Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Tsing Hua Journal of Educational Research is devoted to publishing academic, proactive, transcendent, and open educational research with rigorous peer review. For those involving plagiarism, duplicate submission, fabrication, ghostwriting, unrevealing conflicts of interests, and other inappropriate conduct ought to be declined. Tsing Hua Journal of Educational Research adopts the Publishing Ethics advised by Elsevier B.V, and aims at a high level of professionalism and a standard of expected ethical behavior for the entire process of publishing a scholarly article. This process includes the roles of the author, journal editor, as well as the publisher. The duties of these stakeholders in the publishing process are described in the following.

Duties of Editors

The following guidelines are on the basis of the principles provided by Elsevier B.V and COPEs Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Peer review

Based on the outcome of peer-reviewed and the relevancy and the significance of the research topic, editors are responsible for deciding which of the manuscripts submitted should be published. Editors hold full authority to reject/accept a paper and must comply with the policy guidelines provided by the publisher and fulfill the responsibilities bestowed upon with integrity.

Fair play

The editors will ensure that all manuscripts will be evaluated for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Publication decision

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript and comments from peer review must not be used in the editors’ own research without the written consent of the author.

Editors should refuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers. Editors should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. If needed, other appropriate action should be taken, such as the publication of a retraction or expression of concern.

Disclosure and Conflicts of interest

Editor ought to ensure the equality and coherence of the peer review between the sponsored supplements and other manuscripts. In addition, the sponsored supplements must be in conformity with academic value orientation instead of commercial interests. It should disclose perspicuously whether there is a process of peer review.

Involvement and cooperation in investigations

An editor should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper, in conjunction with the publisher. Such measures will generally include contacting the author of the manuscript or paper and giving due consideration of the respective complaint or claims made, but may also include further communications to the relevant institutions and research bodies, and if the complaint is upheld, the publication of a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other note, as may be relevant. Every reported act of unethical publishing behavior must be looked into, even if it is discovered years after publication.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decision

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript should notify the editors and excuse himself from the review process.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents, and must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments, and provide constructive feedback to assist the authors in improving their work.

Acknowledgement of Source

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.  Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. Reviewers should also call to the editors' attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the reviewers for their own research purposes without the author's explicit written consent. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the papers.

Duties of Authors

Reporting standards

Authors of research paper should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. The published paper should contain sufficient details and references to permit others to replicate the work experiments. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data.

Originality and Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism takes many forms, from passing off another paper as the author(s) own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another(s) paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. In general, an author should not submit for consideration in another journal a previously published paper. Publication of some kinds of articles (eg, clinical guidelines, translations) in more than one journal is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned must agree to the secondary publication, which must reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects

If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript. If the work involves the use of animal or human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) have approved them. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest stage possible.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. If the editor or the publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, it is the obligation of the author to promptly retract or correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper.

During the review and publishing process, editorial director, editorial board, and publisher ought to comply with the guidelines of Committee on Publication Ethics, referring to Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and Code of Conduct for Journal Publisher to avoid any unethical and inappropriate conduct.