Ethics and Malpractice

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

Indian Journal of Extension Education is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. The journal follows the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of malpractice. All the editors, authors, and reviewers of the Indian Journal of Extension Education agree upon standards of proper ethical behavior and accept the responsibility for fulfilling the following duties and responsibilities as set by the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors.  Our key expectations of authors, peer-reviewers, and editors, and the penalty for malpractice are as follows:

Manuscripts submitted to the Indian Journal of Extension Education (IJEE) are evaluated entirely on the basis of their scientific content. There are no publication charges. All possible measures are taken to uphold the highest standards of publication ethics and to prevent malpractices. Authors who submit papers to our Journals attest that their work is original and unpublished and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. In addition, authors confirm that their paper is their own original work, that has not been copied or plagiarized, in whole or in part, from other works, and if the authors have used the works of others the same has been appropriately cited or quoted. Our publication ethics and malpractice statement is based on the guidelines for journal editors developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The chief editor and the editors of the Indian Journal of Extension Education are responsible for

• Deciding which of the manuscripts submitted to the journal should be published. In making these decisions, they are guided by the policies of the journal (Guidelines for Submission and Publication of Manuscripts, available at  https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/ijee/about  and by legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism;
• Providing guidance to, authors and reviewers on everything that is expected of them and also a description of peer review processes;
• Providing new reviewer members with guidelines on everything that is expected of them and keeping existing members updated on new policies and developments;
• Evaluating manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic and intellectual merit, without regard to the author(s)' race, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, ethnic origin, religious belief, citizenship, political orientation, or social class;
• Ensuring a fair and unbiased double-blind peer review of the manuscripts and that all information related to them is kept confidential. They also ensure that both authors' and peer reviewers' identities are protected;
• Ensuring that appropriate reviewers are selected;
• Developing and maintaining a database of suitable reviewers and updating it on the basis of reviewer performance;
• Ensuring that unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript are not used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author;
• Taking reasonable responsive measures when ethical complaints are presented concerning a submitted or published manuscript.
• Publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies whenever needed.

Authors' Responsibilities

• Authors should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the manuscript. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable;
• Authors should not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one publication at a time. This constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable;
• Authors must ensure that they have written original works and that any work or words of other authors, contributors, or sources have been appropriately credited and referenced;
• Authors submitting their works for publication as original articles confirm that the submitted works represent their own contributions and have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other works without clearly citing the source. Authors should cite relevant publications;
• Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable;
• Authors must ensure that the manuscript has not been published elsewhere;
• Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Organizations, respondents, funding agencies of research, etc. may be acknowledged while online submitting the research in appropriate columns;
• The corresponding author with the journal should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included in the author list of the manuscript and that there is a full consensus of all co-authors in approving the final version of the paper and its submission for publication;
• Authors should disclose financial or other conflicts of interest that might influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support should be disclosed;
• When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editors and cooperate with them to retract or correct the manuscript. 

• To submit the article certificate, Contribution certificate, Competing interest form, and the Conflicts of Interest Statement duly signed by all the authors before its publication (https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/ijee/about)

Reviewers' Responsibilities

• Peer review assists the chief editor and editorial board in making editorial decisions and, through the editorial communication with the author, may also assist the author in improving the manuscript;
• Any reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its timely review will be impossible should immediately notify the editor so that alternative reviewers can be contacted;
• Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents;
• Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage;
• Reviewers must report to the chief editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author's part;
• Reviews should be conducted objectively, and observations should be formulated clearly with supporting arguments so that authors can use them for improving the paper;
• Reviewers evaluate manuscripts based on content without regard to the authors' race, age, gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, citizenship, political orientation, or social class;
• Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
• Reviewers are expected to fill up the review form for each manuscript they are evaluating.

Publisher's Responsibilities

As publisher of the Indian Journal of Extension Education is the Indian Society of Extension Education through its elected President and ACS publishers has been identified as registering agency for DOI, submitting data to crossref and other indexing agencies. The publisher;

• Provides practical support to the chief editor and editorial board of the Indian Journal of Extension Education so that they can follow the Code of Conduct for the Journal;
• Ensures the autonomy of editorial decisions;
• Protects intellectual property and copyright;
• Ensures that good practice is maintained to the standards defined above.

Publication Responsibility

Journal takes reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of manuscripts where research misconduct has occurred. In case of seriously flawed articles, the complete retraction of the article will ensue.

Journal demonstrates that care has been taken to ensure high ethical and professional standards. Editors will promptly respond to possible misconduct in the publishing process including authors and reviewers.

Copyright and licensing information are clearly described on the journal's website. The copyright of each manuscript published is automatically transferred to the Indian Journal of Extension Education and is mentioned in each article.

Journal clearly indicates plans for electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content in the event a journal is no longer published. This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

Corrections and retractions

When errors are identified in published articles, the publisher will consider what action is required and may consult the editors and the authors' institution(s).

Errors by the authors may be corrected by a corrigendum and errors by the publisher by an erratum.

Retracting a publication is considered  if:

• They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of a major error (eg, miscalculation or experimental error) or as a result of fabrication (eg, of data) or falsification (eg, image manipulation)

• It constitutes plagiarism • The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper attribution to previous sources or disclosure to the editor, permission to republish, or justification (ie, cases of redundant publication).

• It contains material or data without authorisation for use.

• Copyright has been infringed or there is some other serious legal issue (eg, libel, privacy)

• It reports unethical research

• It has been published solely on the basis of a compromised or manipulated peer review process

• The author(s) failed to disclose a major competing interest (aka, conflict of interest) that, in the view of the editor, would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.

Notices of retraction are:

•  Linked to the retracted article wherever possible (ie, in all online versions)

• Clearly identify the retracted article (eg, by including the title and authors in the retraction heading or citing the retracted article)

• Clearly identified as a retraction (ie, distinct from other types of correction or comment)

• Be published promptly to minimise harmful effects

• Freely available to all readers (ie, not behind access barriers or available only to subscribers)

• State who is retracting the article

• State the reason(s) for retraction  very objective, factual, and avoid inflammatory language

If there are errors that significantly affect the conclusions or there is evidence of misconduct, this may require retraction or an expression of concern following the COPE Retraction Guidelines.

All authors are asked to agree to the content of the notice.

Publisher and Editorial Board Details

Publisher

 Dr. U. S. Gautam, President, Indian Society of Extension Education, Division of Agricultural Extension, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi-110012 

Email: presidentisee@gmail.com

DOI Registering agency

ACS Publisher, Plot No. 100/1, Abchal Nagar, Nilothi Extension, New Delhi – 110041 and London, 45, Olieve Street, London.

Email: acspublisher@gmail.com, support@acspublisher.com

Editorial Board details

a) Chief Editor

1. Dr. Manjeet Singh Nain, Principal Scientist, Division of Agricultural Extension, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi-110012.

https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=I3OiYjUAAAAJ&hl=hi 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ms-Nain 

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7526-1091

email: chiefeditorisee@gmail.com 

b) Zonal Editors

1. Dr. Kalyan Ghadei, Professor, Department of Extension Education, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221005, UP  https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7g0b4a8AAAAJ&hl=en http:/orcid.org/0000-0001-6548-4673

 Email:kalyan@bhu.ac.in 

2. Dr. Rajeev Bairathi, Professor, Directorate of Extension Education, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture & Technology, Udaipur, India, 313001, 

ORCID  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8200-2189

E-mail rbairathi@rediffmail.com ,  

3.  Dr. Himansu Kumar De, Principal Scientist, ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751002 https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=k7oHFtYAAAAJ&hl=en   http:/orcid.org/ 0000 0002 6183 3618  Email: bhuthnath@gmail.com

4. Dr. V P S Yadav, Professor (Extension Education, KVK, CCSHAU, Faridabad (Haryana) https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=_RTo0lAAAAAJ&  E-Mail: vpsyadav7269@gmail.com 

5. Dr. Shrishail Sharanappa Dolli, Professor (Agricultural Extension) University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka, India, E-mail: shridolli@gmail.com