Editorial and Ethical Publishing Policies

Guidelines for Responsible Manuscript Submission and Publishing

 

Fair Use of Artificial Intelligence

The policy outlines the responsible use of AI technologies in manuscript writing and editing.

• Authors must not attribute authorship to AI, and any AI tool used must be disclosed in the acknowledgments.
• Authors are responsible for verifying the factual accuracy of any AI-generated content.
• Publisher does not allow the inclusion of generative AI images in publications.

Authorship Policy

Authorship

All individuals designated as writers must adhere to our standards for authorship. All writers are expected to publicly accept responsibility for the article's content before submitting it to one of the publications the Asian Network for Scientific Information publishes. All writers' contributions must be described.

To confirm their knowledge of and consent to the submission of the manuscript, its content, and its authorship, all authors will be contacted via email at the time of submission.

Authorship Criteria

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals serve as the foundation for authorship criteria.

Four requirements are listed by the ICMJE for authorship credit. For authors to be listed, they must fulfil all four requirements.

1. Substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, and
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for valuable intellectual content, and
3. Final approval of the version to be published, and
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Author identification

As part of our efforts to improve transparency and unambiguous attribution of scholarly contributions, corresponding authors of published papers must provide their Digital Identifier  (ORCID or Google Scholar).

Author Contributions

The contributions of all authors must be described. The corresponding author is responsible for providing the contributions of all authors at the time of submission. We expect that all authors will have reviewed, discussed, and agreed to their contributions ahead of this time. Contributions will be published with the final article, and they should accurately reflect contributions to the work.

 

Contributor Role	Role Definition
Conceptualization	Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
Data Curation	Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later reuse.
Formal Analysis	Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.
Funding Acquisition	Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.
Investigation	Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
Methodology	Development or design of methodology; creation of models
Project Administration	Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.
Resources	Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools.
Software	Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components.
Supervision	Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team.
Validation	Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs.
Visualization	Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation.
Writing - Original Draft Preparation	Creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing Draft Preparation the initial draft (including substantive translation).
Writing – Review & Editing	Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages.

 

Acknowledgments

Contributors who do not meet the criteria for the above authorship categories should only be mentioned in the Acknowledgments. The author is expected to get consent from all those  persons/organizations/funding agencies to be acknowledged within the manuscript.

Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics Policies

The following policies ensure that ICAPSR’s high standards of publication ethics are maintained. They discuss established best practices in publishing and define scientific, academic, or publishing misconduct. We advise that you review the policies below to ensure your submission meets the necessary requirements, thereby ensuring the integrity of submissions to us.

Where evidence of misconduct is found, we reserve the right to take action that may include rejection, retraction, and/or further follow-up with the institution.

Inclusive Language Policy

ICAPSR is committed to fostering an environment that champions diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) in all its aspects. We pledge to ensure that every individual has an equal opportunity to be part of the scientific community. Our mission is to make science accessible to everyone, which includes the use of language that is culturally sensitive and inclusive of readers, authors, and staff alike.

In recognition of the evolving nature of language, we strive to remain updated on cultural nuances and shifts over time while continuously reviewing our unconscious biases. What is considered acceptable may vary across geographies and change over time.

Authors, reviewers, editors, and ICAPSR staff have a shared responsibility to ensure that articles submitted and published use appropriate language for the respective field and avoid terminology that could be interpreted as offensive or exclusionary based on ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, or health.

We expect all authors to be receptive to feedback on their language choices from editors and reviewers. ICAPSR is committed to suggesting alternative language when necessary, and reserves the right to decline publication of material that violates this policy. In exceptional circumstances, we may modify language pre- or post-publication to ensure compliance with our commitment to diversity and inclusivity.

Inclusive language applies to all communications, both within published content and day-to-day interactions.

Plagiarism, Redundant Publication, and Ethical Text-Reuse Policies

Material submitted to ICAPSR must comply with the following policies to ensure ethical publication of academic work.

Originality of Content and Duplicate Submission

ICAPSR only publishes original content. Authors must confirm that the submitted content is original. Manuscripts submitted to ICAPSR must not have been previously published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere, either in whole or in part. If a manuscript has been previously submitted elsewhere, ICAPSR will only consider it if the article was definitively rejected by the other publisher(s) at the time of submission.

Submitting to multiple publishers simultaneously is classified as duplicate submission and is considered a form of publication misconduct.

Fabrication and Falsification

ICAPSR strongly opposes the fabrication of data or images (i.e., false or made-up data) and falsification (i.e., intentional misrepresentation or deceptive manipulation of data). Manuscripts written by commercial entities or 'paper mills' on behalf of researchers listed as authors do not comply with ICAPSR's policies and will not be considered for publication. We proactively reject suspicious manuscripts before peer review.

Redundant Publication

Redundant publication occurs when the same research (idea, data, results, or conclusions) is published more than once by the same or overlapping author groups. This includes adding minor amounts of new data to an existing paper and submitting it for review, or publishing the same paper in multiple journals (often called "salami slicing"). Such practices are unethical, and redundant publications will not be accepted by ICAPSR.

All submissions are screened for redundancy. Authors must disclose and appropriately cite any related publications. It is advisable to explain how the new submission advances the field beyond previous or related studies.

ICAPSR adheres to COPE guidelines regarding redundant publication.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism occurs when an author presents previously published work as original. Every manuscript submitted to ICAPSR is screened for textual overlap using plagiarism detection software, i.e. turntin. Manuscripts found to contain plagiarism will not be considered for publication.

All submissions must consist of original content that has not been previously published. In accordance with COPE guidelines, any direct quotations from other researchers must be enclosed in quotation marks with appropriate citations. This policy also applies to an author’s own prior work.

Ethical Text Reuse and Permitted Publications

Theses and Dissertations

ICAPSR allows content from an author's thesis to be included in their manuscript, provided this is the only form in which it has previously appeared, complies with university policy, and is available online. If the thesis is not archived online, it is considered unpublished data. Any inclusion of material from theses or dissertations must be acknowledged and cited appropriately.

Conference Proceedings and Abstracts

Manuscripts initially presented at conferences must be expanded with substantial new content, such as additional data, to be considered original work. Authors are required to:

• Obtain permission to reuse the published conference paper if they do not hold the copyright.
• Cite the conference in the acknowledgments or references section.

Blogs

While manuscripts may include content from blogs or non-academic media, this must be declared in the acknowledgments section upon submission.

Translations

ICAPSR accepts manuscripts that are translations of previously published works. The translated manuscript must clearly state this, and permission from the original publisher and authors must be obtained. The original work must also be cited appropriately.

Image Manipulation

ICAPSR takes concerns regarding image manipulation seriously. We do not accept modifications to individual features within an image, including enhancing, obscuring, moving, recycling, removing, or adding elements. Any image processing techniques (such as adjusting brightness or contrast) must be applied to the entire image, and such changes must not affect the content's integrity.

If any form of image processing is necessary, it must be described in the methods section of the manuscript. Grouping or splicing of images must be clearly stated.

Concerns about undeclared image modifications will lead to further investigation. Authors who fail to address such concerns may face rejection of their manuscript or post-publication retraction.

Copyright and Licensing

• Authors will retain copyright to their work but grant the publisher an exclusive license to publish, distribute, and commercialize the book globally.
• Authors work is licensed under a CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License options:

Peer Review Process

The publisher adopts a double-blind peer review process for all academic and scholarly books:

• Manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two experts in the relevant field.
• The identity of both the author and the reviewers will remain anonymous to ensure objectivity.
• Reviewers will evaluate manuscripts based on originality, contribution to the field, clarity of writing, and research methodology.

Open Access

• Authors can choose between Gold Open Access (immediate access) or Green Open Access (repository deposit with an embargo period).
• Creative Commons licensing is available for Open Access work.

Open Access Options

Authors may opt for Open Access (OA) publishing, where their work is freely available to the public under Creative Commons licenses. The following options are available:

• Gold OA: Immediate and unrestricted access to the published book, with an associated Article Processing Charge (APC) for authors.
• Green OA: Authors can deposit a pre-print or post-print version of the manuscript in a repository, subject to an embargo period set by the publisher.

Post-Publication Policy

• Errata and Revisions: If post-publication errors are identified, the publisher will issue corrections or revised editions as needed. Authors are encouraged to promptly report any errors.
• Metrics and Impact: Authors will receive regular updates on the performance of their books through sales reports, download metrics, and citation tracking.
• Award Nominations: High-performing books will be nominated for relevant academic, literary, or professional awards, and authors will be informed of such nominations.

Withdrawal and Retraction

• Withdrawal Policy: An author may withdraw their submission at any point before final publication. However, any costs incurred in the production process may be charged to the author.
• Retraction Policy: Books may be retracted post-publication if significant ethical violations (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication) are discovered. The publisher reserves the right to remove such books from distribution, with clear notices provided to the readership.

 Sustainability and Green Publishing

The publisher is committed to sustainable publishing practices:

• Print books will be produced using eco-friendly materials and processes.
• Digital publishing options will be prioritized to minimize the carbon footprint.

 Confidentiality

• All communication between authors, editors, and reviewers is treated as confidential, with embargoed content released only when appropriate.

Compliance with Ethical Guidelines

• Research involving human or animal subjects must adhere to ethical standards, with explicit consent required from human participants.

Corresponding Author Responsibility

• The corresponding author must represent all co-authors, ensuring agreement on manuscript content and authorship.

Editorial Independence

• Editorial decisions are free from commercial influence, ensuring unbiased publication decisions.

Handling Harmful Research Content

• The publisher ensures that research which could cause harm or discrimination to population groups is carefully monitored and addressed with ethical guidelines in place.

Institutional Affiliations

• Authors must link their publications to their institutions, aiding in research tracking and clarity for readers.

Personal Data Protection

• Personal data used in publications must have the full consent of the individual, with potential retraction of articles where consent was not obtained.

These policies provide a framework to ensure the highest standards of academic publishing, including ethical conduct, author responsibility, and inclusive practices.