PUBLISHING ETHICS

The publication of scientific papers involves conscientious, systematic, and comprehensive processes by the publishers and editors, which must be dealt with in an efficient and competent manner. To maintain high ethical standards of scientific publication, publishers strive to work closely at all times with journal editors, authors, and peer-reviewers.

The essentials of Bentham Open (BO) publishing ethics for all groups involved in the publishing process are as follows.

For Editors:

  • The editor of a journal holds a vital position in making important editorial decisions on all peer-reviewed articles submitted for publication.
  • The editor should maintain the transparency of the academic research and record, preclude professional needs according to the ethical standards, and always be willing to publish retractions, rectifications, and erratum when required.
  • The editor should assess manuscripts for their scientific quality and intellectual content, free from any biased decisions based on discrimination of race, gender, geographical origin, or religion of the author(s). In other words, the editor should evaluate manuscripts objectively based on their academic merit and free of any commercial or self-interests.
  • The editor should not disclose any information regarding submitted manuscripts before publication of the said manuscript.
  • In addition, research rectitude must be promoted. If, at any stage, the publisher suspects any kind of misconduct in research, it should be investigated promptly in detail by the concerned authority. Furthermore, if any suspicious act is observed in the peer review, it should be resolved with diligence.

For Reviewers:

  • The reviewers should provide a detailed, constructive, and unbiased evaluation of the scientific content of the work in a timely manner.
  • They should identify whether the writing is relevant, concise, and clear and evaluate its originality as well as scientific accuracy.
  • They should maintain the confidentiality of the complete review process, notify the journal editor about any financial or personal conflict of interest, and decline to review the manuscript when a possibility of such a conflict exists.
  • Moreover, the reviewers should notify the journal editors of any ethical concerns in their submitted manuscripts, such as violation of ethical treatment of animal and/or human subjects or any considerable similarity between a previously published article and the reviewed manuscript.

For Authors:

  • All the content presented in the manuscript must be original and free from any kind of plagiarism.
  • The work should not have been published elsewhere or submitted to any other journal(s) at the time of submission to Bentham Open.
  • Any potential conflict of interest must be clearly declared.
  • Proper acknowledgement of other work referred/cited (of any individual, company, or institution) must be given, and permission must be obtained for any content used from other sources. Lastly, only those who have made any substantial contribution to the interpretation or composition of the submitted work should be listed as ‘Authors’, while other contributors should be mentioned as ‘co-authors’.

For Publishers:

Bentham Open is committed to working with journal editors, defining clearly their relevant roles, in order to ensure appropriate decisions regarding publication procedures and maintain the transparency of editorial decisions.

BO ensures the integrity, autonomy, and originality of each published article with respect to the following:

  • Publication and research funding
  • Publication ethics and rectitude
  • Conflict of interests
  • Confidentiality
  • Authorship
  • Article modifications
  • Timely publication of content

Endorsements


"Open access will revolutionize 21st century knowledge work and accelerate the diffusion of ideas and evidence that support just in time learning and the evolution of thinking in a number of disciplines."
Daniel Pesut
(Indiana University School of Nursing, USA)

"It is important that students and researchers from all over the world can have easy access to relevant, high-standard and timely scientific information. This is exactly what Open Access Journals provide and this is the reason why I support this endeavor."
Jacques Descotes
(Centre Antipoison-Centre de Pharmacovigilance, France)

"Publishing research articles is the key for future scientific progress. Open Access publishing is therefore of utmost importance for wider dissemination of information, and will help serving the best interest of the scientific community."
Patrice Talaga
(UCB S.A., Belgium)

"Open access journals are a novel concept in the medical literature. They offer accessible information to a wide variety of individuals, including physicians, medical students, clinical investigators, and the general public. They are an outstanding source of medical and scientific information."
Jeffrey M. Weinberg
(St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, USA)

"Open access journals are extremely useful for graduate students, investigators and all other interested persons to read important scientific articles and subscribe scientific journals. Indeed, the research articles span a wide range of area and of high quality. This is specially a must for researchers belonging to institutions with limited library facility and funding to subscribe scientific journals."
Debomoy K. Lahiri
(Indiana University School of Medicine, USA)

"Open access journals represent a major break-through in publishing. They provide easy access to the latest research on a wide variety of issues. Relevant and timely articles are made available in a fraction of the time taken by more conventional publishers. Articles are of uniformly high quality and written by the world's leading authorities."
Robert Looney
(Naval Postgraduate School, USA)

"Open access journals have transformed the way scientific data is published and disseminated: particularly, whilst ensuring a high quality standard and transparency in the editorial process, they have increased the access to the scientific literature by those researchers that have limited library support or that are working on small budgets."
Richard Reithinger
(Westat, USA)

"Not only do open access journals greatly improve the access to high quality information for scientists in the developing world, it also provides extra exposure for our papers."
J. Ferwerda
(University of Oxford, UK)

"Open Access 'Chemistry' Journals allow the dissemination of knowledge at your finger tips without paying for the scientific content."
Sean L. Kitson
(Almac Sciences, Northern Ireland)

"In principle, all scientific journals should have open access, as should be science itself. Open access journals are very helpful for students, researchers and the general public including people from institutions which do not have library or cannot afford to subscribe scientific journals. The articles are high standard and cover a wide area."
Hubert Wolterbeek
(Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)

"The widest possible diffusion of information is critical for the advancement of science. In this perspective, open access journals are instrumental in fostering researches and achievements."
Alessandro Laviano
(Sapienza - University of Rome, Italy)

"Open access journals are very useful for all scientists as they can have quick information in the different fields of science."
Philippe Hernigou
(Paris University, France)

"There are many scientists who can not afford the rather expensive subscriptions to scientific journals. Open access journals offer a good alternative for free access to good quality scientific information."
Fidel Toldrá
(Instituto de Agroquimica y Tecnologia de Alimentos, Spain)

"Open access journals have become a fundamental tool for students, researchers, patients and the general public. Many people from institutions which do not have library or cannot afford to subscribe scientific journals benefit of them on a daily basis. The articles are among the best and cover most scientific areas."
M. Bendandi
(University Clinic of Navarre, Spain)

"These journals provide researchers with a platform for rapid, open access scientific communication. The articles are of high quality and broad scope."
Peter Chiba
(University of Vienna, Austria)

"Open access journals are probably one of the most important contributions to promote and diffuse science worldwide."
Jaime Sampaio
(University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal)

"Open access journals make up a new and rather revolutionary way to scientific publication. This option opens several quite interesting possibilities to disseminate openly and freely new knowledge and even to facilitate interpersonal communication among scientists."
Eduardo A. Castro
(INIFTA, Argentina)

"Open access journals are freely available online throughout the world, for you to read, download, copy, distribute, and use. The articles published in the open access journals are high quality and cover a wide range of fields."
Kenji Hashimoto
(Chiba University, Japan)

"Open Access journals offer an innovative and efficient way of publication for academics and professionals in a wide range of disciplines. The papers published are of high quality after rigorous peer review and they are Indexed in: major international databases. I read Open Access journals to keep abreast of the recent development in my field of study."
Daniel Shek
(Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

"It is a modern trend for publishers to establish open access journals. Researchers, faculty members, and students will be greatly benefited by the new journals of Bentham Science Publishers Ltd. in this category."
Jih Ru Hwu
(National Central University, Taiwan)