Publication Ethics & Ethical Standards
Fringe Global Scientific Press is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics. All parties involved in the publication process — authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher — must adhere to these ethical standards.
Authorship Criteria
- 1All listed authors must have made substantial intellectual contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study.
- 2All authors must have approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission.
- 3Corresponding authors must ensure all co-authors have seen and approved the final version.
- 4Ghost authorship (listing individuals who did not contribute) and gift authorship (omitting genuine contributors) are strictly prohibited.
- 5Any change in authorship after submission requires written justification and approval from all authors.
Originality and Plagiarism
- 1Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts are entirely original works.
- 2All manuscripts are screened for plagiarism prior to peer review. A similarity index below 15% is required.
- 3Proper attribution must be given to all cited sources, data, figures, and ideas.
- 4Self-plagiarism — reusing substantial portions of one's own previously published work without citation — is not permitted.
- 5Manuscripts that are simultaneously submitted to other journals will be rejected without review.
Conflict of Interest
- 1Authors must declare all financial, personal, or professional relationships that could influence the research or its interpretation.
- 2Funding sources must be disclosed in a dedicated section of the manuscript.
- 3Editors and reviewers must recuse themselves if they have competing interests with the submitted work.
- 4Reviewers must not use unpublished material from manuscripts they review for their own research without explicit written consent from the authors.
Research Involving Human Subjects
- 1Research involving human subjects must have received approval from the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee.
- 2Informed consent must be obtained from all human participants and must be documented in the manuscript.
- 3Participant identities must be anonymised unless explicit written consent for identification has been given.
- 4Clinical trials must be registered in a public database prior to participant enrolment.
- 5Animal research must comply with institutional, national, and international guidelines for the care and use of animals.
Data Integrity and Fabrication
- 1Fabrication (making up data) and falsification (manipulating data) of research findings are serious ethical violations and will result in immediate rejection and reporting.
- 2Authors must retain raw data for a minimum of five years after publication and must provide it upon reasonable request from editors.
- 3Image manipulation that changes the meaning of results (e.g., splicing, enhancing, or obscuring) is prohibited.
- 4Statistical analyses must be reported transparently and accurately.
Corrections and Retractions
- 1Authors who discover significant errors in their published work are obligated to notify the journal promptly.
- 2Corrections, clarifications, or errata will be published as soon as possible after notification.
- 3Retraction of a published article will occur in cases of: plagiarism, data falsification/fabrication, redundant publication, and serious errors that invalidate the conclusions.
- 4Retraction notices will remain linked to the original article permanently.
- 5All decisions regarding corrections and retractions follow the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines.
COPE
COPE Guidelines Compliance
Fringe Global Scientific Press follows the guidelines set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for all editorial decisions, including handling of misconduct allegations, corrections, and retractions.
Report Misconduct
To report suspected ethical violations, contact the editorial office at ethics@fringeglobal.com. All reports will be handled confidentially.