PUBLICATION ETHICS
I. For authors
- The manuscripts submitted to the Tra Vinh University Journal of Science (TVUJS) must not be previously published or be currently considered for publication by other journals, scientific proceedings, or other publications (abstracts or in full text, in print or electronic version). The manuscript will not be allowed to be submitted anywhere else until receiving a final decision from the Journal that the manuscript has been rejected for publication.
- Regarding research related to chemicals, processes and hazardous equipment, the author must confirm that all experiments follow the procedures of the legal system of Vietnam and the instructions of relevant international organizations.
- Regarding research involving animals (not humans) as research subjects, the study must be conducted according to the guidelines, care procedures, and use of animals (not humans) in the laboratory; regarding research involving humans, the study must be followed the National Guidelines on Ethics in Biomedical Research of the Ministry of Health of (Vietnam). In addition, the author should ensure that research involving humans, animals (not humans) were performed in compliance with the relevant laws of Vietnam and international conventions that Vietnam has recognized. If the study is granted exemption from ethical approval requirements, details of the exemption must be attached to the article. The experiments in the study must receive the consent of all human research participants. Besides, privacy and personal confidentiality (personal information, photos, medical records, etc.) of research participants must be authorized by the participants to use and must be strictly protected. Information security solutions must be used to preserve participants' anonymity. The experiments in the article must comply with declarations by appropriate ethics committees or organizations, including any relevant details.
- The content of articles should express the spirit of respect for colleagues, social responsibility, and nondiscrimination related to such factors as gender, race, ethnicity religion, and other factors unrelated to scientific expertise. Author(s) must be honest and straightforward (adhering to the truth, not confusing) in the research process and reporting research results.
- Policy on information security: Authors are strictly required to keep confidential all documents, review and editorial contents that are transferred by the Journal to the author about submitted manuscripts. Authors should consider the confidentiality in communication security, products, or research sponsors; carefully consider whether to disclose research results, interview transcripts; ensure confidentiality for research participants, trade secrets, or military secrets, and maintain the confidentiality of personal characteristics and health status of research participants.
- Plagiarism is a serious concern for the Journal to maintain scientific ethical standards. Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional use of other works, i.e., text, paragraph, paper figures, images, information, ideas, and expression without appropriate attribution, citation, or acknowledgment. Plagiarism could be in many forms including:
+ Copying a certain amount of other work without citing the source.
+ Copying from too many works of other authors, even though sources are correctly cited, to form one’s own sentences or paragraphs.
+ Providing inaccurate information about the author or the source of information when citing.
+ Re-writing works of other authors in one’s personal writing.
+ Self-plagiarizing by reusing important parts of previous academic works published by the author academic works published by the author themself or co-authors in new academic works without proper citation (including publishing an article in multiple journals or adding a small amount of new data to a previously published article).
+ Citing from others' or the author's previously published works to form an article with a similarity ranging from 25% or higher, even if proper source citation is followed.
II. For the Journal
- TVUJS operates in accordance with the principles and purposes stated in the press license granted by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
- The Journal has the right to publish all articles in its publications. All the submitted manuscripts are thoroughly and fairly assessed based on the quality of content, avoiding racism, gender, workplace, academic degree, etc. TVUJS strictly respects and complies with its independence in the editorial screening, reviewing, and publishing policies through TVUJS’s online peer-reviewing system to ensure the transparency and confidentiality for all parties involved. The Journal strictly adheres to the independence policy in initial assessment, review, editing, and publication. The Journal’s policies is not influenced by any agreements with third parties or advertising sponsors (if any).
- TVUJS fully complies with copyright and ethical standards of International Intellectual Property Organizations that TVUJS is a member of and follows the Intellectual Property Law of Vietnam.
- The Journal is committed to implementing and complying with the provisions of law and guiding documents related to the security of personal information; use only the information that users (authors, readers, editors, reviewers) provide to the Journal for declared purposes. The Journal shall not disclose any information to any other third party or for any other purpose except if it is required to provide information following the Law of Vietnam.
- TVUJS utilizes the Turnitin software to check for plagiarism and ensure originality of submitted article All manuscripts are checked for similarity before undergoing the review and publication process. The Journal only proceeds with the review and publication when the level of similarity in the article is below 25%.
III. For Editors
The responsibilities of an editor relate to making publication decisions, the peer review process, confidentiality, transparency and fairness, and conflicts of interest declaration.
- Publication Decision: Editors are independently responsible for deciding which manuscripts to send to the Editor-in-Chief for publication consideration. Editors must adhere to the journal's policies and are bound by legal requirements.
- Peer Review Process: Editors need to ensure that the peer review process is equitable, meaning fair, unbiased, and timely. Each manuscript must be sent to at least two independent reviewers, and if necessary, the editor should seek additional opinions. Reviewers should have appropriate expertise in the relevant field and follow best practices to avoid selecting biased reviewers.
- Confidentiality: Editors must protect the confidentiality of all documents submitted to the Journal and any communications with researchers.
- Transparency, Fairness: Editors must show their fairness and objectivitity, and avoid favoritism or discrimination when reviewing evaluations or inviting reviewers for a manuscript.
Journal editorial policies encourage transparency, fully and honestly report. Besides, editors must ensure that both reviewers and authors have a clear understanding of expectations.
- Conflict of Interest Declaration: Any potential conflicts of interest of the editor must be disclosed to the Journal before appointing the editor, and updated if new conflicts arise. Editors should not be involved in decisions about manuscripts they wrote or that involve family members or colleagues, or relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest.
IV. For Reviewers
- Sense of Responsibility: Conducting a peer review supports editors in deciding whether to publish a paper; furthermore, reviewers can assist authors in improving the scientific quality of the paper. Therefore, reviewers need to work responsibly in their roles, avoiding superficiality, bias, and compromise with errors; not accepting review requests or evaluating manuscripts when they find that the paper is inappropriate for their expertise, profession, or has a personal relationship with the author of the mabuscript being reviewed.
- Objectivity: Reviewers must be fair, objective, and avoid bias or prejudice when reviewing and evaluating manuscripts; not allowing personal relationships or financial interests to influence their review.
- Confidentiality: Manuscripts sent by the Journal to reviewers must be considered as confidential documents. Reviewers should not share any information about the manuscript, evaluation content in any form; not contact the author directly without the editor's permission. During the review process, reviewers may discuss with colleagues or engage in joint evaluation activities, but they must first discuss this with the editor to ensure compliance with security policies. For unpublished materials in the article sent by the editor, reviewers are not allowed to use them in their research without the written consent of the author. Information or ideas obtained through the review process must be kept confidential and not used for personal purposes.
- Regarding Ethical Issues: Reviewers must be vigilant about potential ethical issues in the manuscript and should inform the editor of these issues, including any significant similarities or overlaps between the manuscript under review and any previously reported publications. Any statement indicating a prior observation, source, or argument must be accompanied by a relevant citation.
V. Violation handling
- For authors:
+ After the editorial screening, if the authors discover any violation of ethical standards, intellectual property, conflicts of interest or author copyright, the authors are responsible for informing the Journal immediately in writing, accompanied with proof of violation. The Journal will consider discontinuing other stages of the publication process, conclude the withdrawal and cancellation of the manuscript, and notify the corresponding author.
+ If an article has violated publication policies and procedures, the Journal reserves the right to remove the article content from our database. The Journal will notify the author of the withdrawn article's name accompanied by a statement explaining why the content has been removed from the website of the Journal.
+ For violations that are not detected initiatively, the Journal has the right to request a correction or retraction by fixing or removing published content and announcing the name of the author’s violating article. The Journal will refuse to receive submissions from violated authors for between one to three years. Further actions to violations could be implemented following the Intellectual Property Law, the Press Law, and the Publishing Law of Vietnam.
- For editors and reviewers:
If the journal concludes the manuscript violates the publication ethics policy, the Journal may take the following actions:
+ The reviewer will not be invited or be revoked from peer-review;
+ Additional punitive measures may be considered if serious violations occur.
