Ethics Violations and Misconduct

Ethics violations and misconduct – the procedures for dealing with unethical behaviour

In the context of scientific research, misconduct takes many forms and may involve the actions of many different stakeholders (i.e., the author(s), the editor(s), the peer reviewer(s) and the publisher(s)). It is vital that all parties are aware of what is expected of them and are educated and informed regarding industry best practices, guidelines, and codes of conduct. Misconduct is defined as any conduct that violates or compromises the ethical standards and expectations determined by the scientific publishing community. In some cases, this breaches a legal duty, responsibility, or principle of law.

We take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, text recycling, duplicate publication, dual submission, data falsification, data fabrication, and image manipulation, among others. In no case we shall encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place. In the event that we are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct relating to a published article in the Conference Proceedings, the editor(s) shall follow COPE’s Guidelines in dealing with allegations.