RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS ETHICS POLICY
RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS ETHICS POLICY
Centre for Environmental Law Education, Research and Advocacy (CEERA) and Commons Cell – NLSIU, Bengaluru
As a publisher of high quality research journals, we are committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and to supporting ethical research practices, in pursuance of which we have provided the following guidelines:
Authors:
We expect all submitted articles to contain clear and accurate attribution of authorship. It is the responsibility of the author to ensure that all co-authors who have made a significant contribution are fairly acknowledged. Other individuals who have contributed to the work should also be acknowledged. Articles should include a full list of the current institutional affiliations of all authors, both academic and corporate.
Peer Reviewers:
All peer reviewers should accept the invitation to review a work only if the paper is relevant to their own expertise and speciality. They are to report any incident of suspected ethical misconduct. Reviewers should also submit their review reports within the time prescribed and in a responsible and impartial manner keeping aside their personal views on the subject matter.
Plagiarism:
The wrongful appropriation, stealing and publication of another author’s language, or expressions and the representation of them as one’s own original work is considered as plagiarism. We evaluate submissions on the understanding that they are the original work of the author(s), and where any third party material has been used as a reference we expect proper crediting of the source. The paraphrasing of text is also considered as plagiarism, and so is the producing of many papers with same content by the same authors (self-plagiarism).
Consequences of ethical misconduct:
If any ethical misconduct is suspected in any submission of our journals, then the editorial board will ensure that a fair and transparent investigation is carried out in the matter. We take all instances of ethical misconduct very seriously and will investigate each such instance with due care and attention. The consequences for misconduct will depend upon the nature and extent of the misconduct itself and will be determined on a case-by-case basis. The decision of the editorial board in such instances will only be taken after the process of investigation is complete, and in all cases, the author will be given an opportunity to be heard before any final decision is made.
In those cases where misconduct is detected, and no reasonable explanation or satisfactory evidence is provided then we may ban the author(s) from resubmitting to the journal for a determined period. In extreme cases, we may take the matter to the author’s institution for their attention. If ethical misconduct is discovered in content that has already been published, and if we deem it necessary, the paper may be retracted with a statement of explanation.