Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

 

The Business Research Unit, University of Moratuwa (BRU) publications are dedicated to the publication and broad dissemination of high-quality content. Establishing agreed-upon standards of ethical conduct is imperative for all stakeholders in the publishing process: authors, editors of the conference proceedings, peer reviewers, and publishers. We anticipate that everyone involved shares a common understanding and commitment to BRU publication ethics and integrity. Our ethical guidelines adhere to COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors available at https://publicationethics.org/files/editable-bean/COPE_Core_Practices_0.pdf

Allegations of Misconduct

 

We seriously take allegations of misconduct both during the peer review process and after publications. According to the COPE’s best practices all our peer reviewers are verified prior to submission of manuscripts for the review. Any allegation on peer review manipulation suspected during the peer review process will result in suspension of the peer review process and verifying the peer reviewer according to the process stipulated in COPE’s best practices or reviewing by different peer reviewer Please refer the flow chart https://publicationethics.org/files/peer-review-manipulation-during-review-cope-flowchart.pdf

Any allegations of peer review manipulation after the publication will result in verifying the peer reviewer (if satisfactory publication stands). In case of verification is not satisfactory editors would decide to conduct post-publication peer review and will consider post publication changes as appropriate based on the post-publication peer review. Please refer the flow chart https://publicationethics.org/files/peer-review-manipulation-after-publication-cope-flowchart.pdf

Authorship and Contribution

 

The authorship of a research article should be based on following four criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  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.

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors.  People who made notable contributions to the work should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author should ensure that all named authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication and are willing to take appropriate responsibility for it. Authors should ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Authors are responsible for the originality of the work submitted and the plagiarism. All the submitted work are expected to use latest version of APA as the referencing method.

Author contributions should be declared on initial submission of the article with Authorship and Conflict of Interest statement.

All persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (e.g., technical help, writing and editing assistance, general support), but who do not meet the criteria for authorship, should be named in the Acknowledgments and should give their written permission to be named. The authors are required to fill the Authorship and Conflict of Interest Statement.

Any suspicion of Authorship and contribution (high level of similarity check, questionable roles of contributors, not responding to reviewers’ comments, changes of authorship without notification during the reviewing stage, unfeasible long author lists, numerous submissions by same authors) will result in suspension of the review process until the authors provide a satisfactory explanation. Unsatisfactory responses will result in rejection of manuscripts.

Complaints and Appeals

 

Editors have considerable discretion when selecting articles for publication and handling editorial procedures. The final selection will be made considering many factors, such as the importance of the research question, the quality of the presentation, and the diversity. The appeals on editorial decisions will be accepted if there is a valid reason only. All the complaints and appeals should be directed to the Director Business Research Unit, Faculty of Business, University of Moratuwa. Supportive documents with the details should be provided to address the issues. The complaints and appeals will be investigated by a committee consist of the Director BRU, the Editor-in-Chief and the Secretary of the Business Research Unit. The complaints related to author, an editor, or the conference in general turn out to be well founded, investigations should proceed as warranted. The sole power to take necessary actions and decisions related to the complaints and appeals are vested on the above specified committee. They will be examined in accordance with applicable COPE policies and procedures. However, a complaints that makes repeated allegations against the conference, editor, or author that turn out to be baseless will not be further investigated.

Complaint Handling Procedure

 

1) The committee will review and decide whether the complaint meets the threshold level for further investigation. If so, committee will carry out further investigation of the matter. The elements of the threshold level include:

  • The party who is making the complaint should provide the committee sufficient, specific information about the matter to demonstrate that a potential ethics violation may have been occurred.
  • The complaint should be made within three months of the publication of the conference proceeding.
  • Complaints relating to circumstances that have already been reviewed and investigated or dismissed will not be re reviewed unless sufficient new evidence is provided to merit reconsideration.
  • While anonymous complaints will be treated respectfully and accorded a fair and serious review, individuals are encouraged to provide a name and contact with complaints, noting the limitations that anonymity imposes on the investigation process.
  • Complaints which are a harassing, offensive, threatening, or defamatory manner will not be investigated.

2) After reviewing the complaint the committee will inform the party who raised the complaint whether the complaint meets the threshold level for further investigation. (Within two weeks)

3) If the complaint is within the threshold level committee will further investigate and inform the outcome/action within one month.

Conflicts of Interest / Competing Interests

 

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) defines Conflict of Interest as “when professional judgment concerning a primary interest…may be influenced by a secondary interest”

All the authors, peer reviewers and editors must disclose any conflict of interest. Authors submitting papers to publications of BRU are required to declare any potential conflicts of interest that may affect or prejudice their study i.e. any financial interests derived from a business relationship with a competitor or other substantive conflict that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All the authors require to sign a statement of Conflicts of Interest. It is mandatory to include a competing interest statement as required in case of undisclosed conflict of interest in submitted manuscripts. In a case where an undisclosed conflict of interest arises in a published article authors will be notified and will be reassessed, if necessary, based on undisclosed Conflicts of Interest, the editorial committee will consider appropriate post publication changes if required.

Options for Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections

 

While all articles are subject to numerous checks during the pre publication processes, published articles may still contain errors. Any inaccuracies discovered after publishing (by readers or authors) will result in the author retracting or correcting his or her work. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the editor of the conference proceedings. Similarly, serious errors that undermine the study’s findings and conclusions may result in the retraction of the original article. The editors of the ICBR proceedings reserve the right to issue retractions if the work is proven to have serious misconduct such as plagiarism.

Data Sharing and Reproducibility

 

Authors consent to provide raw data supporting the results of their research upon reasonable request. The article should include citations of any data set that has referred to the paper. Authors should ensure that the accessibility of data does not violate the protection of confidentiality, privacy, or any security concerns.

In a case where a reader or a reviewer express the suspicion on fabricated data or image manipulation, authors are required to provide a satisfactory explanation. No response or unsatisfactory explanations on such claims can result in rejection of the manuscript and for published articles will result in either retraction of publication or publication of expression of concern, out of the two whichever the editorial committee deemed to be more suitable. Refer the COPE guideline https://publicationethics.org/files/fabricated-data-published-article-cope-flowchart.pdf

Ethical Oversight

 

The authors are expected to obtain ethical approval from relevant authorities and institutions and consent of individuals from whom the data is collected. In case of an ethical concern arise from a reviewer or a reader, authors require to provide evidence on ethical approval or copy of informed consent document. In case of no or unsatisfactory response the manuscripts will be rejected or publication will be retracted while referring to relevant authorities such as author’s employer or person responsible for research governance at institution or profession bodies. Further we encourage diversity and inclusivity. Therefore, we encourage people from diverse backgrounds to submit their manuscripts with us.

Intellectual Property and Copyright

 

The corresponding author need to transfer the copyright of the manuscripts to Business Research Unit, Faculty of Business, University of Moratuwa and provide the consent to publication of the manuscript through the Assignment of copyright form. The authors are held responsible for any violation of third-party proprietary right or copyright, or any breach of third-party intellectual property rights, contained in the Article. However, if the authors wish to retain the copyrights of their scholarly work, they are given the option to submit only an extended abstract of two pages to ICBR2024, for which the copyrights should be transferred to BRU. The copyright policy does not apply to invited keynote speeches and the abstracts of the keynotes.

The authors of the accepted manuscripts require to pay a registration fee to the conference, and this includes publication fee. The payment structure and benefits entitled can be found under the registration tab.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication

 

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publications are considered unethical. The authors bear the responsibility in such instances which can result in the retraction of the article. Furthermore, each author needs to certify that this material or similar material has not been and will not be submitted to or published in any other publication. A specific author can only submit up to three articles for review.

Open Access and Self Archiving Policy

 

ICBR proceeding is open access and available for download through University of Moratuwa e-library without a charge. All papers accepted for the conference will be published in the conference proceedings with an ISSN number. The individual papers will have a separate URL and DOI for easy reference and access.

ICBR publications permit authors to deposit the Publisher’s version/PDF in institutional repositories, non-commercial subject-based repositories, or on the Author’s personal website, including social networking sites and departmental websites, immediately after publication. Complete bibliographic details of the original publication must be included, and a link to the article’s DOI must be provided.