Ethical standards for publishing must be followed to ensure outstanding scientific publications, researchers' confidence in scientific results, and authors receiving recognition for their work and ideas.
Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences (G. Microbiology) (EAJBSG) expects authors to adhere to the highest standards of scientific publishing ethics (COPE) and aims to adhere to its core guidelines and practices.
ARTICLE ASSESSMENT
All submissions initially submitted to the journal are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and/or Designated Associate Editor. At this stage, manuscripts may be rejected without peer review, if they are considered to be not of sufficiently high quality or to be outside the scope of the journal. This gives authors a quick decision and they do not need to wait for the review process.
Unrejected manuscripts are sent to at least two Anonymous reviewers. Based on the recommendations of these reviewers and the judgment of the Associate Editor and Editor-in-Chief, a decision is made on the manuscript. The reviewers' suggestions are then sent to the author to do the necessary work. The manuscript is then received after making corrections from the author and verifying the work of the reviewers, then returning it to the author as a final proof.
EAJBSG strives to ensure that any submission from the Editor-in-Chief or a member of the journal's editorial board receives the same objective and unbiased evaluation as submissions from any other author. This is done by assigning any manuscript submitted by the editor-in-chief or a member of the editorial board to a neutral member of the editorial board, who supervises the evaluation process and makes the decision. Editors, including the editor-in-chief, are not automatically aware of all aspects of the review process
In the event of an unresolved dispute between authors, the matter may be referred to the author’s institution (the institution’s committee of referees) or funding agencies if the manuscript is funded to investigate and decide on the matter.
As for entries that have a serious ethical, biosecurity, or societal impact, experts may be consulted, such as the appointment of reviewers with specific expertise and evaluated by additional editors, and the submission may be refused if the impact is clear.
DUPLICATE PUBLICATION
EAJBSG only accepts original content, which has not been published before.
When the author submits the manuscript to the EAJBSG journal, it must not have been submitted to any other journal while it is being considered, and it must be withdrawn before submitting it to another journal.
EAJBSG has the right to reject a manuscript suspected of plagiarism at any time during the evaluation process and articles found to violate the plagiarism guidelines will be retracted after publication. The Journal announces any suspicion of plagiarism to the main author's institution.
Duplicate publication of the same article may lead to the article being withdrawn later. Also, inappropriate division of the study results into more than one article may lead to rejection or a request to merge the submitted research.
PLAGIARISM
Authors must not use the words, figures, or ideas of others without attribution. All sources must be cited at the point they are used, and reuse of wording must be limited and be attributed or quoted in the text.
All the papers submitted have to pass through an initial screening and will be checked through the Advanced Plagiarism Detection Software (CrossCheck by iThenticate).
EAJBSG uses Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate) on each manuscript before the peer-review process to detect submissions that overlap with published and submitted manuscripts.
If the similarity content is very high the manuscript will be rejected. Any published articles may need to be corrected or retracted.
ANIMAL ETHICS AND WELFARE
Authors must adhere to international guidelines and standards for the ethical use of animals in research, the legal requirements of the country in which the work was carried out, and any institutional guidelines. Authors should state (within the text of the article) the name of the local and/or national body that approves the use of animals in research and the reference number for animal ethics approval of the protocols applied in the work.
CITATION MANIPULATION
Any manipulation of citations (e.g. including citations not contributing to a manuscript's scientific content, citations solely aiming at increasing an author's or a journal’s citations) is regarded as scientific malpractice.
Editors and reviewers must not ask authors to include references merely to increase citations to their own or an associate’s work, to the journal, or to another journal they are associated with.
AUTHORSHIP AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All authors listed on the manuscript must have made a significant scientific contribution to the manuscript, agree with its results, and agree to be co-authors.
Anyone who contributed to the research or preparation of the manuscript, but is not an author, must be acknowledged with permission.
Submissions from anyone other than one of the authors will not be considered.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST (COI)
The journal's policy requires disclosure of any direct or indirect financial interests or connections that may raise the issue of bias in the published manuscript or opinions stated.
Corresponding authors are asked to confirm and provide details of whether they or their co-authors have any conflicts of interest to declare. If the corresponding author is unable to confirm this information on behalf of all participating authors, the relevant authors will be asked to submit a completed conflict of interest form to the editorial office. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all authors adhere to this policy. If the manuscript is published, conflict of interest information will be communicated in a statement on the published page.
Reviewers must declare any remaining interests in the “Confidential” section of the review form, which will be considered by the editor.
Editors and reviewers should declare whether they have previously discussed the manuscript with the authors.
SANCTIONS
If EAJBSG becomes aware of violations of our publishing ethics policies, whether or not the violation occurred in a journal published by EAJBSG, the following penalties may apply across the EAJBSG journal: