Ghost Authorship".
-
The corresponding author of the paper is obliged to make sure that all the authors of the paper have read it and agreed on its content and the order of their names.
-
Submitting the paper means that the authors have obtained the consent of all the sponsors of the paper (financial and etc.) and have introduced all them.
-
The author/authors are obliged to inform the editors of the publication when there is any error and carelessness in their paper, and take action to correct it or withdraw the paper.
-
The author/authors are required to keep the samples and raw information used in the preparation of the paper for one year after its publication, in order to answer possible criticisms and questions of the readers of the publication.
3. Research and Publication Misconduct
The author/authors are obliged to avoid "Research and Publication Misconduct". If in any of the stages of submitting, reviewing, editing, or publishing a paper in a journal or after that, the occurrence of one of the following cases is confirmed, it is considered unethical publishing and research behavior and the journal has the right to deal with it legally.
-
Data Fabrication: It consists of reporting unreal content and presenting fake data or results as laboratory results, experimental studies and personal findings. recording Unreal data or displacement the results of different studies are examples of this violation.
-
Data falsification: Data falsification means manipulation of materials, tools and research process or change and deletion of data in such a way that the results of the research differ from the real results.
-
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the unintentional, intentional or careless use of words, ideas, phrases, claims or citations of others without proper acknowledgment, explanation and citation to the work and owner of the work or the speaker of the idea.
-
Scientific hiring: this implies that the author(s) hire another person to conduct the research and after the completion of the research, take possession and publish it under their own name.
-
Unreal attribution: this refers to attributing the publication of the author(s) to an institute, center or educational or research group that has not played a role in the actual research.
4. Reviewers' Responsibilities
reviewers should keep in mind the following hints during review process:
-
Quality, content and scientific review of papers in order to improve and upgrade the quality and content of papers.
-
Informing the chief-editor of the publication about accepting or not accepting the review (in terms of no relationship between paper’s subject with the reviewer's expertise) and introducing a substitute reviewer in case of not accepting the review.
-
Necessity in not accepting the papers in which the interests of certain individuals, institutions and companies are seen, and personal relationships are observed, as well as papers in which he/she participated in conducting, analyzing or writing.
-
Reviewing of papers should be done based on scientific documentation and sufficient reasoning, and the use of personal, professional, racial, religious, etc. opinion in the reviewing of papers should be avoided.
-
Accurately evaluating the paper and announcing the strengths and weaknesses of the paper in a constructive, clear and educational manner.
-
Responsibility, accountability, punctuality, interest and adherence to professional ethics and respecting the rights of others.
-
Not modifying and rewriting the paper based on personal opinion.
-
Ensuring that the paper is fully cited to all research, topics, and quotations used in the paper, as well as noting those not cited in related published research.
-
avoid retelling the information and details in the papers to others.
-
The reviewer has no right to use the data or its new concepts in favor of or against his/hers or others' research, or to criticize or discredit the authors before publishing the paper. Also, after the publication of the paper, the reviewer does not have the right to publish details beyond what has been published by the journal.
-
The reviewer has no right to entrust the reviewing of a paper to another person, including his faculty colleagues or postgraduate students, except with the permission of the journal chief-editor. The name of anyone who helped in the reviewing of the paper should be mentioned in the reviewing report to the chief-editor and recorded in the journal documents.
-
The reviewer is not allowed to contact the authors directly regarding the papers under review. Any contact with the authors of the papers will only be done by the journal office.
-
Trying to submit a report on "Research and Publication Misconduct " and sending relevant documents to the chief-editor of the journal.
5. Chief-editor and Editorial Board Responsibilities
-
The chief-editor and the members of the editorial board should make improving the quality of the journal as their main goal.
-
The chief-editor and members of the editorial board should try to introduce the publication as much as possible in academic and international communities and prioritize the publication of papers from other universities and international forums.
-
The chief-editor and members of the editorial board should not have a feeling of selfishness and extravagancy in publishing their own papers.
-
The authority and responsibility of selecting reviewers and accepting or rejecting a paper after obtaining the opinion of the reviewers is the responsibility of the chief-editor and the members of the editorial board of the journal.
-
The chief-editor and the members of the editorial board of the journal must be professionally opinionated, experts and have numerous publications, as well as having the spirit of responsibility, accountability, truth-seeking, fairness and impartiality, adherence to professional ethics and respect for the rights of others, and in a serious and responsible manner, contribute to the goals of the journal and its continuous improvement.
-
The chief-editor and members of the editorial board are expected to prepare a database of suitable reviewers for the journal and update it regularly based on the performance of the reviewers.
-
The chief-editor and the members of the editorial board should be diligent in selecting the competent reviewers according to their specialized field, excellence, scientific and work experience, and ethical commitment.
-
The chief-editor of the journal should welcome deep and well-reasoned reviews, and avoid superficial and weak reviews, and deal with biased, unfounded or derogatory reviews.
-
The chief-editor and the members of the editorial board of the journal must take the necessary measures to record and archive the reviewed documents of the papers as scientific documents, and to keep the names of the reviewers of each paper confidential.
-
The chief-editor and the members of the editorial board of the journal are obliged to quickly announce the result of the final decision on the acceptance or rejection of the paper to the corresponding author.
-
The chief-editor and the members of the editorial board of the magazine should consider all the information contained in the papers as confidential and avoid from making it available to others and discussing its details with others.
-
The chief-editor and the members of the editorial board of the journal are obliged to prevent conflicts of interest in the reviewing process, considering any personal, commercial, academic and financial relationships that may potentially affect the acceptance and publication of submitted papers.
-
The chief-editor of the journal is obliged to carefully and seriously examine the works accused of Research and Publication Misconduct, which are reported by the reviewers or in any other way, and take action in this regard if necessary.
-
The chief-editor of the journal is obliged to quickly remove the published papers in which it is determined that " Research and Publication Misconduct " has occurred and to provide clear information to the readers and relevant indexing authorities.
-
The chief-editor and the members of the editorial board of the journal are obliged to review and publish the amendment quickly and to inform the readers clearly about the published papers in which errors have been found.
-
The chief-editor and the members of the editorial board of the journal should continuously ask the opinions of the authors, readers, and reviewers of the journal regarding the improvement of the publishing policies and the quality of the form and content of the journal.
|