Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Kufa Journal of Engineering is obligated in delivering the superior standards of publication ethics. Kufa Journal of Engineering enforces the statements of publication standards that are recommended by Committee on Publication Ethics for the publication process, prohibiting any trials of unethical conducts. Needless to say, the received articles for publication go through peer review process, and if they are found not meeting the publication ethics, they will be declined.

 1)    Responsibilities of Editors:

• All authorsꞌ articles should be evaluated without distinguishing according to color, citizenship, gender, etc. The only thing that must be considered is the scientific content of articles.
• Editors could decide in accepting or refusing articles based on peer review evaluation, editorial boardꞌ results, and articles significance.
• The editing staff of the journal should not reveal any information regarding articles to any other party than corresponding reviewers, editorial board, and the publisher.
• Exploiting the contents of the unpublished materials by editors is not allowed without getting the agreement of the corresponding authors.

 2)    Responsibilities of Reviewers:

• Reviewers must notify the editors in case the articlesꞌ topics donꞌt match with their specialization to avoid any potential delays.
• Reviewers are not allowed to reveal any information regarding articles contents to any other party other the mentioned ones previously.
• Reviewers must clearly tell their decisions about articles with proper supporting arguments.
• Reviewers are called for checking the cited materials and references of date used in the authorsꞌ articles.
• Reviewers are advised to have identical interests with articles contents to avoid any possible conflict of interests.

        Journal Evaluation Form Download

 3) Responsibilities of Authors:

Authorship: an individual is named as author when he/she intellectually contributes to a scientific investigation. When, individuals meet the following four listed criteria, then they can be known as authors:

• Scholarship: Participate significantly to the conception, design, execution, and/or analysis and interpretation of data.
• Authorship: Contribute in drafting, reviewing, and/or revising the manuscript for intellectual content.
• Approval: Approve the manuscript to be published.
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributorship: Every submitted manuscript should include an information about those who has contributed to the planning, conduct, and reporting of the work described in the article.

Acknowledgements: All other contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship then they should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged comprise an individual who provided general supervision of a research group or general administrative support, writing assistance, technical editing, language editing and proofreading. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.

• Authors are required to submit precise date of their research work, and the manuscripts should include the list of references used for their articles.
• Authors must verify that the submitted research work is of their own except for the cited and/or quoted materials from other researchersꞌ work.
• Authors should not submit the same article to more than one journal where this is considered breaking for the publication ethics statements.
• In case, there is more than one author for the same article, the corresponding author should ensure that the other authors have agreed the final copy of the submitted manuscript.
• All the required information of authors must be included in the manuscript, for example, authorsꞌ names, affiliations, place of work, and emails.
• Authors should obviously tell conflicts of interest in their manuscripts.
• If the authorsꞌ work require chemicals and/or equipment that may cause hazards resulting of their use, then authors should precisely inform that in manuscripts.
• In case the authors noted that there is an error or an inaccurate information in their submitted research work, then they must notify the publisher as soon as possible after submitting their manuscript.

4) Plagiarism: 

5) Change, Replacement, and/or Modification of a Published Article:

• Withdrawal: In case, a complaint is filed regarding an inaccuracy of a published article’s material, then the journal will consider the received complaint, and a fair decision will be taken whether to delete the complained material or not.

• Replacement: The published article could be replaced in the case of the author submit an updated version of the article. Not less than three reviewers should accept the updated version of the article before processing the replacement. Besides, a correction notice will be published along with the corrected article version to state the performed changes.

• Removal: The published article will be removed if any of the publishers, researchers, reviewers, or others find a high number of errors or a high rate of plagiarism. After that, the article will be removed from the journal database.

6) Data Fabrication:

- This idiom refers to faking authors for their research findings.
- It could happen when authors have intention of fabricating research data and then providing a not true impression.
- E.g. making up images by adding or neglecting some data point from plotted figures, by changing graphs or charts, by omitting outliers, or by canceling inappropriate results, etc.
- Some authors try to enhance the suitability of images for reading by using a number of known techniques where they may increase or decrease the brightness, adjust color balance, etc. This process could not called fabrication when it is applied for the whole image, and not for some parts of it. Anyway, in case those modifications are performed on images, then the journal editor should be informed upon submission time by adding a note to the paper cover.
- Unaccepted making up techniques include improving, removing, obfuscating, and/or adding new elements or parts into images.
- Authors may be asked to submit their research original data, in case their images and/or data are doubted.

7) Conflict of Interest Policy:

Conflict of interest could exist when the relationship between authors and editors is:

• Current or recent colleagues
• Current or recent co-authors
• Current or recent students
• Financial relationship
• Any other forms of conflict of interest: personal issues, intellectual issues, etc.

 Those relationships will properly affect journal editorsꞌ actions.
- Authors are required to fully revel any conflicts of interest by listing them on the paper cover when they submit their paper to the journal.
- KJE assigns all submissions to editors, minimizing possible conflicts of interest. Afterwards, editors are asked to notify the managing editor of any conflicts not listed within the conflicts above.  
- In case, no one of the journal editors meet all of the conflict of interest screens, co-editors with the least conflict of interest will be assigned to the submission.
- The journal editor may refuse to publish a paper basing on one of the disclosed conflicts of interest.

8) Complaints Policy:

- Complaint is authorsꞌ expression of displeasure.
- Kufa Journal of Engineering welcomes authorsꞌ complaints regarding its actions, procedures, and/or policies, since they provide a motivation and chance for improvement. Therefore, a quick, respective, and helpful response will be established for all authorsꞌ complaints.
- KJE thinks that authors don’t complain about something published and/or a decision made by it, but they may complain when there will be a process failure; e.g. when there is a delay in replying, harsh response, and/or inaccurate judgment.
- When a complaint is received concerning an inaccuracy of a material, the complaint will be investigated by the journal and a faith decision will be made whether to omit the material or not. The complained material may not be removed when the journal find that the complaint is without a good basis, otherwise, a legitimate defense or exemption could apply.  

Authors should make complaints as soon as possible after paper publication, after action being made, etc. by typing an email to: editor.eng.mag@uokufa.edu.iq, mentioning the following information: paper title, volume number, and issue number with their complaint.

9) Retraction and Correction Policy:

Kufa Journal of Engineering (KJE) retraction and correction policy is based on the guidelines and standards developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Retractions:
Retractions are used to remove a published paper from the scientific record. It should not be done lightly and can only occur under extraordinary circumstances. The retraction may be initiated by the editors of a journal, or by the author(s) of the papers (or their institution).

Retraction by an editor will be issued upon several conditions:
1- severe plagiarism (severe will be determined by the Editor and verified by plagiarism checking software)
2- Data recycling in a purportedly original research article
3- Double publications
4- Data fabrication
5- Faulty or unreliable findings, and other harmful practices.

In this case, A retraction notice will be published. This notice will include the title and author\s of the article, the reason for the retraction, and who is retracting the article. It will be published online with a link to the online version of the article and included in the table of contents of that issue. Before publishing the notice of retraction, the authors should send a signed statement to the editorial office.

Corrections:
Corrections could be made in the published paper article if it seriously affects the results. Corrections are published in subsequent issues under Corrections and Addendum.

KJE should consider issuing a correction if:

1- Only a small portion of an otherwise reliable publication reports flawed data or proves to be misleading, in a way that does not severely affect any findings.
2- The Author or Contributor list is incorrect.
3- A Correction rather than a Retraction would better serve the scientific community.

Corrections to peer-reviewed content fall into one of three categories:

• An Erratum (Publisher correction): to notify readers of a critical error made by publishing/journal staff (usually a production error) that negatively impacts the publication record, the scientific integrity of the article, or the reputation of the Authors or the journal.
• Corrigendum (Author correction): to notify readers of an important error made by the Authors, that negatively impacts the publication record or the scientific integrity of the article, or the reputation of the Authors or the journal.
• Addendum: an addition to the article by its Authors to explain inconsistencies, to expand the existing work, or otherwise explain or update the information in the main\work.

The decision of whether a correction should be issued is made by the Editor(s) of a journal, sometimes with advice from Reviewers or Editorial Board members. Handling Editors will contact the Authors of the paper concerned with a request for clarification, but the final decision about whether a correction is required and which type rests with the Editors.

10) Change in authorship:
We do not allow any change in authorship after paper is published. We cannot allow any addition, deletion or change in the sequence of the author’s name and affiliation. We have this policy to prevent the fraud.