Ethics

Publication Ethics

The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal reflects the work quality of its author(s) with his/her or their pertaining institution(s). Therefore, it is important for a peer-reviewed journal to have an ethical standard for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author(s), the journal editors, the peer reviewers, and the publisher. The Journal of Experimental Life Science (JELS), is committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint, and/or other commercial revenues have no impact nor influence editorial decisions. In addition, the JELS will assist in communications with other journals and/or publishers should this be necessary to the editors.

 

Duties of the Editors

The JELS’s editors are responsible for deciding as to which of the articles submitted should be reviewed and published. The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always drive such a decision. The editor-in-chief must seriously prevent libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. An editor should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual contents without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the author(s).

Editors and any editorial staff must not disclose any information on a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author(s), reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisors, and the publisher, as appropriate. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the written consent of the author(s). Privileged information or ideas obtained through a peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Editors should recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest. Editors should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. An editor should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper, in conjunction with the publisher (or society). Every reported act of unethical publishing behavior must be looked into, even if it is discovered years after publication.

 

Duties of the Reviewers

A peer review assists the editor-in-chief in making an editorial decision and editorial communications with the author(s). Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript, or knows that its prompt review will be impossible, should notify the editor-in-chief and excuse himself/herself from the review process. Any manuscript received for review must be treated as a confidential document.

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author(s) is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by relevant citations. A reviewer should also call to the editor-in-chief's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which he/she has personal knowledge. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the expressed written consent of the author(s). Privileged information or ideas obtained through a peer review must be kept confidential and not utilized for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest.

 

Duties of the Authors

Authors of a report of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Data and citations should be represented accurately in the paper. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. Plagiarism takes many forms, from using another’s paper as the author’s own paper to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), or claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is intolerable.

An author should not, in general, publish a manuscript describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source(s). Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study, and have seen and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication.

Conflicts of Interest and Fundamental errors in published works

All authors should disclose in their manuscripts any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the JELS editor-in-chief and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

For more detailed information, visit http://publicationethics.org/

Authorship

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the paper. Participants in certain substantive aspects of the research should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

Plagiarism

According to Regulation No. 7/2010 of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Indonesia, “Plagiarism is the intentional and unintentional practice of obtaining or trying to obtain credit or value from a scientific work without stating the source appropriately and adequately.” Another definition from the Oxford American Dictionary in Clabaugh (2001), is that “Plagiarism is to take and use another person’s ideas or writing or inventions as one’s own.” The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary explains the word "plagiarize" as “stealing and passing off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own, using (another's production) without crediting the source, committing literary theft, presenting as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.” Plagiarism manifests itself in a variety of forms, including (adopted from ACM with some modification):

  • Verbatim copying, near-verbatim copying, or purposely paraphrasing portions of another author's paper;
  • Copying elements of another author's paper, such as equations or illustrations that are not common knowledge, or copying or purposely paraphrasing sentences without citing the source;
  • Verbatim copying of portions of another author's paper, while citing but not clearly differentiating what text has been copied (e.g., not applying quotation marks correctly) and/or not citing the source correctly.

Self-plagiarism is a related issue. Self-plagiarism is defined as “The verbatim or near-verbatim reuse of significant portions of one's own copyrighted work without citing the original source.” Self-plagiarism does not apply to publications based on the author's own previously copyrighted work (e.g., appearing in conference proceedings) where an explicit reference is made to the prior publication. Such reuse does not require quotation marks to delineate the reused text but does require that the source is cited.

All authors are deemed to be individually and collectively responsible for the content of papers published by JELS. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each author to ensure that papers submitted to JELS attain the highest ethical standards with respect to plagiarism.

Plagiarism Sanctions (Adopted from ACM with Modification)

When plagiarism has been found to have occurred, JELS will take the actions listed below as determined by the type of plagiarism. Unless determined otherwise during the investigation, all authors are deemed to be individually and collectively responsible for the content of a plagiarizing paper.

  1. Verbatim copying, near-verbatim copying, or purposely paraphrasing a significant portion of another author's paper without citing the source and without clearly delineating (e.g., in quotation marks) the source material.
  • JELS will inform the Department Chair, Dean, or supervisor of the authors of the finding of plagiarism.
  • The authors will be asked to write a formal letter of apology to the authors of the plagiarized paper, including an admission of plagiarism.
  • If the paper has appeared in print, JELS will post a Notice of Plagiarism based on the investigation, on the JELS Digital Library's citation page of the plagiarizing paper and will remove access to the full text. The paper itself will be kept in the database for future research or legal purposes.
  • If the paper is under submission, the paper can be automatically rejected by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair without further revisions. In addition, a letter of warning will be sent by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair to the authors with a copy of the JELS’s Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism.
  1. Verbatim copying, near-verbatim copying, or purposely paraphrasing sentences of another author's paper and/or, copying elements of another author's paper (such as non-common knowledge illustrations and equations) without citing the source and without clearly delineating (e.g., in quotation marks) the source material.
  • The authors will be asked to write a formal letter of apology to the authors of the plagiarized paper, including an admission of the plagiarism.
  • If the paper has appeared in print, JELS will post a Notice of Plagiarism based on the investigation, on the JELS Digital Library's citation page of the plagiarizing paper and will remove access to the full text. The paper itself will be kept in the database in case of future legal actions.
  • If the paper is under submission, the paper can be automatically rejected by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair without further revisions. In addition, a letter of warning will be sent by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair to the authors with a copy of the JELS Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism.
  1. Verbatim copying of portions of another author's paper, while citing but not clearly differentiating what text has been copied (e.g., not applying quotation marks correctly) and/or not citing the source correctly.
  • The authors will be asked to write a formal letter of apology to the authors of the plagiarized paper, including an admission of the plagiarism.
  • If the paper is under submission, at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief or Program Chair, the paper can either be automatically rejected without future review or a revision will be required that clearly and correctly cites the previous work. In addition, a letter of warning will be sent by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair to the authors with a copy of the JELS Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism.
  1. Self-plagiarism or redundant, the duplicative publication (verbatim or near-verbatim reuse of significant portions of one's own copyrighted work in subsequent papers, where the authors have not disclosed in the subsequent paper the previous publication).
  • If the paper has appeared in print, JELS will post a Notice of Self-Plagiarism or a Notice of Redundant Publication based on the investigation on the JELS Digital Library's citation page of the self-plagiarizing paper.
  • If the paper is under submission and, at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief or Program Chair, the paper can either be automatically rejected without future review or a revision will be required that includes a citation to and discussion of the previous paper. In addition, a letter of warning will be sent by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair to the authors with a copy of the JELS Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism.

Policy in the screening of plagiarism

The Journal team will judge any case of plagiarism. If plagiarism is detected before the article is published, we will alert the author(s), asking them to either rewrite the text or quote the exact text and cite the original source.

The galley proof will be scanned for detecting the plagiarism level. The tolerance for the plagiarism level for each article is < 5%. The revision will be required if the level is > 5%. We use the Plagiarism Detector Program subscribed by the Postgraduate School, Universitas Brawijaya. 

If plagiarism is detected after publication, the Journal team will conduct an investigation on its own merits. If plagiarism is found, the journal editorial office will contact the authors. Depending on the extent of the plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.

Sources:

  • Claubaugh, G.K. & Rozycki, E.G. (2001). The Plagiarism Book: A Student's Manual
  • Regulation No. 7/2010 of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Indonesia on Preventing plagiarism in higher education (Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Nomor 17 Tahun 2010 tentang Pencegahan dan Penanggulangan Plagiat di Perguruan Tinggi)
  • The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary