Issues with authorship, duplicate publication and plagiarism in scientific journal
papers might trigger considerable battle amongst members of study teams
and embarrassment for every authors and editors. Accordingly, the British
Psychological Society has produced the subsequent set of suggestions for
potential authors who’re moreover members of the Society. 5 core factors
are coated by the ideas on the principles of publishing
outlined beneath: authorship, duplicate publication, plagiarism, accuracy
of reporting, and the perform of reviewers.
Authorship
The overriding principle of the ideas on authorship is that solely
these collaborators who’ve made a giant scientific contribution should
be credited as authors. It isn’t solely the writers of the paper who’re entitled
to authorship. Inclusion is merited if an individual has made a critical scientific
contribution to the evaluation endeavor as an entire and/or the writing of the paper.
Significantly, essential contributions are:
• Origination and formulation of the evaluation thought and hypotheses
• Design of the evaluation
• Designing and conducting fundamental analysis
• Decoding findings
• Writing a critical a part of the journal article
Quite a few completely different contributions essential to the swish working of the
evaluation endeavour do not profit authorship, nonetheless nonetheless must be
acknowledged in a observe. Minor contributions are sometimes regarded as
technical actions that current no essential psychological/scientific enter into
the evaluation course of. Authorship won’t be warranted if these are the one actual
actions undertaken by an individual. Examples of minor contributions
embrace:
• Assortment of information (along with interviewing) and information entry, if these do
not embrace a giant psychological/scientific enter
• Supervised information analysis
• Designing or establishing evaluation tools
• Recruiting evaluation contributors and completely different administrative duties
• Advising on statistical factors
The order by which authors’ names appear must be determined by the
relative dimension of each explicit particular person’s contribution. Thus, an individual who’s
judged consensually to have made in all probability an important contribution to the
paper would often be the first named author. A collaborator who has been
a critical contributor to the evaluation complete, nonetheless has a lesser perform in writing a
journal article would not qualify for principal authorship, nonetheless must be listed as
a co-author. In circumstances the place two or additional authors have had equal roles inside the
evaluation and writing processes, names could also be ordered randomly, or
alphabetically, with an author’s observe as rationalization for the reader. If a endeavor
ends in a lot of journal articles by which all authors made a demonstrably
equal contribution to every the evaluation and writing for every paper, authors
can decide to alternate first authorship. In plenty of medical journals it is now
required that authors specify of their letters of submission the relative weight
and content material materials of the contributions of each named author.
Neither the inclusion nor ordering of names must be influenced by the
relative standing of the collaborating folks. Authorship won’t be merited by
benefit of being, as an example, the highest of the evaluation group or division in
which the evaluation was undertaken. Inside the case of student-supervisor
collaborations, the scholar should typically be the principal author when the
article is significantly based mostly totally on the scholar’s evaluation. Supervisors should
subsequently search to ensure that the scholar is enabled to make the important thing
contribution as a method to profit first authorship. Exceptions to the rule must be
made offered that:
• The whole ideas and the design for the evaluation had been the supervisor’s
(as an example, if undergraduates or MSc school college students elect to do their
dissertation evaluation on ‘ready-made’ initiatives proposed by their
supervisors)
• Terribly shut supervision was required as a method to produce the paper
• The supervisor carried out (or intently guided) further intensive analysis
that was previous the scope of the distinctive evaluation and had made a
sustained and fundamental contribution to the evaluation earlier to that.
Prior settlement must be reached with the scholar if the supervisor intends to
publish beneath any of the above provisos. Since school college students may often lack
info and vitality in these circumstances, supervisors are obliged to deal with
each case fairly and overtly, in accordance with the ethical suggestions, ideally
on the lookout for the opinion of senior colleagues who must be equipped with a reproduction
of these principles.
Equitable and proper attribution of authorship shall be facilitated if clear course of
requirements and course of allocations are established on the outset. Categorical
dialogue of which duties shall be worthy of which stage of credit score rating must be
included inside the design part of the evaluation. However, decisions must be
reviewed and revised as acceptable inside the gentle of modifications all through the course
of the endeavor.
It is often the case that writing continues prolonged after the distinctive evaluation workers
has disbanded. The equivalent tips of authorship ought to use to post-project
output. At a minimal, no work must be undertaken, or authorship assumed,
with out prior session with all former collaborators. Cautious co-ordination
and communication can forestall the misappropriation of credit score rating for the distinctive
evaluation, and in the reduction of the chance of duplicate publication.
Duplicate publication
Duplicate publication occurs when authors go off, as genuine, evaluation that
has been printed each significantly or in its entirety elsewhere. Duplicate
papers have shared hypotheses, information, dialogue components, or conclusions, nonetheless
do not cross-reference the prior publication. Not solely does duplicate
publication signify a attainable copyright violation, it moreover deceives the
scientific neighborhood as to the extent of knowledge in a given self-discipline. Whereas
lastly the selection to publish lies with the journal editor, the burden of
accountability for stopping duplication falls to the author(s).
Authors mustn’t submit equal or significantly comparable work if it has
already been printed in a single different outlet. Examples of different retailers
embrace e ebook chapters and printed conference proceedings of full papers
(versus abstracts). If the work has beforehand been printed solely as a
conference abstract or as a working paper, this does not signify duplicate
publication since these are inclined to have a restricted viewers. Definitely, many
institutions actively encourage utilizing conferences and dealing paper
assortment as routes to rising ideas for journal articles.
The prior publication of any comparable work (e.g. completely different papers based mostly totally on the equivalent
information and techniques, or using the equivalent sample) must be clearly referenced in
the manuscript. Authors additionally wants to tell the editor of any such work
already current, or about to be printed. The editor ought to then decide
whether or not or not the manuscript consists of ample new information to warrant
publication. Authors should steer clear of ‘chopping and pasting’ (i.e. copying verbatim)
substantial chunks of textual content material from their very personal beforehand printed work. Common
duplication, involving no numerous paragraphs all via the paper, is
acceptable provided that reference is made to the publication by which the
supplies first appeared.
Re-publication of a paper in a single different language would not signify duplication,
provided that information regarding the genuine provide is disclosed to the
editor on the time of submission. The printed paper must be clearly
labelled as a translation.
Authors should submit manuscripts to only one author at a time, and the
content material materials of papers submitted to utterly completely different publishers sooner than any willpower has
been reached mustn’t have substantial overlap. Supplied that rejected should the
manuscript be despatched to a distinct author. Whereas this significantly will improve
the lead-time from writing to publication, it is a elementary measure that may
help to ensure that copyright infringements and duplications do not occur.
Authors who fragment their work proper into a group of papers needs to be able to justify
doing so on the grounds that it enhances scientific communication.
Maximizing quantity of publications on the expense of providing an entire
and coherent contribution to psychological info is strongly discouraged.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is printed as taking one different particular person’s ideas or writings and using
them as within the occasion that that they had been one’s private. Plagiarism applies to every printed and
unpublished ideas, and digital (e.g. net publications, e-mail) along with
print variations of cloth. It might occur at any stage inside the evaluation course of:
from planning to writing for publication.
When one different’s written phrases are lifted immediately from a textual content material, whether or not or not printed
or unpublished, quotation marks must be used and the availability of the
quotation cited. If paraphrasing is used (summarising or barely altering the
genuine exposition of a written thought), the availability of the paraphrase must be
credited. All sources of ideas that weren’t conceived by the author(s) should
be acknowledged inside the paper. This consists of ideas obtained inside the kind of
non-public communications and suggestions from reviewers, colleagues, or
buddies. Meticulous note-taking and record-keeping are advisable in order
to ensure that all ideas are exactly attributed to the proper sources.
Accuracy of reporting
Accuracy of reporting sorts the cornerstone of advances in psychological
thought and knowledge of its functions. Due to this fact, authors are ethically
obligated to present an actual and proper account of their evaluation course of
and findings.
Full rationalization of all information assortment methods, and the devices and strategies
utilized in analysis, must be included inside the report. Info must be obtainable for
inspection on the request of the editor. Researchers mustn’t falsify or
modify information to make the outcomes match the evaluation hypotheses. Info that does
not match neatly into the anticipated patterns shouldn’t be omitted from the write-up.
If any errors are discovered inside the information following publication, they must be
made public as shortly as attainable (e.g. via correction, retraction or erratum
procedures, in accordance with circumstances and the author’s protocol). Ideally,
information must be saved on file (or deposited in a suitable archive) for five
years following completion of the look at in addition to the place this endangers the
anonymity of study contributors or contravenes information security legal guidelines.
This allows future researchers to repeat findings or re-analyse the knowledge in
the sunshine of present theoretical advances.
Authors additionally must report the availability of funding for evaluation, notably
the place this can conceivably have led to a perceived battle of curiosity e.g.,
the place evaluation into the psychometric properties of a examine is funded by the
industrial publishers of that examine.
Place of reviewers
Editors appoint exterior consultants as peer reviewers. Their perform is to guage
the submitted paper and provide written ideas to the authors. The aim is to
make sure that the printed work shall be as right, full, and
scientifically treasured as attainable. Reviewers and editors are positioned in a
place of perception all through this course of, and as such, ought to adhere to ethical
necessities of conduct referring to the treatment of the submitted work.
Reviewers and editors ought to maintain the confidentiality of the author(s) whereas
assessing the manuscript. This might moreover apply should or not it is important to
search the recommendation of a colleague referring to a particular a part of the paper.
The possession rights of the author(s) must be revered all via the
course of. To this end:
• The work should not be circulated, or quoted in addition to as is important for
the consider.
• The permission of the author(s) must be obtained if editors or
reviewers need to use any part of the submitted manuscript (e.g. information,
arguments, or interpretations) of their very personal work earlier to publication of
the paper.
• Reviewers may contact the authors via the editor after the consider
course of is concluded.
Should reviewers suspect ethical misconduct by the author(s), following an
analysis of the manuscript, or by completely different reviewers all through the consider
course of, they’ve to tell the editor in confidence. It is the accountability of
the editor to ensure that the consider course of is carried out in accordance with the
highest ethical necessities.
References
American Psychological Affiliation (1992). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and
Code of Conduct. American Psychologist, 1597-1611.
American Psychological Affiliation (1994) Publication Information of the American
Psychological Affiliation. Washington, DC: APA.
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (1999) Tips about Good Publication
Observe. London: BMA.