Publication Ethics | The North African Journal of Food and Nutrition Research

Publishing Ethics

The rules presented below were developed on the basis of the recommendations of COPE (the Committee on Publication Ethics), which were included in the Core Practices.

The NAJFNR editors and assistants are working hard to guarantee the content we publish is ethically sound. Aiming to achieve that goal, we carefully follow the guidelines and flowcharts provided and published by the COPE website.

Ethical standards for publication exist to ensure high-quality scientific publications, public trust in scientific findings, and that people receive credit for their ideas.

NAJFNR is committed to publishing only original material, i.e., material that has neither been published elsewhere, nor is under review elsewhere. Manuscripts that are found to have been plagiarized from a manuscript by other authors, whether published or unpublished, will incur plagiarism sanctions.

The following guidelines should be followed in line with the journal’s instructions for authors. Readers, authors, reviewers, and editors should consider these ethical policies once working with NAJFNR.

Some key points to consider prior submitting your manuscript:

Any manuscript you submit to the NAJFNR should not have been published prior in its current, or similar, form. Exceptions to this rule are outlined in pre-print and conference papers (see below the Pre-print policy). If any substantial element of your paper has been previously published, you need to declare this to the journal editor upon submission. Please note, the NAJFNR uses Crossref Similarity Check to check on the originality of submissions received. This service compares submissions against a database of 49 million works from 800 scholarly publishers.
Your work should not have been submitted elsewhere and should not be under consideration by any other publication.
If you have a conflict of interest, you must declare it upon submission; this allows the editor to decide how they would like to proceed.
By submitting your work to the NAJFNR, you are guaranteeing that the work is not in infringement of any existing copyright.

Preprint policy

Uploading a preprint has become an increasingly common way for researchers in several disciplines to share their research quickly.

When uploading to a preprint server, we would recommend you check that:

The server clearly identifies preprints as non-peer reviewed works.
The server asks authors to disclose all relationships and activities that might bias or be seen to bias their work.
If the server requires you to complete a licence agreement to make a deposit, you fully understand the rights you are giving to the platform, and if any limitations are imposed for the future use of your work.
You have reviewed any copyright or preprint policies at your institution and funder to ensure the preprint deposit is allowed.

The NAJFNR will consider papers for publication that have been posted to a preprint server before they are submitted to our journal.

However, we can only consider papers where no copyright have not been assigned or an exclusive licence signed when posting work to a preprint server.

When submitting a paper to the NAJFNR that has been shared to a preprint server, we ask that authors make it clear to the editor of the journal on submission that the work is already hosted on a preprint server.

Duplicate Submission

Manuscripts that are found to have been published elsewhere, or to be under review elsewhere, will incur duplicate submission/publication sanctions. If authors have used their own previously published work, or work that is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they are required to cite the previous work and indicate how their submitted manuscript offers novel contributions beyond those of the previous work.

Citation Manipulation

Submitted manuscripts that are found to include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal, will incur citation manipulation sanctions.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

Submitted manuscripts that are found to have either fabricated or falsified experimental results, including the manipulation of images, will incur data fabrication and falsification sanctions.

Improper Author Contribution or Attribution

All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution, including students and laboratory technicians.

Redundant Publications

Redundant publications involve the inappropriate division of study outcomes into several articles.

Sanctions

In the event that there are documented violations of any of the above mentioned policies in any journal, regardless of whether or not the violations occurred in any article published by NAJFNR, the following sanctions will be applied:

Immediate rejection of the infringing manuscript.
Prohibition against all of the authors for any new submissions to NAJFNR, either individually or in combination with other authors of the infringing manuscript, as well as in combination with any other authors. This prohibition will be imposed for a minimum of 36 months.
Prohibition against all of the authors from serving on the Editorial Board NAJFNR.

In cases where the violations of the above policies are found to be particularly egregious, the publisher reserves the right to impose additional sanctions beyond those described above.

About Plagiarism

As defined by the ORI (Office of Research Integrity), plagiarism can include, “theft or misappropriation of intellectual property and the substantial unattributed textual copying of another’s work”. Plagiarism is the unethical act of copying someone else’s prior ideas, processes, results or words without explicit acknowledgement of the original author and source.

Plagiarism is the use or close imitation of the language and ideas of another author and representation of them as one's own original work. Duplicate publication, sometimes called self-plagiarism, occurs when an author reuses substantial parts of his or her own published work without providing the appropriate references. This can range from getting an identical paper published in multiple journals, where authors add small amounts of new data to a previous paper.

Plagiarism can be said to have clearly occurred when large chunks of text have been cut and pasted. Such manuscripts would not be considered for publication. But minor plagiarism without dishonest intent is relatively frequent, for example when an author reuses parts of an introduction from an earlier paper. The editors will judge any case of which they become aware (either by their own knowledge of and reading about the literature, or when alerted by referees) on its own merits.

If a case of plagiarism comes to light after a paper is published in NAJFNR, the journal will conduct a preliminary investigation. If plagiarism is found, the journal will contact the author's institute and funding agencies. A determination of misconduct will lead the Journal to run a statement, bidirectionally linked online to and from the original paper, to note the plagiarism and to provide a reference to the plagiarized material. The paper containing the plagiarism will also be obviously marked on each page of the PDF. Depending on the extent of the plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.

The following types of plagiarism are considered by The NAJFNR:

Full Plagiarism: Any text taken from previously published content without any changes to the text, idea and grammar is considered as full plagiarism. It involves presenting exact text from a source as one's own.

Partial Plagiarism: If content constitutes a mixture from multiple different sources, where the author has extensively rephrased text, then it is known as partial plagiarism.

Self-Plagiarism: When an author reutilizes complete or parts of their previously published work, then it is known as self-plagiarism. Complete self-plagiarism is a case when an author republishes their own previously published work in a new journal.

Ethical Standards and Action for Plagiarism:

The North African Journal of Food and Nutrition Research (NAJFNR) is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of intellectual property rights and safeguarding the integrity of original scholarly work. Submissions found to contain plagiarized material are in direct violation of our standards for quality, research rigor, and innovation. Consequently, all contributors submitting articles to NAJFNR are expected to adhere strictly to ethical standards and abstain from plagiarism in any form.

A. Detection and Initial Action

The NAJFNR employs a robust screening process for all submissions, including the use of iThenticate as text-matching software. It is crucial to understand that a high similarity score from this software serves solely as a flag for further investigation and does not, in itself, constitute proof of plagiarism. Editors will meticulously review identified areas of overlap to differentiate between legitimate textual similarities (such as references, standardized methodological descriptions, or preprints declared by authors during submission) and potential instances of plagiarism.

Should an author be suspected of plagiarism in either a submitted or a published article, the NAJFNR editorial office will formally contact the author(s) to request a comprehensive explanation within a two-week period. This explanation, along with all relevant evidence, will then be forwarded to the NAJFNR Editorial Office for the purpose of investigating such allegations.

B. Institutional Notification

Should no response be received from the concerned author(s) within the stipulated timeframe, or if the provided explanation is deemed insufficient, the Director/Dean/Head of the author's affiliated College, Institution, or Organization, or the Vice Chancellor of the University, will be formally notified. This notification will request the institution to initiate an appropriate internal investigation and undertake necessary action against the author(s).

C. Actions for Published Articles Found to Contain Plagiarism (Retraction Policy)

The NAJFNR will take serious action against published articles definitively found to contain plagiarism or other forms of scientific misconduct. Our primary action for such cases will be formal retraction from the scientific record, executed with utmost transparency and in strict adherence to COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines:

Retraction Note Publication: A prominent "Retraction Note" will be published in a subsequent issue of the journal. This note will clearly state the reasons for the retraction (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication) and will be formally linked to the original article.
Article Accessibility and Markings: The original article will remain accessible in the online database but will be conspicuously watermarked as "Retracted" on each page of its PDF version.
Indexing and Abstracting Services Notification: All relevant abstracting and indexing services will be formally notified of the retraction to ensure that the article's status is widely disseminated within the scholarly literature.
Author Sanctions: Sanctions against the identified author(s) will be applied based on the severity and nature of the misconduct. These may include, but are not limited to, the rejection of all current and future submissions to NAJFNR for a specified period of three years, or a permanent ban from publishing in the journal.
Other Actions: Any other course of action deemed appropriate in accordance with COPE guidelines and legal considerations, may be implemented to address the specific case.

Article Removal: Legal limitations

In rare cases, we may remove an article from our online database if:

The content is demonstrably defamatory or violates legal rights;
The article is (or is likely to become) subject to a court order; or
The article poses a serious health risk if acted upon.

In such instances, the article text will be replaced with a notice stating its removal for legal reasons, while the metadata (title and authors) will remain visible.

This comprehensive policy underscores our unwavering commitment to maintaining the integrity and ethical standards of scholarly publishing.

Conflicts of Interest

The NAJFNR is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes seriously publication malpractice and conflicts of interest. Personal, financial and professional affiliations or relationships can be perceived as conflicts of interest. All authors and all members of NAJFNR’ Editorial Boards are required to disclose any actual and potential conflicts of interest at submission or upon accepting an editorial or review assignment.

The NAJFNR review process is designed to guarantee transparent and objective editorial and review process, and because handling Editor and reviewers' names are made public upon the publication of articles, conflicts of interest will be openly apparent.

As an author, disclosure of any potential conflict of interest should be done during the submission process. Consider the following questions and make sure you disclose any positive answers. If you failed to disclose any of the potential conflict of interest below during submission, please contact the NAJFNR Editorial Office with the details as soon as possible:

Did you or your institution at any time receive payment or services from a third party for any aspect of the submitted work?
Do you have financial relationships with entities that could be perceived to influence, or that give the appearance of potentially influencing, what you wrote in the submitted work?
Do you have any patents and copyrights, whether pending, issued, licensed and/or receiving royalties related to the research?
Do you have other relationships or activities that readers could perceive to have influenced, or that give the appearance of potentially influencing, what you wrote in the submitted work?

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Complaint Policy

The best way to reach us is by email. Complaints should be directly emailed to contact@najfnr.com where they are dealt with confidentiality.

For more details please go to Complaints Policy webpage: (Link)