Publication Ethics

 The journal of Ethical Reflections (JER) committed to maintaining high standards through a rigorous peer-review together with strict ethical policies. Any infringements of professional ethical codes, such as plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, bogus claims of authorship, should be taken very seriously by the editors with zero tolerance.

An Initial Plagiarism Check is carried out for every manuscript submitted to JER The check starts with a standardized Google search. In addition, the online tool Open Access Plagiarism Search (OAPS) is used. A Detailed Plagiarism Check is performed if deemed necessary.

JER follows the Code of Conduct of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and follows the COPE Flowcharts for Resolving Cases of Suspected Misconduct.

The submitted manuscript should not have been previously published in any form and must not be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere

Copyright Statement

 Rights granted to Publisher

 For open access articles, published in proprietary titles, Publisher is granted the following rights:

     The exclusive right to publish and distribute an article, and to grant rights to others, including for commercial purposes.

     The right to provide the article in all forms and media so the article can be used on the latest technology even after publication.

     The authority to enforce the rights in the article, on behalf of an author, against third parties, for example in the case of plagiarism or copyright infringement.

 Plagiarism and Similarity Rates

 The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. We recommend reviewers in the peer review process to completely check and control the similarities and guide authors to avoid similarities with other published materials.

 We accept all terms and conditions of the COPE regarding similarity rates and plagiarism and in case, any attempt for plagiarism accompanied with convincing evidence is considered. Accordingly, we act based on the flowcharts and workflows by the COPE.

 The highest responsibility to control and avoid plagiarism is held by the EIC of the journal.

 Retraction Regulations

 Definition

 The retraction is a public statement made about an earlier statement that is going to be removed from the journal. The retraction may be initiated by the editors of the journal, or by the author(s) of the paper. However, since the editors are responsible for the journal’s content, they always make the final decision to retract the material. The journal editors may retract publications even if all or some of the authors refuse to retract the publication.

 When should a publication be retracted?

 Only published items can be retracted. Publications should be retracted as soon as possible when the journal editors are convinced that the publication is seriously flawed and misleading (or is redundant or plagiarized).

 What Are the Compelling Reasons?

     Plagiarism

     Bogus claims of authorship

     Multiple submission

     Fraudulent use of data

     Infringements of professional ethical codes

     Redundant publication

     Failure to disclose a major competing interest

 Should retraction be applied in cases of disputed authorship?

 Authors sometimes request that articles are retracted when authorship is disputed after publication. If there is no reason to doubt the validity of the findings or the reliability of the data it is not appropriate to retract a publication solely for an authorship dispute. In such cases, the journal editor should inform those who are involved in the dispute that s/he cannot adjudicate in such cases, but they may be willing to publish a correction to the author/contributor list if the authors/contributors (or their institutions) provide appropriate proof that such a change is justified.

Article Retraction Process

A retraction note entitled “Retraction: [article title]” signed by the authors and/or the editor is published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list.

     In the electronic version, a link is made to the original article.

     The original article is retained unchanged saving for a watermark on the .pdf file version on the each page to indicate that it is “retracted.”

     The HTML version of the document is removed.

Wager E, Barbour V, Yentis S, Kleinert S. Retraction Guidelines. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Sep 2009. Available from: http://publicationethics.org/files/retraction%20guidelines.pdf

  What Are Compelling Reasons?

     Plagiarism

     Bogus claims of authorship

     Multiple submission

     Fraudulent use of data or the like

     Infringements of professional ethical codes

  http://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conduct

  http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts

  http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines