ETHICS IN PUBLICATIONS

ETHICS IN PUBLICATIONS

Prince Sultan University has established a flexible strategy to support the publications fees of open-access journals, and incentives for publications. We would like to highlight some practices (not limited to) that are considered as a violation of ethics to be avoided by faculty members. PSU has the right to take proper actions in case of a reported, proven violation case.

  • Be included as a co-author without any contribution of the paper but just for sake of funding the publication fees or receiving incentives.
  • Receive any kind of publication fee refund either full or partial from any other institution, in addition to the refund received from PSU.
  • Include other co-authors without making any contribution to the paper.
  • Exclude researchers who contributed in a paper for the sake of getting more incentives.
  • Put the affiliation of other Universities just to receive personal incentives on the publications.
  • Exploit the authority and exercise power to be included in publications.
  • Be the corresponding author or the first author, without a reason, just for the payment of the publications.
  • Any interaction with non-eligible journals/publishers (publish a paper, serve as editor, reviewer, or any activity) will be considered as a violation of the research ethics at PSU.
  • It is important to clearly state in the paper that PSU is the funding institution for the research requested for fees and incentives.
  • if a PSU author applies for fees or for incentives for a paper completely outside his area of expertise and common research interest, the case will be investigated by the Research Ethics and Integrity Committee. In case the author was included in the paper just for sake of paying the incentives or fees without contribution, then a penality will be applied as recommended by the Research Ethics and Integrity Committee and RIC.

On other hand, the following practices are considered as legitimate collaboration:

  • Contribute to others' papers by making thorough written review before publication or a substantial contribution (writing, conducting experiments). Simple proofreading does not justify inclusion as a co-author.
  • Establish collaboration with external institutions to co-supervise students, bring funds, or conduct joint projects. Co-authoring joint papers and funding them from PSU either in incentives or fees is acceptable. Evidence of collaboration should be available upon request.