Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics/Policy and Publication Malpractice Statement

Bangladesh Journal of Infectious Diseases has policies on publication ethics and this journal follows the COPE's Core Practice guidance. This journal follows the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers. COPE guidelines state the journal’s policies on authorship and contributorship, complaints and appeals, handling allegations of research misconduct, policies on conflicts of interest, data sharing and reproducibility, ethical oversight, policy on intellectual property, post-publication discussions and policies on corrections and retractions.

Publication Ethics Statement

Bangladesh Journal of Infectious Diseases is going to be a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We fully adhere to its Code of Conduct and to its Best Practice Guidelines. The editors of this journal enforce a rigorous peer-review process together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure to add high quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation, inappropriate authorship credit, and the like, do arise. The editors of Bangladesh Journal of Infectious Diseases take such publishing ethics issues very seriously and are trained to proceed in such cases with a zero tolerance policy.

General duties and responsibilities of Authors: Authors wishing to publish their papers in Bangladesh Journal of Infectious Diseases must abide to the following:

  • Authors implicitly agree to their papers being peer-reviewed.
  • Confirm that the paper submitted is original. No plagiarism is allowed, no fraudulent data should be published. Acknowledge and cite content reproduced from other sources. Obtain permission to reproduce any content from other sources.
  • Assert that the paper has not yet been totally or partially published, is not currently under evaluation elsewhere for simultaneous consideration, and, if accepted, will not be published elsewhere either wholly or in part (except in case of specific agreements).
  • Splitting the data concerning one study in more than one publication may be acceptable if authors justify their choice with good reasons both in the cover letter and in the manuscript.
  • Authors should state what new scientific contribution is contained in their manuscript compared to any previously published article derived from the same study. Relevant previously published articles should be included in the cover letter of the submitted article.
  • Maintain accurate records of data associated with their submitted manuscript. If necessary the publisher may request a copy of such material.
  • Disclose possible conflicts of interest including financial agreements or consultant relationships with organisations involved in the research.
  • All authors included in the authors’ byline should have contributed significantly to the research. To this end authors are requested to specify their contribution.
  • Authors should ensure that all articles reporting studies that involve human subjects conform to the WMA Helsinki Declaration and that patients have given their informed consent for participation in the research study.
  • Authors should take every precaution to protect the privacy of patients and obtain permission from the patients for the publication of photographs or other material that might identify them. If necessary the publisher may request a copy of such material.
  • Authors should ensure that in any studies involving animal subjects they specify the guidelines for care of animals that have been followed.
  • Notify the journal editor or publisher promptly if a significant error in their publication is identified.
  • Cooperate with the editor and publisher to publish an erratum, addendum, corrigendum notice, or to retract the paper, where this is deemed necessary.

General Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

  • Act in a neutral and objective way without discrimination (whether religious, political, gender-based, sexually-oriented, ethnic or geographical).
  • Strive to meet the needs of readers and authors.
  • Guarantee the quality of the material published and constantly improve the journal.
  • Editors have responsibility to reject/accept an article and should have no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject/accept.
  • Foster freedom of expression.
  • Maintain the integrity of the academic record.
  • Monitor submitted material to identify plagiarism, fraudulent data and overlapping content.
  • Prevent business needs compromising intellectual standards.
  • Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

General duties and responsibilities of the Publisher

  • Supervise the peer-review process.
  • Protect intellectual property and copyright.
  • Respect privacy on research participants, authors, reviewers.
  • Monitor submitted material to identify plagiarism, fraudulent data and overlapping content.
  • Guarantee respect for the special requirements for human and animal research.
  • Monitor transparency and integrity (e.g., conflicts of interest, research funding, authorship/contributorship)
  • Publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
  • Prevent business needs compromising intellectual and ethical standards.
  • Prosecute any form of misconduct in accordance with international guidelines (flowcharts of the COPE’s code of conduct).
  • Make sure that all actors in the process work effectively towards the achievement of timely publication.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR REVIEWERS

  1. Reviews should be objective evaluations of the research. If you cannot judge a paper impartially, you should not accept it for review or you should notify the editor as soon as you appreciate the situation. If you have any professional or financial affiliations that may be perceived as a conflict of interest in reviewing the manuscript, or a history of personal differences with the author(s), you should describe them in your confidential comments.
  2. If, as a reviewer, you believe that you are not qualified to evaluate a component of the research, you should inform the editor in your review.
  3. Reviews should be constructive and courteous and the reviewer should respect the intellectual independence of the author. The reviewer should avoid personal comments; Bangladesh Journal of Infectious Diseases reserves the right to edit out comments that will hinder constructive discussion of manuscripts.
  4. Just as you wish prompt evaluations of your own research, please return your reviews within the time period specified when you were asked to review the paper. If events will prevent a timely review, it is your responsibility to inform the editor at the time of the request.
  5. The review process is conducted anonymously; Bangladesh Journal of Infectious Diseases never reveals the identity of reviewers to authors. The privacy and anonymity provisions of this process extend to the reviewer, who should not reveal his or her identity to outsiders or members of the press. The review itself will be shared only with the author, and possibly with other reviewers and our Board.
  6. The submitted manuscript is a privileged communication and must be treated as a confidential document. Please destroy all copies of the manuscript after review. Please do not share the manuscript with any colleagues without the explicit permission of the editor. Reviewers should not make personal or professional use of the data or interpretations before publication without the authors' specific permission (unless you are writing an editorial or commentary to accompany the article).
  7. You should be aware of Journal policies for authors regarding conflict of interest, data availability, and materials sharing.

Originality and Preprint Policy

By submitting your manuscript to the journal it is understood that this it is an original manuscript and is unpublished work that is not under consideration elsewhere. The journal will consider articles that are included in a PhD thesis or that are part of a poster or short presentation. If accepted, you will need to update the status of any preprint, including your paper’s DOI. The journal will not consider papers that are part of a book chapter, numbered volume or blog, or where the author has previously signed an Exclusive Licence to Publish or copyright agreement. Re-use of text, data, figures, or images without appropriate acknowledgment or permission is considered plagiarism, as is the paraphrasing of text, concepts, and ideas. All allegations of plagiarism are investigated thoroughly and in accordance with COPE guidelines. This journal systematically run submitted papers through plagiarism-detection software to identify possible cases.

CrossMark®

CrossMark is a multi-publisher initiative that provides a standard way for readers to locate the authoritative version of a published work. It is our highest priority to maintain trust in the authority of its electronic archive, recognizing the importance of the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record to researchers and librarians. Clicking on the CrossMark icon will inform the reader of the current status of a published work and may also provide additional publication record information about the document. 

Ethics of Animal Study

All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the International Guidelines like EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. All authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated, and where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study.