Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

MMNSA is committed to ensuring ethics in the publication and quality of articles. Conforming to standards of expected ethical behavior is, therefore, necessary for all parties (the author, the editor(s), and the peer reviewer) involved in the act of publishing. Especially, MMNSA is following the Code of Conduct as defined by the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE). These ethics include the editor following certain rules on relations with readers, authors, and reviewers as well as procedures for handling complaints. Conformance to standards of ethical behavior is therefore expected of all parties involved: Authors, Editors, Reviewers, and the Publisher.

International Standards for Editors

The editors of the MMNSA are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published considering their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors. The editors may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The editors may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision. As guardians and stewards of the research record, editors should encourage authors to strive for, and adhere themselves to, the highest standards of publication ethics. Furthermore, editors are in a unique position to indirectly foster responsible conduct of research through their policies and processes.

To achieve the maximum effect within the research community, ideally, all editors should adhere to universal standards and good practices.

Editors are accountable and should take responsibility for everything they publish.
Editors should make fair and unbiased decisions independent from commercial considerations and ensure a fair and appropriate peer-review process.
Editors should adopt editorial policies that encourage maximum transparency and complete, honest reporting.
Editors should guard the integrity of the published record by issuing corrections and retractions when needed and pursuing suspected or alleged research and publication misconduct.
Editors should pursue reviewer and editorial misconduct.
Editors should critically assess the ethical conduct of studies in humans and animals.
Peer reviewers and authors should be told what is expected of them.
Editors should have appropriate policies in place for handling editorial conflicts of interest.

Reference:

Kleinert S & Wager E (2011). Responsible research publication: international standards for editors. A position statement developed at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010. Chapter 51 in: Mayer T & Steneck N (eds) Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment. Imperial College Press / World Scientific Publishing, Singapore (pp 317-28). (ISBN 978-981-4340-97-7) [Link].

International Standards for Authors

The publication is the final stage of research and therefore a responsibility for all researchers. Scholarly publications are expected to provide a detailed and permanent record of research. Because publications form the basis for both new research and the application of findings, they can affect not only the research community but also, indirectly, society at large. Researchers, therefore, have a responsibility to ensure that their publications are honest, clear, accurate, complete, and balanced, and should avoid misleading, selective or ambiguous reporting. Journal editors also have responsibilities for ensuring the integrity of the research literature and these are set out in companion guidelines.

The research being reported should have been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and should comply with all relevant legislation.
Researchers should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation.
Researchers should strive to describe their methods clearly and unambiguously so that their findings can be confirmed by others.
Researchers should adhere to publication requirements that submitted work is original, is not plagiarized, and has not been published elsewhere.
Authors should take collective responsibility for submitted and published work.
The authorship of research publications should accurately reflect individuals’ contributions to the work and its reporting.
Funding sources and relevant conflicts of interest should be disclosed.
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 journal’s Editor-in-Chief and cooperate with them to either retract the paper or to publish an appropriate erratum.

Reference:

Wager E & Kleinert S (2011) Responsible research publication: international standards for authors. A position statement developed at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010. Chapter 50 in: Mayer T & Steneck N (eds) Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment. Imperial College Press / World Scientific Publishing, Singapore (pp 309-16). (ISBN 978-981-4340-97-7) [Link].

Basic principles to which peer reviewers should adhere

Peer review in all its forms plays an important role in ensuring the integrity of the scholarly record. The process depends to a large extent on trust and requires that everyone involved behaves responsibly and ethically. Peer reviewers play a central and critical part in the peer-review process as the peer review assists the Editors in making editorial decisions and, through the editorial communication with the author, may also assist the author in improving the manuscript.

Peer-reviewers should:

respect the confidentiality of peer review and not reveal any details of a manuscript or its review, during or after the peer-review process, beyond those that are released by the journal;
not use information obtained during the peer-review process for their own or any other person’s or organization’s advantage, or to disadvantage or discredit others;
only agree to review manuscripts for which they have the subject expertise required to carry out a proper assessment and which they can assess within a reasonable time-frame;
declare all potential conflicting interests, seeking advice from the journal if they are unsure whether something constitutes a relevant conflict;
not allow their reviews to be influenced by the origins of a manuscript, by the nationality, religion, political beliefs, gender or other characteristics of the authors, or by commercial considerations;
be objective and constructive in their reviews, refraining from being hostile or inflammatory and from making libellous or derogatory personal comments;
acknowledge that peer review is largely a reciprocal endeavour and undertake to carry out their fair share of reviewing, in a timely manner;
provide personal and professional information that is accurate and a true representation of their expertise when creating or updating journal accounts.

Reference:

Homes I (2013). COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers, March 2013, v1 [Link].

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The published articles in MMNSA are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License