Ethical Policy

Introduction

The Guide for Authors and the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement (PEMS) support combined efforts by authors, editors, and reviewers to produce a responsible research publication. All authors must know and keep in mind the Editorial policy and the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement (PEMS) . Guidelines for the submission of articles and manuscript preparation and format are to be found on the ‘ Guidelines for Authors webpage.

Publishing an article in a peer-reviewed journal is an essential building block in developing a coherent and respected network of knowledge. This is a direct reflection of the quality of the work of the authors and the organizations that support them. The Peer-reviewed articles support and embody the scientific method. It is therefore important to agree on the standards of ethical behavior expected of all parties involved in the act of publishing: authors, journal editors, peer reviewers, publishers and the society of journals owned or sponsored. The Lattice Science Publication (LSP) strictly adheres to the ethics and policies of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) . Compliance with publication ethics ensures the integrity of scientific publishing and confidence in published articles. Therefore, Academic Journals expects all authors to adhere to ethical requirements in the preparation of their manuscript.

Plagiarism

The Merriam Webster Online dictionary defines plagiarizing as:

To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own
Use (another’s production) without crediting the source
To commit literary theft
present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

Academic Journals considers plagiarism a serious offense. Academic Journals is committed to eliminating manuscripts with possible cases of plagiarism from its review and publication process. Academic Journals uses the iThenticate plagiarism detection application to check each manuscript for possible cases of plagiarism. Plagiarism check is the first step in the manuscript review process. Manuscripts that are found to contain unacceptable level of similarity with other published works are immediately rejected. Please see review process below.

Submitted manuscripts should be the original works of the author(s). Academic Journals will follow COPE guideline in suspected cases of plagiarism.

Duplicate submission

Duplicate submission is a situation whereby an author submits the same or similar manuscripts to two different journals at the same time either within Academic Journals or any other publisher. This includes the submission of manuscripts derived from the same data in such a manner that there are no substantial differences in the manuscripts. Duplicate submission also includes the submission of the same/similar manuscript in different languages to different journals.

Fabrication and Falsification of Data

It is unethical to fabricate, manipulate or falsify data in a manuscript. Academic Journals is by COPE guidelines in dealing with suspected cases of data fabrication and falsification.

Citations Manipulation

A manuscript should contain only relevant citations. Inclusion of citations that are not relevant to the work is strongly discouraged. Similarly, using irrelevant self-citation to increase one’s citation is unethical.