Publication Ethics Statement

Last Updated: Oct 6, 2021

JANS code of conduct and best practice statement is based on the COPE Guidelines

JANS Editorial decisions are not affected by the origins of the manuscript, including the nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, or religion of the authors.

General duties and responsibilities of editors
Editors will adhere to the following guidelines to the best of their abilities:

strive to meet the needs of readers and authors;
strive to constantly improve their journal;
have processes in place to assure the quality of the material they publish;
champion freedom of expression;
maintain the integrity of the academic record;
preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards;
always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Best Practice for Editors includes:

actively seeking the views of authors, readers, reviewers and editorial board members about ways of improving their journal's processes
encouraging and being aware of research into peer review and publishing and reassessing their journal's processes in the light of new findings
working to persuade their publisher to provide appropriate resources, guidance from experts (e.g. designers, lawyers)
supporting initiatives designed to reduce research and publication misconduct
supporting initiatives to educate researchers about publication ethics

Relations with authors

Editors decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based on the papers importance, originality, and clarity, and the study's validity and its relevance to the remit of the journal.
Editors should not reverse decisions to accept submissions unless serious problems are identified with the submission.
New editors should not overturn decisions to publish submissions made by the previous editor unless serious problems are identified.
A description of peer review processes should be published, and editors should be ready to justify any important deviation from the described processes.
Editors should publish guidance to authors on everything that is expected of them. This guidance should be regularly updated.
Editors should provide guidance about criteria for authorship and/or who should be listed as a contributor following the standards within the relevant field.

Best practice for Editors includes:

reviewing author instructions regularly and providing links to relevant guidelines
ensuring that appropriate reviewers are selected for submissions (i.e. individuals who are able to judge the work and are free from disqualifying competing interests)
being guided by the COPE flowcharts (http://publicationethics.org/flowcharts) in cases of suspected misconduct or disputed authorship
publishing details of how they handle cases of suspected misconduct (e.g. with links to the COPE flowcharts)
publishing submission and acceptance dates for articles

Relations with reviewers

Editors should provide guidance to reviewers on everything that is expected of them including the need to handle submitted material in confidence. This guidance should be regularly updated and should refer or link to this code.
Editors should require reviewers to disclose any potential competing interests before agreeing to review a submission.
Editors should have systems to ensure that peer reviewers’ identities are protected unless they use an open review system that is declared to authors and reviewers.

Best practice for editors includes:

encouraging reviewers to comment on ethical questions and possible research and publication misconduct raised by submissions , inappropriate data manipulation and presentation
encouraging reviewers to comment on the originality of submissions and to be alert to redundant publication and plagiarism
considering providing reviewers with tools to detect related publications (e.g. links to cited references and bibliographic searches)
sending reviewers’ comments to authors in their entirety unless they contain offensive or libellous remarks
seeking to acknowledge the contribution of reviewers to the journal
encouraging academic institutions to recognize peer review activities as part of the scholarly process
monitoring the performance of peer reviewers and taking steps to ensure this is of a high standard
developing and maintaining a database of suitable reviewers and updating this on the basis of reviewer performance
ceasing to use reviewers who consistently produce discourteous, poor quality or late reviews
ensuring that the reviewer database reflects the community for their journal and adding new reviewers as needed
using a wide range of sources (not just personal contacts) to identify potential new reviewers (e.g. author suggestions, bibliographic databases)
following the COPE flowchart in cases of suspected reviewer misconduct

Publication Ethics and Best Practices For Authors

The authors should review the Author Guidelines and adhere to the following publication ethics and best practices. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process. The format of a sample paper can be downloaded from this link: Sample Paper

Journal of Applied and Natural Sciences (JANS) publishes high quality, innovative, original and significant works. The journal tries its best to reinforce transparency, confidentiality and help scientists to fulfill their responsibilities as authors and reviewers.

Note: The ethics statement of the Journal of Applied and Natural Sciences is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and US Copyright Law: Title 17.

Authorship:

The authorship credit should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, and design, or acquisition, execution, and interpretation of data; drafting the article or revising it critically for the important intellectual content of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions like above should be recognized as co-authors.

Corresponding author- The “corresponding author” means the person who handles correspondence regarding a paper. The corresponding/submitting author is solely responsible for maintaining a proper communication with the journal and between co-authors, before and after publication.

Before submission, it is the liability of the corresponding author that he/she should ensure that all authors are included in the author list and that all authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and all are aware of the submission of the paper.

The corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy of content given to the journal, in particular, the names of coauthors are present and correctly spelt, and that addresses and affiliations are up to date. This author is answerable to all the inquiries and also to ensure that those are answered promptly on behalf of all the co-authors. The name and e-mail address of this author (corresponding authors may be more than one considering the case of large collaborations) is published in the paper.

Submission to the JANS is taken by the journal to mean that all the listed authors have agreed on all of the contents. Corresponding authors are expected to have notified all authors when the manuscript is accepted. They are the point of contact with the editor and they must communicate any matters that arise after publication to their coauthors and to ensure such matters are dealt with promptly keeping consent from all the coauthors.

Duplicate publications:

Redundant publication is defined as when two or more papers, without full cross reference, share the same hypothesis, data, discussion points or conclusions. The defining characteristic of a duplicate publication is that, in addition to the above, it shares at least some of the authors. Thus, duplicate publications have one or more authors in common and a substantial amount of duplicated text also.

Any manuscript submitted to the Journal of Applied and Natural Sciences must be original. The manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal. Submission of an article to the journal itself implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out.

Authors who submit a manuscript for publication containing data, reviews, conclusions, etc., that have already been disseminated in some significant manner (e.g., published as an article in another journal, presented at a conference, posted on the internet) must clearly inform to the editors and readers the nature of the previous dissemination.

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is when a submitted manuscript/material in part or whole is not entirely one’s own work but the words and ideas have been cut-and-pasted without acknowledging the correct source. The act of substantially using another’s idea and written materials without due credit is unethical. Duplicate publication is also, sometimes called self-plagiarism.

The following acts are considered as Plagiarism:

Turning in someone else’s work as your own.

Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit.

Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks.

Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation.

Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit.

Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of work, whether you give credit or not.

It is the responsibility of the author that likewise published data, unpublished data must be properly credited and the appropriate permission has been sought. In the case of license data, authors must submit a written assurance that they have signed the data-licensing agreement with its owner.

Journal of Applied and Natural Sciences would not consider the manuscripts for publication that comes under plagiarism. If a case of plagiarism comes to knowledge after a paper is published in the journal, the journal will conduct a proper investigation.

Plagiarism can also occur accidentally when an author does not intend to plagiarize but fails to cite his or her sources correctly and completely. Being careful and having a clear understanding of ethical writing can help to prevent this.

Copyright Infringement and Fair Use:

According to the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code), copyright is a form of protection given to the authors of “original works of authorship”, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. This law gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to publish, reproduce, sell, distribute or modify their work.

Copyright Infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner. An exception to copyright infringement falls under the doctrine of “Fair Use” of copyright law and generally represents instances in which the activity is largely for nonprofit educational, scholarship, or research purposes.

The safest way is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. When it seems to be impracticable to obtain permission, use of copyrighted material should be avoided unless the doctrine of “Fair Use” would clearly apply to the situation.

Confidentiality:

Journal of Applied and Natural Sciences respects the confidentiality of the research. JANS editors and editorial staff do not disclose any information about the submitted manuscripts and the communication with reviewers and authors. Editors of JANS do not comment about the manuscript under consideration by the journal or even if it is rejected.

Authors must also treat the communication as confidential. Any information regarding the manuscript submission, reviewer’s reports, and its publication should not be disclosed to any website or otherwise publicized without prior permission from the editors.

It is the duty of the reviewer to treat any manuscripts received for review as confidential documents and they should not reveal any information about the correspondence and interactions with editors. They should not be shown or discussed or commented with third parties except the editor.

Standards of objectivity and Fair play:

Journal of Applied and Natural Sciences follow the standards of objectivity and fair play. Journal’s editor will evaluate the manuscripts for their intellectual content regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship or political philosophy of the authors.

Personal criticism of the author is taken as inappropriate from the reviewer. Journal emphasizes the importance of objectivity and so reviews should be conducted objectively without any prejudices and presumptions. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Conflict of Interest and Funding Acknowledgement:

The author(s) should certify that all authors of the Manuscript have no commercial associations (e.g., consultancies, stock ownership, equity interests, patent-licensing arrangements, etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted Manuscript, except as disclosed on a separate attachment. All funding sources supporting the work and all institutional or corporate affiliations should be acknowledged in a footnote.

Animal Ethics and Informed Consent for Human Participants:

The author should ensure that appropriate permission are taken from the concerned Animal Ethics Committee for the conduct of the research using animals. The research involving human participants proper guidelines should be followed to protect their privacy and written consent should be taken informing the participants about the data to be used in the research.