Ethics Policy

ETHICS POLICY

This is the statement of ethics for Malaysian Journal of Chemical Engineering and Technology (MJCET) published by Universiti Teknologi MARA Press (Penerbit UiTM).  MJCET aspires to select and publish, through blind peer-review. A guideline on MJCET code of ethics largely based upon the principles upheld by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).  It covers the code of ethics for chief editor, editorial board members, reviewers and authors.

DUTIES OF AUTHORS

  • To be responsible in ensuring only new and original work is submitted. All work must be appropriately cited or quoted (following recommended format) when using other work and/or word of others.
  • To ensure the submitted work has not been previously published in other journals. Accurate factual data collections are ensured.
  • To ensure submitted articles are not being reviewed or considered by other journals simultaneously. The articles are only allowed to publish after receiving a formal rejection from the journal or if withdrawal request is officially accepted by the journal.
  • To be responsible to pursue with a retraction of article by informing the Chief Editor or the publisher of any inaccuracy of data in their published work.
  • To be accountable on any shortcoming in the submitted by submitting significant contributions.
  • To follow strictly instructions during corrections and improvement recommended by reviewers/editor. Submission of Copyright Transfer Agreement (as attached) is compulsory.
  • To ensure no violation of any proprietary or personal rights of others (including, without limitation, any copyrights or privacy rights) occurs.
  • To make declaration of no financial interest is gained in the subject matter of the manuscript, nor is affiliated with an organization or entity with a financial interest in the subject matter of the manuscript.

DUTIES OF REVIEWERS

  • To make sure any disclosure of any competing interest prior to agreement to review a submission is informed.
  • To ensure refusal in reviewing of any submitted article assigned when conflict of interest or inadequate knowledge presents.
  • To strictly ensure objective, fair and professional review of all submitted articles assigned to be followed.
  • To strictly follow steps in revealing any detected ethical misconduct during the reviewing process to the Chief Editor for further action.
  • To strictly abide with the originality or any element of plagiarism and redundancy of publication on all submitted articles assigned.
  • To obtain permission from the publisher before disclosing the content of the submission.
  • To adhere to the time allocated for the review process and request for extension to review the submission from the Chief Editor.

DUTIES OF EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

  • To provide assistance to the Editor in Chief and Chief Editor during the selection process of manuscript to be published in MJCET.
  • To offer excellent evaluation of the manuscript’s contents and language as assigned during the MJCET process.
  • To recommend suitability of the manuscript based on the quality presented in accordance with scope of MJCET.
  • To re-evaluate of the corrected manuscript by the author/(s).
  • To suggest improvements for the Editor in Chief or Chief Editor in making selection decisions.
  • To offer continuous feedbacks in maintaining the highest standards of quality of the manuscript published with high ethics and competence.
  • To recommend manuscript of originality, quality with the highest standards.
  • To offer assistance in promoting MJCET to obtain manuscripts from colleagues, acquaintance, research scholars, and students etc. within or outside of the members institution.
  • To offer promotional activities for MJCET such as in Conference of National and International Importance, Seminars, Symposium and Workshops.

DUTIES OF EDITOR IN CHIEF/CHIEF EDITOR

  • To ensure fair evaluation of the submitted manuscripts solely on their intellectual merit.
  • To ensure not to disclose any information regarding manuscripts to anyone other than the people involved in the publishing process in abiding to confidentiality terms and conditions.
  • To ensure high responsibility publication selection and decisions.
  • To actively and continuously (when necessary) seeking views and recommendation from all board members, reviewers and authors in publication processes dealing with image and visibility.
  • To ensure systematic steps are taken during MJCET process with potential contributors.
  • To be responsible in offering selections of the most appropriate reviewers during the reviewing process.
  • To strictly ensuring only original work, not plagiarized, yet being published or yet being considered for all submitted manuscripts elsewhere. Appropriate softwares may be used by the editorial office to check for similarities of submitted manuscripts with existing literature. Inclusion of fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements are unacceptable.
  • To make sure that appropriate citation or quoting steps are strictly abided accordingly in the manuscripts.

 

REPORTING

All authors are highly expected to make clear, honest, accurate and unambiguous reporting of the work with no false ethical conduct or any inappropriate data manipulation in ensuring repetition can be conducted elsewhere. Abide with the author’s instruction in submitting the work to MJCET following the common content representation of a scientific publications. Any article that does not comply will be returned ​for either can be corrected or permanently rejected.

 

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

A statement on conflict of interest must be included in the manuscript if authors receive any support that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

All direct and indirect conflict of interests related to the work must be disclosed before submission for publication. Any interests that emerged within the span of three years from the beginning of the work, including conducting the research and the preparation of submission, should be reported. Interests that arose outside of the three-year period must be disclosed if there is reasonable suspicion that they could influence the submission of the work. These disclosures help provide a complete and transparent process that enables readers to assess and form their own opinions regarding the potential bias. However, it is important to note that this does not mean that the organization sponsoring the research or any compensation received for consultancy work is considered inappropriate. 

Editorial Board Members and Editors are required to disclose any conflict of interests. Any conflicts shared may result in the removal from the peer review process and exclusion from handling manuscripts. This includes, but is not limited to, having collaborated on a published work with one or more of the authors and being within the same institution as one or more of the authors. Any Editors or Editorial Board Members who are listed as authors must be included in the conflict of interest section of the submitted manuscript. A different Editor or member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to take on the responsibility of overseeing the peer review if the previous Editor or Editorial Board member is the author of the manuscript or has any competing interest related to the specific manuscript. These submissions are subject to the same review process, just like any other manuscripts. Editorial Members are welcome to submit papers to the journal. Note that priority will not be given to these submissions, and the Editorial Board Member status does not influence editorial consideration.

AUTHORSHIP AND COLLABORATION

Authorship and collaboration particulars must be clearly stated/acknowledged/listed in the publication who make significant contribution to the report. Only those who have made significant contributions should be listed as main author, co-author and corresponding author. All listed particulars of the authors must approve the final version of the paper and agree to the version of the paper before submission.

 

MULTIPLE OR REDUNDANT

Redundancy of submitting the same research output in more than one journal or primary publication must be avoided. Unethical publishing submission process must be strictly adhered.

 

PLAGIARISM AND SELF-PLAGIARISM 

Free of any plagiarism, falsification, fabrication, or omission of significant material. Abide strictly to the standard citation rules in publication. Self-plagiarism/redundancy can possibly occur via:

  • Use of identical or nearly identical sentences or paragraphs from earlier writings in subsequent research papers, without quotation or acknowledgement (recycling contents); or
  • Multiple submission only with slight variations of each other to other journals without acknowledgement of the other papers.