The publication ethics outlined on this page aims to assist the editor-in-chief, editorial board members and journal management to achieve the high ethical standards of scholarly publishing for the Canadian Journal of Biotechnology (CJB). The best practice in the ethics of quality research publication is retained by an effective alliance of the editor-in-chief, editorial board members, authors, peer-reviewers and journal management.
If CJB detects the documented violation of any of the mentioned policies of the journal, it has the right to immediately reject the manuscript and refuse to consider any research paper from that laboratory in the future. CJB also has the policy to report violations of research ethics to the author’s institution(s).
Authorship:
CJB requires the corresponding author of a research paper to submit the declaration form along with the manuscript stating that the communicated manuscript is neither published anywhere else (except in the form of an abstract or presentation in a scientific conference) nor is under consideration for publication in any other journal. The corresponding author is responsible to ensure that all the listed authors have contributed significantly in the manuscript submitted and have consented to the manuscript submission to CJB. The corresponding author should also make sure that all the listed authors are in agreement with the claims/results/interpretations made in the manuscript.
Any of the researchers, students or laboratory staff who has contributed conspicuously in the manuscript should not be deprived of an authorship. CJB strongly encourages all the researchers to adhere to transparency at work and provide credit to everyone for their contributions. CJB is not in a position to review or resolve any kind of authorship disputes either prior to or subsequent to the publication. The corresponding author should lead such disputes and should get them resolved either internally or in front of any authorized committee.
The corresponding author is responsible to ensure the order of all the authors listed in the manuscript in line with their contributions. If more than one author has contributed equally to the work, they should be considered for equal authorship. Similarly, authors who have collectively supervised the work should also be considered for equal corresponding authorship.
In a submitted manuscript if a part of an already published work is presented to support the recent findings, the corresponding author should ensure to cite the proper reference and to present the written permission from the author(s) and/or publisher(s) to restate their work. The corresponding author should also justify how the manuscript under consideration offers novel contributions compared to the previously published work.
The authors should not cite a publication solely with the intention to increase the number of citations to a certain author’s work or to papers published in a particular journal. If the authors do so, it is considered that authors are violating globally accepted research ethics.
The corresponding author and the co-authors should ensure the accuracy and the credibility of the data presented in the manuscript. They should make sure that the original data supporting the rationale of the manuscript is properly preserved and recoverable for reassessment, if needed.
CJB requires the authors to suggest a list of four to five potential independent reviewers at the time of the manuscript submission, but the journal is not bound to contact any of these suggested reviewers. If due to personal or professional conflicts the authors do not want a few individuals to serve as the reviewers for their manuscript, they can submit the request to the journal at the time of the manuscript submission.
The corresponding author is the primary contact for the journal and a medium to manage all the correspondence between the journal and all co-authors. After the acceptance of the manuscript for publication in the journal, the proof is sent to the corresponding author. He/she is responsible to pass it to all the co-authors and manage all the communication on their behalf with the journal.
CJB is very diligent in treating the submitted manuscript and keeping all correspondence with the authors and independent reviewers classified. The corresponding author too is responsible to retain the confidentiality of all the correspondence with the journal.
Falsification, Fabrication and Plagiarism:
Falsification, Fabrication and Plagiarism (FFP) are the most crucial factors known to bring disgrace on the scientific research discipline. CJB has a zero-tolerance policy for FFP and is committed to publish only original and authentic research.
Falsification
Falsification is the manipulation of the materials, methods, processes, or the data obtained to support the hypothesis of the study. Concealing the research results to support the rest of the data to retain the hypothesis of the study is also considered as falsification and is highly castigated.
Fabrication
Fabrication is the inclusion of the data or observations that never existed in the real set of experiments. For example, having performed the experiments only for ‘n’ number of times and including the data for ‘n+1’ times is considered as fabrication.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is when an author presents someone else’s work claiming it as his/her own work. It is the most common form of unethical research. When an author rewrites large parts of his/her own published work without citing the proper reference and taking permission from the co-author(s) and/or publisher(s), it is also considered as a form of plagiarism commonly referred to as ‘self-plagiarism’. Sometimes authors indulge in plagiarism unintentionally but representation of other people’s work without proper citation and permission still constitutes plagiarism.
The manuscript submitted for the publication in CJB is screened for plagiarism before sending it to the reviewers for the peer-review process. If 25% or more plagiarism is detected, the manuscript is not processed further for the peer-review process and is sent back to the author with a decision of rejection. If 10% to 25% plagiarism is detected, the manuscript is sent back to the author for major revision before processing it further.
If plagiarism is detected even during or after the review process, it is returned to the authors either with a suggestion to revise the plagiarized portion or with a decision of rejection depending upon the percentage of plagiarism.
In any case, homology with the published work of the others must not be more than 10% and with the own work of the authors themselves must not be more than 20%.