ETHICS POLICY

ETHICS AND PUBLICATION POLICIES

The Journal of Responsible Business Practices (JRBP) is a peer-reviewed journal published once a year at the end of June of each year. JRBP is published by UiTM Press which is the official university publisher of Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

The editors of JRBP are committed towards maintaining high ethical standards in the publication of articles in the Journal. The editorial board does not tolerate any act of plagiarism, fraud and forms of misconduct in academic publication. It is the editorial board’s responsibility to ensure that the quality of research undertaken by authors is in compliance with high ethical standards.

JRBP adopts  the code of conduct and best practices for journal editors as outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).This ethics statement and publication policies of JRBP incorporate the COPE Guidelines based on the revised version  in 2011. The details can be viewed at www.publicationethics.org.

While every effort is  undertaken to ensure compliance to the ethical standards as outlined in the COPE guidelines, published articles whose authors are later found to have evidence of plagiarism, fraud  and mis- conduct shall be retracted  from the journal and authors will be barred from publishing in the Journal for at least one year.

JRBP pursues to provide fair consideration to all submitted manuscripts and does not discriminate authorship based on names of authors and the country or region where the manuscript comes from. JRBP highly welcomes and encourages   the submission by young and female authors as well as authors from emerging and less developed economies   to encourage diversity in authorship and counter existing  imbalance in literature and under  representation of certain groups in journal authorship and publication.

The following further sets out policies pertaining to the responsibilities and  conduct of  the editorial board, authors and  others involved in the management and publication of JRBP as well as other publication policies.

 

  1.  Roles and Responsibilities of

 

  1. Chief Editor:

Strive to maintain and improve the quality, visibility and prominence of JRBP

Provides leadership for the editorial team to ensure quality submission and timeliness of publication

Evaluate manuscripts based on the overall quality and suitability to the journal theme

Has the authority to reject submission before the review process if found to be of non acceptable standard

Manuscripts of acceptable quality shall be passed to the Managing Editor for distribution to reviewers

Ensure confidentiality of manuscripts and not disclose information regarding the submission other than to those directly involved in the publication process.

Actively seek the views of the International editors and International advisory board for further improvement of JRBP

  1.  Managing Editor

Manage the submitted manuscripts

Assist the Chief Editor in the first screening of manuscripts

Identify reviewers and send manuscripts to

  1. Two sets of reviewers for content  blind review process
  2. Technical editors for format screening
  3. Language editor of  revised submission for final proof reading
  4. technical editors of complete set of manuscripts for each issue  for final process of publication
  1.  Executive Editorial Board Members

Directly responsible for development, maintenance and improvement of JRBP

Have  a strong commitment towards timeliness  and  sustainability of the journal

Continuously support and  promote the journal to ensure quality publication

Regularly  attend meetings, assigned  trainings and participate in discussion pertaining to the running and initiatives to improve the journal

Contribute  to  secure wide  and good quality submission of manuscripts

Contribute towards improvement in abstracting and indexing of the journal

  1.  Technical Editors:

Ensure manuscripts follow the format as per template of JRBP articles set out in the website

Return submitted manuscripts with format review report if there is  non- compliance

Responsible to liase with publisher for final process of publication and uploading of articles to close the issue

Responsible for technical issues with regards to on line publication and website maintenance

  1. Language Editors

Responsible to ensure that the accepted articles have the appropriate English language suitable for a quality journal

Responsible for minor final proof reading (it is not the responsibility of language editors to do major language improvements)

Provide feedback from time to time  on the quality of manuscripts in relation to the style and quality of language to ensure that the quality of publication is maintained.

  1. International Editors

Contribute towards the development and sustainability of the Journal

Strive to promote the journal especially to the organization and circle of influence of the editor to encourage readership and submission to the journal

Taking a keen interest to the publication of each issue of the journal and providing continuous feedback and recommendations to improve the journal

Review assigned articles

To contribute towards improvement in abstracting and indexing of the journal

  1.  International Advisory Board

Contribute towards the development, visibility and sustainability of the Journal.

Become ambassadors for the Journal

Taking a keen interest on the overall development of the Journal especially with regards to the quality of articles published in each issue.

Providing continuous feedback and recommendations  in relation to improvements in quality, management process and visibility  of the Journal

Advice and contribute towards abstracting and indexing of the Journal in leading international  databases.

  1. Reviewers

Must  disclose any conflict of interest that might hinder  objective review of the manuscript

Has the right to refuse to review on the basis of conflict of interest and or inadequate knowledge

Has the responsibility to review the manuscript objectively, fairly  and professionally

Adhere to the agreed stipulated time given to review a manuscript. Requests for extension or inability to complete must be communicated immediately to avoid delay in the review process.

Ensure the originality and be alert to plagiarism and redundant publication (has the same  content published elsewhere by the same author)

Reveal any form of plagiarism, fraud and misconduct to the Chief Editor for further action.

  1. Authors and Corresponding Authors

Required to uphold the ethical standards as per guidelines set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Authors are encouraged to view this set of guidelines from www.publicationethics.org.

Ensure only original work is submitted for consideration of publication in JRBP

Are only allowed to submit their manuscripts elsewhere after official rejection from JRBP or when request to withdraw their work is officially accepted by the Journal.

Must inform the Chief Editor of any forms of inaccuracy of data and/error   in their published work so that correction or retraction of article can be done.

Strive to make significant contribution to the body of literature and scholarship on the area they are writing.

Must be accountable for their work including accepting the  retraction of published article if later found to have evidence of non compliance to ethics policy

  1. Plagiarism Policy

JRBPdoes not tolerate any forms of plagiarism. Starting issue January 2019, all submissions must furnish a turnitin ( or similar) report with a benchmark of not more than 30 percent. Authors with difficulty to access such softwares are required  to write to JRBP to give permission for  us to perform the test.

 

  1. Retraction Policy

Any complaint of plagiarism and any forms of misconduct and unethical behavior shall be investigated seriously. Any evidence of plagiarism, fraud and forms of misconduct which represent non-compliance of the publication policies and ethics statement in this Journal shall be retracted from the particular issue if it is already published or withdrawn  from publication if already accepted for publication and the authors shall be barred from publication in this journal for at least ONE year.

  1. Charges and  Open Access Policy

Currently there are  no processing charges (APC) and article submission charges (ASC). This may change in future.

JRBP has an open access policy and   provides free and immediate open access to its content on line via its website.

  1. Copyright

UiTM Press has the copyright to the articles published in JRBP. By agreeing to submit and publish with JRBP authors agree to transfer the copyright to the publisher. An email will be sent to the corresponding author to confirm acceptance of the manuscript after JRBP is satisfied with changes made by the authors based on the reviewers’ reports,  together with a Journal Publishing Agreement form to be returned to JRBP.

Appropriate academic use and reference on any content of the articles published in JRBP must be given due credit and properly cited.

  1. Reporting and Complaints

Any report or complaints on plagiarism, fraud and misconduct can be made by writing to

Chief Editor

Journal of Responsible Business Practices (JRBP)

Arshad Ayub Graduate Business School (AAGBS)

Universiti Teknologi MARA

40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia

Email: aagbs@uitm.edu.my