Our Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement is based on the Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the position statements developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore 2010
Duties of Editors:
Publication decisions
The Management Team of this journal consisting of the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editor and the Head of the Editorial Office is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The Management Team may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The Management Team may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.
Fair play
An editor at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to the nature of the authors or the host institution including race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
Confidentiality
The editors and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate. The Journal operates a web-based submission system, which is run in a way that prevents unauthorised access. In the case of a misconduct investigation, the Journal may disclose material to third parties (e.g., an institutional investigation committee or other editors).
this Journal does not disclose reviewers’ identities. However, if reviewers wish to disclose their names, this is permitted.
Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.
Corrections
When genuine errors in published work are pointed out by readers, authors, or editors, which do not render the work invalid, a correction (or erratum) will be published as soon as possible. The online version of the paper may be corrected with a date of correction and a link to the printed erratum. If the error renders the work or substantial parts of it invalid, the paper should be retracted with an explanation as to the reason for retraction (i.e., honest error).
Ensuring the integrity of the published record – suspected research or publication misconduct
If serious concerns are raised by readers, reviewers, or others, about the conduct, validity, or reporting of academic work, Management Team will initially contact the authors and allow them to respond to the concerns. If that response is unsatisfactory, the journal will take this to the institutional level. In cases when concerns are very serious and the published work is likely to influence clinical practice or public health, the Journal may consider informing readers about these concerns, by issuing an ‘expression of concern’, while the investigation is ongoing. Once an investigation is concluded the journal will publish comment that explains the findings of the investigation. The journal may decide to retract a paper if the Editorial Board is convinced that serious misconduct has happened even if an investigation by an institution or national body does not recommend it.
this Journal will respond to all allegations or suspicions of research or publication misconduct raised by readers, reviewers, or other editors. Cases of possible plagiarism or duplicate/redundant publication will be assessed by the journal. In other cases, the journal may request an investigation by the institution or other appropriate bodies (after seeking an explanation from the authors first and if that explanation is unsatisfactory).
Retracted papers will be retained online, and they will be prominently marked as a retraction in all online versions, including the PDF, for the benefit of future readers.
Duties of Reviewers
Contribution to Editorial Decisions
Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.
Promptness
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
Standards of Objectivity
Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
Reviewer misconduct
The Journal Editors will take reviewer misconduct seriously and pursue any allegation of breach of confidentiality, non-declaration of conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), inappropriate use of confidential material, or delay of peer review for competitive advantage. Allegations of serious reviewer misconduct, such as plagiarism, will be taken to the institutional level.
Duties of Authors
Reporting standards
Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable
Data Access and Retention
Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
Originality and Plagiarism
Authors should ensure that submitted work is original and has not been published elsewhere in any language, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
Applicable copyright laws and conventions should be followed. Copyright material (e.g. tables, figures or extensive quotations) should be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement.
Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication
An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
Authorship of the Paper
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.
The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
Fundamental errors in published works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
“This journal is following of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and complies with the highest ethical standards in accordance with ethical laws”.
Plagiarism
University of Guilan (UofG), holds in high regard authentic and original scholarly works and research efforts. In line with this principle, the University of Guilan Press has zero tolerance for plagiarism and meticulously studies each and every article submitted to its journals to ensure all UofG-published material remain plagiarism-free. It is worth mentioning that since plagiarism is the most common misstep in producing scholarly work, the UofG Press takes all possible measures to avoid and tackle this issue.
The UofG Press follows the definitions and guidelines as determined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). You can find the complete list of COPE guideline material on publication ethics, codes and regulations at www.publicationethics.org/resources.
With regard to plagiarism, all UofG journals abide by the following definition provided by the APA Publication Manual (6th Ed.) (2010) which defines plagiarism as:
As an umbrella term, plagiarism covers different acts:
Verbatim Copying: Word-for-word use, partially or completely, of any text or material without using quotation marks and/or reference markers in order to refer to the original source;
Superficial/Inadequate Paraphrasing: Acquiring ideas from an original source and changing the wording of the source written material in a way that the diction of the original author(s) is still evident.
Visual Aid Plagiarism: Use of material such as graphs, images or tables, partially or completely, without citation;
Paraphrasing without Reference: Acquiring ideas from an original source and reproducing the source written material with your own diction without using reference markers and/or citations.
It should be noted that, regardless of the source, the UofG Press regards any uncited or uncredited use of others’ works and productions as plagiarism. Such sources include published/unpublished authors; published/unpublished theses and dissertations; speeches; authors’ own works (incorrect use of which leads to self-plagiarism); PowerPoint presentations; instructional visual aids; journal articles; magazines and newspapers etc.
The UofG Press carefully studies all submitted articles, and plagiarism issues will be tackled in all article publication stages:
In case plagiarism is detected in newly submitted articles, the Review Committee of the relevant journal will decided on the nature of this error. In case the act of plagiarism is ruled as a mistake, the author(s) will be notified immediately and will be given an opportunity to correct this issue. In case it is decided that a paper or article contains deliberate plagiarism, the author(s) will be notified of the matter, and they will be put in the UofG Press Blacklist. Entry into the blacklist will result in the author(s) name(s) being distributed among similar scholarly and university publications in order to stop future works from the author(s). Also, individuals who commit plagiarism will be prohibited from sending any articles to the UofG Press for a period of five years from the date of entry into the blacklist.
Under remote circumstances when an article which contains plagiarism has been accepted and published, besides the above measures, the article will be immediately retracted from all UofG Press publications, whether in print or online, and this retraction will be officially announced on the UofG Press website.
The UofG Press uses state-of-the-art web-based and offline plagiarism detection software to detect plagiarized work and stop the publication of such materials. These softwares are linked to various worldwide databases and crosscheck newly-submitted work with vast amounts of material of the same category in order to verify the work’s originality and authenticity.