Publishing Ethics

Publication  Morals

Journals  of Damascus University believe that  giving importance to the moral side is a duty and a right  to ensure instructional principles and behavior rules for the best practices which the editors of the scientific Journals take care of. In addition, taking all the necessary procedures against the wrong practices in the publication domain ensures to keep the values and higher standards of scientific publication. So, malpractices prevention in publication ,such as impersonating and undeclared reprinting , is one of the responsibility of the administration and the Journal Editorial   Body. Therefore ,  strict procedures should be taken against  any behavior which is not committed to the  accredited publication morals. This requires the necessity of explaining the most important points in this respect:

  1. Responsibilities of Journal Directorates and head editors.

Damascus University Editorial   Body consists of specialized people in their domain .The journal directorate takes the responsibility of announcing the names of the editorial   body staff, their belongingness and information of communicating with them on the journal website and supervise their work. The following are the responsibilities and duties of the Editor:

Publication Decisions:

  1. The journal editor is in charge of taking responsibility in the final action related to publication process and basic or partial revision-acceptance or rejection of the research.
  2. The decision of publication or non publication is based on referees' reports and notes, the scientific value of the research, its originality, clarity and its relevance with the Journal specialization.
  3. The editor may need to counsel other editors and specialists referees to make decisions regarding the offered researches.
  4. The editor takes into consideration matters related to defamation, violation of copyrights and plagiarism .The manager of the journals should be informed to take strict procedures.

Confidentiality     

  1. The editor is committed with the editorial  body to keep everything secret related to any information regarding the researches under evaluation .The research is informed about the evaluation result formally. They tell nothing about the referees' attitudes even after the publication decision except things related to impersonating, pilgrimage against which strict legal measures should be taken.
  2. Articles are revised initially by the The editor may refuse the offered research  before choosing the referees ,either because the research is not related to  the journals domain or the research is with low-quality which is not promoted to be evaluated.
  3. Articles which are considered qualified are sent to three specialized referees in the domain. Referees should not be known to each other and they have to decide whether the research is valid for publication as it is ,if it needs minor or major modifications to be published, or it is not valid for publication at all
  4. Referees send their reports to the editor as well as the researcher(or researchers)to comment on and do the necessary modifications .
  5. The researcher is informed formally in case of rejection of the research .
  6. The process of evaluation should be performed within two months maximum. Accepted articles are usually published within four months, the next volume.

Peer-review

All articles submitted to journals for publication are subject to a double-blind research review process. Articles are initially reviewed by the editor-in-chief. The editor-in-chief may reject the article submitted before selecting the specialized arbitrators, either because it is not related to the scope and topics of the journals, or because it is of such low quality that it does not rise to arbitration at all. Articles deemed eligible for review are sent to three reviewers who have experience in the field of the submitted material. The reviewers for the article must be unknown to each other. It also asks them to decide whether the article is publishable as is, publishable with minor changes, drastic changes, or not publish at all. The referees send their reports to the editor-in-chief and send them to the researcher (or researchers) for comment and making the required modifications. The researcher (or researchers) shall be notified in an official manner if the research is not accepted for publication. The judging process is completed within two months at the most, and accepted articles are usually published within four months and mostly in the next issue of the journal.

Transparent Refereeing  Process

  1. The journal editor should evaluate the articles regardless of the authors' ethnical  background, their gender, religious beliefs, their nationality or their intellectual attitudes.
  2. The decision of the editor to accept or refuse the presented article for publication should be related to the originality of the research ,its clarity, and connection with the aims and the domain of the journal specialization.
  3. The editor should give the authors the possibility of nominating referees or their request not to have certain referees to revise their papers.

 

Electronic Archive  

The principle of the journals makes sure that the published researches are put according to the issuing  date  to the journals within numbers published  on the electronic site of the directorate and they are available to the public. In addition, all the published materials are stored electronically in the Journal website within Damascus University Size.

 

 Announcement  ,academic Integrity  and conflicts of interests.

  1. The editor and the staff of the editorial  body should not use the unpublished materials which were discovered in the presented paper for their private research purposes without handwritten agreement from the researcher.
  2. The Confidentiality  of the invented ideas or the acquired data should be strictly kept in the process of revising researches and they should not be used for personal benefit of the editor or any of the member of the editorial   
  3. The editor should ask referees to reveal any conflicts of interests when accepting to verify a work and when sending the reports of evaluation. The editor should ask the referees to refuse participation in evaluation if they were in a position which did not allow them to conduct unbiased revision( such as relatives , the referee is the supervisor of the research as basic or participant or the research was conducted in a laboratory supervised by the referee) .
  4. The sent researches for evaluation are dealt with, in which one of the researchers  at least participated in publishing researches  with the editor or one of the members of the editorial body. as original researches that submit to evaluation but under the supervision of  the journal principal in cooperation with the editorial   body members except the one who participated in the previous researches.
  5. In the case of the editor's desire or any of the publishing staff in the journal or depositing publication for one of their students in higher studies , the journal principal supervise the referee process and name the referees in cooperation with an editorial   member with experience and specialization.
  6. The journal principle is not allowed to publish in any of the journals related to Damascus university. In case any of higher students offered to publish, he/she is not allowed to see the names of the referee committee.
  7. The editor should ask research presenters to reveal any conflicts of interest and correcting in case of discovering them after publication.

 

Procedures of dealing with wrong practices in publication

  1. The editor inform immediately about any wrong behavior discovered pre, during or post publication in case one of the editorial  staff or referees know about that.
  2. Anyone informing about wrong practices should provide evidence and enough details.
  3. After revealing such behavior , the journal principal and the editor began immediate detection and taking the claims seriously until they take decision based on clear evidence.
  4. Detections about wrong practices can be conducted even if they are discovered after a long period of publication.
  5. If it is proved that there is a violation of publication morals , the journal principal in line with the editor inform the researcher or researchers about the matter to give them a  chance to reply to the complaints or the claims.
  6. If the wrong behavior is minor, the journal principal solves the matter internally without resorting to take legal procedures according to the accredited  
  7. If the wrong behavior is serious ,the journal principal in cooperation with the editor inform university  deputy of scientific affairs and scientific research to conduct further detections and evaluate the extent of danger of misbehavior. Then, legal procedures are followed according to the accredited methods in Damascus University.

 

  1. The researcher responsibility

 

Commitment to accredited publication standards in Damascus University:

  1. Researchers should stick to the standards and guidelines specified by the journal and stick to the accredited standards and principles.
  2. Researchers should affirm that they are committed to the authoring standards of the journal.
  3. The researcher should provide a detailed description of the research and an adequate explanation by using scientific method, moving away from unsuitable lengthening and depending on  the appropriate rules for quotation.
  4. Researchers should include details and enough references within the presented research according to the guide of writing the accredited scientific research in the Journals and Damascus University.

 

The responsible authoring behavior

  1. Researchers should avoid all types of inappropriate practices in publication such as impersonating ,rigging, plagiarism
  2. Researchers should avoid inappropriate practices by sending the same research to more than one journal simultaneously.
  3. Researchers may be asked to offer the raw material of their work with the research paper to be refereed, and they should be ready to make information available to readers , if required.
  4. Researchers should provide original researches and mention the contributions of others. In addition, the researcher should mention the researches which have effect in identifying the presented research nature.
  5. Researchers provide the required formats of them and underwrite the correctness of the included information.
  6. The researcher with whom the correspondences are conducted should get written permission from all participant researchers who participated in the work . If the researcher is a student of higher studies ,he/she should provide agreement letter from the supervisors on his dissertation.
  7. If the researcher discovers a disastrous error in his/her published work ,he/she should inform the editor to delete the error or correct it.

Announcement and conflict of interests

 Researchers should reveal their funding resources and the place of conducting the research whether it is in Damascus university or other ones or any other research centre to take this information into consideration when choosing the referees.

  1. If there are any possible conflicts of interest during or after the process of research revision ,researchers should inform about that to the editor immediately, who in turn informs the journals principal who will take the necessary procedures.

 

  1. Referees' responsibility

 

The responsible Refereeing  Behaviour

  1. Referees are not supposed to examine the researches which are outside their specialization.
  2. When the research does not belong to the field of specialization of the referee or he is not ready to review the presented research ,he should inform the editor and withdraw from the refereeing process.
  3. Referees should not use any information or data which they got from the researches they refereed for their personal interest.
  4. Referees should not accept to referee the researches in which they have interest conflict as a result of competitive or cooperative relationship with the researcher (researchers)
  5. Referees should inform the editor about any similarity or great overlap between the refereed research and any other published work they know. The editor in turn informs the journal principal who takes the necessary procedures.

Confidentiality  and Objectivity

 

  1. All referees who revise the articles on behalf of the journal should understand and stick to the secret standards related to the process of research revision.
  2. Referees should deal with the researches they receive as secret documents and they should not reveal or discuss anything about them with others except what the editor permits or the journals
  3. Referees should conduct the referring process objectively and they should not direct any personal criticism to the researcher
  4. Referees should express their point of view with clarity and honesty and mention their supportive arguments
  5. Referees' names and their belonging should be kept in secure data base which is in line with data protection standards.