DEUTSCHER WISSENSCHAFTSHEROLD

German Science Herald

ETHICS & MALPRACTICE POLICIES

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Deutscher Wissenschaftsherold - German Science Herald (further DWH) is obliged to and acts in accordance with the codes of conduct and international standards on publication ethics and publication malpractice established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and available free of charge on its website (http://publicationethics.org/). For details see: http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines.

DWH conforms to the “Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals”, as specified by the statements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org).

DWH adheres to the basic principles of the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association (http://www.wma.net/en/20activities/10ethics/10helsinki/). If human participants are involved, a statement of approval by an institutional review board (IRB) and the participants’ informed consent should be provided. If IRB approval was not obtained or sought, a short explanation is required.

Open Access policy

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users and Authors are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher and/or author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. All content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

DWH also adheres to the basic principles of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities

DE: Berliner Erklärung über den offenen Zugang zu wissenschaftlichem Wissen

RUS: Берлинская Декларация об открытом доступе к научному и гуманитарному знанию

Peer-review process

All manuscripts (original research articles, reviews, and short reports) are evaluated by two external reviewers, who are asked to rate the importance and relevance, originality and scientific added value of the manuscripts. The Editors make every effort to get the reviews done within 4 weeks after submission. DWH employs a single-blind reviewing policy which implies that the names of the reviewers are not disclosed to the authors. The COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers are available at: COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

All of Deutscher Wissenschaftsherold - German Science Herald (further DWH) content is subjected to peer-review.

DWH's reviewers should have no conflict of interest: by consenting to review they indicate no COI with respect to the paper reviewed.
Reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited.
Reviewers should treat all work with respect and endeavour to review it within the deadline.
Reviewed articles are all treated confidentially.

Publication ethics

The managing and associate editors always take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred.
In no case shall DWH or its editors encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.
In the event that DWH's editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct they will deal with allegations appropriately.

Retraction and Correction

DWH has guidelines for retracting or correcting articles including but not limited to the cases listed below.

Article Retraction: grounds for retraction include but are not limited by the following:

the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing or permission
it constitutes plagiarism (appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit (including those obtained through confidential review of others’ manuscripts)
it reports unethical research
the peer-review process has been compromised / manipulated and the scientific integrity of the article cannot be guaranteed
authors’ conflict(s) of interest have been disclosed post publication and the disclosure is significant enough to potentially change the conclusions (in the judgment of the editors).

We will also consider retraction to correct errors in submission or publication. In such a case:

A retraction note titled “Retraction: [article title]” signed by the authors and/or the editor is published is included in a link made to the original article.
The online article is preceded by a screen containing the retraction note. It is to this screen that the link resolves; the reader can then proceed to the article itself.
The original article is retained unchanged save for a watermark on the .pdf indicating on each page that it is “retracted.”

DWH's editors will consider issuing a Corrigendum / Editorial Note (if the authors do not agree with the text) and including it in a link made to the original article if:

a small portion of an otherwise reliable publication proves to be misleading (especially because of honest error)
the author / contributor list is incorrect (i.e. a deserving author has been omitted or somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been included)
authors’ potential conflict(s) of interest have been disclosed post publication.

DWH editors will consider issuing an Expression of Concern and including it in a link made to the

original article if:

they receive inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors
they believe that an investigation into alleged misconduct related to the publication either has not been, or would not be, fair and impartial or conclusive
an investigation is underway but a judgment will not be available for a considerable time.

Article withdrawal

Only used for Articles in Press which represent early versions of articles and sometimes contain errors, or may have been accidentally submitted twice. Occasionally, but less frequently, the articles may represent infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like. Articles in Press (articles that have been accepted for publication but which have not been formally published and will not yet have the complete volume/issue/page information) that include errors, or are discovered to be accidental duplicates of other published article(s), or are determined to violate our journal publishing ethics guidelines in the view of the editors (such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like), may be “Withdrawn” from DWH. Withdrawn means that the article content (HTML and PDF) is removed and replaced with a HTML page and PDF simply stating that the article has been withdrawn according to the DWH Policy on Article in Press Withdrawal with a link to the current policy document.

Article removal: legal limitations

In an extremely limited number of cases, it may be necessary to remove an article from the online database. This will only occur where the article is clearly defamatory, or infringes others’ legal rights, or where the article is, or we have good reason to expect it will be, the subject of a court order, or where the article, if acted upon, might pose a serious health risk. In these circumstances, while the metadata (Title and Authors) will be retained, the text will be replaced with a screen indicating the article has been removed for legal reasons.

Appeals and complaints

DWH adheres to COPE guidelines regarding appeals to editorial decisions and complaints. Please check individual journal’s ‘About’ pages for more information.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1.The submission is original and has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in the submission e-mail).

2.The submission file is in Microsoft Word or RTF file format. The text is 1,5 spaced, uses a 12-point font, employs italics rather than underlining (except with URL addresses), and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.

3.Where available, URLs, URNs or DOIs for the references have been provided.

4.The text adheres to the formatting, content, stylistic, and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.

5.Complete personal information on all authors (i.e., full names, affiliations, and contact and postal adresses) has been provided on a separate Title Page that is submitted as a separate document along with the anonymized manuscript.

6.I am aware that submitting a manuscript that does not meet the above mentioned criteria may lead to rejection without further evaluation.

Upon submitting a contribution, the authors certify that:

1.They are authorised by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements.

2.The submitted manuscript is original and has not been published in a similar form or with generally the same content in an ISSN/ISBN-registered journal or book in any language before, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication has been approved by all the authors and that the authors have full authority to enter into this agreement.

3.They warrant and represent that they have the full power and authority to enter into and execute this agreement and to convey the rights granted herein, and that such rights are not now subject to prior assignment, transfer or other encumbrance. This also applies to the text and photo originals attained from other sources (for which the authors have secured the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere).

4.Their manuscript contains nothing that is unlawful, libellous, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract or of confidence or of commitment given to secrecy.

5.In the event that the parties to this agreement, either individually or collectively, are held responsible for damages or the costs of a legal process undertaken by a third party as a result of the authors’ actions under points 1, 2, 3, and 4, the authors agree to release the publisher from the claims of the third party and to compensate the publisher for any resulting legal costs.

6.They agree to the following license and copyright agreement:

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1.Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication in print and online. The work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works License (CC-by-nc), which allows others to share the work without an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

2.Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book).

3.Authors grant DWH rights to integrate the work, its title, and its abstract in databases, abstracting and indexing services, and other similar information sources.

4. DWH journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions.

5. DWH journal supports BLUE SHERPA/RoMEO registered deposit policy that means that the author(s) can archive pre-print and post-print or publisher's version/PDF.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism is the unethical act of copying someone else’s prior ideas, processes, results or words without explicit acknowledgement of the original author and source. Self-plagiarism occurs when an author utilizes large part of his/her own previously published work without using appropriate references. This can range from getting the same manuscript published in multiple journals to modifying a previously published manuscript with some new data.

The journal is strictly against any unethical act of copying or plagiarism in any form. Plagiarism is said to have occurred when large portions of a manuscript have been copied from existing previously published resources. Manuscripts found to be plagiarized during initial stages of review are out-rightly rejected and not considered for publication in the journal. In case a manuscript is found to be plagiarized after publication, the Editor-in-Chief will conduct preliminary investigation, may be with the help of a suitable committee constituted for the purpose. If the manuscript is found to be plagiarized beyond the acceptable limits, the journal will contact the author’s Institute / College / University and Funding Agency, if any. A determination of misconduct will lead DWH to run a statement bi-directionally linked online to and from the original paper, to note the plagiarism and provide a reference to the plagiarized material. The paper containing the plagiarism will also be marked on each page of the PDF. Upon determination of the extent of plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.

Types of Pladiarism

The following types of plagiarism are considered by DWH:

1.Full Plagiarism: Previously published content without any changes to the text, idea and grammar is considered as full plagiarism. It involves presenting exact text from a source as one’s own.

2.Partial Plagiarism: If content is a mixture from multiple different sources, where the author has extensively rephrased text, then it is known as partial plagiarism.

3.Self-Plagiarism: When an author reuses complete or portions of their pre-published research, then it is known as self-plagiarism. Complete self-plagiarism is a case when an author republishes their own previously published work in a new journal.

Policy and Action for Plagiarism

DWH respects intellectual property and aims at protecting and promoting original work of its authors. Manuscripts containing plagiarized material are against the standards of quality, research and innovation. Hence, all authors submitting articles to DWH are expected to abide ethical standards and abstain from plagiarism, in any form. In case, an author is found to be suspected of plagiarism in a submitted or published manuscript then, DWH shall contact the author (s) to submit his / her (their) explanation within two weeks, which may be forwarded to the Fact Finding Committee (FFC) constituted for the purpose, for further course of action. If DWH does not receive any response from the author within the stipulated time period, then the Director / Dean / Head of the concerned College, Institution or Organization or the Vice Chancellor of the University to which the author is affiliated shall be contacted to take strict action against the concerned author.

DWH shall take serious action against published manuscripts found to contain plagiarism and shall completely remove them from DWH website and other third party websites where the paper is listed and indexed. The moment, any article published in DWH database is reported to be plagiarized, DWH will constitute a Fact Finding Committee (FFC) to investigate the same. Upon having established that the manuscript is plagiarized from some previously published work, DWH shall support the original author and manuscript irrespective of the publisher and may take any or all of the following immediate actions or follow the additional course of actions as recommended by the committee:

1.DWH editorial office shall immediately contact the Director / Dean / Head of the concerned College, Institution or Organization or the Vice Chancellor of the University to which the author(s) is (are) affiliated to take strict action against the concerned author.

2.DWH shall remove the PDF copy of the published manuscript from the website and disable all links to full text article. The term Plagiarized Manuscript shall be appended to the published manuscript title.

3.DWH shall disable the author account with the journal and reject all future submissions from the author for a period of 03 / 05 / 10 years or even ban the authors permanently.

4.DWH may also display the list of such authors along with their full contact details on the DWH website.

5.Any other course of action, as recommended by the Committee or as deemed fit for the instant case or as decided by the Editorial Board, from time to time.

Author/s Rights granted to DWH:

For both subscription and open access articles, published in proprietary titles, DWH is granted the following rights:

1.The right to publish and distribute an article, and to grant rights to others, including for commercial purposes.

2.For open access articles, DWH will apply the relevant third party user license where DWH publish the article on its online platforms.

3.The right to provide the article in all forms and media so the article can be used on the latest technology even after publication.

4.The authority to enforce the rights in the article, on behalf of an author, against third parties, for example in the case of plagiarism or copyright infringement.

Revenue sources

Revenue sources of DWH are author fees, subscriptions, advertising, reprints, institutional support, and organizational support. Publishing fees or waiver status are not influence editorial decision making.

Advertising

Journal DWH uses online platforms for advertising purposes. Advertisements are not related in any way to editorial decision making and being kept separate from the published content.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed and figures provided in this Journal; DWH, are the sole responsibility of the authors. The publisher and the editors bear no responsibility in this regard. Any and all such liabilities are disclaimed.

All disputes are subject to Hameln, Germany jurisdiction only.