Ethical publication guidelines are essential for upholding the integrity of scientific research. They ensure the reliability of published work, maintain public confidence in scientific discoveries, and guarantee proper acknowledgment for researchers' intellectual contributions. It is therefore vital to avoid all forms of misconduct, including:
- Data fabrication and falsification: Data fabrication means the researcher did not actually do the study, but faked the data. Data falsification means the researcher did the experiment, but then changed some of the data.
- Plagiarism: Taking the ideas and work of other scientists without giving them credit is unfair and dishonest. Copying even one sentence from someone else’s manuscript, or even one of your own that has previously been published, without proper citation, is considered plagiarism—use your own words instead.
- Multiple submissions: It is unethical to submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Doing this wastes the time of editors and peer reviewers, and can damage the reputation of the authors and the journals if published in more than one journal, as the later publication will have to be retracted.
- Redundant publications (or ‘salami’ publications): This means publishing many very similar manuscripts based on the same experiment. Combining your results into one very robust paper is more likely to be of interest to a selective journal. Editors are likely to reject a weak paper that they suspect is a result of salami slicing.
- Improper author contribution or attribution: All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims. Don’t forget to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution, including students and laboratory technicians. Do not “gift” authorship to those who did not contribute to the paper.
This journal is following of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and complies with the highest ethical standards in accordance with ethical laws.
