PROCESS FOR IDENTIFICATION OF AND DEALING WITH ALLEGATIONS OF RESEARCH MISCONDUCT

This journal takes with all seriousness, allegations of research misconduct pre- and post-publication.

The issue of misconduct is strongly investigated and resolved using the guidance provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Authors are expected to report original research and present an accurate account of the work done. Research misconduct in publishing may include, but is not limited to: falsification of results, deliberate citation manipulation, duplicate publication, and text recycling.

If research misconduct is discovered in a published article, the Editor-in-Chief shall take steps as outlined in COPE’s guidelines in dealing with the allegations.

The editorial board, headed by the editor-in-chief, has the following responsibilities:

• To inform the author(s) concerned of misconduct and provide evidence thereof;
• To cooperate with the investigation and respond to the questions of the author(s) about misconduct;
• To retract issues or corrections according to COPE’s guideline on retraction when an allegation is proven;
• To respond to author(s) and other organizations that investigate cases of research misconduct.

To neither encourage such misconduct, nor knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.