Publication Ethics and malpractice
Publication ethics
The following terms represent the AJMAS essential ethical elements of publication that are mainly based on Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE) which should be taken into account by all the parties involved in the publication process.
Editors Responsibilities
Editors must ensure a fair double-blind peer-review of the submitted articles for publication. They will strive to prevent any potential conflict of interests between the author and editorial and review personnel. Editors will also ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing. Editor-in-Chief will coordinate the work of the editors.
Confidentiality
The information in the submitted manuscripts are treated with high degree of confidentiality and would not be disclosed to anyone outside the concerned parties involved in the publication process, namely the author(s) , the reviewers, the concerned editor(s), and the administrative staff of the journal
Conflicts of Interest
It is not permitted for the chief or the members of the editorial board to use any information stated in the unpublished documents or papers for their own scientific researches except by having a written permission from the original author of the research.
Publication Malpractice
AJMAS is an electronic peer reviewed international journal committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics. In order to provide our readers with a journal of highest quality we state the following principles of Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement. All articles not in accordance with these standards will be removed from the publication if malpractice is discovered at any time even after the publication. AJMAS is checking all papers in a double-blind peer review process; Submitted manuscripts for publication are double-blind peer-reviewed: both reviewers and authors are unaware of the identity of both of them. We also check for plagiarism and research fabrication as AJMAS reserves the right to use plagiarism detecting software to screen submitted papers at all times; falsification (manipulation of existing research data, tables, or images) and improper use of animals in research. In accordance with the code of conduct we will report any cases of suspected plagiarism or duplicate publishing. All parties involved in publishing - the authors, the journal editors, and the peer reviewers are agree with standards of ethical behavior.
Duties of Reviewers
Contribution to Editorial Decisions
Reviewers evaluate manuscripts based on their contents. They must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential. They must evaluate the submitted works objectively as well as present clearly their opinions on the works in a clear way in the review form. Reviewers must bring to the attention of any information that may be reason to reject publication of a manuscript.
Managing Time and Workload
The reviewers should manage to complete the review process and respond to the edits in a timely manner and within time allocated to ensure a swift and smooth publication process for manuscripts meeting the journal publication criteria. On the other hand, fast response by the reviewers will help in fast decisions on rejected manuscripts.
Confidentiality
The reviewer expected to maintain high degree of confidentiality to the manuscript submitted and would not disclose any information regarding the manuscript to anyone outside the concerned parties involved in the publication process
Identifying and Evaluating Resources
Reviewers are required to evaluate the sources of information cited in the manuscript with scrutiny. Any information that appeared to be similar (plagiarized) or overlapped significantly with an existing work (published or unpublished) that belong to others, should be reported to the editorial board for further action to be taken by the board.
Reviewer Feedback
The reviewers are expected to provide their edits and comments in a constructive and unbiased manner using a clear language. The reviewers’ written feedback should also avoid any personal criticism and offensive language that may deter the peer review process and harm the scientific community.
Conflicts of Interest
Reviewers should disqualify themselves from revising a manuscript if they feel a potential conflict of interest. Reviewers are not allowed to use or modify any of the information of the manuscript under revision for the purpose of serving their own interests. Also, the reviewers are not allowed to contact the author(s) of the manuscript directly without any prior permission from the journal officials.
Duties of Authors
Reporting Standards
The author(s) of the submitted manuscript represent the cornerstone of a good publication. The AJMAS editorial board expects the author(s) to submit only original research that is accurate and unplagiarized. The author(s) are also obliged to present their work with sufficient details and proper referencing to allow other researchers from replicating the work without major struggles.
Raw data, other documents, and resources used in building up manuscripts should be retained by the author(s) as part of good documentation practice and transparency required. These raw data and documents might be requested by the editorial board once needed to clarify some issues that might arise during the publication process and to exclude any potential data fabrication and falsification.
Avoiding Parallel Publication
The author(s) are not allowed to submit their manuscript to AJMAS if they have already submitted the same manuscript to other journal and being still in process in the other journal. This may to lead to duplication in publication and a big confusion to the scientific community. Such practice is considered highly unethical and would result in unnecessary waste of time to the editors and reviewers and waste of resources.
Data Fabrication and Falsification
Authors should not include spurious data or false research results in the manuscript. Also, manipulation of the research process or the arbitrary alteration or omission of data which leads to the distortion of the contents or the results of the research should not be done.
Citation Manipulation
Authors should not include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to an author’s given article.
Authorship
The manuscript authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution and intellectual input to the research submitted to the journal, including design, performance, interpretation of the reported study, and writing the manuscript. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors.
Others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the manuscript but without intellectual input should only be recognized in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript.Also, one of the authors should be selected as the corresponding author to communicate with the journal and approve the final version of the manuscript for publication in the AJMAS.
Conflicts of Interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any conflicts of interest that may be appeared to influence the results or interpretation of the work of the manuscript.
Fundamental Errors in Published Work
The author(s) should notify the editor or the publisher in case of any misstatements appeared in the body of their manuscripts to do the necessary correction in the in pre-print form. When authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in the published research, they should inform the editorial board or the publisher of AJMAS to withdraw or correct their publication.
Hazards and Human/Animal Subjects
Any work that involves the use of human subjects, it is the responsibility of the author(s) to make sure that the work does not pose any risk or threat to the human subjects and the work should be approved by institutional ethical committee.
A declaration form for author is provided in this link click here
If the work involves the use of animals, the research must be carried out according to the consensus ethics relating to the use of these animals in the scientific work and approved by institutional ethical committee. The author(s) are also obligated to sign on their responsibility of taking these ethics into account while conducting research on animal subjects.
A declaration form for author click here
Plagiarism
All articles published by AJMAS must be only original material. Passing off another’s paper as the author’s own, copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), or claiming results from research conducted by others are all considered to be forms of plagiarism. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
