Ethics and Malpractice Statement

 

QURANICA - International Journal of Quranic Research (ISSN 2289-5396 | eISSN 2590-4167) is an international trilingual (Arabic, English & Malay) peer-reviewed bi-annual journal published by Centre of Quranic Research (CQR), University of Malaya. It reflects on the full range of current scholarly works on Qur’anic Studies. All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial screening by an editor and then a rigorous peer-review, and finally an editorial scrutiny. Thus, prevention of publication malpractice is the most important responsibilities of editorial board. Due to this matter, all roles in QURANICA publication, authors, reviewers and members of the editorial team, are expected to fully adhere to our policy regarding publication ethics and malpractice, and follow the best-practice guidelines on ethical behavior contained therein:

 

Editor’s Duties and Responsibilities: 

  1. Editors should evaluate the submitted manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic merit. The submitted manuscript should be relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious belief, political philosophy or institutional affiliation.
  2. Editors must ensure that each manuscript received by the journal is reviewed for its intellectual content, and they should not use the unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research purposes without the authors’ explicit written consent. Privileged information or ideas obtained by editors as a result of handling the manuscript will be kept confidential and not used for their personal advantage
  3. The editors ensure that all submitted manuscripts being considered for publication undergo peer-review by at least two reviewers who are expert in the field.
  4. Editors must ensure the integrity of the publication and peer-review process. As such, editors and editorial staff should not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone.
  5. Editors must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts must kept remain as confidential before publishing. The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over the entire editorial content of the journal and the timing of publication of that content. 
  6. Editors will take responsive measures when ethical concerns are raised with regard to a submitted manuscript or published paper. 

 

Editorial Board Responsibilities:

  1. Editorial board members were not allowed to use any unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research purposes without the authors’ explicit written consent. 
  2. The Editorial Board is responsible to decide any submitted articles that have to be published.
  3. The Editorial Board must ensure that information regarding the manuscripts submitted by the authors is kept confidential.
  4. The Editorial Board should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning any submitted manuscript or published paper. They shall conduct a proper and fair investigation with ethical towards any complaints.
  5. The Editorial Board is accountable for everything published in the journal. Thus, he/she has authority and responsible either to accept or reject any particular article.

 

Reviewer’s Responsibilities:

  1. Reviewers (Peer review) have to assists the editors in making editorial decisions through editorial communications with authors, through assisting authors in improving their manuscripts. Peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication and lies at the heart of scientific endeavor.
  2. Any invited referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported of any manuscript should immediately notify the editors and decline the invitation to review, so that the alternative reviewers can be contacted.
  3. Any manuscripts received for review are considered as confidential documents and must be treated as such; the manuscript must not be shown to or discussed with others, except if authorized by the Editor-in-Chief. This act also applies to the invited reviewers who decline the review invitation.
  4. Reviews should be conducted clearly towards the objective and scope of the research works or study presented from the submitted manuscript. Any suggestions should clearly support with the arguments, so that the authors can use to improve their manuscript. Personal criticism directly towards the authors is inappropriate.
  5. Reviewers should identify any relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any kind of statement which described as observation, derivation or argument that has been reported in previous publications should be accompanied by the relevant citation.
  6. A reviewer should notify the editors of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under his/her consideration or any other manuscript (published or unpublished), which he/she has personal knowledge.
  7. Any invited referee who has conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, connections or other relationships with any authors, companies or institutions connected to the manuscript and the research work described therein should immediately notify the editors. He/She has to declare his/her conflicts of interest and decline any invitation to review, so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.
  8. Unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the written consent from the authors. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and may not to be used for the reviewer’s personal advantage. This act also applies to the invited reviewers who decline the review invitation.

 

Author’s Responsibilities:

  1. The authors should ensure that their work is entirely original works, and they also should present an accurate account of the work performed and the results, followed by an objective discussion of the significance of the work. The manuscript should contain sufficient details and references to permit others to replicate the work. Review articles should be accurate, objective and comprehensive, while editorial 'opinion' or perspective pieces should be clearly identified as such. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior are unacceptable.
  2. Authors should ensure that they have written and submit only the original works. If they have used the work and/or words of others, the citation need to be clearly stated. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and it is unacceptable.
  3. Papers submitted under the same research should not be published in more than one journal or primary publication. Hence, the authors should not submit any manuscript that has already been published in another journal for consideration. Submission of a manuscript concurrently more than one journal is considered unethical and disapprove.
  4. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. The corresponding author need to ensure that all responsible co-authors are included on the paper, and any inappropriate co-authors need to be excluded. All the co-authors have seen the final version of the paper and agreed for the submission of the publication.
  5. Authors should disclose any conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript (exp. Financial - honoraria, grants or funding, bureaus etc. and non-financial, such as personal or professional relationship affiliations, knowledge etc.) All sources of financial support for the work should be disclosed (including the grant number or other reference number if any).
  6. Authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process and cooperate fully by responding promptly to editors’ requests for raw data, clarifications, and proof of ethics approval, patient consents and copyright permissions. 
  7. When authors discover any significant errors or inaccuracies in their submitted manuscript, they need to promptly notify the journal’s editors or publisher and cooperate with them, either by correcting the paper in the form of an erratum or retract the paper. If the editors or the publisher learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, it is the obligation of the author to promptly retract or correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper.

The ethics statements for our journal are based on the Ethical Code of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

 

Transfer of Copyright:

Disclaimer

QURANICA makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all its contents. However, opinions, discussions, views and recommendations are expressed in this journal do not necessarily reflect the official policy of QURANICA or views of its editors or publishers. Therefore, QURANICA and its publishers will not be liable for any controversy may be arisen. The journal reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to change its terms and conditions of publications.

Copyright
It is a condition of publication that manuscript submitted to the journal have not been published, accepted for publication, nor simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) agrees that copyright for the article is transferred to the publisher, if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication.