Chief in Editor (CiE)

• should take responsibility for any publishing.
• fairly and unbiased decisions and ensure a fair and appropriate peer review process
• integrity of the published record by issuing corrections and retractions when needed and pursuing suspected or alleged research and publication misconduct
• pursue reviewer and editorial misconduct
• critically assess the ethical conduct of studies in humans and animals
• have appropriate policies in place for handling editorial conflicts of interest
• Peer reviewers and authors should be told what is expected of them

Author 

• conducted research in an ethical and responsible manner and should comply with all relevant legislation.
• present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation
• Must inform the Chief Editor or the publisher of any inaccuracy of data in their published work so that correction or retraction of article can be done.
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• strive to describe their methods clearly and unambiguously so that their findings can be confirmed by others
• adhere to publication requirements that submitted work is original, is not plagiarised, and has not been published elsewhere
• Must not submit any articles that are being reviewed or considered by the journal to other journals simultaneously.
• take collective responsibility for submitted and published work
• The authorship of research publications should accurately reflect individuals’ contributions to the work and its reporting
• Funding sources and relevant conflicts of interest should be disclosed

• Checking for plagiarism using TurnItIn is advisable.

DUTIES OF REVIEWERS

• Must disclose any competing interest before agreeing to review a submission
• Can refuse to review any submission due to a conflict of interest or inadequate knowledge.
• Review all submissions objectively, fairly and professionally.
• Reveal any ethical misconduct encountered while reviewing to the Chief Editor for further action.
• Should ensure the originality of a submission and be alert to any plagiarism and redundant publication.
• Must not discuss the content of the submission without permission.
• Adhere to the time allocated for the review process. Requests for extension to review the submission are at the discretion of the Chief Editor.

DUTIES OF EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

• Actively contribute to the development and the greater good of the journal.
• Act as ambassadors for the journal.
• Continuously support and promote the journal.
• Review any work assigned to them.

DUTIES OF CHIEF EDITOR

• Evaluate manuscripts fairly and solely on their intellectual merit.
• Ensure confidentiality of manuscripts and not disclose any information regarding manuscripts to anyone other than the people involved in the publishing process.
• Has the responsibility to decide when and which articles are to be published.
• Actively seek the views of board members, reviewers and authors on how to improve/increase the image and visibility of the journal.
• Give clear instructions to potential contributors on the submission process and what is expected of the authors.
• Ensure appropriate reviewers are selected/ identified for the reviewing process.

 

PLAGIARISM

Authors should submit only original work that is not plagiarized, and has not been published or being considered elsewhere.  Appropriate software may be used by the editorial office to check for similarities of submitted manuscripts with existing literature. Inclusion of fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements are unacceptable. Work and/or words from other publications must be appropriately cited or quoted.

 

REPORTING

Authors should state their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation. The methods used in the work should be clearly and unambiguously described so that the findings can be repeated and confirmed by other researchers.

 

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST 

A statement on conflict of interest must be included in the manuscript if authors receive any support that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. 

 

AUTHORSHIP AND COLLABORATION

Name of authors listed in a paper should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the report. Only those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the work must be acknowledged or listed as contributors. It is the duty of the corresponding author to ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper.  All co-authors must approve the final version of the paper and agree to the version of the paper before submission.

 

MULTIPLE OR REDUNDANT

Authors should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research output in more than one journal or primary publication. A similar manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal concurrently as this constitutes as unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.