Publication Ethics

Duties of Editors

General duties and responsibilities of editors according to the link of site Cope, https://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf

  1. The Editors of the Journal of Medicinal Plants and By-products (JMPB) must keep the information of the articles in secret.
  2. Editors are responsible for making publication decisions for submitted manuscripts.
  3. Editors must maintain the integrity of the academic record.
  4. Editors must evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content.
  5. Editors must disclose any conflicts of interest and preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards.
  6. Editors should have the full authority to reject/accept a manuscript.
  7. Editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers.
  8. Without the author's express written approval, the editor and editorial board members will not utilize any unpublished materials revealed in a submitted manuscript for their own study.
  9. Editors should be willing to examine plagiarism and false data concerns and to publish necessary revisions, clarifications, retractions, and apologies.
  10. The corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, any editorial advisers, and the publisher, if appropriate, are the only people who can see information about submitted articles.
  11. Editors should follow the COPE guidelines on retractions to must be corrected errors, inaccurate or misleading statements promptly and with due prominence.

 

Duties of Reviewers

General duties and responsibilities of Reviewers according to the link of site Cope, https://publicationethics.org/files/u7140/Peer%20review%20guidelines.pdf

When reviewers accept review invitations they are required to comply with the following:

  1. Reviewers must keep the information of the articles in secret.
  2. Reviewers must only review the articles in terms of content (originality, significance and relevance to the domains of the journal).
  3. Reviewers must inform the Editor in Chief of any justifying reason to reject the article.
  4. Reviewers must inform the Editor in Chief of any conflicts of interest.

 

Duties of Authors

Authors who submit their manuscripts for reviewing in the Journal of Medicinal Plants and By-products (JMPB) are required to comply with the following:

  1. The authors must certify that their manuscripts have not been published elsewhere (partly or in full). Plagiarism is prohibited in any form.
  2. Submission of a manuscript implies, that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else and also its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities tacitly or explicitly  at the institute where the work has been carried out.
  3. If the authors have used the words or work of others, they should cited or quoted all sources.
  4. If any errors or problems with the results or information of their work (both at the time of its review and after its publication) are found, authors should inform the Journal editor as soon as possible.

 

Publication Ethics

Medicinal Plants and By-products Journal's ethical policy is based on the standards of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and conforms with the International Committee of JMPB Editorial Board norms of conduct. This comprises all parties treating each other with decency and respect and refraining from discrimination, harassment, bullying, or retribution. Editors, authors, reviewers, and readers who work with JMPB should adhere to these ethical guidelines. JMPB's ethical policy is responsible for determining which of the usual research papers or articles submitted to the journal should be published in the relevant issue. Please visit www.publicationethics.org for more information on this topic and ethical norms in publishing. 

 

Conflict of Interest

Public trust in the peer-review process and the credibility of published articles depend in part on how well conflict of interest is handled during writing, peer review, and editorial decision making. The journal editors should publish this information if they believe it is important in judging the manuscripts. Incidence of potential conflicts of interest may include, but not limited to, the following:

  1. Authors’ Commitment: Authors must disclose any financial or personal affiliations that may influence their submissions.  They must expressly state whether or not potential conflicts exist. Individuals who offered writing or other assistance should be identified, and the funding source(s) should be disclosed.
  2. Source of Funding: Authors must disclose any financial or personal affiliations that may influence their submissions.  They must expressly state whether or not potential conflicts exist. Individuals who offered writing or other assistance should be identified, and the funding source(s) should be disclosed.
  3. Reviewers: Because of potential conflicts of interest, authors may offer the names of individuals they believe should or should not be asked to review their articles. Authors should justify their worries in such circumstances. Editors need this information to decide whether to honor the authors' request. Journal reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest that may affect their opinions regarding individual manuscript(s) to the journal editors. They should decline to review the manuscripts in question in such instances.
  4. Editors: The editors who make final choices on manuscripts must have no personal, professional, or financial ties to the topics they are judging. Other editorial board members must present the editors with a clear and up-to-date statement of their financial interests.  These individuals may decline to make any editorial choices when there is a conflict of interest. Information obtained through the review process may not be used for personal advantage by editorial employees. The journal's Editor-in-Chief should publish policies and guidelines on conflict of interest for authors, reviewers, editors, and other journal personnel on a regular basis.

The Conflict of Interest Form is available for download here.

 

Principles of Transparency 

General Principles of Transparency according to the link of site Cope, https://publicationethics.org/files/u7140/Principles_of_Transparency_and_Best_Practice_in_Scholarly_Publishing.pdf

  1. Peer review process: J.M.P.B. is a quarterly double-blind peer-reviewed web and print publication that covers all aspects of medicinal plants. This technique, as well as any policies pertaining to the journal's peer review procedures, are clearly outlined on the journal's website, https://jmpb.areeo.ac.ir/journal/process. It is worth noting that the following criteria are taken into account while selecting reviewers and getting their feedback: 
  • The judgments should be objective.
  • There should be no conflicts of interest among reviewers.
  • Reviewers should draw attention to pertinent published work that has not yet been cited.
  • Reviews on articles should be kept private.
  1. Governing Body: The editorial board of J.M.P.B. is highly powerful, and the members are acknowledged authorities in the fields covered by the journal's scope. On the journal's website, you may find the editors' full names and organizations. https://jmpb.areeo.ac.ir/journal/editorial.board.
  2. Contact information: The full text of papers that have been published is accessible to anybody with free access to the Journal website and the database for that journal is completely open access. Additionally, there are never any submission fees; instead, authors just pay for article processing and publication.
  3. Author fees / Access: The full text of papers that have been published is accessible to anybody with free access to the Journal website and the database for that journal is completely open access. Additionally, there are never any submission fees; instead, authors just pay for article processing and publication.
  4. Copyright: The form of copyright under which authors' works will be published was made explicit by journals. Authors will be required to complete a "Journal Publishing Agreement" if their manuscript is accepted. The JMPB does not charge for the submission of articles, but does charge for the article processing and publication.
  5. Identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct: Editor-in-Chief takes reasonable measures to find and stop the publication of publications that have engaged in research misconduct, such as plagiarism, citation trickery, and data fabrication/falsification, among other things.
  6. Web site: The high ethical and professional standards have been ensured on the journal's website, https://jmpb.areeo.ac.ir.
  7. Name of journal: The name Journal of Medicinal Plants and By-Products (JMPB) is exclusive and not be one that is confused with another journal.
  8. Conflicts of interest: When authors submit their works to J.M.P.B, are asked to fill out a Conflict of Interest Disclosure form to disclose any potential conflicts of interest.
  9. Publishing schedule: The Quarterly Frequency (4 issues per year: March, June, September, December) has been mentioned in the home page of Journal.
  10. Archiving: The published issues archives are accessible at the journal's official site, https://jmpb.areeo.ac.ir.

Violation of Publication Ethics

General duties and responsibilities of editors according to the link of site Cope, https://publicationethics.org/files/u7140/Full%20set%20of%20flowcharts.pdf.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the deliberate use of another person's words, ideas, or other creative content as one's own. Plagiarism is defined by JMPB Journals as the act of using verbatim text from another person's or your own previously published work without providing appropriate citation. All manuscripts that are being reviewed or published with JMPB must pass a plagiarism check utilizing anti-plagiarism software. Plagiarism is a major breach of publication ethics, as a result. CrossCheck is a service that editors can use to check the originality of papers. The Ithenticate software from iParadigms, recognized in the academic community as the makers of Turnitin, powers CrossCheck.  Visit https://www.ithenticate.com for a searchable list of all journals in the CrossCheck database. 

Data Fabrication and Falsification: Falsifying data and fabricating data means the researcher did not actually conduct the study but instead created false data or results and recorded or published them. Falsification of data refers to the conduct of an experiment but manipulation, alteration, or omission of data or outcomes from the research findings.

Simultaneous Submission: When a manuscript (or significant portions of a manuscript) is submitted to a journal while it is already being considered by another publication, this is known as simultaneous submission.

Duplicate Publication: When two or more articles with incomplete cross referencing use essentially the same hypothesis, data, discussion points, and conclusions, it is considered duplicate publication.

Redundant Publications: Redundant publications entail the improper division of research findings into a number of pieces, sometimes as a result of the urge to fill out one's academic résumé.

Improper Author Contribution or Attribution: All mentioned authors must have contributed significantly to the research in the paper and given their consent to all of its assertions. Remember to include students and lab staff among those who made a major scientific contribution.

Citation Manipulation: Citation manipulation is the practice of providing an excessive number of citations in a submitted publication that do not further the scientific discussion and are just there to boost the number of references to a certain author's or a particular journal's articles. This amounts to a type of scientific misconduct since it misrepresents the significance of the particular work and journal in which it is published.

Sanctions: 
Regardless of whether the infractions took place in a diary or not, the following penalties shall be enforced in the case that any of the aforementioned regulations are violated and are documented:

  1. Immediate rejection of the infringing manuscript.
  2. Immediate rejection of every other manuscript submitted to any journal published by any of the infringing manuscript's authors.
  3. A minimum of 36-month ban on all authors' ability to submit new work to any journal, either alone or in collaboration with other infringing manuscript authors.
  4. A ban on all authors' ability to serve on the Editorial Board of any journal.

Handling Cases of Misconduct

General Handling Cases of Misconduct according to the link of site Cope, https://publicationethics.org/files/Sharing%20_of_Information_Among_EiCs_guidelines_web_version.pdf.

  1. The journal editor's initial step is to notify the JMPB Editorial Office by sending copies of the pertinent documents and a draft letter to the associated author that requests an explanation in a nonjudgmental way.
  2. The topic is reported to the Publication Committee through the Editorial Office if the author's answer is unacceptably inadequate and it appears that substantial unethical behavior has occurred.  The Committee will decide if the situation is bad enough to justify prohibiting future submissions after considering it. 
  3. If the violation is less serious, the Editor may, at the Publication Committee's recommendation, send the author a letter of reprimand and a reminder of the JMPB publication policies. If the manuscript has already been published, the Editor may ask the author to publish an apology in the journal to set the record straight.
  4. The offending author will get notification, and any work they or any coauthors have contributed to that is currently being reviewed by the JMPB journal will be rejected without delay.
  5. The writers are not permitted to serve on the JMPB editorial board or as JMPB Journal reviewers. JMPB holds the option to take additional steps.
    Extreme situations will result in alerts being made to the affiliations of the five writers, and those authors will be barred from submitting their work to JMPB for a period of five years.
  6. A retraction notice will be printed in the journal and linked to the article in the online edition in situations of substantial fraud that necessitate the retraction of the work. The retraction date will also be included next to the word "retracted" in the online version.