Understanding the boundaries in scientific research and publishing is a key step in making sure your work gets off to the best start. Scientific misconduct and breach of publishing ethics can take different forms, and be committed knowingly or unknowingly. Examples of misconduct and breaches include:
● Authorship disputes – deliberately misrepresenting a scientist’s relationship with published work.
● Competing interests – not disclosing to a journal that you have a direct or indirect conflict that prevents you from being unbiased.
● Plagiarism – passing off another’s work or idea as your own.
● Simultaneous submission – submitting a paper to more than one publication at the same time.
● Research fraud – including fabrication (making up research data) and falsification (manipulating research data, tables or images).
● Salami slicing – the ‘slicing-up’ of research that would form one meaningful paper into several different papers.
Avoid:
1. Fabrication: making up research data.
2. Falsification: manipulation of existing research data.
3. Plagiarism: previous work is taken and passed off as one's own.
4. Multiple publications of the same work, never submit your manuscript to more than one journal at a time.
Responsibilities of authors
By submitting a manuscript to Journal of Veterinary Medical Research, the author(s) warrant that the manuscript is their own, original work and that it has neither been published previously nor is currently being considered for publication elsewhere. They also warrant that the sources of any ideas and/or words in the manuscript that are not their own have been properly attributed through appropriate citations and/or quotes. An author should not normally publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in multiple journals or publication venues. Such redundant publication is generally considered to constitute unethical publishing behavior, and if discovered may result in a manuscript under consideration being rejected, or a published article being retracted.
Responsibilities of reviewers
Reviewers of Journal of Veterinary Medical Research are free to decline invitations to review particular manuscripts at their discretion. Reviewers who have accepted manuscript assignments are normally expected to submit their reviews within three weeks (20 days). They should recuse themselves from the assignment if it becomes apparent to them at any stage that they do not possess the required expertise to perform the review, or that they may have a potential conflict of interest in performing the review (e.g., one resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, institutions, or companies associated with the manuscript). Privileged information or ideas obtained by reviewers through the peer review process must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents, and must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by Journal of Veterinary Medical Research Editor. When conducting their reviews, reviewers are asked to do so as objectively as possible. They are encouraged to express their views clearly, explaining, and justifying all recommendations made. They should always attempt to provide detailed and constructive feedback to assist the author(s) in improving their work, even if the manuscript is, in their opinion, not publishable. Reviewers should identify in their reviews relevant published work that has not been cited by the author(s), together with any instances in which proper attribution of sources has not been provided.
Responsibilities of editors
JVMR has ultimate responsibility for deciding if a manuscript submitted to JVMR should be published, and in doing so is guided by the journal's policies as determined by JVMR editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The Editor may consult with the Associate Editor and other members of the editorial team, as well as with reviewers, in making publication decisions. The editors will evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to the race, color, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the author(s). They will not disclose any information about a manuscript under consideration to anyone other than the author(s), reviewers and potential reviewers, and in some instances JVMR editorial board members, as appropriate. Additionally, the editors will make every effort to ensure the integrity of the blind review process by not revealing the identity of the author(s) of a manuscript to the reviewers of that manuscript, and vice versa.
Open Access Policy:
All articles published by Journal of Veterinary Medical Research are made freely and permanently accessible online. The articles in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Research are open access articles licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. Open access publication benefits the scientific community by making results of research immediately and freely available to all.