Publication Ethics and Research Integrity

SAER Journal is committed to integrity, transparency, accountability, impartiality, and responsible conduct in scholarly publishing. All research submitted to, evaluated by, or published in the journal is expected to comply with applicable ethical standards, relevant legal requirements, and internationally recognized principles of scholarly publishing.

1. General Ethical Principles

Authors, editors, reviewers, and all other individuals involved in the publication process are expected to act in accordance with the principles of research integrity, confidentiality, impartiality, disclosure of competing interests, and protection of research participants.

SAER Journal does not accept plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, duplicate or redundant publication, inappropriate authorship, violations of ethical approval requirements, or other practices that compromise the integrity of the scholarly record.

2. Research Ethics and Ethics Approval

Authors are responsible for complying with applicable national, institutional, and disciplinary ethical requirements for research involving human participants, personal data, vulnerable populations, or other activities requiring ethical review.

For research requiring ethics committee approval, the name of the committee, approval date, and approval or reference number should be reported in the manuscript. Editors may request copies of ethics approval documents, permissions, or other relevant documentation when considered necessary.

Where authors state that ethics approval was not required, the editor may request an explanation or supporting justification depending on the nature of the research.

3. Informed Consent and Participant Rights

Where informed consent is required, appropriate consent must be obtained from participants or, where applicable, their legally authorized representatives. Information, images, or other materials that may identify participants should only be published where scientifically necessary and where appropriate permissions have been obtained.

Voluntary participation, privacy, confidentiality, non-discrimination, and protection of participants' rights are fundamental principles of research published by the journal.

4. Research Misconduct

SAER Journal may consider fabrication of data or findings, misleading alteration or falsification of research records, appropriation of the ideas or words of others without appropriate attribution, and other conduct that undermines the reliability of the scientific record as potential research misconduct.

Where there is a reasonable concern regarding research or publication misconduct, the editor may request explanations or supporting documentation from the authors. When appropriate, the matter may be referred to the relevant institution, ethics committee, employer, or other competent authority for investigation.

5. Plagiarism and Use of Sources

Authors must not use the ideas, data, text, tables, figures, or other materials of others without appropriate attribution. Appropriate citation and transparency are also required when authors reuse material from their own previously published work.

Similarity reports are not used as the sole basis for determining an ethical violation. Similarities are evaluated editorially in context, taking into account citation practices, the type of manuscript, and the nature of the material concerned.

6. Duplicate and Simultaneous Submission

A manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for consideration at the same time. Where substantially similar data, analyses, or text have previously been published, authors must disclose this information and appropriately cite related publications.

7. Authorship and Contribution

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made meaningful scholarly contributions to the work and who are able to take responsibility for the published content. Contributions that do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.

Guest or gift authorship, ghost authorship, and listing individuals as authors without their knowledge or approval are not acceptable. Requests for changes in authorship may be subject to editorial review.

8. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members must disclose financial, academic, institutional, personal, or other relationships or activities that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, evaluation or publication decisions.

The existence of a competing interest does not necessarily require rejection of a manuscript. The essential requirements are transparency and protection of the independence of the editorial process.

9. Funding and Support

Financial or in-kind support provided for the design, conduct, data collection, analysis, writing, or publication of research must be disclosed. Where a funder or sponsor has had a role in study design, data analysis, manuscript preparation, or the decision to publish, that role should be stated transparently.

10. Data Integrity and Research Records

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of the data underlying their published findings. Where necessary for scientific or ethical assessment, the editor may request anonymized data, analysis outputs, research protocols, or other supporting documentation.

Data sharing must respect participant confidentiality, personal data protection requirements, ethics approval conditions, legal obligations, and the rights of third parties.

11. Editorial Responsibility and Independence

Editorial decisions are based on scientific quality, originality, ethical acceptability, and relevance to the journal's aims and scope rather than the author's institutional affiliation, nationality, personal characteristics, political views, or other unrelated considerations.

Editors must recuse themselves from the evaluation and decision-making process for manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest. Such manuscripts are handled through an independent editorial process.

12. Handling Allegations of Ethical Misconduct

SAER Journal seeks to assess allegations of ethical misconduct in accordance with the principles of confidentiality, impartiality, and procedural fairness. Relevant parties may be asked to provide explanations or documentation, and the available information will be reviewed before editorial action is taken.

Where an allegation of research misconduct falls within the responsibility of an institution or another competent authority, the journal may refer the matter for appropriate investigation rather than attempting to conduct an institutional investigation beyond its editorial role.

13. Post-Publication Ethical Concerns

If an error, ethical concern, or other issue that may affect the reliability of the scholarly record is identified after publication, the journal may, following appropriate assessment, issue a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other suitable post-publication notice.

14. Complaints and Appeals

Authors and other interested parties may submit a reasoned complaint or appeal regarding editorial processes or ethical decisions. Where practicable, appeals may be reconsidered by an individual who was not responsible for the original decision.

15. International Standards

SAER Journal takes into account internationally recognized principles of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing. Journal policies may be reviewed and updated in response to developments in research ethics and scholarly publishing.