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Journal of Policy Studies Research Code of Ethics
JPS fully adheres to the COPE guidelines and strongly asks all authors to observe ethical policies and standards for scholarly publication. JPS does not accept any manuscripts with plagiarism, fabrication and manipulation in data and analysis, inappropriate authorship, financial and non-financial conflicts of interest to distort research ethics, and simultaneous submission of manuscripts to more than one journal. JPS does not tolerate any of plagiarism, falsification and manipulation in research materials and data, unethical authorship, and other inappropriate academic activities in the process of publication.The purpose of the Journal of Policy Studies research code of ethics is to establish ethical principles and standards for the JPS editorial board, reviewers, and manuscript authors.
Manuscripts must be guided by the author's scholarly conscience. Authors should not present others' research work or opinions as their own and must respect the copyright of other authors.
Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts according to their scholarly conscience and maintain the confidentiality of the review.
Unethical acts in research include the following:
- Fabrication: fabrication includes falsely creating data or describing research results that do not exist. It also includes alteration and distorting the contents or results of a research project by artificially manipulating its materials, equipment, and procedures or by intentionally altering or deleting data.
- Plagiarism: plagiarism means using another's ideas, research, or results without permission or acknowledgment. JPS regards copying or using another's original work without disclosing the source as plagiarism, even if plagiarism was not intended. Acts of plagiarism include intentionally using the original author's composition, research, original expressions, data, or analysis without disclosing the source, copying a substantial amount of writing from another source verbatim, and failing to acknowledge it as a quotation even if the source is disclosed.
- Multiple submission: multiple submission means submitting the same or a similar manuscript to a second journal before the review process at the first journal is complete. Multiple publication: multiple publication means publishing the same or a similar manuscript in more than one journal.
- Misrepresenting authorship: misrepresenting authorship is a failure to assign credit as authors to persons who made scientific or technological contributions to the research process or results or assigning credit as authors to persons who did not make a scientific or technological contribution.
- Intentional disruption of an investigation of one's own or another's actions or the harming of an informer.
- Other acts that are substantially outside the limits of acceptable behavior in the academic field of public administration.
The JPS editorial board will investigate any allegation of plagiarism either in an article that has been published in JPS or in a manuscript that is being reviewed and will decide on appropriate sanctions against an author found to have committed plagiarism.
A preliminary investigation will be undertaken within 30 days of receiving an allegation of plagiarism to decide whether it is necessary to investigate it.
If the subject of the investigation admits his or her plagiarism after the preliminary investigation, the editorial board can make a final decision without further investigation. If the board decides not to proceed after the preliminary investigation, a notice must be given to the informer in writing within 10 days after the decision, unless the informer was anonymous. If the informer disagrees with the result of the preliminary investigation, he or she can file an appeal to the JPS editorial board. The appeal must be filed within 30 days after the notice is made.
The main investigation is the procedure taken to establish whether plagiarism took place.
The JPS editorial board will provide an opportunity to the informer and the subject of the investigation to state their views. If either party does not respond, that party will be considered to have no objection to the process. The result of the main investigation should be announced in writing within 10 days to the informer and the subject of the investigation. If the informer or the subject of the investigation disagrees with the result of the main investigation, he or she can file an appeal to JPS within 30 days after the notice. If the JPS editorial board finds the appeal reasonable, it will reinvestigate. Unless unavoidable circumstances prevent it, the final decision should be made within 6 months after the preliminary investigation begins.
The JPS editorial board will keep all documents relating to the investigation, including computer files, for five years. The investigation report and the list of judges may be open to the public after the decision is made. After the main investigation is complete, a report will be written including the following:
. Text of the informer's accusation
. Alleged unethical act under investigation
. Result of the preliminary investigation and the basis for proceeding to the main investigation, if there is one
. List of the members of the JPS editorial board judging the case
. Record of evidence and testimony given in the case and the board's assessment of it
. Contents of appeals by the informer and the subject of the investigation and arguments made by the parties
. The board's decision
Any author who is found to have committed an unethical act may receive the following sanctions depending on the degree of seriousness.
Submission of manuscripts to JPS may be forbidden for five years or less. If an article is found to contain plagiarism after it has been published, it will be deleted from the online publication of JPS. Public announcement of the fact of plagiarism will be made on the JPS homepage and in the following issue of JPS. Notice regarding the act of plagiarism will be sent to the organization in which the author works within 10 days. The author will write an apology to the editorial board.
