Important Ethical Issues in Publishing a Scientific Paper

Abstract:
The word “ethics” means to rules of conduct, norms of behaviour, and theories of moral philosophy used for examining, guiding or understanding moral Issues. Researchers are more responsible for conducting their research work ethically and in agreement with the approved protocol.  There are many ethical issues which are important to all types of researcher. Each one is briefly mentioned in the article.

Introduction:
Objective of the present paper is to provide brief note on “important ethical issues in publishing a scientific paper”.  Scientific paper means “a paper is an organized description of hypotheses, data and conclusions, intended to educate the reader. If your research does not generate papers, it is just like not having done the study” [1].  Some of the important issues of ethics in publishing a scientific paper are discussed below.
 
Authorship Issues:
Authorship issues always surface in all professions. Even if people are exposed to publication process, they are expected to have observed such situations with colleagues. Many Issues tend to take place when writing a manuscript with several authors. Authorship disagreements can lead to embarrassment, anger, hostility, unpleasantness, broken down relationship and finally, can harm careers. [2,3] .
 
Major Author Responsibilities:
Everyone must estimate some responsibility for accurateness of their written material, but level of responsibility is reasonable. Some of the general rules for preparation and submission of manuscripts are listed below [4]:

• Make sure that the author’s research work is reliable
• All Authors must be aware about the submission and agree with the content
• Should agree for the examination of their manuscript by anonymous reviewers.
• Provide copies of related work submitted or published elsewhere
• Obtain copyright permission if figures, tables or graphs need to be reproduced
• Include proper affiliation etc...

 
Authorship of the Paper:
Authorship must be limited to those who have made a considerable contribution in the reported research work. The people, who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research study, must be acknowledged. The corresponding authors have to make sure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are incorporated in the research paper designed for publish. All co-authors are required to have made sure and standardise the final version of the research paper and have approved for its submission for publication [5].
 
Potential Causes of Authorship Issues:
Two common causes of authorship problems which occur are failure to reach the agreement at the commencement of the project and discussions that are unclear and undocumented. Another cause relates to the contribution of authors either to the paper itself or to the entire project over time. If an apprentice writer, make assumptions about whether authorship is deserve. As a result, author may be either omitted or be included when he do not meet the authorship criteria. He also thinks that inclusion of well-connected people may improve the reliability of his work. He also may feel that he should take an account of teachers who mentored him. Finally, in a long-term project, he or other authors’ height of activity or contributions may get modified [6 ].
 
Research Misconduct:
Research misconduct means Fabrication, Falsification and Plagiarism (FFP) in reviewing the research [7,4].

• Fabrication is making up data and reporting them.
• Falsification is manipulating research materials, processes, or changing data
• Plagiarism means the stealing of another person’s ideas, processes, and results without giving appropriate credit.

 
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is a major violation of truthfulness and involves theft of intellectual property [8, 19]. As we start writing for publication, should be careful to keep away from plagiarism, it may not be an intentional act but an error. The responsibility for plagiarism lies ultimately with the writer. The important thing is, each manuscript should be copyrighted when it get published [9, 15]. Majority of editors and reviewers would argue that self-plagiarism is immoral. However, he can copy his material if he owns the copyrights [10].
 
Some of commonly asked questions related to plagiarism include [11].

• Should all levels of plagiarism, ranging from paraphrasing without any citation about copying verbatim, be treated the same?
• What due course of action is needed to validate plagiarism?
• Should the intentional plagiarist be treated differently than the unintentional plagiarist?

With regard to the all above mentioned questions, we can find out exact answers from expert authors. Following are the recommendations which help to avoid plagiarism [12].

• Use of quotation marks around the words taken from a verbatim source.
• Use ellipses (a space and three periods) for a part of the quotation omitted.
• Use brackets around added words.
• Attempt to paraphrase the information, or summarize the information derived from a variety of sources using one’s own words etc...

 
Fundamental errors in published works:
When an author discovers important mistakes in his/her own published work, it is the author’s responsibility to promptly inform the journal editor and cooperate with the editor to correct the research paper. If the publisher learns from a third party that a published research work contains a major error, it is the obligation of the writer of the paper to promptly correct the paper [13].
 
Duplicate Publication:
Duplicate publication involves publishing the same information, in the similar layout, in more than one journal, Internet, or any other form of resources [6].

All the authors need to be practiced of one submission (single submission of single manuscript to one journal at a time and no resubmission to another journal until a written rejection has been received from that particular journal) which is essential to guard the writer and publisher.

The Editors must have exclusive rights to the manuscript. The principle of one submission does not remove consideration for publication of any writing paper previously rejected by another journal. The main accountability for preventing duplicate of publication remains with the author. The Following lists of prominent criteria which are necessary to consider the article as “duplicate” [14] are

• Identical content
• Highly similar articles with minimal modifications
• Several articles when one is enough
• Sequential articles about the development of work
• Similar articles for various disciplines

 
Ramifications:
Majority of the time multiple ramifications result from duplicate submissions and publications, ranging from consumption of valuable resources to further encouraging the publish [15]. Rarely, editors will say yes to duplicate publications under certain conditions, including agreement by editors of both journals, a subsequent version that precisely reflects the first article in the second article informing the reader of the primary paper [16].
 
Data Manipulation:
Few researchers who manipulate their data in ways that mislead others are violating both the basic values and broadly accepted professional standards of science and always fail to fulfil all three obligations. (Misleading data can also take place from poor experimental design or careless assessments as well as from inappropriate manipulation) [17].
 
Acknowledgement of Source:
The most important thing in paper writing are, author or researcher must give proper acknowledgment for the work of others. Writer must cite publications that have been significant in determining the nature of the reported research work. Information obtained privately, through conversation, correspondence should not be reported without consent [18].
 
Conclusion:
As researchers, everyone needs to uphold high standards of scholarly work and stress the significance of integrity in spreading the knowledge. Intellectual work must be conducted responsibly and ethically. Researchers must always keep in mind to carry own things rather than others.
 
References:
1. Whitesides, G .A. M., 2004,
http://www.ee.ucr.edu/~rlake/Whitesides_writing_res_paper.pdf
2. King, C.R., McGuire, D.B., Longman, A.J., & Carroll-Johnson, R.M. (1997). Peer review, authorship, ethics, and conflict of interest. Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 29, 163– 167.
3. Fain, J.A. (1997). Maintaining scientific integrity in publications [Editorial]. Diabetes Educator, 23(3), 232.
4. On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research”; 2009, National Academy Press, Wash. D.C.
5. Managing Allegations of Scientific Misconduct: A Guidance Document  for Editors,  2000, Office of Research Integrity, Office of  Public Health and Science, U.S
6. Berk, R.N. (1991). Is plagiarism ever insignificant? American Journal of Roentgenology, 157, 614.
7. Ethics in Publishing,
www.arvo.org/eweb/arvo/pdf/EthicsPoster.pdf
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9. Blancett, S.S. (1993). Who is entitled to authorship? [Editorial]. Journal of Nursing Administration, 23 (1), 3.
10. King, C.R., McGuire, D.B., Longman, A.J., & Carroll-Johnson, R.M. (1997). Peer review, authorship, ethics, and conflict of interest. Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 29, 163-167.
11. Rogers, B. (1993). Using the words and works of others. A commentary. AAOHN Journal, 41 (1), 46-49.
12. Sly, R.M. (1997). Ethical writing and responsible medical practice. Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, 79, 489-494.
13. Copp, L.A. (1993). Ethics and scholarly writing. Journal of Professional Nursing, 9, 67-68
14. Yarbro, C.H. (1995). Duplicate publication: Guidelines for nurse authors and, editors. Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 27(1), 57.
15. Blancett, S.S., Flanagin, A., & Young, R.L. (1995). Duplicate publication in the nursing literature. Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 27 (1), 51-56
16. Guidelines of The Optical Society (OSA) Concerning  Ethical Practices in the Publication of Research,
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/submit/review/ethical_guidelines.pdf
17. Ethics in Publishing,
www.arvo.org/eweb/arvo/pdf/EthicsPoster.pdf
18. Chris Graf et al ., Best Practice Guidelines on Publication Ethics: a Publisher’s Perspective,international journal of clinical practice, 2007, 61 (Suppl. 152), 1–26
19. Publishing Ethics – Elsevier,
​http://www.elsevier.com/framework_products/ promis_misc/ethicalguidelinesforauthors.pdf

V. Kannappa Setty
Ph.D Scholar and psychiatric social worker Adult psychiatry, Unit-5 Psychiatric social work department, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru - 560029.