Ethics, Integrity & Retraction Policy

Ethics, Integrity & Retraction Policy

The Journal of Integrated Sciences and Agriculture (JISA) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, scientific integrity, transparency, and accountability. The journal follows the principles and best practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and other internationally recognized standards for scholarly publishing.

JISA expects authors, reviewers, editors, and all parties involved in the publication process to uphold ethical principles and act responsibly throughout the submission, review, publication, and post-publication stages. This policy establishes the journal's procedures for preventing, identifying, investigating, and addressing research and publication misconduct.

1. Authorship and Contribution Policy

JISA recognizes authorship as a matter of academic responsibility and intellectual contribution. Authorship must reflect substantial contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or reporting of the research.

Authorship Eligibility: Authorship is limited to individuals who have made substantial intellectual or scholarly contributions to the research or manuscript, including drafting or critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content.

Approval of the Manuscript: All listed authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission and publication in JISA.

Author Contributions: Co-supervisors, project collaborators, institutional heads, and principal investigators do not qualify for authorship solely by virtue of their position, supervision, funding, or administrative involvement. They must meet the journal's authorship criteria.

Corresponding Author Responsibilities: The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all authors meet the authorship requirements, that the author list is accurate, and that all co-authors have approved the submitted manuscript.

Contribution Statement: Authors must provide an individual contribution statement, preferably using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework where applicable, identifying the specific contributions of each author.

Changes in Authorship: Any addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors after submission must be justified in writing and approved by all authors concerned, subject to editorial approval.

Gift authorship, ghost authorship, and other forms of inappropriate attribution are prohibited.

2. Initial Screening and Peer-Review Policy

All manuscripts submitted to JISA undergo an initial editorial assessment to determine their suitability for the journal and compliance with its submission requirements.

Initial Screening: Manuscripts are assessed for relevance to the journal's aims and scope, originality, completeness, ethical compliance, and adherence to author guidelines.

Plagiarism Screening: Submitted manuscripts are screened using appropriate plagiarism-detection software, including Turnitin where applicable, to identify potential plagiarism, unattributed text, and inappropriate textual overlap.

Double-Blind Peer Review: Manuscripts that pass the initial screening are evaluated through a double-blind peer-review process by at least two independent reviewers with relevant subject expertise.

Reviewer Selection: Authors may suggest potential reviewers; however, the final selection rests with the editorial team. Suggested reviewers may be declined where independence, expertise, or impartiality cannot be established.

Confidentiality: Reviewers must treat manuscripts and associated materials as confidential and must not use unpublished information for personal, professional, or commercial advantage.

Objectivity and Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers must provide fair, constructive, evidence-based assessments and disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest.

Editorial Independence: Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, originality, methodological soundness, relevance, ethical compliance, and the quality of the research, without discrimination based on authors' nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, or other personal characteristics.

Peer review does not guarantee acceptance. The Editor-in-Chief and designated editors retain final responsibility for publication decisions.

3. Research Integrity and Misconduct Policy

JISA does not tolerate research or publication misconduct and requires all submitted and published work to comply with accepted standards of research integrity.

The following practices are considered serious ethical violations:

Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism: Presenting another person's work, ideas, data, or text as one's own without appropriate acknowledgment, or reusing substantial portions of previously published work without proper citation and disclosure.

Data Fabrication and Falsification: Inventing research data, manipulating results, altering research records, or selectively misrepresenting findings in a manner that compromises scientific accuracy or integrity.

Duplicate or Redundant Publication: Submitting the same manuscript simultaneously to multiple journals or publishing substantially overlapping research without appropriate disclosure, justification, and citation.

Inappropriate Authorship: Gift authorship, ghost authorship, undisclosed authorship changes, or failure to acknowledge individuals who have made qualifying contributions.

Citation Manipulation: Deliberately including irrelevant citations, coercive citation practices, or artificially increasing citation counts to manipulate scholarly metrics.

Image and Data Manipulation: Inappropriately modifying images, figures, graphs, or research data in ways that misrepresent the original findings.

Unethical Research Practices: Conducting research involving human participants, animals, biological materials, or other regulated subjects without required ethical approvals, consent, or safeguards.

Undisclosed Use of Artificial Intelligence: Failing to disclose the use of AI tools where required by the journal's AI and authorship policies, or using such tools to generate fabricated references, data, results, or misleading scientific content.

Allegations of misconduct will be assessed fairly and confidentially. Depending on the nature and severity of the violation, possible actions include manuscript rejection, requests for clarification or correction, notification of the authors' institutions, restrictions on future submissions, publication of an expression of concern, or retraction of a published article.

All investigations will follow applicable COPE guidance and relevant institutional procedures.

4. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

JISA recognizes its responsibility to maintain the accuracy and reliability of the scholarly record. Published articles may be corrected, retracted, or accompanied by an expression of concern when significant errors or ethical issues are identified.

Corrections and Errata

Corrections may be issued when errors are identified in a published article that do not invalidate its principal findings or conclusions.

Minor typographical, formatting, or factual errors may be corrected where they do not affect the scientific interpretation.
Substantive errors that affect specific results, tables, figures, or interpretations may require a formal correction or corrigendum.
All corrections will clearly identify the nature of the error and will be linked to the original article.

Retractions

An article may be retracted when reliable evidence establishes that its findings or publication are seriously compromised. Grounds for retraction may include:

Proven plagiarism or substantial unattributed duplication.
Fabrication, falsification, or deliberate manipulation of data.
Serious errors that invalidate the main findings or conclusions.
Unethical research practices or lack of required ethical approval.
Compromised peer review or other serious publication-process violations.
Other forms of misconduct that undermine the integrity or reliability of the scholarly record.

Retraction decisions will be made by the editorial leadership following an appropriate investigation and consideration of the available evidence. Retraction notices will state the reason for retraction, identify the affected article, and remain permanently linked to the original publication, which will be clearly marked as retracted.

Expressions of Concern

Where credible concerns arise but an investigation remains incomplete or the available evidence is inconclusive, JISA may issue an expression of concern to alert readers to potential issues affecting a published article.

Expressions of concern may be updated or withdrawn when the investigation is concluded.

All corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern will follow applicable COPE guidance and will be handled transparently to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.

5. Conflicts of Interest Policy

JISA requires authors, reviewers, and editors to disclose any relationships or circumstances that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, their professional judgment.

Authors

Authors must disclose relevant financial, institutional, professional, personal, or commercial relationships that may constitute actual or potential conflicts of interest. Sources of funding and the role of funding agencies in the research should also be declared.

Where no conflicts exist, authors should include an appropriate declaration stating that they have no competing interests.

Reviewers

Reviewers must disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest before accepting a review assignment. These may include recent collaboration, institutional affiliation, personal relationships, financial interests, or direct competition with the authors.

Reviewers must decline the assignment when a conflict could compromise the impartiality or credibility of their assessment.

Editors

Editors must not handle manuscripts in which they have a personal, professional, institutional, financial, or collaborative conflict of interest.

Such manuscripts will be assigned to an independent editor who can manage the review and editorial decision without undue influence from the conflicted individual.

All disclosed conflicts will be managed appropriately to safeguard editorial independence and the integrity of the peer-review process.

6. Ethical Oversight and Human/Animal Research Policy

JISA requires all research involving human participants, animals, biological materials, or other regulated subjects to comply with applicable ethical standards, institutional requirements, and relevant national and international regulations.

Research Involving Human Participants

Studies involving human participants must comply with the applicable ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and relevant national and institutional regulations.
Authors must obtain approval from an appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB), Research Ethics Committee (REC), or equivalent ethics review body before conducting research, where required.
The manuscript must identify the approving committee, approval reference or number, and date of approval, where applicable.
Informed consent must be obtained from participants, including consent for the use of identifiable personal information, images, clinical details, or case reports, as appropriate.
Research involving children or other vulnerable populations must include appropriate safeguards and consent or assent procedures in accordance with applicable regulations.

Where ethical approval or informed consent is not applicable, authors must provide a clear justification in the manuscript.

Research Involving Animals

Research involving animals must comply with applicable national legislation, institutional animal-care requirements, and internationally recognized ethical standards.
Authors must provide details of the relevant institutional animal ethics approval or equivalent authorization.
Studies involving live animals should follow appropriate animal welfare and reporting standards, including the ARRIVE guidelines, where applicable.
Research must demonstrate that animal suffering was minimized and that appropriate procedures were followed for animal care, handling, and experimental treatment.

Biosafety and Other Ethical Considerations

Research involving hazardous biological materials, genetically modified organisms, infectious agents, or other potentially harmful materials must comply with relevant biosafety, biosecurity, and regulatory requirements.

JISA reserves the right to request supporting documentation or clarification of ethical compliance and may reject manuscripts where ethical standards have not been adequately demonstrated.

7. Responsibilities of Authors, Reviewers, and Editors

Authors

Authors are responsible for:

Ensuring the originality, accuracy, and integrity of their research and manuscript.
Providing truthful and complete information regarding data, methods, results, funding, and conflicts of interest.
Citing all sources appropriately and obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material, including figures, tables, images, and other previously published content.
Obtaining all necessary ethical approvals, informed consent, and regulatory permissions before conducting research.
Retaining original research data, records, and supporting materials for at least five years after publication, or longer where required by institutional or legal regulations.
Providing underlying data, research materials, or clarification when reasonably requested by the editors for verification, subject to applicable privacy, confidentiality, and legal requirements.
Disclosing relevant funding sources, competing interests, and the use of AI tools in accordance with the journal's applicable policies.
Cooperating with editorial investigations and correcting errors or inaccuracies identified in their published work.

Reviewers

Reviewers are responsible for:

Maintaining the confidentiality of manuscripts and the peer-review process.
Providing objective, constructive, and timely evaluations based on scientific merit.
Identifying relevant published work that has not been cited and reporting potential ethical concerns to the editor.
Disclosing conflicts of interest and declining assignments where impartiality may be compromised.
Refraining from using unpublished research or information for personal or professional advantage.
Treating authors and their work respectfully and professionally.

Editors

Editors are responsible for:

Ensuring fair, transparent, and impartial editorial assessment and peer review.
Maintaining editorial independence and protecting the confidentiality of manuscripts and reviewer identities.
Selecting qualified and independent reviewers and managing conflicts of interest appropriately.
Investigating allegations of research and publication misconduct in accordance with COPE guidance and applicable institutional procedures.
Taking appropriate corrective action, including issuing corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions when warranted.
Ensuring that publication decisions are based on scholarly quality, ethical compliance, originality, and relevance to the journal's scope.

8. Reporting Misconduct and Appeals Process

JISA encourages authors, reviewers, readers, and other members of the scholarly community to report suspected ethical violations, research misconduct, or breaches of publication integrity.

Reporting Ethical Concerns

Allegations involving plagiarism, data manipulation, authorship disputes, duplicate publication, unethical research, or other publication-related concerns may be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief or Managing Editor at: jisa@ageconfrontiers.com

Reports should include a clear description of the concern and relevant supporting evidence, such as article references, documents, or other verifiable information.

All complaints will be treated confidentially to the extent possible, and individuals raising concerns in good faith will be protected against inappropriate retaliation.

Investigation Procedure

Upon receiving a credible allegation, the editorial office may:

Conduct a preliminary assessment to determine whether the allegation falls within the journal's responsibility and warrants further investigation.
Request explanations, supporting documents, or clarification from the relevant authors, reviewers, or editors.
Refer the matter to an independent Fact-Finding Committee (FFC), institutional research integrity office, or other appropriate body where necessary.
Consider the findings and determine appropriate editorial action in accordance with COPE guidance and the seriousness of the violation.

The journal may contact the authors' institutions or relevant authorities when necessary to establish the facts or address serious ethical concerns.

Appeals Against Editorial Decisions

Authors may appeal an editorial decision by submitting a formal written appeal within two weeks of receiving the decision.

Appeals must provide a clear justification, identify any factual or procedural errors, and include relevant supporting evidence. Appeals based solely on disagreement with a reviewer's academic opinion, without substantive grounds, may not be considered.

Appeals will be evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief or an independent editorial member who was not directly involved in the original decision, wherever practicable. The outcome of the appeal will be communicated to the corresponding author and will be considered final.

Ethical Guidelines and References

JISA's publication ethics framework is informed by the following internationally recognized resources:

JISA may update this policy periodically to reflect developments in publication ethics, research integrity, and international scholarly publishing standards. Any revisions will be published on the journal's official website.

Ethics, Integrity & Retraction Policy

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