Policy of Screening for Plagiarism and Publication Ethics

A-) Policy of Screening for Plagiarism

All full text papers submitted to the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology are screened for plagiarism using plagiarism detection tools. The World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology immediately rejects papers leading to plagiarism or self-plagiarism.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of others’ published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission, and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source. The intent and effect of plagiarism is to mislead the reader as to the contributions of the plagiarizer. This applies whether the ideas or words are taken from abstracts, research grant applications, Institutional Review Board applications, or unpublished or published manuscripts in any publication format. Plagiarism is scientific misconduct and should be addressed as such. Self-plagiarism refers to the practice of an author using portions of their previous writings on the same topic in another of their publications, without specifically citing it formally in quotes. This practice is widespread and sometimes unintentional, as there are only so many ways to say the same thing on many occasions, particularly when writing the methods section of an article. Although this usually violates the copyright that has been assigned to the publisher, there is no consensus as to whether this is a form of scientific misconduct, or how many of one’s own words one can sue before it is truly “plagiarism.” Probably for this reason selfplagiarism is not regarded in the same light as plagiarism of ideas and words of other individuals. If journals have developed a policy on this matter, it should be clearly stated for authors. Direct plagiarism is the plagiarism of the text. Mosaic plagiarism is the borrowing of ideas and opinions from an original source and a few verbatim words or phrases without crediting the author.

B-) Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Conformance to standards of ethical behavior is therefore expected of all parties involved: Authors, Editors, Reviewers, and the Publisher.

Ethical guidelines for journal publication

The World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology is committed to ensuring ethics in publication and quality of articles. The World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology follows the Code of Conduct as defined by the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE). These ethics include the editor following certain rules on relations with readers, authors, and reviewers as well as procedures for handling complaints.

Conformance to standards of ethical behavior is therefore expected of all parties involved: Authors, Editors, Reviewers, and the Publisher. In particular,

Authors

Authors should present an objective discussion of the significance of research work as well as sufficient details and references. Authors should maintain accurate records of data associated with their submitted manuscript, and supply or provide access to these data, on reasonable request. Authors guarantee that all data used in the article are real and authentic. Where appropriate and where allowed by employer, funding body and others who might have an interest, authors should deposit data in a suitable repository or storage location, for sharing and further use by others. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable. The authors should ensure that their work is entirely original, and if the work and/or words of others have been used, this fact has been appropriately acknowledged. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable. Authors should not submit articles describing essentially the same research to more than one journal. Authors should acknowledge the financial support and help/guidance of others if appropriate. Authors should provide the disclaimer if appropriate. All coauthors should significantly contribute to the research. The corresponding author should ensure that there is a full consensus of all coauthors in approving the final version of the paper and its submission for publication. Authors are obliged to participate in peer review process. Authors should notify promptly the editor if a significant error in their publication is identified, and cooperate with the editor to publish an erratum, addendum, corrigendum notice, or to re-tract the paper, where it is deemed necessary.

Editors

Editors have complete responsibility and authority to accept/reject a manuscript. Editors should evaluate manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic merit. Editors act in a balanced, objective and fair way while carrying out their expected duties, without dis-crimination on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors. Editors accept the paper when reasonably certain. Editors must not use unpublished information in the editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Editors preserve anonymity of reviewers. When errors are found, editors promote publication of correction or retraction. Editors should take reasonable responsive measures when ethical complaints have been pre-sented concerning a submitted manuscript or published article.

Referees

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reports should be conducted objectively, and observations should be formulated clearly with supporting arguments, so that authors can use them for improving the paper. Any relevant published work which is not yet cited should be pointed out. Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process. Referees should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Publisher

Publisher monitors and safeguards publishing ethics. Publisher communicates journal policies. Publisher respects privacy of all parties involved. Publisher fosters editorial independence. Publisher maintains the integrity of the academic record. Publisher protects intellectual property and copyrights. Publisher publishes corrections, clarifications, and retractions. Publisher constantly improves the quality of the journal.

Article Withdraw Policy

It is a general principle of scholarly communication that the editor/guest editor of a learned journal/series is solely and independently responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal shall be published. In making this decision the editor/guest editor is guided by policies of the journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. An outcome of this principle is the importance of the scholarly archive as a permanent, historic record of the transactions of scholarship. Articles that have been published shall remain extant, exact and unaltered as far as is possible. However, very occasionally circumstances may arise where an article is published that must later be retracted or even removed. Such actions must not be undertaken lightly and can only occur under exceptional circumstances, such as:

Article Withdrawal:

Only used for Articles in Press which represent early versions of articles and sometimes contain errors, or may have been accidentally submitted twice. Occasionally, but less frequently, the articles may represent infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like.

Article Retraction:

Infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like. Occasionally a retraction will be used to correct errors in submission or publication.

Article Removal:

Legal limitations upon the publisher, copyright holder or author(s).

Article Replacement:

Identification of false or inaccurate data that, if acted upon, would pose a serious health risk.