Page 171 - Academic and Research Book_WEB

2. Expert reviewers must maintain confidentiality in assessing a manuscript, and this extends
to reviewers’ colleagues who may be asked (with the editor’s permission) to give opinions on
specific sections.
3. The submitted manuscript must not be retained or copied.
4. Reviewers and editors must not make any use of the data, arguments, or interpretations, unless
they have the authors’ permission.

5. Reviewers need to provide speedy, accurate, courteous, unbiased, and justifiable reports.
6. If reviewers suspect misconduct, they should write, in confidence, to the editor.
7. Journals should publish accurate descriptions of their peer review, selection, and appeals
processes.
8. Journals should also provide regular audits of their acceptance rates and publication times.

Redundant Publication

Definition

Redundant publication occurs when two or more papers, without full cross reference, share the same
hypothesis, data, discussion points, or conclusions.

Action

1. Published studies do not need to be repeated unless further confirmation is required.

2. Previous publication of an abstract during the proceedings of meetings does not preclude
subsequent submission for publication, but full disclosure should be made at the time of
submitting a paper.

3. Re-publication of a paper in another language is acceptable, provided there is full and prominent
disclosure of its original source at the time of submission.

4. At the time of submission, authors should disclose details of related papers, even if in a different
language, and similar papers in press.

Plagiarism

Definition

Plagiarism ranges from the unreferenced use of others’ published and unpublished ideas, including
research grant applications, to submitting under ‘new’ authorship of a complete paper, sometimes in a
different language.

It may occur at any stage of planning, research, writing, or publication: it applies to both print and
electronic versions.

Action

1. All sources should be disclosed, and if large amounts of other people’s written or illustrative
material are to be used, permission has to be taken.

160 | University Grants Commission