How to select a journal that meets ethical standards

Research publication is a major part of an academic or research career, so when selecting a journal to publish your research, there are a number of factors to consider. How reputable is the journal? What is its impact factor? Does it align with your research? All of these are important issues in journal selection, but there’s a fourth topic that doesn’t get as much attention, i.e., ethics. How can you ensure that a journal follows ethical publishing standards? How can you check whether your work will be reviewed fairly? Will your work be published alongside other original research, or will it be in the company of plagiarized research? In this article, we’ll tell you how to take ethics into consideration as you make your journal selection and prepare to submit your research for publication.

Journal Reputations Affect Author Reputations

Why is it important to choose a journal that upholds ethical standards? The truth is, ethics are an important factor in journal selection not just because they mean supporting ethical publications. Ethics are also an important factor in journal selection because publishing your work in a journal that doesn’t meet ethical standards can harm your own reputation.

Imagine you read an article that has clearly been plagiarized, has sloppy or low quality, or doesn’t seem to have been strictly reviewed. Won’t you wonder what kind of journal publishes this low-quality work? Won’t you assume that the other articles published in the journal are of a similar standard? Most people will, and that is why journal selection is so important when publishing research. Publishing your research next to poor-quality work makes your own work look bad. If you want to ensure that your work isn’t mistakenly considered dishonest or low-quality, you must consider ethical guidelines when making your journal selection.

What are Ethical Guidelines for Research Journals?

What do we mean when we talk about ethical guidelines in research journals? While there is no universal standard, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is a non-profit organization with members all over the world. COPE sets the standards for flowcharts and best practices for journal editors, reviewers, and authors.

COPE’s best practices for editors include avoiding bias in article selection, protecting reviewer anonymity in blind review processes, and guarding against commercial influence. Reviewers must ensure that they report any conflicts of interest or suspected plagiarism to the editor, and maintain author confidentiality. Authors are encouraged to avoid plagiarism and respect intellectual property, disclose funding sources, and declare any conflicts of interest.

COPE’s ethical publishing guidelines aren’t the only ones, but they are a good baseline against which to compare other journal ethical standards. Other common ethical guidelines include stipulating that only researchers who directly contributed to an article are listed as authors, and that everyone who worked on the research agrees to the publication. Authors are usually required to list their affiliations and declare any commercial ties they might have. In addition, any research performed on human or animal subjects must be humane and follow national standards.

How Can You Select a Journal That Meets Ethical Standards?

There are several ways you can make sure that your journal selection is a good one. First, your journal selection should be limited to journals that have clear ethical guidelines. Whether they claim to abide by COPE or have other standards, your journal selection should clearly indicate the ethical standards they follow. When considering journal selection, if the journal refuses to provide ethical guidelines, is unclear about how reviewers assess and select work, or has published plagiarized work in the past, you should move on. While reputable journals aren’t immune from publishing plagiarized or dishonest work, a good journal will publish a retraction and be transparent about having made such an error.

If you still aren’t confident that you can find a reliable publisher for your research, fortunately, there are journal selection services available to help. Journal Selection services will consider your research area and then recommend several journals that are reputable and which are appropriate for your research area. Journal selection services will not only check the reputation and ethics of the journal – they will also make sure your work matches the scope of the journal. If you are unsure about where to find a journal selection service, try searching online or asking your institution for help.

Factoring in ethical guidelines in your journal selection is not just good practice – it’s the best way to protect your reputation as a quality researcher and academic. So next time you’re faced with the dilemma of journal selection for research publication, don’t forget! Check for ethical guidelines on the journal submission page, look for COPE affiliation, or hire a journal selection service to help.