Ethics in Publication
AJER fully adheres and complies with the policies and principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The editors of the Asian Journal of Emerging Research enforce a rigorous peer-review process together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure to add high-quality scientific works in the field of scholarly publication.
Unfortunately, cases of Plagiarism, Data Falsification, Image Manipulation, inappropriate Authorship credit, and the like, do arise. The editors of the Asian Journal of Emerging Research take such publishing ethics issues very seriously and are trained to proceed in such cases with a zero-tolerance policy. Authors wishing to publish their papers in the Asian Journal of Emerging Research must abide by the following:
- Any facts that might be perceived as a possible conflict of interest of the author(s) must be disclosed in the paper before submission.
- Authors should accurately present their research findings and include an objective discussion of the significance of their findings.
- Data and methods used in the research need to be presented in sufficient detail in the paper so that other researchers can replicate the work.
- Raw data should preferably be publicly deposited by the authors before submission of their manuscript. Authors need to have at least the raw data readily available for presentation to the referees and the editors of the journal if requested. Authors need to ensure appropriate measures are taken so that raw data is retained in full for a reasonable time after publication.
- Simultaneous submission of manuscripts to more than one journal is not tolerated.
- Republishing content that is not a novel is not tolerated (for example, an English translation of a paper that is already published in another language will not be accepted).
- If errors and inaccuracies are found by the authors after publication of their paper, they need to be promptly communicated to the editors of this journal so that appropriate actions can be taken.
- Your manuscript should not contain any information that has already been published. If you include previously published figures or images, please obtain the necessary permission from the copyright holder to publish under the CC-BY license. For further information, see the Rights and Permissions page.
- Plagiarism, data fabrication and image manipulation are not tolerated.
- Plagiarism is not acceptable in the Asian Journal of Emerging Research submissions.
- Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from another source, even from your publications, without giving any credit to the original source.
- Reuse of text that is copied from another source must be between the quotes and the original source must be cited. If a study's design or the manuscript's structure or language has been inspired by previous works, these works must be explicitly cited.
- If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may publish a correction or retract the paper.
- Image files must not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information provided by the original image.
- Irregular manipulation includes: 1) introduction, enhancement, moving, or removing features from the original image; 2) grouping of images that should be presented separately (e.g., from different parts of the same gel, or different gels); or 3) modifying the contrast, brightness or color balance to obscure, eliminate or enhance some information.
- If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed during the peer review process, we may reject the manuscript. If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, we may correct or retract the paper.
Our in-house editors will investigate any allegations of publication misconduct and may contact the authors' institutions or funders if necessary. If evidence of misconduct is found, appropriate action will be taken to correct or retract the publication.
Ethical Approval
Research Involving Human Subjects
When reporting on research that involves human subjects, human material, human tissues, or human data, the authors must declare that the investigations were carried out following the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/ ), revised in 2013.
According to point 23 of this declaration, an approval from an ethics committee should have been obtained before undertaking the research. At a minimum, a statement including the project identification code, date of approval and the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board should be cited in the Methods Section of the article. Data relating to individual participants must be described in detail, but private information identifying participants need not be included unless the identifiable materials are of relevance to the research (for example, photographs of participants' faces that show a particular symptom). The editors reserve the right to reject any submission that does not meet these requirements.
Example of an ethical statement: "All subjects gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Project identification code)."
Written informed consent for publication must be obtained from participating patients who can be identified (including by the patients themselves). Patients' initials or other personal identifiers must not appear in any images. For manuscripts that include any case details, personal information, and/or images of patients, authors must obtain signed informed consent from patients (or their relatives/guardians) before submitting to the Asian Journal of Emerging Research. Patient details must be anonymized as far as possible, e.g., do not mention specific age, ethnicity, or occupation where they are not relevant to the conclusions.
A template permission form is available to download. A blank version of the form used to obtain permission (without the patient names or signature) must be uploaded with your submission.
You may refer to our sample form and provide an appropriate form after consulting with your affiliated institution. Alternatively, you may provide a detailed justification of why informed consent is not necessary. Asian Journal of Emerging Research requires an approval, permission, or release form include unlimited license for publication in all formats (including print, electronic, and online), in sub-licensed, and reprinted versions (including translations and derived works), and in other works and products under open access license. To respect patients' and any other individual's privacy, please do not send signed forms. The journal reserves the right to ask authors to provide signed forms if necessary.
Ethical Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research
The editors will require that the benefits potentially derived from any research causing harm to animals are significant in relation to any cost endured by animals and that procedures followed are unlikely to cause offense to the majority of readers. Authors should particularly ensure that their research complies with the commonly-accepted '3Rs':
- Replacement of animals by alternatives wherever possible,
- Reduction in the number of animals used, and
- Refinement of experimental conditions and procedures to minimize the harm to animals.
Any experimental work must also have been conducted in accordance with relevant national legislation on the use of animals for research. For further guidance, authors should refer to the Code of Practice for the Housing and Care of Animals Used in Scientific Procedures1.
Manuscripts containing original descriptions of research conducted in experimental animals must include details of approval by a properly constituted research ethics committee. As a minimum, the project identification code, date of approval and the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board should be cited in the Methods section.
Asian Journal of Emerging Research endorses the ARRIVE guidelines (www.nc3rs.org.uk/ARRIVE) for reporting experiments using live animals. Authors and reviewers can use the ARRIVE guidelines as a checklist, which can be found at https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/experimental-design .
1Home Office. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Code of Practice for the Housing and Care of Animals Used in Scientific Procedures. Available online: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/code-of-practice-for-the-housing-and-care-of-animals-bred-supplied-or-used-for-scientific-purposes
Research Involving Cell Lines
Methods sections for submissions reporting on research with cell lines should state the origin of any cell lines. For established cell lines, the provenance should be stated, and references must also be given to either a published paper or to a commercial source. If previously unpublished de novo cell lines were used, including those gifted from another laboratory, details of institutional review board or ethics committee approval must be given, and confirmation of written informed consent must be provided if the line is of human origin.
An example of Ethical Statements:
The HCT116 cell line was obtained from XXXX. The MLH1+ cell line was provided by XXXXX, Ltd. The DLD-1 cell line was obtained from Dr. XXXX. The DR-GFP and SA-GFP reporter plasmids were obtained from Dr. XXX and the Rad51K133A expression vector was obtained from Dr. XXXX.
Research Involving Plants
Experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild) including the collection of plant material, must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines. We recommend that authors comply with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
For each submitted manuscript supporting genetic information and origin must be provided. For research manuscripts involving rare and non-model plants (other than, e.g., Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana, Oriza sativa, or many other typical model plants), voucher specimens must be deposited in an accessible herbarium or museum. Vouchers may be requested for review by future investigators to verify the identity of the material used in the study (especially if taxonomic rearrangements will occur in the future). They should include details of the populations sampled on the site of collection (GPS coordinates), date of collection, and document the part(s) used in the study where appropriate. For rare, threatened or endangered species this can be waived, but the author must describe this in the cover letter.
The editors reserve the right to reject any submission that does not meet these requirements.
An example of Ethical Statements:
Torenia fournieri plants were used in this study. White-flowered Crown White (CrW) and violet-flowered Crown Violet (CrV) cultivars selected from ‘Crown Mix’ (XXX Company, City, Country) were kindly provided by Dr. XXX (XXX Institute, City, Country).
Arabidopsis mutant lines (SALKxxxx, SAILxxxx,…) were kindly provided by Dr. XXX, institute, city, country).