ETHICS STATEMENT
This is the statement of ethics for Jurnal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia (Malaysian Journal of Health Sciences) published by Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM Press). This statement was adapted from the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and covers code of ethics for chief editor, editorial board members, reviewers and authors.
DUTIES OF AUTHORS
- Authors are expected to submit new and original works.
- Authors must not reproduce works that have been previously published in other journals.
- Any articles that are being reviewed or considered by the journal must not be submitted to other journals simultaneously.
- Authors would only be allowed to publish their work elsewhere when decision not to publish their works are formally rejected or request of withdrawing their works from the journal have been officially accepted.
- Authors must inform the Chief Editor or the publisher of any inaccuracy of data in their published works so that correction or retraction of article could be made.
- Acknowledgement of others works must be clearly and accurately made/ cited.
- All authors should made significant contributions and should be held equally accountable for any shortcomings in their works.
DUTIES OF REVIEWERS
- Disclose any competing interest before agreeing to review a submission.
- Reviewers have the right to refuse reviewing any submission due to any conflict of interest or inadequate knowledge.
- Submissions are to be reviewed objectively, fairly and professionally.
- Comment on ethical question and any occurred misconduct while reviewing a submission.
- Ensure originality of a submission and be alert of any plagiarism and redundant publication.
- Reviewers must not discuss the content of the submission without permission.
- Reviewing process should be prompt. Request for time extension in reviewing the submission must be agreed by the Chief Editor.
DUTIES OF EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
- Editorial board members are expected to actively contribute to the development and the greater good of the journal.
- Editorial board members must act as ambassadors for the journal.
- Editorial board members are expected to continuously support and promote the journal.
- Review any submitted works assigned to them.
DUTIES OF CHIEF EDITOR
- Manuscripts/ submissions are expected to be evaluated fairly and solely on their intellectual merit.
- Must not disclose any confidential information regarding a submission to anyone other than the people involved in the publishing process.
- Chief Editor has the responsibility to decide which and when article are to be published.
- Actively seek the views of board members, reviewers and authors on how to improve/ increase the image and visibility of the journal.
- Give clear instruction to potential contributors on the submission process and what to be expected of the authors.
- Ensure appropriate reviewers are selected/ identified for a reviewing process.
PLAGIARISM
• Authors should submit only original work that is not plagiarized, and has not been published or being considered elsewhere. Appropriate softwares may be used by the editorial office to check for similarities of submitted manuscripts with existing literature. Inclusion of fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements are unacceptable. Work and/or words from other publications must be appropriately cited or quoted.
REPORTING
• Authors should state their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation.The methods used in the work should be clearly and unambiguously described so that the findings can be repeated and confirmed by other researchers.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
• A statement on conflict of interest must be included in the manuscript if authors receive any support that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
AUTHORSHIP AND COLLABORTION
• Name of authors listed in a paper should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the report. Only those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the work must be acknowledged or listed as contributors. It is the duty of the corresponding author to ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper. All co-authors must approve the final version of the paper and agree to the version of the paper before submission.
MULTIPLE OR REDUNDANT
• Authors should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research output in more than one journal or primary publication. A similar manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal concurrently as this constitutes as unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.