Ethics Policies Practice

Overview

As a pioneering Open Access publisher of high-quality scholarly journals, Paragraphs is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and to supporting ethical research practices. Paragraphs is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Paragraphs journals are obedient to follow COPE Code of Conduct and interpret into all involving publishing process aspects. We urge our editors to follow the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors and for reviewers to the COPE Ethical Guidelines for peer reviewers and our reviewer guidelines practice.

Paragraphs is very seriously on all ethics policies must adhere to. If a potential breach is found, Paragraphs have a mechanism to proceed with investigations into allegations of ethical misconduct and will impose sanctions as soon as possible to the following;

1. Private Warning, in minor offenses, take some revision must be done
2. Rejection of the manuscript
3. Retraction of publication
4. Revocation editor board status
5. Banned individual as a reviewer
6. Legal report when necessary

Manuscript

License

Paragraphs adopt fully open access journals in high quality for all our articles published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY) Licenses. The authors retain the copyright of published research articles that have agreed with the CC-BY licenses to permit reuse and adaption in a proper citation. The license permitted everyone unlimited access, without traditional subscription charges, or barriers to download, share and adapt for any purpose even commercially as long as given appropriate credit to the original resource.

Plagiarism

Paragraphs emphatically reject plagiarism. Indication of words, images, ideas, and identically paraphrasing by other authors or self-plagiarism without appropriate citation is not acceptable. Every submission undergoes assessment using Turnitin and iThenticate software to evaluate and ensure the originality of the manuscript. Always ensure that your manuscript is original before submission. Any indication finding of plagiarism or self-plagiarism will be investigated to be proven and evaluated whether may need correction, rejection, or retraction. The consideration take as following COPE Guidelines.

Duplication and Redundant Publication

Paragraphs consider only original manuscripts for publication. Manuscripts with identical datasets based on previously published are declared unethical behavior. If authors have used their own previously published manuscript, or work which is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they must cite the previous articles and indicate how their current submitted manuscript differs from their previous manuscript. However, the preliminary research discovery published in conference proceedings will not be considered as a previous journal article or published manuscript.

The redundant publication also involves the publication of the same work more than once in the same or different languages without acknowledging the original source, therefore Paragraphs does consider for redundant publication because it may result in rejection or a request to merge submitted manuscripts, and the correction of published articles. Duplicate publication of the same, or a very similar, article may result in the retraction of the later article and the authors may incur sanctions. Furthermore, when authors submitted manuscripts to Paragraphs, authors are prohibited to submit it to other publishers

The translation will be acceptable but must reference the original as according to COPE guidelines. Verifying if a manuscript has not been processed or published elsewhere is an obligation by the author to assure no redundant publication.

Fabrication and Falsification

Data fabrication and falsification are serious forms of scientific misconduct. Data fabrication involves invention of data or cases while data falsification is the intentional distortion of data or the study results. These are serious research misconduct and extremely intolerable if proven.

Corrections and Retractions

Paragraphs apply policy regarding corrections as our responsibility to correct scientific errors identified in published articles. We are also accepting error reports with no time limit to be investigated as soon as we can, and taking appropriate action. A correction would be needed submitting for post-publication when the scientifically relevant minor errors or omissions are found that affect the scientific interpretation but do not impact the conclusions such as an error in a figure, and statistical without altering conclusion, changing author name, error labeling, missing for method detail, funding, conflict of interest, and other additional information necessary by editor considering reporting journal standard.

The serious error and misconduct that impacts the conclusion or scientific integrity may require retraction following the COPE Retraction Guidelines

Conflicts of interest

Paragraphs is committed to transparency in areas of potential conflict or competing interests. We regularly invite all involving publishing process aspects and partner societies to join a review paragraphs publication process. This environment will guarantee trust, credibility, and avoiding bias as they relate to authors, editors, and peer reviewers during the publication process.

Animals Experiment

Research involving animals should be conducted to implement the 3Rs principles replacement (approaches which avoid or replace the use of animals), reduction (methods which minimize the number of animals used), and refinement (methods which minimize animal suffering and improve welfare). Paragraphs follow The International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) ethical guidelines for researchers, editors, and reviewers. Paragraphs urge authors to adhere to animal research reporting standards issued by the ARRIVE reporting guidelines , which describe the details journals should require from authors regarding:

Study design and statistical analysis.
Experimental procedures.
Experimental animals.
Housing and husbandry.

Authorship

Credit and Attribution

Paragraphs adopt the ICMJE guideline definitions of authorship. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all authors list accurately reflects are fairly acknowledged that contributed to the work. Paragraphs do not recognize authorship such as ghost, guest, or gift, this form of authorship is considered to be unethical. Paragraphs will be investigated in accordance with the COPE guidelines, the editorial board can take a firm to impose sanctions or identified authors will be removed from an article through a post-publication correction.

If authors employ third-party partner servicesfor example in language editing or infographics, it must ensure that all services comply with Paragraphs guidelines.

Changes in authors

Requests for changes in authorship will only be permitted if valid reasons are provided and all authors are in agreement with the change. Post-publication changes to authorship will typically be made via a published correction.

Request for addition of extra author before publication
Request removal of author before publication
Request for addition of extra author post-publication
Request for removal of author post-publication

Editor and Reviewer

The Paragraphs evaluation system is designed to guarantee the most transparent and objective editorial and review process. All Paragraphs journal editors and reviewers declare have to obey and follow conditions and agreements prior to entry into the editorship board or review process. To avoid creating potential conflicts of interest editors and protect independence, editors in charge or reviewers never handle manuscripts or peer reviewers from his/her belonging institution. The editor in charge and reviewers' names were also made public upon the publication of articles.