Research and Publication Ethics
The journal adheres to the ethical guidelines for research and publication described in Guidelines on Good Publication (http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines) and the ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org). Further, all processes of handling research and publication misconduct shall follow the applicable COPE flowchart (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts).
1. Authorship
2. Originality, Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication
3. Conflict of Interest Statement
4. Statement of human and animal right
5. Statement of informed consent and institutional review board approval
6. Process for managing research and publication misconduct
7. Process for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern
8. Editorial responsibilities
9. Disclaimer
1. Authorship
Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, and/or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published; and 4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Every author should meet all of these four conditions.
All authors must agree to be so listed and must have seen and approved the manuscript, its content, and its submission to the Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure. All authors of a manuscript are responsible for the entire paper and must have agreed that the corresponding author has the authority to act on their behalf in all matters pertaining to publication of the manuscript. To avoid any possible dispute during the processing, changes to authorship (adding author(s), deleting author(s), or re-arranging the order of authors) during revision must be agreed upon by all of the authors and brought to the editor's attention in the cover letter submitted with the revised version.
▪ Corresponding author and first author: ERI does not allow multiple corresponding authors for one article. Only one author should correspond with the editorial office and readers for one article. ERI does accept notice of equal contribution for the first author when the study was clearly performed by co-first authors.
▪ Correction of authorship after publication: ERI does not correct authorship after publication unless a mistake has been made by the editorial staff. Authorship may be changed before publication but after submission when an authorship correction is requested by all of the authors involved with the manuscript.
2. Originality, Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication
Only papers that report novel and significant scientific and technical findings in the multidisciplinary field of ecology and infrastructure engineering will be considered and accepted for publication in the Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure. Thus, any manuscript submitted to the Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure must report original research.
The Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure accepts a submitted manuscript on the condition that the presented work has not been published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. No part of the accepted manuscript should be duplicated in any other scientific journal without the permission of the Editorial Board. Submitted manuscripts are screened for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication by Similarity Check upon arrival. If plagiarism or duplicate publication is detected, the manuscripts may be rejected, the authors will be announced in the journal, and their institutions will be informed. There will also be penalties for the authors.
A letter of permission is required for any and all material that has been published previously. It is the responsibility of the author to request permission from the publisher for any material that is being reproduced. This requirement applies to text, figures, and tables.
3. Conflict of Interest Statement
The corresponding author must inform the editor of any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the authors’ interpretation of the data. Examples of potential conflicts of interest are financial support from or connections to companies, political pressure from interest groups, and academically related issues. In particular, all sources of funding applicable to the study should be explicitly stated.
4. Statement of human and animal right
Clinical research should be done in accordance of the Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, outlined in the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 (revised 2013), available from: https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/. Clinical studies that do not meet the Helsinki Declaration will not be considered for publication. Human subjects should not be identifiable, such that patients’ names, initials, hospital numbers, dates of birth, or other protected healthcare information should not be disclosed. For animal subjects, research should be performed based on the National or Institutional Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and the ethical treatment of all experimental animals should be maintained.
5. Statement of informed consent and institutional review board approval
Copies of written informed consent documents should be kept for studies on human subjects, which includes identifiable information or sensitive information. For clinical studies of human subjects, a certificate, agreement, or approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the author’s institution is required. If necessary, the editor or reviewers may request copies of these documents to resolve questions about IRB approval and study conduct.
6. Process for managing research and publication misconduct
When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fraudulent or fabricated data, changes in authorship, an undisclosed conflict of interest, ethical problems with a submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and so on, the resolution process will follow the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The discussion and decision on the suspected cases are carried out by the Editorial Board.
7. Process for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern
Cases that require editorial expressions of concern or retraction shall follow the COPE flowcharts available from: http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts. If correction needs, it will follow the ERI Recommendation for Corrections, Retractions, Republications and Version Control available.
Honest errors are a part of science and publishing and require publication of a correction when they are detected. Corrections are needed for errors of fact. Minimum standards are as follows: First, it shall publish a correction notice as soon as possible detailing changes from and citing the original publication on both an electronic and numbered print page that is included in an electronic or a print Table of Contents to ensure proper indexing; Second, it shall post a new article version with details of the changes from the original version and the date(s) on which the changes were made through CrossMark; Third, it shall archive all prior versions of the article. This archive can be either directly accessible to readers; and Fourth, previous electronic versions shall prominently note that there are more recent versions of the article via CrossMark.
8. Editorial responsibilities
The Editorial Board will continuously work to monitor and safeguard publication ethics: guidelines for retracting articles; maintenance of the integrity of the academic record; preclusion of business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed; and excluding plagiarism and fraudulent data. The editors maintain the following responsibilities: responsibility and authority to reject and accept articles; avoiding any conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept; promoting publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preservation of the anonymity of reviewers.
9. Disclaimer
The publisher, editors, and reviewers do not assume any legal responsibility for errors, omissions or claims, nor do they provide any warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to information published in the Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure.
Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
