Ethics Statement

This is the statement of ethics adapted from the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and covers the code of ethics for chief editor, editorial board members, reviewers and authors.

DUTIES OF AUTHORS

• Have the responsibility of ensuring only new and original work is submitted.
• Must not reproduce work that has been previously published in other journals.
• Must not submit any articles that are being reviewed or considered by the journal to other journals simultaneously.
• Are only allowed to publish their work elsewhere after receiving a formal rejection from the journal or if their request to withdraw their work is officially accepted by the journal.
• Must inform the Chief Editor or the publisher of any inaccuracy of data in their published work so that correction or retraction of article can be done.
• Should make significant contributions and be held accountable for any shortcoming in their work. 

DUTIES OF REVIEWERS

• Must disclose any competing interest before agreeing to review a submission.
• Can refuse to review any submission due to a conflict of interest or inadequate knowledge.
• Review all submissions objectively, fairly and professionally. 
• Reveal any ethical misconduct encountered while reviewing to the Chief Editor for further action.
• Should ensure the originality of a submission and be alert to any plagiarism and redundant publication.
• Must not discuss the content of the submission without permission.
• Adhere to the time allocated for the review process. Requests for extension to review the submission is at the discretion of the Chief Editor.

DUTIES OF EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

• Actively contribute to the development and the greater good of the journal.
• Act as ambassadors for the journal.
• Continuously support and promote the journal.
• Review any work assigned to them.

DUTIES OF CHIEF EDITOR

• Evaluate manuscripts fairly and solely on their intellectual merit.
• Ensure confidentiality of manuscripts and not disclose any information regarding manuscripts to anyone other than the people involved in the publishing process.
• Has the responsibility to decide when and which articles are to be published.
• Actively seek the views of board members, reviewers and authors on how to improve/ increase the image and visibility of the journal.
• Give clear instructions to potential contributors on the submission process and what is expected of the authors.
• Ensure appropriate reviewers are selected/ identified for the reviewing process.

REPORTING

Authors should state their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation. The methods used in the work should be clearly and unambiguously described so that the findings can be repeated and confirmed by other researchers.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

A statement on conflict of interest must be included in the manuscript if authors receive any support that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. 

AUTHORSHIP AND COLLABORATION

Name of authors listed in a paper should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the report. Only those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the work must be acknowledged or listed as contributors. It is the duty of the corresponding author to ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper.  All co-authors must approve the final version of the paper and agree to the version of the paper before submission.

MULTIPLE OR REDUNDANT

Authors should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research output in more than one journal or primary publication. A similar manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal concurrently as this constitutes as unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.