Publication Ethics

This journal adheres to guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and aims to comply with COPE’s code of conduct and best practices and executive regulations of the law to prevent and confront plagiarism in scientific publications.

Ethical principles for publishing an article in the Journal of Plant Biological Sciences at the University of Isfahan Journal’s Publication Ethics and Cases of misconduct

The ethical standards of this journal have been outlined as per the standards set by the international Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the publication charter of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology as well as the University of Isfahan’s Department of Publications and Journals. The Journal requires everyone to comply with COPE’s core practices and the University of Isfahan’s publication ethics. Authors, reviewers, science editors and the chief editor are expected to comply with the abovementioned ethics while working with the journal. Click here to read COPE’s guidelines and core practices.

Obligations and Responsibilities of Publishers, Chief Editors, Science Editors, Reviewers and Authors

• Publisher’s Obligations and Responsibilities

• • This journal undertakes that the decisions made regarding the submitted articles are based merely on professional and expert judgments and are far from personal interests.
  • This journal is committed to preserving academic and research records.
  • This journal screens observation of publication ethics by the editor in chief, science editors, the editorial board as well as the reviewers.
  • This journal examines submitted articles for plagiarism, fraud, and possible misconduct.
  • When corrections are necessary to be made to the draft, the journal will follow up with authors for explanations and correction suggestions.

• Obligations and Responsibilities of the Editor in Chief and Science editors

• • The science editors of this journal are required to keep confidential all submitted papers until publication.
  • The editor in chief, science editors, and reviewers make the decision to whether or not publish a paper.
  • The science editors should protect the confidentiality of all reviewers.
  • The science editors of this journal should avoid situations of conflict of interests.
  • The science editors of this journal are required to observe research integrity and make efforts to meet the scientific needs of their readers.
  • The science editors of this journal identify possible cases of plagiarism and fraud and in case corrections are necessary to maintain the integrity of the literature, they will follow up with authors for explanations and correction suggestions.
  • The science editors of this journal should focus and concentrate merely on the logical content of submitted papers.
  • The editor and the editorial staff should not disclose any information about a manuscript under consideration to anyone other than the authors and corresponding authors of the manuscripts as well as the reviewers.
  • Unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript should not be used by science editors or other members of the editorial board in their own research.

• Obligations and Responsibilities of the Reviewers

• • The reviewers of this journal should cooperate with the science editors regarding making decisions about publishing submitted manuscripts.
  • Reviewers should submit their comments regarding the publication of manuscripts to science editors in a timely fashion.
  • Reviewers are required to protect the confidentiality of the submitted manuscripts and not to use the information for their own research.
  • Reviewers’ comments on submitted manuscript should be scientific and methodical.
  • Reviewers cannot review manuscripts with whose authors, organizations or institutes involved they have conflict of interests.
  • Reviewers should disclose conflict of interests.

• Obligations and Responsibilities of Authors

• • Manuscripts should not be under consideration for publication or already published by any other journals except for abstracts or excerpts derived from a lecture or thesis.
  • The corresponding author should ensure the consent of the co-authors.
  • Authors should ensure the consent and permission of institutes involved in the research manuscript.
  • Authors should give permission to editors to make necessary changes to manuscripts in order to improve their readability.
  • Authors are expected to briefly introduce their sponsors.
  • Authors need to sign the ethical commitment form.
  • In open access journals, authors hold the copyright to their research papers while allowing the public to download their manuscripts.
  • All authors of a manuscript should agree that the corresponding author will follow up on the review process.
  • If the author/s identify errors in their research, they should immediately inform the board of science editors to make necessary corrections.
  • Authors should be aware that all submitted manuscripts will be checked for plagiarism and fraud by plagiarism detection software.
  • Authors should carefully read the submission process for this journal.

• Examples of Violation of Ethical Principles by Authors

• • Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the intentional use of the works or ideas of others without proper acknowledgement. Using even one sentence from someone else’s or your own previous work without citation is considered an act of plagiarism. All manuscripts submitted to this journal are checked for plagiarism via plagiarism detection software.
  • Fabrication and falsification of data: fabrication of data occurs when a researcher offer data and conclusion without having actually conducted a study. Distortion occurs when a study has been conducted but the results and data are altered.
  • Duplication: duplicate submission occurs when a manuscript is submitted to two or more journals at the same time.
  • Redundant submission: this refers to the situation where two or more papers have the same hypotheses, data and/or findings; or when one study has been split into several papers and submitted.
  • Gift/Guest authors: all authors of the paper should make contributions to the work.
  • Falsification of citations: this refers to a situation when the list of references includes contents that have not been cited in the paper.