Science International is pleased to announce that we are now a full Member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

By signing up to COPE, Science International warrants that we will adhere to the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and that we will follow COPE guidelines when dealing with issues surrounding publication ethics.

Science International is also a member of other professional organizations such as CrossRef, ALPSP (The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers), and Asian Council of Science Editors.

Publication Ethics Policy of Science International

Plagiarism
Science International is committed to publishing only original material, i.e., material that has neither been published elsewhere, nor is under review elsewhere. Manuscripts that are found to have been plagiarized from a manuscript by other authors, whether published or unpublished, will incur plagiarism sanctions.

Duplicate Submission
Manuscripts that are found to have been published elsewhere, or to be under review elsewhere, will incur duplicate submission/publication sanctions. If authors have used their own previously published work, or work that is currently under review, as the basis of a submitted manuscript, they are required to cite the previous work and indicate how their submitted manuscript offers novel contributions beyond those of the previous work.

Citation Manipulation
Submitted manuscripts that are found to include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal, will incur citation manipulation sanctions.

Data Fabrication and Falsification
Submitted manuscripts that are found to have either fabricated or falsified experimental results, including the manipulation of images, will incur data fabrication and falsification sanctions.

Improper Author Contribution or Attribution
All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution, including students and laboratory technicians.

Redundant Publications
Redundant publications involve the inappropriate division of study outcomes into several articles.

Sanctions
In the event that there are documented violations of any of the above mentioned policies in any journal, regardless of whether or not the violations occurred in Science International the following sanctions will be applied:

Immediate rejection of the infringing manuscript
Immediate rejection of every other manuscript submitted to Science International by any of the authors of the infringing manuscript.

Prohibition against all of the authors for any new submissions to Science International either individually or in combination with other authors of the infringing manuscript, as well as in combination with any other authors. This prohibition will be imposed for a minimum of 36 months.

Prohibition against all of the authors from serving on the Editorial Board of any journal published by Science International

In cases where the violations of the above policies are found to be particularly egregious, the publisher reserves the right to impose additional sanctions beyond those described above.