Maintaining ethics in publication directly reflects the quality of the Journal. Scholars Literature follows the guidelines provided by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to deal with the misconduct in the publication process.
Authorship & Author Responsibilities
Author should hold the ethical responsible for the publication.
The manuscript submitted for the publication by the author should not be published anywhere else partially or fully. Author should maintain the complete transparency while submission to avoid any issues related.
Data/content provided in the article should not be manipulated from other sources.
Scholars Literature will not encourage the duplicate submissions and plagiarism as our journals screen the plagiarism before moving the article to review process.
If there is any misconduct in the article before the publication, journal has a right to carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines and can take immediate action on the article.
If the article has been already published elsewhere, depending on the severity of the situation it will be replaced with erratum, in some cases retraction of the article will be occurred and same will be informed to the author’s institution.
Author is advised to submit the compliance with ethical standards before submission and also should declare the conflicts of interest.
Authors and Reviewers are requested to maintain the confidentiality of the papers submitted as most of the Journals follow double blind peer-review process where the authirs and reviewers’ identity will not be revealed to avoid the bias.Authors should hold the ethical responsibility for the publication of their manuscript.
Copyright & License Agreements
Scholars Literature publishes articles in open access model and we follow Budapest Open Access Initiative(BOAI) model.
Open access, has so far been limited to small portions of the journal literature. But even in these limited collections, scholars literature shows that open access is economically feasible, that it gives readers extraordinary power to find and make use of relevant literature, and that it gives authors and their works vast and measurable new visibility, readership, and impact. Authors retains the rights of articles published.
Competing Interests
In the interests of transparency and to help readers form their own judgements of potential bias, the article requires authors to declare any competing financial and/or non-financial interests in relation to the work described. The corresponding author is responsible for submitting a competing interests' statement on behalf of all authors of the paper
For the purposes of this policy, competing interests are defined as financial and non-financial interests that could directly undermine, or be perceived to undermine the objectivity, integrity and value of a publication, through a potential influence on the judgments and actions of authors with regard to objective data presentation, analysis and interpretation.
Financial competing interests include any of the following:
Funding: Research support by organizations that may gain or lose financially through this publication. A specific role for the funder is the conceptualization, design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript, should be disclosed.
Employment: Recent or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through this publication.
Personal financial interests: Stocks or shares in companies that may gain or lose financially through publication; consultation fees or other for remuneration from organizations that may gain or lose financially; patents or patent applications filed by the authors or their institutions whose value may be affected by publication. For patents and patent applications, disclosure of the following information is requested: patent applicant (whether author or institution), name of inventor, application number, status of application, specific aspect of manuscript covered in patent application.
Non-financial competing interests: Non-financial competing interests can take different forms, including personal or professional relations with organizations and individuals. We would encourage authors and referees to declare any unpaid roles or relationships that might have a bearing on the publication process. Examples of non-financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):
Overlapping Publication
Authors should not submit the same manuscript, in the same or different languages, simultaneously to more than one journal. The rationale for this standard is the potential for disagreement when two journals claim the right to publish a manuscript that has been submitted simultaneously to more than one journal, and the possibility that two or more journals will unknowingly and unnecessarily undertake the work of peer review, edit the same manuscript, and publish the same article.
Duplicate publication is publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published, without clear, visible reference to the previous publication. Prior publication may include release of information in the public domain
Confidentiality & Anonymity
Confidentiality
Maintaining confidentiality of information collected from research participants means that only the investigator or individuals of the research team can identify the responses of individual subjects; however, the researchers must make every effort to prevent anyone outside of the project from connecting individual subjects with their responses.
Anonymity
Providing anonymity of information collected from research participants means that either the project does not collect identifying information of individual subjects (e.g., name, address, Email address, etc.), or the project cannot link individual responses with participants’ identities. A study should not to collect identifying information of research participants unless it is essential to the study related rules.
Corrections & Retraction
Honest errors are a part of science and publishing and require publication of a correction when they are detected. Authors should inform the journal’s Production Editor of any errors of fact they have noticed (or have been informed of) in their article once published. Corrections are made at the journal’s discretion. The correction procedure depends on the publication stage of the article, but in all circumstances a correction notice is published as soon as possible:
Retractions
Retractions are considered by journal editors in cases of evidence of unreliable data or findings, plagiarism, duplicate publication, and unethical research. It may be considered an expression of concern notice if an article is under investigation. The retraction procedure depends on the publication stage of the article
Obligation to Register Clinical Trials
The purpose of clinical trial registration is to prevent selective publication and selective reporting of research outcomes, to prevent unnecessary duplication of research effort, to help patients and the public know what trials are planned or ongoing into which they might want to enroll, and to help give ethics review boards considering approval of new studies a view of similar work and data relevant to the research they are considering. Retrospective registration, for example at the time of manuscript submission, meets none of these purposes. Those purposes apply also to research with alternative designs, for example observational studies.
Secondary data analyses of primary (parent) clinical trials should not be registered as separate clinical trials, but instead should reference the trial registration number of the primary trial.
Three similar definitions of a “clinical trial” are provided below. If your study meets any one of these definitions, the trial should be registered. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) requires registration for “applicable clinical trials” defined as follows
For any trials of drugs and biologics: controlled clinical investigations, other than Phase I investigations, of a product subject to FDA regulation.
For trials of biomedical devices: controlled trials with health outcomes of devices subject to FDA regulation, other than small feasibility studies, and pediatric post-market surveillance. Registering Clinical Trials
The ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) definition of a clinical trial includes: • Any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes.
The NIH defines a clinical trial as • A prospective biomedical or behavioral research study of human subjects that is designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions (drugs, treatments, devices, or new ways of using known drugs, treatments, or devices).
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition.
Editorial process involves strict measures to prevent plagiarism, redundancy of manuscripts, multiple submissions, fabrication and falsification of data
If manuscripts that are found to have been plagiarized from other manuscripts (or) previously published literature (or)internet sources, whether published or unpublished, will be considered as plagiarism.
Falsification includes the manipulating research materials, equipment, processes, changing, and selective omission/deletion/suppression of conflicting data without scientific or statistical justification.
Types of Plagiarism
Complete Plagiarism
Complete plagiarism is the most severe form of plagiarism where a researcher takes a manuscript or study that someone else created, and submits it under his or her name.
Source-based Plagiarism
When a researcher references a source that is incorrect or does not exist, it is a misleading citation. Plagiarism also occurs when a researcher uses a secondary source of data or information, but only cites the primary source of information.
Finally, data fabrication and falsification are also forms of plagiarism. Data fabrication is the making up of data and research findings, while data falsification involves changing or omitting data to give a false impression.
Self Plagiarism
Self-plagiarism or duplication, happens when an author reuses significant portions of his or her previously published work without attribution. Thus, this type of plagiarism is most likely to involve published researchers, rather than university students.
Paraphrasing plagiarism
It involves the use of someone else’s writing with some minor changes in the sentences and using it as one’s own. Even if the words differ, the original idea remains the same and plagiarism occurs.
Mosaic Plagiarism
Mosaic plagiarism may be more difficult to detect because it interlays someone else’s phrases or text within its own research. It is also known as patchwork plagiarism and it is intentional and dishonest.
Accidental Plagiarism
Whether intended or unintended, there is no excuse for plagiarism and the consequences are often the same. However, plagiarism may be accidental if it occurred because of neglect, mistake, or unintentional paraphrasing. Students are likely to commit accidental plagiarism, so universities should stress on the importance of education about this form of plagiarism.
Due Credit
Discussion of unpublished work: Manuscripts are sent out for review on the condition that any unpublished data cited within are properly credited with appropriate permission been sought. Where licensed data are cited, authors must include submission a written assurance that they are complying with originators' data-licensing agreements. Referees are encouraged to be alert to the use of appropriated unpublished data from databases or from any other source, and to inform the editor of any concern they may have.
Discussion of published work
When discussing the published work of others, authors must properly describe the contribution of the earlier work. Both intellectual contributions and technical developments must be acknowledged as such and appropriately cited