Saba Research Journal - Ethical Principles

The ethical policy of the Saba Research Journal is formulated based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Readers, authors, reviewers, and editors must adhere to these ethical policies when collaborating with this journal. The ethical policy of the Saba Research Journal is responsible for determining which research or scientific articles submitted to the journal should be published in the relevant issue. For more information and ethical guidelines, please visit: http://publicationethics.org

Duties and Responsibilities of the Publisher
(https://publicationethics.org/core-practices)

Saba Research Journal is committed to ensuring that editorial decisions on submitted manuscripts are final and definitive.
Saba Research Journal is committed to making decisions about submitted manuscripts based solely on professional judgment, without being influenced by commercial interests.
Saba Research Journal monitors adherence to ethical principles by the editor, advisory editors, editorial board members, reviewers, authors, and readers.
Saba Research Journal consistently investigates issues related to plagiarism and fraudulent data in submitted manuscripts.
Saba Research Journal is always prepared to publish corrections, clarifications, and retractions related to its publications, if necessary.

Duties and Responsibilities of Editors
(http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf)

Journal editors must have full authority to reject or accept an article.
Journal editors must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts that are under review or until publication.
The editor-in-chief should decide, in consultation with other editors and reviewers, whether submitted manuscripts should be published.
Journal editors must preserve the anonymity of reviewers.
Journal editors must disclose and avoid any conflicts of interest.
Journal editors must uphold academic integrity and strive to meet the needs of readers and authors.
Journal editors must be willing to investigate issues of plagiarism and fraudulent data and be prepared to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.
Journal editors must limit themselves to the intellectual content (the article).
Journal editors must not disclose any information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisors, and the publisher (as relevant).
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by the editor or members of the editorial board for their own personal research without the express written consent of the author.

Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers
(http://publicationethics.org/files/u7140/Peer%20review%20guidelines.pdf)

Journal reviewers should assist editors in deciding whether to publish or reject submitted manuscripts by providing their expert opinions.
After reviewing the article abstract, the reviewer must immediately inform the editor of their decision to accept or decline the review invitation and, if accepted, review the article within the stipulated deadline.
Reviewers must strictly maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts entrusted to them for review.
Reviewers should provide their comments promptly to assist editors in making the final decision regarding the publication of the article.
Reviewers are obliged to treat the received article for review as a confidential document and not use the information obtained from the review process for personal benefit.
Reviewers' comments for each article should be technical, professional, and objective.
Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest with any of the authors, companies, or related institutions.
Reviewers must disclose and avoid any conflicts of interest.
In cases where reviewers know the identity of the author, they are not permitted to review that article.
Reviewers must not delegate the responsibility of reviewing an article to another person without the knowledge and consent of the editor.
If reviewers discover that a manuscript has been simultaneously submitted to another journal or is based on another published or unpublished work, they must report the matter to the editor.
If the subject of the article is outside the reviewer's area of expertise, they should decline to review the article.

Duties and Responsibilities of Authors
(http://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standards_authors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf)

Articles must be submitted only in Persian and written with correct grammar and appropriate terminology.
Articles must be submitted with the understanding that they have not been published previously and are not currently under review by any other journal from any publisher.
The corresponding author who submits the manuscript is responsible for ensuring that its publication is approved by all co-authors.
It is also the responsibility of the authors to ensure that articles originating from a particular institution are submitted with the agreement of that institution.
A condition of submission is that authors grant the journal permission to edit the article for better readability.
Authors are requested to clearly state the person or entity that provided financial support for the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor/funder in any part of the work.
Under the open access license, authors retain copyright ownership of their content but permit anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy the content, provided the original authors and source are properly cited.
All authors have agreed to allow the corresponding author to serve as the liaison with the journal office, review the edited version, and proofread the article.
When an author(s) discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher to retract or correct the article.
All authors should be aware that submitted manuscripts under review or published with Saba Research Journal are screened by plagiarism prevention software. Plagiarism is a serious violation of publication ethics.
All authors must ensure that all co-authors have read the final pre-submission checklist before the manuscript is submitted to Saba Research Journal. For more details, please refer to the link below:
When submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author must also register the names and information of all co-authors in the system; after this, no additional authors can be added.
The list of authors should include only those who have made a significant contribution to the writing of the article.
The authors of the article are responsible for its content. Therefore, they must carefully understand and evaluate their own views and positions. The article must also contain sufficient sources and information so that other researchers can access the same data set and conduct follow-up studies.

Transparency Principles

Peer Review Process:Saba Research Journal is an electronic quarterly with a double-blind peer review process. This process, as well as any policies related to the journal's peer review procedures, are clearly explained on the journal's website.
Editorial Board:Saba Research Journal has a strong editorial board consisting of members who are all recognized experts in the subject areas related to the journal's scope. The full names and organizational affiliations of the journal's editors are provided on its website.
Contact Information:The contact information for the editorial office of Saba Research Journal is provided on its website.
Access:The journal's database is fully open access, and the full text of published articles is available to all individuals with access to the journal's website.
Identifying and Addressing Allegations of Research Misconduct:The journal's editor-in-chief takes reasonable measures to identify and prevent the publication of articles involving research misconduct, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data fabrication or falsification.
Website:The journal's website contains information demonstrating that due attention has been paid to ensuring high ethical and professional standards.
Journal Name:The name "Saba Research Journal" is unique and not easily confused with another journal.
Conflict of Interest:Authors are requested to specify, at the time of submitting their manuscripts to Saba Research Journal via the conflict of interest disclosure form, whether any imminent conflict of interest exists.
Publication Schedule:The journal's publication frequency (periodicity) is clearly specified.

Handling Misconduct Cases

After Saba Research Journal confirms a violation of its publication ethics, it addresses the ethical concerns with due care, following standard procedures specific to each issue, which are briefly outlined below:

The journal editor's first action is to inform the editorial board office of Saba Research Journal by sending copies of the relevant documents and a draft letter addressed to the corresponding author. This letter non-judgmentally requests an explanation.
If the author's explanation is unacceptable and it appears that serious, unethical misconduct has occurred, the matter is referred from the editorial board office to the Publications Committee. After investigation, this committee decides whether the case is serious enough to warrant a ban on future submissions.
If the committed breach is less severe, the editor, in consultation with the Publications Committee, sends a letter of reprimand to the author and reminds them of the publication policies of Saba Research Journal. If the article has already been published, the editor may request the author to publish an apology in the journal to correct the record.
A notice will be sent to the corresponding author, and any article from the author responsible for this violation, or any article in which these individuals have participated as co-authors and are under review by Saba Research Journal, will be immediately rejected.
In severe cases, notices are sent to the authors' organizational affiliations, and they are banned from submitting to Saba Research Journal for 3 years.
In cases of serious fraud leading to article retraction, a retraction notice is published in the journal and linked to the online version of the article. The online version of the article will also be marked with a "Retracted" label, dated.

Plagiarism and Similarity Rate

Authors must ensure that the submitted work is entirely original. Where the work and/or words of others have been used, they must be appropriately cited or quoted.