The Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) www.publicationethics.org is a large worldwide organization open to everyone and especially editors and publishers of journals and books. Its ethical standards for editors, journals, reviewers, and authors are considered the standard in the world. Many or most academic journals state that by submitting an article, the authors agree that they have followed the COPE standards, and that any issues are resolved according to them. Therefore it is essential that an author be familiar with them, and every author should read them in full (see the attachment below). Following them is the key to your article being publishable at all. (That is, your article would not be rejected by any and every journal no matter how good your topic or your English is.)

The statements in the standards are general and do not focus on the details of how some things would be carried out in individual cases. Some of the most important points are:

1) Work is submitted to one journal at a time, is original by the author(s), and has never before been published in any language (section 4.1).

Tips:

Among other things, this means that a submitted work should be either rejected by the journal or withdrawn by the author (see section 8.2) in writing before it is submitted anywhere else (that’s also why choosing target journals is important). And this means that if anything in the article has already been published in another language, it is necessary to ask the journal (in advance) whether or not this is considered “prior use” under their policies. Journals vary in how they relate to this, but it is essential to disclose that some or all of the work discussed in the article has already been published in another language, or it will be considered the equivalent of plagiarism.

 2) If there will be more than one author, the definition of who is (and who is not) an author should be applied, and acknowledgments should be made to others whose help was essential but do not meet the criteria for an author (section 6).

Tips:

This is a hot issue for obvious reasons. What each person contributes to the research and article may change from what was originally planned (but it is important to make a plan, then update it if necessary). Many journals now require a statement signed by all authors of exactly what their contributions to the article were, their agreement to the order in which the authors are listed, and that all authors have approved the final version.

Being proactive can prevent a good research project from being not publishable. And it’s important because as the COPE standards point out, “The research literature serves as a record not only of what has been discovered but also of who made the discovery.”

Authors should also be clear and accurate about their university affiliation in relation to the work being submitted. Secondary affiliations do not always show up on Scopus or Web of Science, although they may--if it is important in your situation, check with TSU's Publication Support office (in the Research Library). Contact the Center for Academic Writing for information on the section about publication in TSU’s Code of Ethics, which deals mainly with affiliation. 

In recent years, there has been a trend in some fields to have large numbers of co-authors, sometimes as many as 150 for one article. Also there has been a trend toward co-authors who are in different universities, often in different countries around the world. These collaborations can be very good for science and for the scientist; at the same time, the individual co-author should be sure to know what his or her responsibilities are, how everything is to work appropriately, and how communication will be clear. In some cases, authors who are more than about the 7th co-author may not have their co-authorship count in university and other statistics and rankings.

 3) If the research involves humans or animals, the appropriate standards for human and animal subjects must be followed and documented. In general, this involves approval of the research plan by an institutional research ethics review board (section 9).

Tips:

No journal will risk publishing research that could be considered exploitative, especially of what is called vulnerable populations: children, the elderly, pregnant women, and prisoners, but also of anyone, or unduly cruel to animals. With humans, informed consent and confidentiality are the most key elements.

The place to begin is with the journal: determine what it says in the instructions about what the standard is that is to be followed. If it requires documentation that an institutional research ethics committee for human and animal subjects has approved the research plan, determine whether you have access to one; if you do not, inquire with the journal in advance what standards should be met and how they should be documented, if it is not indicated. This also involves saving all your notes and records until some years after publication. 

 4) Authors should not copy references from other publications if they have not read the cited work (section 2.7), and, The primary literature should be cited where possible (section 4.3). Other authors' words should never be used unless it is done as a direct quotation (with citation); otherwise they must be fairly and accurately paraphrased (with citation).

Tips:

This means reading all of something that will be used and cited in the work, and that if at all possible it should be the original source of the information (not something that is about what someone said, or a translation of what someone wrote). Secondary sources can be used if the original is really unavailable, but they are considered to make the article weaker. English skills are important in paraphrasing.

When the article is submitted, it will probably be checked by duplication detection software--a computer program that finds any content, even phrases, that has been published. If the percentage of it in the article is over a certain, low amount, the article will be unsubmitted. This can happen when authors are not careful enough about paraphrasing the work of others in the literature review and conclusiions..

See the COPE guidelines here in the attachment.