Research and Publication Ethics

Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences adheres to the guidelines of research and publication ethics described in the ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org) and the Guidelines on Good Publication (http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines).

Authorship

An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. According to the ICMJE guidelines (https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf), authorship credit should be based on:

• 1) Substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, and/or analysis and interpretation of data; AND
• 2) Drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• 3) Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• 4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Authors wishing to make any changes to authorship will be asked to make and submit an official letter to the editor. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.

Originality, plagiarism, and duplicate publication

All submitted manuscripts must be original and not under consideration by other journals. Accepted manuscripts should not be duplicated in any other journal without permission from the Editorial Board. If duplicate publication is detected, the authors will be publicly announced, their institutions informed, and penalties imposed.

Plagiarism: Similarity Check (https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/) is used to screen manuscripts for plagiarism or duplicate publication. Plagiarism is defined as reproducing another work without attribution. If plagiarism is detected before or after acceptance, or after publication, the author will have a chance for rebuttal Unsatisfactory rebuttals will result in retraction and a publication ban for a period determined by the editor(s). Figures and tables can be used freely if the original source is verified according to the Creative Commons Non-Commercial License. Authors must resolve any copyright issues when citing figures or tables from non-open access journals.

Competing interests

The corresponding author must ensure that any conflicts of interest related to the submitted manuscript are disclosed in the manuscript and take responsibility for this disclosure. Potential conflicts should be reported even if the authors believe they were not influenced in preparing the manuscript. All authors must disclose i.e., (1) financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony), (2) personal relationship, (3) academic competition, and (4) intellectual passion. These disclosures should be included on the title page. A completed conflict of interest form should be submitted during manuscript submission (http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/.

Statement of human and animal rights

Investigations involving humans must be conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). Clinical studies not adhering to the Helsinki Declaration will not be considered for publication. For animal research, studies must comply with the National or Institutional Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, ensuring the ethical treatment of all experimental animals.

Statement of informed consent and IRB approval

Research involving humans or animals must be approved by the institution's Research Ethics Committee (REC), Institutional Review Board (IRB), or Animal Care Committee. For human studies, informed consent must be obtained unless waived by the IRB. Copies of written informed consent (from the patient, or from a parent or guardian if the patient is not capable) and IRB approval should be retained. Editors or reviewers may request these documents. The manuscript must explicitly state that written informed consent was obtained from all study participants. For animal studies, approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is required.

Protection of privacy and confidentiality

Patients have a right to privacy that must not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, such as names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published unless essential for scientific purposes and with written informed consent from the patient (or parent or guardian). Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. If there is any doubt about maintaining anonymity, informed consent is necessary, as masking the eye region in photographs is inadequate. If identifying characteristics are deidentified, authors must assure, and editors must confirm, that these changes do not distort scientific meaning.

Selection and description of participants

Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, report the sex and/or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex and gender. If the study was done involving an exclusive population, for example in only one sex, authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance.

Managing research and publication misconduct

The Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences may find any suspected cases of research and publication misconduct. In these cases, the ethics committee of the journal will follow the process provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts), discuss and finalize the cases for further publication.

Editorial responsibilities

The Editorial Board is committed to upholding publication ethics by continuously monitoring and safeguarding ethical standards. This includes retracting articles when necessary, maintaining the integrity of the academic record, and ensuring that business needs do not compromise intellectual and ethical standards. The Board is also responsible for publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed, and for preventing plagiarism and fraudulent data in publications. Editors have the responsibility and authority to accept or reject articles. They must avoid any conflicts of interest with respect to the articles they evaluate and ensure the accuracy of accepted papers. Additionally, editors are responsible for promoting the publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found and for preserving the anonymity of reviewers.

Research Ethics council and role of the council

For the consideration of research ethics and related issues, the journal operates a Research Ethics Council (the Council). The Chairperson of the Publication Committee serves as the chair of the Council. The composition of the Council is determined by the Publication Committee, and its operations follow regulations set by the Council. The roles of the Research Ethics Council are as follows:

1) The Council reviews research ethics issues arising from the publication of the Journal and related papers (original articles, review articles, and others).

2) The Council investigates allegations of forgery, alteration, plagiarism, wrongful authorship indication, or multiple/duplicate publication for published papers and reports the findings to the Executive Committee.

Administration of research ethics violation

1) When research ethics violations occur, the Chair of the Council must convene a meeting immediately to review the situation and report the findings to the Executive Committee.

2) The Council must keep any investigation of ethics violations confidential and ensure that the investigation does not conflict with the interests of the Journal.

3) Upon completing the investigation, the Council will decide on the appropriate level of punishment for the violator (author or corresponding author) based on the severity of the violation. The Council may prohibit the violator from publishing in the Journal for a specified period or exclude them permanently.

4) The Council will keep a record of the investigation and the results of any ethical misconduct.

5) If the Council confirms ethical misconduct in a paper, the Executive Committee will announce the case and disapprove the publication of the paper in the Journal. If the paper has already been published, it will be removed from the Journal’s list of papers, and this action will be announced to the Journal's members and related academic institutions.