Research and Publication Ethics

Ethics statement

The International Journal of Sciences and Innovation Engineering adheres to the highest standards in publication ethics in selecting and publishing quality research through transparent and fair review and publication processes in accordance with the core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices), which are the policies and practices applicable to all involved in scholarly publishing.
Authors and contributors must read and understand the journal’s ethics and editorial policies and submission guidelines before submitting manuscripts. The journal checks all manuscripts to ensure that they conform with its ethics policies.
Where ethical concerns are present, an editorial decision may be changed after investigation; should an ethical issue or conflict with policies be identified, acceptance of a manuscript may be rescinded. Manuscripts that do not conform to the journal’s policies may be withdrawn from submission.

Ethics guidelines

For authors and contributors

  • Ensure that all work submitted is original, fully referenced and that all authors are represented accurately.
  • Read the journal’s Editorial Statement and Guidelines for Contributors thoroughly to ensure that submitted work is in conformity with the submission guidelines.
  • Provide accurate contact details for a designated corresponding author, who will be fully responsible for the authorship of the paper and all communications concerning the ethical status and originality of the paper. This includes any queries or investigations that may arise before or after publication.
  • Declare all potential competing interests involving people or organizations (e.g. financial, professional and personal interests) that might reasonably be perceived as relevant (see “Submission guidelines” in the Guidelines for Contributors).
  • Fully cooperate with any editorial investigations into the originality of submissions.

For editors

  • Adhere to the ijsci publication ethics and editorial policies and COPE guidelines.
  • Protect the reputation of the journal by only publishing content of the highest quality and relevance in a timely and responsible manner.
  • Ensure objective and confidential peer reviews for submissions that pass the initial editorial assessment.
  • Detail and justify any article types that will not be peer reviewed.
  • Provide a transparent review and publication process as far as possible, with full respect to the author(s).
  • Provide advice and give reasonable explanations and updates to authors during the process.
  • Allow authors the right to appeal editorial decisions.
  • Advise the journal’s managing editor of any third-party material that has been included for which they do not believe sufficient permission has been obtained.
  • Publish corrections or corrigenda, when necessary, and retract articles that are deemed unethical, misleading or damaging.

For peer reviewers

  • Adhere to the journal’s Peer Review Policy and respect confidentiality, which includes keeping their identity hidden from authors and not externally distributing any work under review.
  • Accept, to the greatest extent possible, invitations to review work that is relevant to their own expertise.
  • Review submitted work in a responsible, impartial and timely manner.
  • Disclose relationships and activities that may be conflict of interest or competing interests when fulfilling their respective roles in the review process (see “Conflicts of interest” in the Peer Review Policy).
  • Report any suspected misconduct to the editorial office.
  • Avoid the use of unnecessarily inflammatory or offensive language in their comments.
  • Accept the commitment to review future versions of the work.
  • Seek advice from the editorial office if anything is unclear.
  • Remain in good communication with the editorial office.

Ethics policies

Allegations of misconduct

The journal takes allegations of misconduct seriously. Anyone who has substantial reason to believe that there has been an ethical violation should bring the concern to the attention of the Editor-in-Chief and the Managing Editor of ijsci ([email protected]). When an ethical issue is suspected in any work submitted, the journal ensures that a fair and transparent investigation of the matter is carried out. All instances of alleged misconduct are investigated with care and attention (see Editorial Policies). Consequences for misconduct are determined on a case-by-case basis. In all cases, the person(s) concerned will be given the opportunity to provide an explanation for the alleged misconduct. A decision will be made only once the investigation is completed.

Appeals and complaints

Authors may appeal editorial decisions by submitting a formal letter to the editorial office ([email protected]) within 14 days of the decision notice (see “Appeals” in the Peer Review Policy). For complaints relating to published research, the Managing Editor will coordinate with the complainant, author(s) and editor(s) for investigation and report to the Editor-in-Chief. When a complaint cannot be substantiated, further communication will only be considered if additional information evidencing concerns is presented.

Authorship

Authors must meet the following criteria to qualify for authorship of a manuscript:

  • 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 reviewing it critically for important intellectual content;
  • Final approval of the version to be published; and
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

An individual who does not meet authorship criteria for a specific piece of work but has contributed in some capacity may be listed in an acknowledgment section.
Any change to the author list during the editorial process or after publication should be approved by all authors, including any who have been removed (see “Authorship” in the Guidelines for Contributors).

Artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies

AI cannot meet the authorship requirements (https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author). When AI or AI-assisted technologies were used in the preparation of a manuscript, authors must disclose the use of such technologies, and a statement will appear in the published work. Authors are fully responsible for the content produced by an AI tool.

Citations

Where material is taken from other sources, the source must be clearly cited. However, authors should not copy references from other publications which they have not read. Authors should avoid excessive citation of their own work to inflate their citation count or to risk violating the double-blinded review process. Editors and peer reviewers should not ask authors to add citations to their own, friends’ or institutions’ publications, except for genuine scholarly reasons. Editors should not attempt to influence the journal’s ranking by artificially increasing any journal metric ("Citation manipulation” in the COPE discussion document).

Conflicts of interest or competing interests

Authors must disclose and declare all potential competing interests involving people or organizations (e.g. financial, professional and personal interests) that might reasonably be perceived as relevant (see “Submission guidelines” in the Guidelines for Contributors). Peer reviewers (see “Conflicts of interest” in Peer Review Policy), editors and the journal staff members are also subject to the obligation of disclosing their relationships and activities when fulfilling their respective roles in the process of article review and publication.

Data and image falsification and fabrication

Data presented in manuscripts must be original and not inappropriately selected, manipulated, enhanced or fabricated (see Editorial Policies). Image files must not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information provided by the original image.

Data and reproducibility

Authors must maintain accurate records of supporting evidence and, if requested, provide access to it (see “Data access and retention” in the Guidelines for Contributors).

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a type of research misconduct. It includes deliberate copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of text, ideas, images, or data from another source without giving proper attribution. Plagiarism in any form is not acceptable (see Editorial Policies).

Post-publication corrections and retractions

Authors are given opportunities to correct errors before their accepted papers are published. Minor copyediting or typesetting errors that do not affect the meaning or interpretation of published papers are generally not corrected. When significant errors are identified after publication, the editorial office will determine whether the errors are significant enough to merit correction. If necessary, ijsci will publish retractions for articles, following the COPE guidelines for retracting articles (https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.4).

Redundant or duplicate publication

Authors should not attempt to publish all or substantial parts of their own work more than once – in the same or a different language – without appropriate referencing or justification for the overlap.  At the time of submission, authors must disclose details of related work previously published or under review by other journals (see “Submission guidelines” in the Guidelines for Contributors).