Publication Ethics

JASTT adheres to the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against publication malpractice. Authors are expected to present their work accurately and objectively. The journal follows the guidelines set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). 

 

Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

The publication of an article in the peer-reviewed journal JASTT is to support the standard and respected knowledge transfer network. Our publication ethics and publication malpractice statement is mainly based on the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011) that include:

  1. General duties and responsibilities of editors.
  2. Relations with readers.
  3. Relations with authors.
  4. Relations with editors.
  5. Relations with editorial board members.
  6. Relations with journal owners and publishers.
  7. Editorial and peer review processes.
  8. Protecting individual data.
  9. Encouraging ethical research (e.g., research involving humans or animals).
  10. Dealing with possible misconduct.
  11. Ensuring the integrity of the academic record.
  12. Intellectual property.
  13. Encouraging debate.
  14. Complaints.
  15. Conflicts of interest.

 

Informed Consent

Obtaining informed consent is a basic ethical obligation and a legal requirement for researchers. An informed consent document is typically used to provide subjects with the information they need to make a decision to volunteer for a research study. This information is most often presented in the form of a written document, but it may also be offered verbally by a member of the study team or in some other format understandable to the subject. Regulations and policy require that certain information be provided as part of the consent process. For research papers that include volunteers as a part of the research (e.g. medical research papers), the Authors must provide documents that clearly indicate the informed consent issue.

 

Animal Research

  1. For research conducted on regulated animals (which includes all live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates), appropriate approval must have been obtained according to either international or local laws and regulations. Before conducting the research, approval must have been obtained from the relevant body (in most cases, an Institutional Review Board or Ethics Committee). The authors must provide an ethics statement as part of their Methods section, detailing full information as to their approval (including the name of the granting organization, and the approval reference numbers). If an approval reference number is not provided, written approval must be provided as a confidential supplemental information file. Research on non-human primates is subject to specific guidelines from the Weatherall (2006) report (The Use of Non-Human Primates in Research).
  2. For research conducted on non-regulated animals, a statement should be made as to why ethical approval was not required.
  3. Experimental animals should have been handled according to the highest standards dictated by the author’s institution.
  4. We strongly encourage all authors to comply with the 'Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments' (ARRIVE) guidelines, developed by NC3Rs.
  5. Articles should be specific in their descriptions of the organism(s) used in the study. The description should indicate strain names when they are known.