Allegations of Misconduct
KSCJ is very sensitive to research misconduct and uses all means available to prevent publishing miscounted research. Though there is no standard definition of research misconduct, the Council of Editors defines research misconduct broadly in three categories of action and conducts. KSCJ uses this definition of misconduct in its dealing with the issue and follows strictly the COPE follow chart in dealing with research misconduct. In addition, for each component of the research misconduct, KSCJ has many assurance policies as follows
- Mistreatment of research subjects
- Falsification and Fabrication of data
- Piracy and Plagiarism
Protection of Researcher rights
KSCJ does not publish manuscripts that do not declare a statement about the protection of human rights. Normally, the journal requires that a statement is declared that research has been reviewed by an institutional review board either in the material method section of the manuscript or in the acknowledgment section of the manuscript. KSCJ encourages authors to report the registry number of the council certification.
Falsification and Fabrication of data
Fabrication is defined as making up data without actually collecting or synthesizing scientific data. Falsification is defined as the manipulation of research material in order to reach a favorable result. Fabrication and falsification could happen at any stage of research (in the field) up to the publication of a manuscript where misuse of citation can happen (referencing a citation when the citation does not support the argument). KSCJ tries to identify any kind of fabrication or falsification in all levels of manuscript processing, from initial screening to comprehensive evaluation of a revised manuscript and even after a manuscript has been published.
Reporting any fabrication and falsification is an ethical duty of our authors, co-authors, reviewers, editors, and readers. In any event of falsification or fabrication, KSCJ keeps its right to retract or withdraw the fabricated or falsified article. KSCJ strictly follows the COPE follow the chart in dealing with fabrication and falsification.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined as the appropriation of another person'''s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit. Another category of plagiarism is self-plagiarism when the author published his own idea, data, and text in different journals when no need for such duplication exists. KSCJ uses all means to detect plagiarism. As a matter of quality assurance, a similarity of more than 20% in the text of a manuscript will be returned to the author to remove the similarities and reduce the chance of plagiarism. KSCJ strictly follows the COPE follow the chart in dealing with plagiarized articles.
The below procedure applies to appeals to editorial decisions, complaints about the failure of processes such as long delays in handling papers, and complaints about publication ethics. The complaint should in the first instance be handled by the Editor-in-Chief(s) responsible for the journal and/or the Editor who handled the paper. If they are the subject of the complaint please approach the in-house publishing contact. (Please check the contacts page on the journal homepage). If no publishing contact is identified send the query to kscjournal@uokufa.edu.iq
