Ethics

Integrity of scholarly work is very important and in esse seeks to safeguard by upholding strict measures to address various forms of misconduct.

Plagiarism 

Unauthorised use of data, images, words, or ideas from any source without proper acknowledgment constitutes plagiarism. This includes content from various formats like abstracts, presentations, reports, theses, research proposals, and manuscripts, published or unpublished. Plagiarism detection is carried out accordingly.

Text-recycling/Self-plagiarism

While authors may reference their previous work, extensive reuse without transparency is deemed unacceptable. Authors must cite their own work appropriately and ensure compliance with copyright policies. 

Authorship

Authors must provide an honest account of authorship, ensuring each listed author meets the criteria for credit. 

Undisclosed competing interests

Failure to disclose relevant competing interests by authors, editors, or reviewers, which may impact their impartial evaluation of research articles. Editors and reviewers with significant competing interests should abstain from assessing submissions to ensure fair and unbiased evaluations.

Image or data manipulation/fabrication

Deliberate manipulation or fabrication of images or data to mislead others and compromise the credibility of the scholarly record. Such misconduct has far-reaching consequences and damages the integrity of academic research.

Duplicate submission/Publication

Authors must confirm that their manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere. Detecting duplicate submissions or publications is typically viewed as a deliberate act. Authors submitting secondary publications, like translated articles, must obtain permission and inform the editor of in esse about the article’s original history.

Citation manipulation in scholarly publishing

Citation manipulation, also known as citation gaming, occurs when authors engage in inappropriate practices such as excessive self-citation or forming prearrangements with other researchers or reviewers to boost citations unnaturally.

When suspected or detected, citation manipulation is investigated. Consequences may include rejection of unpublished articles or post-publication notices like retractions for published articles. 

Unethical conduct in research and publishing

Engaging in unethical research practices involves conducting studies that deviate from approved ethics protocols. This includes scenarios where researchers fail to obtain necessary permissions, neglect to safeguard the well-being and privacy of human subjects and so on.

Any attempts to manipulate the publishing process are deemed research misconduct and a violation of ethical standards. If the validity and integrity of an article are compromised, in esse reserves the right to reject (pre-publication) or retract (post-publication) the article. Institutions, employers, or funders may be informed in such cases.

Even in the absence of author cooperation, corrective actions will be taken to uphold the integrity of the scholarly record.

Copyright breaches

Additionally, researchers should be cautious about copyright breaches by using third-party material without proper permissions. Authors must obtain permission from copyright holders for any copyrighted material used in their work. Refer to guidelines for using third-party material for more information on obtaining permissions for copyrighted content.