Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Palestine Technical University Research Journal (PTURJ) is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to achieving the utmost standards related to the ethics of publication. The entire parties concerned with the publishing process: authors, editors, reviewers, & publishers are required to agree with ethical behaviors and standards. PTURJ states the Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement Principles resulting from the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors of the Committee on Publication Ethics-COPE are available at (http://publicationethics.org/).

1. Editor’s Responsibilities of (PTURJ)

The PTURJ editor and the executive editor are in charge of the following tasks, i.e. making approvals to the submitted manuscripts that shall be published by the journal. To make these approvals, the manuscripts are processed by the journal’s policies: PTURJ guidelines for submission and publication of manuscripts, and legal requirements concerning copyright infringement, libel, & plagiarism are available at (http://rj.ptuk.edu.ps). The PTURJ editor and the executive editor are also responsible for furnishing guidance and an account of peer review processes to authors, guest editors, & reviewers on all required subject matters, supplying newly joined editorial board members with related guidelines keeping current members informed on new developments and policies, assessing manuscripts in light of their intellectual and academic merit regardless of the author(s)’ age, gender, race, religion, ethnic origin, disability, social class, citizenship, and political orientation, guaranteeing an unbiased and fair double-blind peer review of the manuscripts and the confidentiality of the entire related information, the selection of the suitable reviewers, as well as the protection of both authors’ and peer reviewers’ identities, maintaining and developing a database of appropriate reviewers and keeping it updated thanks to the performance of the reviewers, guaranteeing that unpublished materials that are disclosed in a submitted manuscript will not be used in the research of the editor without the authors’ express written consent, making responsive and reasonable measures when presenting ethical complaints concerning a submitted manuscript or a published manuscript, publishing clarifications, corrections, and apologies if required, & if there are suspected acts of misconduct, the COPE flowcharts are followed available at http://publicationethics.org/files/Full%20set%20of%20flowcharts.pdf.

2. Responsibilities of the Guest Editors

Guest editors have the following responsibilities, namely: identifying the roles and subject matters of each article in light of the thematic issues raised, offering guidelines to the various authors concerning the boundaries and topic of their academic and scientific contributions, and the whole design of the raised issue, making sure the selection of the suitable reviewers for all the research papers “Whether they are commissioned or submitted as a result of a call for papers” in cooperation with the executive editorial board, creating a detailed timeline for these steps starting “From draft paper submission, peer review, revision, and final paper submission with the executive editorial board”, along with meeting the entire deadlines, & completing the issues’ introduction. Translation

3. Responsibilities of the Authors

The responsibilities of the authors lie in the ability of the reports’ authors of original research work to offer a precise account of the completed work, alongside an objective discussion of the research work’s significance. The manuscript shall accurately represent the underlying data, as inaccurate or fraudulent statements are regarded as unethical and unacceptable behavior. Authors are required to avoid sending the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time as it is regarded as unethical and unacceptable publishing behavior, ensuring that the same manuscript has not been published somewhere else. Authors, co-authors, and contributors are also required to guarantee that their submitted works are original and properly reference and credit their research work. Authors shall ensure that the submitted research works for publication at PTURJ are their complete contributions and are not partially or wholly plagiarized or copied from other research works without direct citation of the adopted sources. Authors need to cite the entire influential publications used to determine the nature of the reported research work. Authors are required to avoid all forms of plagiarism as it is regarded as an acceptable and unethical publishing act and behavior. Authorship is solely limited to the authors significantly contributing to the reported study’s interpretation, design, conception, and execution, along with listing those making important contributions as co-authors. Other authors taking part in certain functional characteristics of the research work should be listed and acknowledged as contributors. The corresponding authors are required to ensure the inclusion of all suitable co-authors in the manuscript’s author list and the full agreement of all co-authors in accepting the paper’s final version and its submission for publication. Authors are required to reveal their financial or non-financial sources that can affect their manuscript’s interpretation and results. Finally, authors are required to quickly notify the editors of the journal when discovering an inaccuracy or significant error or their published work, along with cooperating with them to correct or withdraw the related manuscript.

4. Responsibilities of the Reviewers 

The responsibilities of the reviewers rest in assisting PTURJ’s editor and executive editorial board to editorially communicate with the author to assist in the manuscript improvement before making the final editorial decisions. Invited reviewers shall directly notify the editor once feeling disqualified to promptly and properly review the manuscript or difficult to review it on time to replace them with new reviewers. Reviewers are required to treat any manuscript as a confidential document. It is necessary for reviewers to keep any privileged ideas and information attained during peer review confidential, avoiding using them for personal interests. Reviewers are required to inform the PTURJ editor once they find an act of plagiarism and infringement on the part of the author. Reviewers shall conduct the reviews objectively and formulate the supporting documents plainly to help authors improve the manuscripts. Reviewers shall assess manuscripts in light of their intellectual and academic content regardless of the author(s)’ age, gender, race, religion, ethnic origin, disability, social class, citizenship, and political orientation. At last, reviewers are not allowed to think of manuscripts to be free of conflicts of interest arising from cooperative, competitive, or other connections or relationships with any of the authors, co-authors, institutions, or companies related to the research papers.

5. Responsibilities of the Publishers 

Being a PTURJ publisher has several tasks, namely: providing practical support to the PTURJ editor and executive editorial board to adopt the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal, ensuring the editorial decisions’ autonomy, protecting the copyrights and intellectual properties, and guaranteeing the good practice to the previously defined standards.