Fasola, A.O.

English

Nigerian Dental Journal

3Nig Dent J Vol 27 No. 1 Jan. - June 2019EDITORIALEthical Issues in the Publication of Scientific ArticlesEthics originates from the word “ethikos” in Ancient 1Greek . The word ethikos means “relating to one's character”. Ethics can be defined as an aspect of philosophy that includes“ systematizing, defending, and recommending the concepts of right and wrong 2behaviour” . Ethics attempts to address the issues of human morality by stating the theories of right and 2wrong, good and evil and vice, justice and crime . The concept of ethics operates in every aspect of life.Publication ethics are the standards that have been set up to guarantee outstanding scientific papers, public trust in the science of research and appropriate recognition for the innovative work of the 3authors . They are the guidelines of behaviours established when any form of scientific papers is to be published. These rules and regulations safeguard the intellectual ideas and prevent the usage of the work of another author without appropriate 3recognition . Publication and research ethics involves the act of recognition of the theories of right and wrong conduct in performance of a scientific research experiment. Publications enable the professionals in the same field and the outside community to have current information on new ideas and innovations therefore the knowledge and adherence to ethical guidelines is very paramount when conducting a scientific research.The process of manuscript preparation consists of setting up of the study design, collection and analysis of the data and writing up of the manuscript and 4ultimately the submission of the manuscript . In the process of preparation of a manuscript for submission to a scientific journal, there are many unethical habits that authors may employ to ensure the acceptance of their manuscripts. These habits albeit may be deliberate or inadvertent, it is important that authors should have a good knowledge of publication ethics to assist them to submit authentic manuscripts with good ethical practices. Adherence to publication ethics speeds up the publication cycle and increases the chances of acceptance of a manuscript.The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is an international non-profit organisation for editors and publishers of peer-reviewed journals that provide the “code of conduct” and “best practice guidelines” that define publication ethics and guides editors on how to deal with issues of research and publication 5,6misconduct . The mission of COPE is to educate and support editors, publishers and those involved in publication ethics with the goal of advancing the process of publishing in a direction where ethical 5,6practices become the standard .COPE was established in founded in 1997 by a little assembly of editors of medical journals in the United Kingdom. Currently the membership of COPE is over 13,000  across the globe  from all academic 6,7endeavours .  COPE  has linkages with the Council of Science Editors, the European Association of Science Editors, the International Society of Managing and Technical Editors, the World Association of Medical Editor, Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, Directory of Open Access Journals, STM, and the Association of Learned and 6,7Professional Society Publishers . The types of publication misconduct are:Non adherence to ethical guidelinesIt is mandatory that before any research is done by investigators, an ethical approval should be obtained by the investigators. It is particularly important especially when a clinical trial is to be done. Even in cases of manuscripts that involve only the exploration of the case files of participants, an exemption can be obtained from the Ethics review committee. The authors should be aware of the rules and regulations in their respective countries and stick to the rules. The informed consent procedure should be appropriately obtained by the researchers. It is very important stage of any research. The procedure should be fully understood by the participants and there must not be any form of manipulation or coercion, The authors should be ethically compliant by studying the guidelines provided by the International Conference on Harmonization Good Clinical Practice and the tenets of the Declaration of 9,10Helsinki. . In some cases, the informed consent procedure should be recorded by audiovisual means. Confidentiality is key to a successful ethical research. The identity of the patient must be protected and all the data must be passworded. In some cases, the editorial board of journals might request for a documented proof of the consent form.4Nig Dent J Vol 27 No. 1 Jan. - June 2019Research fraudThis refers to publications that state results and make conclusions from data that are not produced in the study. It may be in form of data fabrication or data 8falsification . In data fabrication, no study was done but the researchers just made up the figures. In data falsification, the researcher performed the study but manipulated the data. Statistical analysis can be manipulated; it is important that a journal should have a statistician that can be consulted.  Also, in some cases, pictures can be manipulated or modified 8to deceive reviewers and authors . In cases were the authors and reviewers are suspicious they might demand for the raw data sheets to confirm and 8alleviate the suspicion .PlagiarismThis is one of the commonest form of research 8misconduct .This is the act of using the ideas and the work of other researchers without giving due recognition to them. It might be in the form of copying phrases, sentences from another researcher's work or even from one's work that had been published without citing the source of the 8information . Plagiarism is the use of a published work in one's own publication without acknowledging the source and presenting it as one's original work. 5,7COPE classified plagiarism into two ; clear plagiarism where large aspects of another person's work was copied and b) minor copying where short phrases were copied without acknowledging the source. Also, authors should recognize the fact that self- plagiarism can also occur where an author utilizes the same text used in previously published works in freshly submitted manuscripts without citation of a previous work.  The use of plagiarism checkers assist editors to detect plagiarism.Multiple/Simultaneous SubmissionThis is the act of submitting a manuscript to many 8scientific journals at the same time for assessment . Authors usually do this in order to increase the chances of acceptance of the article. Also, some submit the article to another journal if there is a delay in the processing of the article. Authors should always wait for a response from the first journal before submitting to another journal. The authors can ask for a withdrawal of the article if they can no longer wait 8for a decision from the first journal . The act of multiple submissions can cause a lot of harm to the integrity of journals when articles are published in more than one journal.  To prevent multiple submissions, journals usually request from the authors to declare that the manuscript has not be submitted to another journal for assessment. However, it should be noted that if a paper has been submitted for a scientific conference, it can still be 8submitted for publication in a scientific journal .Duplication of PublicationThis is the act of submission of a new article having the same hypotheses, data, discussion points, and/or 8conclusions as a previously published manuscript . It is similar to plagiarism, but instead of copying phrases verbatim, the same data, images, and study 8hypothesis are replicated in another paper .Improper author contribution/attributionFor good ethical conduct, all the authors that are listed in a publication must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has described three basic 11criteria that must be met to be qualified as an authora. “Substantial contribution to the conduct of study including its conception and design, data acquisition, statistical analysis, and interpretation.b. Drafting or revising the article for intellectual content.c. Approval of the final version.”The listing of the orders of the authors usually causes 8a lot of discontentment amongst the authors . This is not surprising as the listing of authors counts in the scoring of publications for promotion in some universities and the selection for award of grants. It is important that authors should meet to discuss the listing of the order of authorship before the commencement of a study. There are major types of 8,11Authorship misconduct .a) Ghost authorship: Ghost authors are people who contribute substantially in the development of the paper but are not given authorship or acknowledgment in the published paper.b) Gift authorship: Gift authors are people who did not make significant contribution to the research but were included in the list of coauthors simply due to an affiliation to an institute where the research was conducted.c) Guest authorship: Guest authorship is usually provided to individuals whose presence as a coauthor significantly improves the chances of acceptance of the manuscript.5Nig Dent J Vol 27 No. 1 Jan. - June 2019Self citationThis is an act of citing one's own published work in subsequent publications even though they are out of 8context to the research being reported . Many authors do these because the number of times a paper is cited is used to calculate metrics such as G- and H-index, which are used for academic 8promotions in some institutions .Conflicts of InterestThe term “conflict of interest (COI) in research” refers to situations in which financial or other personal considerations may compromise, or have the appearance of compromising an investigator's professional judgment in conducting or reporting a 12research .A conflict of interest is a situation in which one's duties and one's self-interest conflict in a way that has a significant chance of corrupting one's perceptions, motivations, actions, passions,values, 12and/or judgments . Having conflicts of interest is not considered unethical, however, failure to disclose such hidden interests severely jeopardize the 8, 12outcomes reported in the paper . Once disclosed, it is the discretion of the readers to determine the influence of the conflicts of interest on the 8conclusions of the paper . The ICMJE has produced a common form to show any conflict of interest that has to be signed by every co-author and has to be 8attached to the manuscript on submission .Penalties for Publication MisconductCOPE has recommended the steps to follow immediately any of forms of publication misconduct 8is detected . The committee advocated that in the first instance, the editorial board should get in touch with the authors and disclose to them about the issue of misconduct. The next stage will depend on the 8response of the authors . If the authors admit their error, the manuscript is turned down and the headship of the author's organization is notified. In cases of published articles, the authors are given the chance to admit their offence in form of an erratum in 8the journal . However, if the misconduct is major, the editor has 13the right to retract the publication . The authors can be blacklisted by the journal and information is communicated to COPE so that all member journals are notified. If authors deny their misconduct, appropriate actions will be taken according to COPE guidelines.ConclusionThere is no doubt that there are many forms of publication misconduct that authors can commit on purpose or by mistake. It is therefore very important that authors should be aware of this to save them from embarrassment in the academic community or the public at large.AcknowledgementI acknowledge the use of the article titled “Publication Ethics” authored by Sabysachi Sengupta and Santosh G Hanavar (Reference number 8) published in the 2017 June Edition of the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology as a major resource material where a substantial portion of this editorial piece was extracted.References1. https://www.studocu.com/in/document/uni-versity-of-calicut/management-concept-and-business-ethics/what-is-ethics/31189901 Accessed April 12, 20182. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy “Ethics”. Archived from the original on January 18, 2018. Retrieved from 7, 2012.3. https://psychologydictionary.org/publication-ethics/ Accessed May 4, 20184. Agrawal R. Publication ethics: An important key for a successful and effective publication. Indian J PatholMicrobiol 2021;64:3-55. COPE. Code of conduct and best practice guidelines for journal editors. Available from: http://publicationethics.org/files/Codeofconduct-forjournaleditors1.pdf October 6, 2018.6. http://www.publicationethics.org Accessed on  June 7, 2017.7. Wager E. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): Objectives and achievements 1997-2012. Presse Med. 2012;41(9 Pt 1):861–866.8. Sengupta  S,Honavar  SG.  Pub l ica t ion  Ethics.Indian J Ophthalmol. 2017 Jun; 65(6): 429–432.9. https://www.ich.org/fileadmin/Public_Web_Site-/ ICH_Products /Guide l ines /Ef f icacy /E6/E  6_R1_Guideline.pdfAccessed on June 7, 2017.   10. Carlson RV, Boyd KM, Webb DJ. The revision of the Declaration of Helsinki: Past,  p r e s e n t  a n d  future. Br J ClinPharmacol. 2004;57:695–713.6Nig Dent J Vol 27 No. 1 Jan. - June 201911. Available from: http://www.icmje.org/recom-mendations/browse/roles-and responsibilities/ defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contribu-tors.htmlAccessed on June 7, 2017. 12. Das KK, Vallabha T, Ray J, Murthy PS. Conflict of interest-serious issue on publication ethics for Indian medical journals. J Nepal Med Assoc 2013;52:357-360.13. Wager E, Barbour V, Yentis S, Kleinert S. Retractions: Guidance from the Committee on publication ethics. Croat Med J 2009;50:532-535 Prof AO Fasola Editor-in-Chief

Ethical Issues in the Publication of Scientific Articles

https://nigeriandentaljournal.ng/index.php/ndj/article/download/92/88

Ethical Issues in the Publication of Scientific Articles

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Nigerian Dental Journal