Publication Ethics
The Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India (JMBAI) upholds high standards of publication ethics, requiring all authors, reviewers, and editors, to follow strict ethics to maintain the integrity of scientific publishing.
Submission of a manuscript to JMBAI implies that the authors have agreed to the scope, submission guidelines, editorial policies, review procedures, decision-making processes, and the journal's disclaimer and jurisdiction. The corresponding author, on behalf of all co-authors, assumes full responsibility for authorship credits, acknowledgements, and the order of author names, confirming that all co-authors have made significant contributions to the work, approved the final manuscript, and obtained any necessary internal organizational approvals for submission.
Authors must submit only original, unpublished work that is not under consideration elsewhere and declare that they will not submit the paper to other journals while it is under review by JMBAI. All authors must vouch for the validity and legitimacy of the data and its interpretation, ensuring that any material reproduced from other sources, including data and illustrations, has been properly cited and permission has been obtained. Plagiarism, data fabrication, and falsification are strictly prohibited, with submissions being screened for such violations using plagiarism detection software. In the case of errors post-publication, authors are expected to cooperate in issuing corrections or retractions.
Reviewers are responsible for providing objective, unbiased, and constructive evaluations of manuscripts based on scientific merit while maintaining strict confidentiality throughout the review process. They are expected to recuse themselves if any conflicts of interest arise.
Editors maintain strict editorial independence, ensuring that decisions are based solely on the academic merit of the submission. They manage a fair, unbiased peer review process and are committed to addressing ethical concerns, such as misconduct or plagiarism, in line with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines.
Conflicts of interest must be disclosed by all parties involved to avoid any undue influence on the review process or manuscript content. In cases of research misconduct, JMBAI will investigate and take appropriate actions, which may include rejection, retraction of published work, or notification to the relevant institutions of authors.
For research involving human or animal subjects, authors must adhere to ethical standards, including obtaining consent and following institutional guidelines with a relevant statement suitably and explicitly included in the methods section.
Appeals of editorial decisions are reviewed by the Chief Editor, and the journal handles complaints regarding ethical concerns transparently.
JMBAI encourages data sharing to promote transparency and reproducibility, and retraction notices will be issued in cases of serious misconduct.
