Publication Ethics
The Synergy: Journal of Outcome-Based Community Engagement is dedicated to following best practices on ethical matters, errors, and retractions. The prevention of publication malpractice is one of the most important responsibilities of our editorial board. This publication ethics and malpractice statement is strictly based on the guidelines and standards developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
1. Duties of Authors
- Reporting Standards: Authors must present an accurate account of the community service performed. Manuscripts must include reliable baseline data, measurable outcomes, and sustainability metrics. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
- Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that they have written entirely original works. Any work or words of others must be appropriately cited or quoted.
- Multiple or Concurrent Publication: Authors should not submit manuscripts describing essentially the same engagement program in more than one journal simultaneously.
- Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be strictly limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or evaluation of the reported outcome-based community engagement.
2. Duties of Editors
- Publication Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief and Section Editors are responsible for deciding which articles should be published, strictly guided by the journal's Focus, Scope, and Outcome-Based policies.
- Fair Play: Editors evaluate manuscripts based solely on their intellectual merit and practical community impact, without regard to the authors' race, gender, institutional affiliation, or citizenship.
- Confidentiality & Conflict of Interest: Editors must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and editorial board members. Editors must recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest.
3. Duties of Reviewers
- Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and may assist the authors in improving their program's impact metrics and sustainability arguments.
- Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others.
- Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively using the journal's standardized Reviewer Assessment Form. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
