Publication Ethics

Ethical standards for publication according to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) exist to ensure high-quality scientific publications, public trust in scientific findings, and that people receive credit for their work and ideas.

Article assessment

All manuscripts are subject to peer review and are expected to meet academic standards. If approved by the editor, submissions will be considered by peer reviewers, whose identities will remain anonymous to the authors. The journal may consult experts and tor before deciding on appropriate actions, including but not limited to recruiting reviewers with specific expertise, assessment by additional editors, and declining to further consider a submission.

Plagiarism and Artificial Intelligence

Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from another source, even from your own publications, without giving any credit to the original source.  Reuse of text that is copied from another source must be between quotes and the original source must be cited. A paper that is written by any Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools is not considered your own original work. It doesn't matter which AI tool you used. Using any of these to write your papers is considered a form of plagiarism. 

WAUPASJ has a zero-tolerance policy towards the plagiarism and AI. Editorial has checked the manuscripts for plagiarism and AI after receiving the article by Turnitin software. If found plagiarism exceeds 30% or AI is not zero, the article will be rejected. In case that a paper is already published in our journal but plagiarism is still detected, it will be retracted from our journal and the authors' institutions and department heads will be notified to take action

Duplicate submission and redundant publication

We consider only original content, i.e., articles that have not been previously published, including in a language other than English. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not be submitted elsewhere while under consideration and must be withdrawn before being submitted elsewhere. Submission to the Journal is on the understanding that the article has not been previously published in any other form and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Citation manipulation

Authors whose submitted manuscripts are found to include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal, may incur sanctions.

Fabrication and falsification

The authors of submitted manuscripts or published articles that are found to have fabricated or falsified the results, including the manipulation of images, may incur sanctions, and published articles may be retracted.

Authorship and acknowledgements

All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript, approved its claims, and agreed to be an author. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution. Author contributions may be described at the end of the submission. Anyone who contributed to the research or manuscript preparation, but is not an author, should be acknowledged with their permission. Submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be considered.

Conflicts of interest

Conflicts of interest occur when issues outside research could be reasonably perceived to affect the neutrality or objectivity of the work or its assessment. If conflicts of interest are found after publication, this may be embarrassing for the authors, the Editor and the journal. It may be necessary to publish a corrigendum or reassess the review process.

Authors

Authors must declare all potential interests in a ‘Conflicts of interest’ section, which should explain why the interest may be a conflict. If there are none, the authors should state “The author(s) declare(s) that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.” Submitting authors are responsible for coauthors declaring their interests.

Authors must declare current or recent funding (including article processing charges) and other payments, goods or services that might influence the work. All funding, whether a conflict or not, must be declared in the ‘Funding Statement’.

The involvement of anyone other than the authors who 1) has an interest in the outcome of the work; 2) is affiliated with an organization with such an interest; or 3) was employed or paid by a funder, in the commissioning, conception, planning, design, conduct, or analysis of the work, the preparation or editing of the manuscript, or the decision to publish must be declared.

The corresponding author should list all co-authors' emails in the "Additional emails" field, separated by ",". It is essential that all authors are aware and agree that the manuscript is submitted to this journal.

Editors and Reviewers

Editors and reviewers should decline to be involved with a submission when they have a recent publication or current submission with any author, shared an affiliation with any author, collaborated or recently collaborated with any author or have previously discussed the manuscript with the authors.

Experimental research involving human and/or animal

Experimental research involving humans or animals should have been approved by the author's institutional review board or ethics committee. This information can be mentioned in the manuscript including the name of the board/committee that gave the approval. Investigations involving humans will have been performed in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The use of animals in experiments will have observed the Interdisciplinary Principles and Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research, Testing, and Education. If the manuscript contains photos or parts of photos of patients, informed consent from each patient should be obtained. Patient's identities and privacy should be carefully protected in the manuscript.