Publication ethics

Duties of editors

Editors shall:

  • Publish guidelines for manuscript preparation and any other necessary steps which authors must follow to prospective authors and the general public.
  • Where applicable, clearly publish conditions and rates for page charges, publication fees, handling charges or any other fees which authors are obliged to pay to prospective authors and general public.
  • Check duplications and plagiarism of submitted manuscripts.
  • Ensure that the peer review process is fair, unbiased and timely. Reviewers shall be qualified experts in the relevant field.
  • Not disclose the information of the authors and the reviewers to third parties during the review process nor disclose the content of or any information contained in the manuscript while it has not been published.
  • Select articles to be published based on their merits and not publish articles only for the benefit of any authors or the journal without regards to the review results of the articles from the reviewers.
  • Not reject articles due to mere suspicion of research misconduct, but shall seek evidence and give the author an opportunity to respond before rejecting the article.
  • Not take part in deciding to accept or reject articles that they authored or have any vested interests or involvement in.
  • Not request the author to include any references with the intention to increase the journal’s citation count or impact factor or to increase the citation count of their work or that of their associates.
  • Establish mechanisms for appeal against editorial decisions and for complaints in relation to articles published in the journal.
  • Establish a mechanism to rectify serious errors in published articles and retract those found in violation of research ethics. Editors shall take appropriate action when they are presented with errors or suspicion of misconduct in relation to articles published in the journal.

Duties of reviewers

Reviewers shall:

  • Treat manuscripts they received for review as confidential documents and shall not disclose any information contained in the article while it has not been published.
  • Assess the quality of articles objectively, without any prejudice.
  • Not suggest that the author include any references with the intention to increase the citation count of their work or that of their associates.
  • Submit the review result on time.
  • Declare any conflicts of interest they may have with the author or the research project to the editorial team.
  • Inform the editorial team of any ethical issues in the article including plagiarism and data fabrication or falsification.

Duties of authors

Authors shall:

  • Shall not submit for consideration of publication in a journal an article that has previously been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere.
  • The manuscript submitted for consideration of publication must not contain any parts that constitutes plagiarism (including self-plagiarism) and shall have accurate and complete list of references.
  • Not fabricate or falsify data in research report.
  • Strictly comply with the authorship principle. Authorship shall be exclusive for those who have made a significant contribution to the research, none of whom should be left out or excluded from list of authors.
  • All co-authors must approve of the manuscript and agree to its submission for publication in the journal.