Afarand journals have a defined process for handling allegations of misconduct, whether they come to the attention of the journal or the publisher, and whether they concern work before or after publication. Allegations are taken seriously and assessed following COPE flowcharts. The policy also protects whistleblowers, and the identity of those raising concerns in good faith is kept confidential as far as possible.
As the number of journals and published articles grows, so does the potential for violations in the preparation, review and publication of manuscripts. Preventing such violations is one of our key aims. Particular attention is paid to paper mills, fabricated or manipulated images and data, fake or manipulated peer review, citation manipulation and undisclosed AI-generated content. Outcomes may include correction, an expression of concern, retraction, notification of the authors' institution or funder, and restrictions on future submissions.
Afarand journals follow the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and the following COPE resources (always the current versions, available at publicationethics.org):
Cooperation between research institutions and journals on research integrity cases
Retraction guidelines
Guidelines for the Board of Directors of Learned Society Journals
Sharing of information among editors-in-chief regarding possible misconduct
How to deal with text recycling
A short guide to ethical editing for new editors
Guidance for editors: research, audit and service evaluations
Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers
How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers
This page is part of the Afarand Best Practice Statement, which contains the complete text of all sections.