1. Publication Ethics Statement 

Scilight Press closely follows the guidelines and core practices of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). As a publisher of academic works Scilight Press, our editors and publishing partners subscribe to the principles of academic freedom, editorial independence and the highest levels of research integrity. By submitting a manuscript to our journal, each author explicitly confirms that the manuscript meets the highest ethical standards from the author and coauthors including proper statistical investigations and thorough ethical reviews by the data owning organizations. All submitted manuscripts must conform to Scilight's policies as described.

The following policies apply to all Scilight Press journals and please refer to any additional requirements outlined by the journal before your submission. 

Where concerns about academic misconduct or potential errors in our published content are raised, our actions are guided by the COPE recommendations. Concerns raised anonymously, or by whistleblowers are treated with the same degree of rigor and thoroughness.

2. Types of research misconduct

Plagiarism

In addition to the direct copying of text, with or without paraphrasing, from a single source without proper acknowledgement, the common types of plagiarism are: Mosaic plagiarism (patchwork plagiarism) and Self-plagiarism/ text-recycling.

• Mosaic plagiarism (patchwork plagiarism)
  This is when text is lifted from a few different sources (which may include your own previous work) and put into your manuscript to create the impression of new text.
• Self-plagiarism/ text-recycling
  This is the redundant reuse of your own work (e.g., text, data, and images), including text translated from another language, usually without proper citation. It creates repetition in the academic literature and can skew meta-analyses if you publish the same sets of data multiple times as "new" data.

Of course, other types of plagiarism also exist. What they all have in common is a lack of transparency to the original source of the material used in the manuscript.

Duplicate publishing

Duplicate publication is the publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published, without clear, visible reference to the previous publication. Prior publication may include the release of information in the public domain.

Falsification or Fabrication of Data

Data fabrication is the intentional misinterpretation of research results, reporting experiments that were never conducted, or the manipulation of accurate data to suit a desired outcome.

Image manipulation is a specific type of data manipulation and relates to e.g., duplication of parts within an image, or use of identical images to show different things.

Scilight takes issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. 

Once the manuscript is found to have committed publication misconduct, we will immediately impose the penalties mentioned above.

We reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); rejecting the manuscript or withdrawing the published paper(Guidelines for retraction of articles-COPE Retraction guidelines); taking up the matter with the head of the department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; releasing all penalty documents in Scilight website. 

It is important to be reminded that Research Misconduct is purposeful misconduct and as such does not include honest error or differences of opinion which may occur at time to time in research and which can generally be corrected or outlined at the time of publication.

3. Authorship

Everyone listed as an author should meet our criteria for authorship. Everyone who meets our criteria for authorship must be listed as an author, and the contributions of all authors must be reported. All authors are expected to have made substantial contributions to the submitted work and to be accountable for the work both before and after publication. According to the ICMJE guidelines, to qualify as an author one should have (i) made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; and (ii) been involved in drafting the manuscript or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; and (iii) given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and (iv) agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Acquisition of funding, collection of data or general supervision of the research group alone; does not usually justify authorship.

We expect that all authors will take public responsibility for the content of the manuscript submitted to Scilght Press. All manuscripts must be submitted by an author and may not be submitted by a third party.

The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal and editorial office during the submission process, throughout peer review, and during publication. The corresponding author is also responsible for ensuring that the submission adheres to all journal requirements including, but not exclusive to, details of authorship, study ethics and ethics approval, clinical trial registration documents, and conflict of interest declaration. The corresponding author should also be available post-publication to respond to any queries or critiques. Although the corresponding author has primary responsibility for correspondence with the journal, all authors will be contacted by email to ensure that they are aware of and approve the submission of the manuscript, its content, and its authorship.

4. Authorship Changes

Scilght Press journals follow the COPE guidelines for changes in authorship.

Changing the author list after submission requires agreement from all authors. This includes additions, deletions, and changes in ordering. Requests must come from the corresponding author along with an explanation of how any added authors contributed to the work and why author(s) are being added/removed after the initial submission. The corresponding author must also provide to Scilght Press documentation verifying that all authors, including any being added, deleted, or reordered, have given written consent to the change(s). Authorship change requests are subject to Scilght Press' approval; we may require validation of authorship contributions from an institutional official.

Scilght Press does not generally consider requests to add or remove authors between acceptance and publication of the article. If there are special circumstances that apply to your article such that a post-accept authorship change is needed, please contact the journal office. These requests require approval by the journal's editorial team.

In the case of an authorship dispute, the journal will not arbitrate. If the authors are unable to resolve the dispute themselves, we will defer the issue to the authors' institution(s) in accordance with COPE guidelines. The journal will abide by institutional recommendations following authorship investigations, with rare exception.

Authorship changes after publication are addressed via Corrections, except in rare circumstances. 

5. Acknowledgment

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the 'Acknowledgment' section. Authors have a responsibility to get approval from persons named in the acknowledgment section.

6. Conflicts of interest

Authors must declare all relevant financial or non-financial, professional, or personal competing interests that could be perceived as conflicting during manuscript submission. If no conflicts exist, the authors should state that there is no conflict of interest to declare.

7. Ethical guidelines for journal editors

We ask all journal editors to make every reasonable effort to adhere to the following ethical guidelines for articles submitted for peer review in Scilight journals:

• Journal editors should give unbiased consideration to each manuscript submitted for publication. They should judge each on its merits, without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the author(s).
• Journal editors must keep the peer-review process confidential. They must not share information about a manuscript with anyone outside of the peer-review process.
• If a journal editor receives a credible allegation of misconduct by an author, reviewer, or journal editor, then they have a duty to investigate the matter with Scilight.
• Journal editors may reject a submitted manuscript without formal peer review if they consider it to be inappropriate for the journal and outside its scope.
• Journal editors should make all reasonable efforts to process submissions on time.
• Journal editors should delegate the peer review of any original self-authored research article to a member of the editorial or advisory board as appropriate.
• If a journal editor receives convincing evidence that the main substance or conclusions of an article published in the journal are incorrect, then, in consultation with the publisher, the journal editor should ensure the publication of an appropriate notice of correction.
• Any data or analysis presented in a submitted manuscript should not be used in a journal editor's own research without the consent of the author.
• Keep submission and peer review details confidential, as required. Do not upload files, images or information from unpublished manuscripts into databases or tools that do not guarantee confidentiality, are accessible by the public and/or may store or use this information for their own purposes (for example, generative AI tools like ChatGPT).

8. Post-publication

The correspondence provides access to the post-publication conversation. If any readers have any concerns about any of the stories published, they can write a letter to the editor. Erratum, correction, and retraction can be used to remedy any errors or faults detected in the article. For significant concerns that potentially impact the reliability of the research, the editor will initiate an investigation to determine how the concern will be addressed. Original authors and reviewers will be included in the investigation as needed. The editor will strive to complete investigations within 60 days of reporting. Outcomes of the investigation may include:

• No Change
• Correction:
  1) Article is updated, including publication metadata
  2) Correction notice is issued in the next issue of the journal
• Retraction:
  1) Article page is updated with retraction notice and reason for retraction
  2)A retraction notice is issued in the next issue of the journal

In the case of a correction or erratum, the peer reviewed and revised document will be amended and re-published on our website, along with the posting of a Correction, after the update request has been accepted. Meanwhile, a link created between the correction/erratum article and the original article to make readers and other users/systems aware of the correction. The Retraction decisions are based on COPE Retraction Guidelines.

More processing key points following the guidance of COPE-Handling of post-publication critiques.

Update in March 2024