SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL (ISSN 3107-4162)
Website: https://www.scientificjournal.in/
SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL is committed to maintaining a trustworthy, transparent, and responsible scholarly record. The journal expects authors, editors, reviewers, and editorial staff to conduct themselves according to recognized principles of research integrity and publication ethics. The policy is informed by the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), relevant International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations, and established guidance concerning plagiarism and responsible editorial practice.
1. Responsibilities of Authors
Authors must submit work that is original, scientifically sound, honestly reported, and suitable for the journal. Manuscripts must not have been published previously or be under simultaneous consideration by another journal. Authors should describe methods and findings accurately, provide sufficient detail for readers to understand the work, and report results completely rather than selectively presenting only findings that support a preferred conclusion.
Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, inappropriate manipulation of images or data, duplicate publication, and misleading reporting are unacceptable. Authors must acknowledge relevant previous research and cite sources accurately. They should not cite work they have not examined and should clearly identify material derived from other researchers.
All authors should have made a meaningful contribution to the work and should approve the final manuscript. Guest, gift, and ghost authorship are not acceptable. Changes to the author list after submission should be agreed upon by all affected authors. The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and should keep co-authors informed throughout the editorial process.
Authors must disclose financial and non-financial support and any relationship that could reasonably be perceived as a conflict of interest. The role of funders in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and publication decisions should be stated transparently.
Research involving humans, human data, biological materials, or animals must comply with applicable ethical requirements. Where required, manuscripts should identify ethics approval, informed consent, study registration, licenses, and other relevant permissions. Identifiable information must not be published without appropriate consent and ethical justification.
2. Editorial Independence and Responsibilities
Editors of SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL are responsible for protecting the quality, accuracy, and integrity of the published record. Editorial decisions should be based on scientific merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance to the journal’s scope, ethical compliance, and clarity of reporting. Decisions must not be influenced by nationality, gender, institutional affiliation, personal relationships, political considerations, commercial interests, or financial pressure.
Editors must maintain confidentiality during submission and peer review. Manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial discussions, and unpublished information must not be disclosed to unauthorized persons. Editors must not use unpublished material for personal research or advantage.
An editor with a conflict of interest must not participate in the assessment or decision-making process for the affected manuscript. Submissions from editors, editorial board members, or journal staff should be handled independently to ensure fair evaluation.
Editors should provide clear information about peer review, authorship, conflicts of interest, ethical requirements, corrections, retractions, appeals, and complaints. They should also take appropriate action when credible concerns about research or publication misconduct arise.
3. Peer Review
Peer review should be fair, confidential, timely, constructive, and appropriate to the manuscript. Reviewers should possess suitable expertise and should decline an assignment when they lack the necessary knowledge, cannot meet the required timeframe, or have a conflict of interest.
Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents. They must not copy, distribute, discuss, or use unpublished information for personal or professional advantage. Reviews should be objective and should address the manuscript’s purpose, methodology, analysis, presentation, references, originality, ethical compliance, and suitability for the journal.
Reviewers should alert the editor to suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated or falsified data, inappropriate image manipulation, or other ethical concerns. Reviewer identities should be protected in accordance with the journal’s peer-review model.
4. Plagiarism and Text Recycling
SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL does not accept plagiarism in any form. Plagiarism includes presenting another person’s words, ideas, data, images, or other intellectual property as one’s own without appropriate attribution. Self-plagiarism or text recycling refers to substantial reuse of an author’s previously published material without adequate citation, disclosure, or justification.
Submitted manuscripts may be screened using similarity-detection tools. Similarity percentages are not, by themselves, proof of plagiarism; the editorial team should evaluate the nature, extent, location, and context of overlapping material. Minor and appropriately disclosed overlap may require revision, while substantial plagiarism or duplication may result in rejection or further investigation.
If plagiarism or significant text recycling is discovered after publication, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, depending on the circumstances and the effect on the reliability of the published record.
5. Corrections, Retractions, and Research Misconduct
SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL is committed to preserving an accurate scholarly record. When genuine errors are identified, the journal may publish corrections or clarifications. Where an article’s findings are substantially unreliable, or serious ethical or publication misconduct is established, retraction may be appropriate.
Credible allegations of misconduct may include fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, unethical research, undisclosed conflicts of interest, inappropriate authorship, or manipulation of published material. Editors should seek appropriate explanations and, where necessary, refer serious cases to the relevant institution, research integrity body, funding organization, or other competent authority.
Retracted articles should remain identifiable as part of the scholarly record and should be clearly marked as retracted so that readers are not misled.
6. Transparency, Complaints, and Scholarly Dialogue
The journal encourages transparent communication concerning funding, conflicts of interest, authorship, research ethics, and editorial procedures. Readers, authors, reviewers, and other stakeholders may raise legitimate concerns about published work or editorial processes. Complaints should be considered promptly, fairly, and confidentially.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL supports responsible scholarly discussion. Constructive criticism, letters, responses, and evidence-based debate can contribute to the improvement of scientific knowledge. Authors should normally have an opportunity to respond to substantive criticism concerning their published work.
7. Commitment to Integrity
SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL expects every participant in the publication process to contribute to a culture of honesty, accountability, fairness, confidentiality, transparency, and respect. The journal will continue to review its ethical and editorial procedures and update them when appropriate in light of recognized publication-ethics guidance and developments in scholarly communication.
The ultimate objective of this policy is to protect authors, reviewers, editors, readers, and the wider research community while ensuring that the scientific record published by SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL (ISSN 3107-4162) remains credible, responsible, and worthy of trust.
