General responsibilities and duties of editors
Editors should:
Take responsibility for any material published in the journal.
Work towards the needs of readers and writers.
Strive to advance the magazine.
Ensure the quality of printed content according to existing trends.
Defend freedom of expression.
Maintain the integrity of the journal's academic background.
Prevent moral and intellectual standards from being overshadowed by financial needs.
Always be interested in providing corrections, explanations, retrieval of articles, and apologies if needed.
Ethical considerations of the authors:
Authors should not have any fake information, whether raw or processed in their submission.
Scientific honesty must be observed by all authors. Any use of previous sources, whether unpublished or not, should be noted by the authors in the work with reference to the source.
There should be no manifestation of ethnic, cultural, national, sexual, identity, age, linguistic or medical discrimination in the work, otherwise the work will be rejected in the first place.
All authors must have obtained the agreement of the participants in their research. Likewise, the protection of participants' personal rights as well as their personalization of identity must be carefully considered by the authors.
General principles that judges are required to follow:
Judges must:
Judge only the initial versions of articles that fall within their professional capacity and are also able to do them on time.
Respect the confidentiality of arbitration information and do not disclose any of the original copy information at any stage of the arbitration.
Do not use the information obtained when judging to their advantage or that of any other person or organization, nor use this information to harm or discredit others.
Report potential inconsistencies with the journal's interests or, if one is unsure of the inconsistencies, contact the journal to make sure.
Do not allow their judgment to be influenced by issues such as nationality, religion, political beliefs, gender, or other such issues concerning the author.
Be impartial and constructive in criticism and avoid verbal violence, offensive and insulting terms.
Have a proper understanding of the reciprocity of the arbitration process and do their part of the work at the specified time.
Forgery of another person's identity during the arbitration process is considered abusive and very serious.
Expectations during the arbitration process:
Judges must:
Be accountable at the appointed time, especially if they are unable to make judgments.
Inform if they do not have the necessary professional ability to judge.
Only agree to arbitration if they are able to do so under an agreed timeline.
Report any incompatibilities with interests.
In cases of inconsistencies in arbitration, follow the policy of the journal.
Judge the original version that has already been judged for other journals completely from the beginning as there is a possibility of many variations between the two different presentations.
Ensure that their suggestions for an alternate arbitrator are appropriate to them and not personal.
Expectations at the time of refereeing:
Judges must:
If they encounter a discrepancy during the judging that was not apparent when accepting the job, notify the journal immediately.
If they are unable to judge all parts of the original version, notify the journal immediately.
Refrain from involving other persons, including students and trainees, in arbitration without obtaining permission from the journal.
Avoid accepting the judgment of the original version, which they wish to judge only for the purpose of obtaining information about it, and not for the purpose of actual judgment.
Avoid accepting work if they are not able to judge impartially.
If they have played a role in the research in any way, they should avoid judging it.
Refrain from judging if the research itself, similar to the original, is underway or has been submitted to another journal.
The entire original version is provided and reviews are kept confidential.
In the case of anonymous two-sided judgments, if they suspect the identity of the author, and this causes a special inconsistency, inform the journal.
If they encounter any particular irregularities or ethical points about various aspects of the work when judging, notify the journal immediately.
Do not intentionally judge longer than the scheduled time.
Ensure that their judgments are based on the nature of the work presented and not influenced by personal, financial or other inconsistencies.
Refrain from contacting authors without obtaining permission from the journal.
Expectations when preparing an arbitration report:
Judges must:
Be constructive and impartial and let the authors know their constructive opinions to improve the original version.
Refrain from making insulting comments and baseless accusations.
Criticize in detail and use relevant evidence to substantiate their views on general opinions.
Be fully aware of language-related sensitivities, especially for writers who do not write in their native language.
Identify the substantial surplus needed to substantiate the claims made in the original.
Do not write the report in a way that is negative and unfair about a particular person.
Ensure that their comments and suggestions are consistent with the magazine editor and the original author.
Refrain from offering to cite the referee's own work, only to increase the citation of their article.
Expectations after preparing the report:
Judges must:
Keep the original version provided and reviewed confidential.
Be aware that if contacted by the magazine about their arbitration, they should respond immediately and provide the required information.
Note that if the relevant matter appears to the referee after the submission of the report, which makes it possible to change the comments and suggestions, be sure to inform the magazine.
Read the report prepared by the other judges to increase their understanding of the issue and the decision made.
Try to adapt to the magazine's requests to modify their report or resubmit the judged original.
Scientific and literary plagiarism
Publications of Islamic Azad University, Sirjan Branch, follow the definitions and instructions of the Ethics Committee in Publications (COPE). For full access to these guidelines, definitions and rules, visit www.publicationethics.org/resources.