Overview:
The council of Journal of Home Economics, Menofia University exists to review and approve any amendments to published articles (retractions, withdrawals, Expressions of Concern) advise on publication ethics issues, establish and implement ethical policies, and support investigations of ethical concerns affecting the journal.
For editors, first: speak with your publisher
As a first step to addressing any issue, the president, editor, and other journal team members discuss the concerns raised. These discussions happen before taking any further action, and that legal advice is sought where needed and in particular where issues involve potential defamation, breach of privacy, or copyright infringement.
Initial conversations may indicate the need to carry out further investigation or to widen discussions to:
Involve relevant institutions, employers, or funders (which are the appropriate bodies to conduct most investigations of author disputes and alleged misconduct).
Consult with other journal editors who are involved (in cases where coordinated efforts may be useful, being mindful of sensitivities around confidentiality).
Seek advice from other sources e.g. via COPE Forum.
Academic debate:
The Journal facilitate post-publication academic debate through letters to the editor. The journal have mechanisms for correcting, revising and retracting articles after publication. The Journal of Home Economics, Menofia University encourage correspondence and constructive criticism of the work they publish. If an item of correspondence discusses a specific article, the journal invite the authors of the work to respond before the correspondence is published. When possible, the correspondence and the authors’ response will be published at the same time. Authors may choose not to respond to this invitation. They do not have a right to veto comments about their work that the editor judges to be constructive.
Appeals:
The Journal consider establishing and publishing a mechanism for authors to appeal editorial decisions, to facilitate genuine appeals, and to discourage repeated or unfounded appeals.
Editor will allow appeals to override earlier decisions following appropriate reconsideration of the editorial process and decision making (for example, additional factual input by the authors, revisions, extra material in the manuscript, or appeals about conflicts of interest and concerns about biased peer review). Author protest alone will not affect decisions.
Editor will mediate all exchanges between authors and peer reviewers during the peer-review process. Editor may seek comments from additional peer reviewers to help them make their final decision.
The Journal state in their guidelines that the editor’s decision following an appeal is final.
Authorship:
1- Authors and contributors:
Authorship issues remain a common concern faced by editors. The Home Economic Journal, Menofia University have clear guidance in place to allow for transparency about who contributed to the work and in what capacity for authorship and contributor ship as well as processes for managing potential disputes.
The JHE will notify all authors that they have received a submission and confirm that emails are not invalid. To increase transparency, the journal will require “author contribution statements” that explain how each author contributed to a piece of work.
An individual who does not meet authorship criteria for a specific piece of work but has contributed in some capacity should be acknowledged, with their approval. Minors who have been involved in a piece of research (for example, children using technology) are typically acknowledged as they cannot be fully accountable for all aspects of the research. The Journal encourage authors of intercultural research to consider appropriate attribution for traditional knowledge, to the extent that this attribution does not compromise any agreed assurances of anonymity. This may include “traditional knowledge” notices, or citation of indigenous sources (such as people or community groups) or other cultural sources of knowledge by name within the text.
2- Deceased authors:
If a manuscript is submitted with a deceased author listed, or an author passes away while the manuscript is being peer reviewed, then a footnote or similar should be added to the published article to indicate this. A co-author should vouch for the contribution made by the deceased author and their potential conflicts of interest. If the deceased author was a corresponding author, then another co-author should be nominated. If the author had not yet signed a copyright transfer agreement a co-author have the right to do so on his/her behalf.
3- Author name changes after publication:
In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, JHE will not be able to update or republish the paper.
4- Authorship disputes:
To manage authorship disputes, JHE editor will refer to the flowcharts from COPE (https://publicationethics.org/files/Full%20set%20of%20English%20flowcharts_9Nov2016.pdf) and “How to spot authorship problems.” Authorship disputes will often need to be referred to institutions if the authors cannot resolve the dispute themselves.
5- Editors and journal staff as authors:
Editor or board members will not be involved in editorial decisions about their own scholarly work. JHE will establish and publish mechanisms and clearly defined policies for handling submissions from editor, members of the editorial board, and employees.
Citations:
Citation and reference to appropriate and relevant literature is an essential part of scholarly publishing and is a shared responsibility among all involved (authors, editors, peer reviewers). Authors should not engage in excessive self-citation of their own work. Editors and peer reviewers should not ask authors to add citations to their papers when there is no strong scholarly rationale for doing so.
Conflicts of interest:
Editors, authors, and peer reviewers should disclose interests that might appear to affect their ability to present or review work objectively. These might include relevant financial interests (for example, patent ownership, stock ownership, consultancies, or speaker’s fees), or personal, political, or religious interests.
The ICMJE defined conflicts of interest as follows: “A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients’ welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Perceptions of conflict of interest are as important as actual conflicts of interest.”
Strict policies preventing people with conflicts of interest from publishing might encourage authors to conceal relevant interests and might therefore be counterproductive.
Copyright and intellectual property:
It is a legal requirement for an author to sign a copyright agreement of some kind before publication. The JHE ask authors to transfer their copyright to the journal in the form of Copyright Transfer Agreement. Under this form of agreement, the author retains certain re-use rights in their article, but transfers copyright to the JHE.
Corrections, retractions, and withdrawals:
1- Corrections:
The Journal encourage readers and authors to notify them if they find errors, especially errors that could affect the interpretation of data or information presented in an article. When an error is identified:
JHE will work with authors and their publisher to correct important published errors.
JHE will consider retraction when errors are so fundamental that they invalidate the findings.
Corrections arising from errors within an article will be distinguishable from retractions and statements of concern relating to questionable research practices.
Corrections will be free to access.
The format the correction will take can depend on the article’s stage of publication.
2- Retractions:
The Journal will be committed to playing its part in maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record, therefore on occasion, it may be necessary to retract articles. The JHE will consider publishing retractions for articles when:
They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of major error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error), or as a result of fabrication (e.g. of data) or falsification (e.g. image manipulation)
It constitutes plagiarism more than accepted percentage given by authorities.
The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper attribution to previous sources or disclosure to the editor, permission to republish, or justification (i.e., cases of redundant publication)
It contains material or data without authorization for use
Copyright has been infringed or there is some other serious legal issue (e.g. libel, privacy)
It reports unethical research
The author(s) failed to disclose a major competing interest or conflict of interest that, in the view of the editor, would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.
3- Withdrawals:
There may be circumstances under which an article may be withdrawn following publication. The circumstances under which an article may be withdrawn are:
a- Accepted Articles:
An Accepted Article is the uncorrected, unedited, non-typeset version of an article published on JHE website. While an accepted article will have been allocated a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), it does not constitute the Version of Record as it will not yet have been formally published and does not yet carry complete bibliographic information. Therefore, where an Accepted Article is to be retracted because, for example, it contains errors, has been accidentally submitted twice or infringes a professional ethical code of some type, it may be deleted and replaced with a withdrawal statement.
b- Version of Record:
It is JHE's policy to strongly discourage withdrawal of the Version of Record. Therefore, deletion of the Version of Record is rare, and JHE will only consider it in limited circumstances, such as the following:
Where there has been a violation of the privacy of a research subject;
Where there are errors to which a member of the general public might be exposed and if followed or adopted, would pose a significant risk to health; or
Where a clearly defamatory comment has been made about others in the relevant field or about their work.
Fabrication, falsification, and image manipulation:
Data fabrication is the intentional misrepresentation of research data by making-up findings, recording, or reporting of results. Data falsification is the manipulation of research materials, equipment, or processes, including omitting and changing data, with the intention of giving a false impression. Changes to images can create misleading results when research data are collected as images. Inappropriate image manipulation is one form of fabrication or falsification that journal can identify. It may, however, be legitimate and even necessary to edit images. For example, the selective enlargement of part of an artwork may be needed to reveal features that would not otherwise be visible and editing of video data may be needed to protect the privacy of participants.
The JHE may ask authors to declare where manipulations have been made; we may also ask authors to supply original images or be able and ready to supply them on request. The JHE consider the following information in its author guidelines:
Specific features within an image should not be enhanced, obscured, removed, moved, or added.
Adjustments to brightness or contrast are only acceptable if they apply equally across the entire image and are applied equally to controls, and as long as they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the information originally captured.
Excessive manipulations, such as processing to emphasize one region in the image at the expense of others, are inappropriate, as is emphasizing experimental data relative to the control.
Nonlinear adjustments or deleting portions of a recording must be disclosed in a figure legend.
Original unprocessed images must be provided by authors should any indication of the foregoing be identified. The journal will ask the authors to submit the original unprocessed images alongside any images that have been processed.
Hazardous materials, risks, and biosecurity
Authors are responsible to identify any unusual inherent hazards or risks in a manuscript, include appropriate warnings, and refer to relevant safety precautions. This could be products, chemicals, operations, or technologies posing a threat to public health and safety, the environment, plants, animals, or equipment.
Investigation of questionable research practices
Concerns about questionable research practices may be raised through the use of screening software or by editors, peer reviewers, or third parties. The JHE will apply the COPE flowcharts for responding to concerns that have been raised by third parties directly or indirectly. Sometimes further investigation may require disclosing the third party’s identity. If so, the individual should be informed and give approval before their identity is disclosed.
Peer review:
Editor will choose a peer-review model that best suits the journal and community.
The Journal had clearly defined and communicated policies on the type of peer review model used, which is double-blinded.
Original manuscripts, review articles, and meta-analysis will peer reviewed, while letters to editor will not peer reviewed.
The Journal will operate a triage process in which submissions that are out of scope or otherwise inappropriate may be rejected or returned to the author without external peer review.
The JHE may publish special issues or supplements, and peer review may be managed by a guest editor.
JHE editor will ensure confidential handling of manuscripts, with no details being disclosed to anyone except the editorial board. If discussions between an author, editor, and peer reviewer have taken place in confidence they will remain in confidence unless explicit consent has been given by all parties, or unless there are exceptional circumstances (for example, when they might help substantiate claims of intellectual property theft during peer review).
JHE editor will ask peer reviewers to disclose any conflicts of interest when they respond to an invitation to review and also when they submit their review. Editor will ask that reviewers decline invitations where circumstances might prevent them writing an unbiased review. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include when they have collaborated with the authors recently, when they are based in the same institution as the authors, when they are in direct competition with the authors, when they have personal conflict or close personal relationship or association with the authors, or when they have a financial interest in the manuscript.
Editor will request that invited peer reviewers inform them if they delegate peer review.
For creating an efficient, effective peer-review process, the editor will:
Establish and maintain a secure database of suitably qualified peer reviewers (Regardless of Position or Academic Degree) that is compliant with data protection legislation.
Monitor the performance of peer reviewers for quality and timeliness. Peer reviewers who repeatedly produce poor quality, tardy, abusive, or unconstructive reviews should not be used again.
JHE will ask authors to nominate peer reviewers or to request that particular individuals do not peer review their paper. Editor will remind authors that they should avoid nominating peer reviewers who have a conflict of interest. JHE Editor are under no obligation to accept the authors’ nominations and it is advisable to ensure at least one peer reviewer not suggested by the authors reviews the paper. Editors will always check the qualifications of all reviewers before issuing and invitation to review. Editor will use institutional email addresses when inviting reviewers and will request an ORCID (Editor will try to upload the reviewer report to Publons- https://mkas.journals.ekb.eg/) from reviewers whenever possible, and may avoid using reviewers whose backgrounds and institutional affiliations cannot be determined by a simple web search.
Aim to ensure timely peer review and publication and will avoid unnecessary delays and consider how best to share information with authors about any delays that occur.
Give peer reviewers explicit guidance on their role and responsibilities and consider encouraging the use of reporting guidelines to check completeness of reporting in a systematic way.
Peer reviewers can play an important role in identifying potential questionable research practices such as possible data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, redundant or duplicate publication, image manipulation, unethical research, biased reporting, authorship abuse, and undeclared conflicts of interest. Therefore, JHE editor will remind peer reviewers of this role, and of their requirement to:
Respect the confidentiality of peer review, and not discuss the manuscript or contact the authors or any other people about the manuscript.
Declare any conflicts of interest.
Provide an objective and constructive explanation for their recommendation.
Not allow their decision on a manuscript to be influenced by its origin or authorship.
Avoid requesting that the author cites the peer reviewer’s own papers, unless there is a strong scholarly rationale for this.
Not reproduce information or any part of the manuscript under review in any of their own work prior to publication by the authors.
Only agree to peer review manuscripts within their expertise and within a reasonable timeframe.
Not delay publication.
Not use insulting, hostile, or defamatory language.
Destroy submitted manuscripts and all related material after they have reviewed them.
Plagiarism, duplicate/redundant publication, text recycling, and translations
1- Plagiarism:
The JHE considers plagiarism to include both the theft or misappropriation of intellectual property and the substantial unattributed textual copying of another’s work. It does not include authorship or credit disputes.”
Concerning the percentage of plagiarism, the JHE editorial board will follow the instruction given by the council of the journal.
If suspected plagiarism are detected, the editor will refer to the COPE flowchart on suspected plagiarism.
2- Duplicate or redundant publication:
Authors must avoid duplicate publication, which is reproducing verbatim content from their other publications.” The JHE established processes to avoid duplicate and redundant publication, including:
Screening submitted manuscripts for duplicated text.
Reminding authors in the journal’s guidelines that duplicate publication is not acceptable.
Requiring that any previously published results, including numerical information and figures or images, are labeled to make it clear where they were previously reported.
Papers, particularly nutrition research papers, that present new analyses of results that have already been published (for example, subgroup analyses) should identify the primary data source, and include a full reference to the related primary publications.
Ensuring that the Copyright Transfer Agreement has been signed by the corresponding author before publication.
The following types of “prior publication” do not present cause for concerns about duplicate or redundant publication:
Abstracts and posters presented as part of conference proceedings.
Results presented at meetings (for example, to inform investigators or participants about findings).
Results in databases (data without interpretation, discussion, context or conclusions in the form of tables and text to describe data/information).
Dissertations and theses in university archives.
If a manuscript is published and later found to be redundant, the editor will refer to the COPE flowchart on redundant (duplicate) publication and work with the president of the journal council to retract the duplicate paper.
1- Duplicate submission:
The Journal will consider how they might detect concurrent or multiple submissions. For example, in cases where journal are part of an editorial group (e.g. Egyptian Knowledge Bank) or portfolio with legitimate access to internal information for the whole journal family, detection aids or mechanisms should be put in place for editors to use as part of their editorial office system.
If concurrent or multiple submissions are detected, the editor should work with their publisher and refer to the COPE flowchart on redundant (duplicate) publication.
2- Text recycling:
The Journal may consider it acceptable to recycle text and results between manuscripts. This may be important, for example, for authors who wish to communicate results from a research project to multiple audiences. In this instance, full or partial results – with appropriate citation of prior publication(s) – might be recycled for legitimate reasons, although the discussion and conclusions would be different.
3- Translations:
The JHE may choose to publish materials that have been accurately translated from an original publication in a different language. In such case the journal will ensure that they have appropriate permission. The journal will indicate clearly that the material has been translated and re-published and will identify the original source of the material.
Preprints:
A preprint is a manuscript that is made publicly available via a preprint server usually prior to or simultaneous with submission to a journal.
JHE will allow for the submission of manuscripts that have already been made available on preprint servers. Allowing submission does not, of course, guarantee that a manuscript will be considered for peer review; it simply reflects the belief that availability on a preprint server should not disqualify a manuscript from submission. Any previous publication as a preprint should be disclosed in the paper.
Research Ethics:
JHE adopt publication policies to ensure that ethical and responsible research is published, and that all necessary consents and approvals have been obtained from authors to publish their work.
1- Animals in research:
Research involving animals should be conducted with the same rigor as research in humans. Journals should encourage authors to implement the 3Rs principles of (1) replacement (approaches which avoid or replace the use of animals), (2) reduction (methods which minimize the number of animals used) and (3) refinement (methods which minimize animal suffering and improve welfare).
JHE encourage authors to adhere to animal research reporting standards, which describe the details journal will require from authors regarding:
a) Study design and statistical analysis.
b) Experimental procedures.
c) Experimental animals.
d) Housing and husbandry.
The JHE will ask authors to confirm that ethical and legal approval was obtained prior to the start of the study and state the name of the body giving the approval. Authors also should state whether experiments were performed in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations. For example: “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals,”
JHE Editor may ask authors to describe in their manuscript how discomfort, distress, and pain were avoided and minimized, and to confirm that animals did not suffer unnecessarily at any stage of an experiment.
JHE Editor may also request that reviewers comment on the standard of experimental reporting, experimental design, or any other aspects of the study reported that may cause concern. If concerns are raised or clarifications are needed, they may need to request evidence of ethical research approval or question authors.
2- Bias-free language:
For research which includes, or refers to, human participants, it is necessary to detail the study population which requires the use of descriptors. It is important that the language and descriptors used to describe research populations are bias-free.
For research related to gender, age, racial and ethnic background, disability status, and socioeconomic status, there may occasionally be qualitative data from participants (i.e. direct quotes or transcribed interviews) which may include derogatory demographic descriptors. Wherever possible, authors should avoid using derogatory demographic descriptors or offensive language unless it is essential to the research in question.
3- Borders and territories:
Potential disputes over borders and territories may have direct relevance for authors when describing their research in a submitted manuscript, or in the address they use for correspondence. The choices made by authors will be respected, but should a perceived dispute or complaint be raised, then editorial team of JHE will attempt to find a resolution that works for all parties. Ultimately, the final decision on content is an editorial matter and will rest with the JHE editor which, where necessary, will be in consultation with the relevant persons.
4- Cultures and heritage:
There is recognition of increasing innovation in the management of joint copyright in relation to intercultural research, to enable appropriate legal acknowledgment of intellectual property in attribution and acknowledgment. JHE editor will consider any sensitivities when publishing images of objects that might have cultural significance or cause offence (for example, religious texts or historical events). In addition:
The JHE editor will be conscious of the ethics surrounding publication of images of human remains and will recognize that human remains are perceived differently in different cultures. Images of human remains will not be published without consideration of the views of any demonstrated genealogical descendants or affiliated cultural communities, if feasible. In cases where descendants or affiliated cultural communities cannot be contacted, images of human remains will not be published without consultation with and permission from the curating institution or relevant stakeholder.
Cultural restrictions do exist in some cultures that prevent publication of the names of deceased people. This often extends to publication of photographs or film footage of deceased persons. JHE will consider any sensitivities and, if necessary, confer with the author about appropriate representation of subjects in published work.
5- Human studies and subjects:
For manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, JHE will require a statement from authors to confirm that the appropriate ethical approval has been received, along with details of the approving ethics committee, and that the study conforms to recognized standards. For example, Declaration of Helsinki; and US Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects.
The Journal of Home Economics, Menofia University will only consider publishing research which includes individual participants’ information and images where the authors’ have obtained the prior informed consent from all participants.
In cases where manuscripts may involve potentially vulnerable groups and, therefore, where informed consent may have required particular attention from the study authors and the institution where the work took place, the JHE will ensure that expected standards have both been met and are described in the articles they publish.
There are nine examples of vulnerable groups that will be considered by the JHE: “1) women and girls; 2) children; 3) refugees; 4) internally displaced persons; 5) stateless persons; 6) national minorities; 7) migrant workers; 8) disabled persons; 9) older adults.
To ensure that informed consent has been obtained, journals will require authors to confirm this upon submission, and require that this information be included in a statement to this effect within their manuscript. Consent forms do not need to be submitted with the manuscript, but researchers should provide necessary details if requested to do so by the journal.
In the case of technical images (for example, radiographs or micrographs), the JHE editor will ask author to remove all information that could identify the subject from the image.
6- Registering clinical trials:
The JHE require that clinical trials are prospectively registered in a publicly accessible database. Authors are required to include the name of the trial register and their clinical trial registration number at the end of their abstract. If trial is not registered, or was registered retrospectively, authors will be asked to explain the reasons for this.”
Research funding
The JHE will request that authors list all funding sources in their manuscript, for example, in the Acknowledgments section. If there is no specific funding this should be stated. The role of the research funder beyond providing funding itself should also be described. It may be important to disclose, for example, if a commercial organization funded the study, designed the study, and also recruited the investigators. Other sources of support should be clearly identified in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript.