Publication Ethics & Academic Integrity

1. Publication Ethics & Academic Integrity

UFCP is committed to research integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing. All submissions must be original and ethically conducted, without plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate authorship, data manipulation, or other forms of research misconduct.

1.1 Author Responsibilities

Originality & Accuracy: Authors must submit original scholarly work and ensure that data, methods, analyses, results, citations, figures, and conclusions are presented accurately and without deliberate misrepresentation.

Authorship: All listed authors must have made an appropriate scholarly contribution to the work and must review and approve the submitted and final versions.

Duplicate Submission & Publication: Authors must not submit substantially the same manuscript simultaneously to multiple publication venues where such concurrent submission is prohibited. Previously published material must be appropriately identified and cited.

Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose financial, institutional, professional, personal, or other interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research or its interpretation.

Funding: Relevant research funding and financial support must be disclosed where applicable.

Author Accountability: Authors remain responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, ethical compliance, data, analysis, references, permissions, interpretations, and conclusions contained in their work.

1.2 Editorial & Reviewer Responsibilities

Editors and reviewers must conduct their responsibilities with fairness, confidentiality, scholarly objectivity, and appropriate independence. Manuscripts should be evaluated according to relevant criteria such as scholarly quality, originality, methodological soundness, significance, clarity, and relevance to the scope of the publication or conference.

Editors and reviewers must disclose relevant conflicts of interest and should decline participation where such conflicts could compromise—or reasonably appear to compromise—the integrity of the assessment.

1.3 Research Ethics & Approvals

Research involving human participants, animals, personal or sensitive data, or other activities requiring ethical oversight must have appropriate institutional approval where required. Authors must provide accurate information regarding the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB), Research Ethics Committee (REC), Ethics Review Board, or equivalent authority, including approval details where applicable.

1.4 Research Misconduct

Potential cases of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, image or data manipulation, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, unethical research, or other serious integrity concerns may be investigated. Depending on the nature and stage of the case, appropriate action may include requesting clarification or evidence, returning the manuscript, rejection, correction, withdrawal, expression of concern, or retraction.