Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Ethical Principles

As IJPBP, we recommend all authors to read our publication policies before submitting their work to our journal. This request is a requirement of IJPBP's commitment to preventing ethical abuses. It is worth noting that some research and publication ethics problems arise from lack of knowledge rather than from bad faith.

Research Ethics

Ethics Approval

Authors are expected to comply with the Declaration of Helsinki when using human participants, human materials or data, and to obtain ethics committee approval from the relevant institutions. Such studies must include a statement explaining this, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number, if available. In studies that do not require ethical approval or in which an exemption is received for ethics committee approval, this must be stated in the text of the article.

Retrospective Ethics Approval

IJPBP does not approve of obtaining retrospective ethics committee approval for studies that have begun.

Researches Involving Plants

In studies conducted with both cultivated and wild plants, authors must obtain the necessary permissions from the relevant national or international institutions for experiments/field works/plant collection actions and must comply with the applicable legislation in this field. Authors are recommended to follow the provisions of the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

The plant material under study should be stored in a public bio-bank or other public repository that allows access to the stored material to ensure reproducibility.

Researches Involving Animals

In researches involving both vertebrates and invertebrates, IJPBP adheres without restriction to the principles on animal experimental research adopted by swissuniversities (CRUS 2013). The principles are based on the Basel Declaration, which aims to ensure that ethical principles are implemented worldwide in biomedical research involving animals. Authors must also act in accordance with the regulations of International Council for Laboratory Animal Science-ICLAS, follow methods licensed by the relevant ethics committee, if any, and obtain ethics committee approval.

Articles must include statements stating compliance regulations (e.g., the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the United Kingdom and Directive 2010/63/EU in Europe) or ethical approval (name and reference number of the ethics committee). In studies exempt from ethical approval requirements, this must be stated in the text together with its legal justifications. Please note that the editor prioritizes animal welfare and has the right to reject works that contain techniques that do not comply with standards.

Authors are also strongly encouraged to follow the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Publication Ethics Policy of IJPBP

While evaluating the submitted scientific studies, IJPBP considers the Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics related guidelines, Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) recommendations.

We expect that the authors read our ethical policies before submitting any manuscript to our journal. This is a step we take to prevent ethical violations, which is widely regarded as a growing problem in academia. It is important to note that, plagiarism, redundant publication, copyright infringement, or similar malpractice may often result from a lack of understanding, not from fraudulent intent. Our policy is not to persecute authors on these matters, but to prevent them from emerging. If you have any questions, please contact the editorial office.

Plagiarism Policy of IJPBP
All papers submitted to International Journal of Plant Based Pharmaceuticals (IJPBP) should fulfill expectations in terms of originality. At the beginning of the submission process, authors will be asked to submit a similarity report in PDF format, that can be generated using a plagiarism software such as iThenticate/Academic Paradigms or LLC-Check For Plagiarism/Grammarly-Plagiarism Checker. The Plagiarism-Similarity report must be in PDF format, including all the text, tables and figures (excluding references). The total similarity rate of the articles sent to IJPBP should not exceed 25% and the similarity rate to each individual source should not exceed 5%.

Editors' responsibilities
Publication decisions
All members of the editorial board of IJPBP are responsible for deciding which papers submitted to the journal will be published. The journal's editors will evaluate the manuscripts submitted to the journal regardless of the authors' gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political views. The final decision to be made about the paper will be based on the importance of its scientific content, originality, clarity, validity and its suitability to the journal's scope. In addition, current legal requirements regarding any libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism will be strictly considered prior to publication.

Confidentiality
Editor-in-Chief and editorial staff must not disclose any information about articles submitted to the journal to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and other editorial advisors.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Unpublished material contained in any paper submitted to the journal will never be used by the editor or editorial board members unless the author gives an explicit written consent.

Reviewers' responsibilities
Contribution to editorial decisions
The peer-review process assists the editor and editorial board in deciding whether to publish an article, as well as allowing the author to improve the article.

Promptness
A reviewer who thinks unqualified for the evaluation of a paper submitted to the journal or that rapid review is not possible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.

Confidentiality
Any article submitted to IJPBP for a possible publication is treated as a 'confidential document'. Pending manuscripts in any editorial stage is not disclosed to or discussed with others unless authorized by the editor.

Standards of objectivity
Article reviews performed by reviewers should be unbiased and objective. Reviewers should express their views and comments on the submitted article, along with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of sources
Published work, which is not appropriately cited in the references section, but is referred in the submitted article, should be identified by the reviewers. Reviewers should point out whether the findings in the article submitted to the journal are accompanied with the observations or arguments in the referred publications. Reviewers will promptly notify the editor in case they detect significant overlap between the submitted article under review and any other published paper or material (e.g. data paper) of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Privileged information or ideas that stand out in the papers evaluated during the peer-review process should be kept confidential and should not be used for personal benefits. Reviewers should not evaluate the papers of authors, companies or institutes they are in contact with due to competition, cooperation or other relations if there exists a conflict of interest situation.

Authors' responsibilities
Reporting standards
Authors of original research articles should provide accurate and sufficient information about the methodology of the study performed, and should also discuss the importance of the study in an objective manner. The data produced as a result of the research should be presented appropriately and accurately in the paper. Fabricated or deliberately distorted misrepresentations regarding the data are considered unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data access and retention
Reviewers may ask the authors to provide the raw data associated with their papers and make them publicly available, as long as it is practically applicable. In any event, authors should ensure that such data is available to other experts in the field for at least ten years (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data center).

Originality
Authors should submit only original works, and will appropriately cite or quote the works of others whose data they benefit from. Other studies that were inspired and had an impact on the study design should also be cited.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication
In general, papers containing similar methods and results should not be published in more than one journal. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal for a possible publication is an unethical behavior and unacceptable. Papers previously published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted to IJPBP. Moreover, articles that are in the process of evaluation by IJPBP should not be submitted to other journals.

Authorship
The authors of the paper should be those who have contributed significantly to the hypothesis, design, execution, and intellectual interpretation of the study in question. The corresponding author of the paper should ensure that the list of co-authors does not include those who have made little or no contributions to the study. The corresponding author should also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the article and have agreed its publication.

Author contributions
In accordance with IJPBP policies, we encourage authors to make clear the 'individual contributions' statements, that is, their individual contributions to the study, which are indicated by CRediT roles, together with the submitted article.
- Conceptualization
- Acquisition of data
- Analysis of data
- Validation
- Investigation
- Methodology
- Funding acquisition
- Project administration
- Resources
- Software
- Supervision
- Visualization
- Review & editing
- Writing original draft
- Writing-reviewing & editing

Author contribution statements should be done with the initials of the names of authors (e.g. T.H. for Thomas Hunt) along with the above mentioned Credit role(s).

Changes in the authorship
All authors who have made a significant contribution to the manuscript should carefully consider the list and order of their names and approve this final version of the name orders before submitting the article to the journal. Any additions, deletions or rearrangements in the authorship list must be performed and justified only before the manuscript has been accepted, and only approved by the responsible editor. To make such a change, the editor must receive the following from the corresponding author:
- The reason for the change in the author name order
- Written statements (e-mail or letter) by all co-authors that they approve the amendment.

Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider such rearrangements in the order of author names to be made after the article is accepted. In this case, the publication of the article will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in any online issue, such an Editor-approved change will result in a corrigendum.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
All authors on the manuscript author list must disclose a statement clarifying any conflict of interest (e.g. financial or intellectual) that may have an impact on the results of the manuscript or the significance of those results to the scientific community. All institutions that are the source of financial support for the project should be disclosed in the manuscript.

Post-publication fundamental errors
In cases where the corresponding author or other co-authors notice a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, it is the responsibility of authors to urgently inform the Editor-in-Chief (or publisher) and to work collaboratively with the editor for a possible retraction or correction of the paper in the form of an erratum.

Publication ethics and malpractice
Publication ethics and publication malpractice statement of IJPBP is mainly based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011).

Copyright and licensing information

The Contributor(s) or, if applicable, the Contributor's Employer retains all proprietary rights, including copyright.

To learn about IJPBP's license terms, please click here.

Archiving Policy
IJPBP uses LOCKSS to archive and protect its online content. IJPBP can be accessed via Open Journal Systems (OJS), which utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries. IJPBP permits these libraries to make permanent archiving of the journal for preservation and restoration. Click here to view the LOCKSS Publisher Manifest page of IJPBP.

Publication Language
IJPBP only accepts and publishes articles written in English.

Publication Frequency
IJPBP is published 'online' two times a year (biannually) in June and December. In case of an approval from the Editorial Board, a Special Issue can also be published.

Privacy Policy of IJPBP
The personal information entered with along with the online material submitted to IJPBP is used only for the specified purposes of this journal and cannot be used or shared for any other purpose(s). IJPBP is committed to protecting the integrity of all scientific material it contains and follows Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics related guidelines, Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) recommendations on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Appeals and Complaints
Policy and Process
Appeals to editorial decisions made by IJPBP, complaints to failure of processes such as long delays in revision processes of papers and publication ethics are clarified by the procedure outlined below. The complaint will, in first instance, be handled by the Editor-in-Chief(s) responsible for IJPBP (info@ijpbp.com).

Complaint about scientific content, e.g. an appeal against rejection
The Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor considers the authors’ argument, the reviewer reports and decides whether:
- The decision to reject should stand
- Another independent opinion is required
- The appeal should be considered.

The complainant is informed of the decision with an explanation if appropriate. Decisions on appeals are final and new submissions take priority over appeals.

Complaint about processes, e.g. delayed review process
The Editor-in-Chief together with the Handling Editor will investigate why the process is taking longer than the usual time frame announced on the journal web site. Appropriate feedback will be given to the complainant as soon as the investigation is complete. If necessary, new reviewers who can complete the process in a timely manner will be promptly appointed by the Handling Editor.

Complaint about publication ethics, e.g., researcher's, author's, or reviewer's conduct
The Editor-in-Chief or the Handling Editor follow the Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics related guidelines, Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) recommendations when considering complaints. The Editor-in-Chief provides feedback to the complainant about the decisions taken by the Handling Editor.

Data Sharing and Reproducibility Policy
Research data are units of information used to validate original research findings. These units of information can be collected, observed, or generated and they can be numerical, descriptive or visual. In addition, the type of research data may differ between different scientific disciplines. IJPBP encourages all authors to share their research data, within the framework of ethical and legal considerations. IJPBP follows the below guidelines for this purpose:

Option 1: Encouragement (share, cite, and link)
Authors are encouraged to:
- Share their research data in public data repositories such as PDBbind, BindingDB, PhytoHub, bioRxiv, Research Square, etc.
- Include a 'data availability statement' that will provide access to the data produced. If data sharing is not possible, use a statement indicating why it cannot be shared.
- Cite this data in their research

Option 2: Requirement (share, cite, and link)
Authors are required to:
- Share their research data in public data repositories such as PDBbind, BindingDB, PhytoHub, bioRxiv, Research Square, etc.
- Include a data availability statement. This should:
• Indicate if data is available and shared
• In circumstances, if data sharing is not possible, the author use a statement indicating why it cannot be shared. In cases where the author cannot share the data but this is a publication requirement, they are asked to contact the editorial office.
• Indicate if there is an absence of data
- Cite the data in their research

Option 3: Verification (share, cite, and linking mandatory, with peer review)
Authors are required to:
- Share their research data in public data repositories such as PDBbind, BindingDB, PhytoHub, bioRxiv, Research Square, etc.
- Include a data availability statement. This should:
• Indicate if data is available and shared
• In circumstances, if data sharing is not possible, the author use a statement indicating why it cannot be shared. In cases where the author cannot share the data but this is a publication requirement, they are asked to contact the editorial office.
• Indicate if there is an absence of data
- Cite the data in their research

It may be requested that the research data be reviewed by the peer reviewers prior to publication.

IJPBP’s policy on ethical oversight
IJPBP adopts and implements the definition of COPE in the context of 'Ethical oversight'. According to this definition, “Ethical oversight should include, but is not limited to, policies on consent to publication, publication on vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research using animals, ethical conduct of research using human subjects, handling confidential data and of business/marketing practices”. Based on this definition, the editorial staff of IJPBP works by observing and attaching importance to ethical principles concerning the above mentioned issues.

In case of using human or animal subjects in studies submitted to IJPBP, ethics committee approval permission documents (along with their case numbers) obtained from authorized committees (universities, research institutes or other bodies authorized to grant ethical approval) must be submitted. In studies using human subjects, in addition to ethical committee approval, informed consent documents obtained from the patient or patient relatives through official means must also be submitted to the IJPBP. This information is made publicly available in accepted articles.

IJPBP will adhere to appeals from the Ethics and Oversight Committee in case our authors do not comply with ethical principles in their professional and scientific activities.

As IJPBP, we are also ready to consider other appeals in case they are not anonymous and substantiated.

IJPBP’s policy on intellectual property
IJPBP requires authors to make their articles open access under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) to fulfill the open access publication conditions and ensure the widest possible dissemination.

IJPBP’s options for post-publication discussions and corrections
After an article is published as a finalized paper, the idea that it is a correct, complete and citable item is established. It is the policy of IJPBP to maintain the integrity of the published paper.

Sometimes it may be necessary to make changes or corrections on the Version of Record of a published paper. This amendment will be performed by the IJPBP Editor after careful consideration in accordance with guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Necessary changes will be published as a post-publication notice, permanently linked to the original article. Therefore, readers will be fully informed of any changes made on the Version of Record.

All corrections, expressions of concern and retraction notes will be made freely accessible immediately after publication.

How should I deal with error(s) in my published article?
Authors who notice errors in their published articles should notify IJPBP, particularly any errors that affect the interpretation of data or the reliability of results. The corresponding author, before requesting corrections or retraction on the published article, should ensure that there is consensus on this issue with all other listed co-authors. If, after reading the guidance, you have decided that your article needs correction or retraction, please kindly contact the Editor-in-Chief of IJPBP.

Post-publication notices of IJPBP to improve the integrity of the published record
Correction notice
A Correction notice will be published by IJPBP when an error or incompleteness in the information presented by a published article needs to be corrected without negatively affecting the scientific integrity of the article.

IJPBP divides errors into two categories, major and minor. Among the correction notices that significantly alter the interpretation of the article's results are considered major errors, where the scientific integrity of the article is still preserved.

All these major errors are reported with a separate correction notice. The correction notice includes details of the error and changes made to the finalized article. In this case IJPBP will:
- Amend the online published article.
- Issue a separate correction notice linked to the corrected article version.
- Add a footnote including an electronic link to the article that provides easy access to the correction notice.
- Publish this correction notice with a page number in the relevant online issue.

For minor errors, IJPBP will only add a footnote to inform the reader that the article has been corrected. Minor errors do not significantly affect the scientific integrity of the article or compromise the reader's understanding.

Retractions
IJPBP will issue a retraction notice if a major error nullifies the article's universal conclusions (conclusions), or if a research or publication misconduct has occurred. The application of issueing of a retraction notice will be made according to the Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics related guidelines, Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) recommendations, and will include the investigation by IJPBP editors in collaboration with the Editor-in-Chief. In this context, authors or institutions may request retraction of their articles by IJPBP.

The retraction criteria may be briefly summarized as:
- Findings are unreliable due to a possible misconduct or an unintentional error.
- Findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification.
- Conducted research or published article contains plagiarism.
- If there is proof of ghost, gift or fraudulent authorship.
- If there is evidence that the peer review process is not carried out according to good practice standards.

When a decision to retract an article is reached, IJPBP will:
- Add 'retracted' watermark on the online published version of the article.
- Issue a separate retraction statement 'Retraction: [Title]' and link it back to the relevant retracted article on the journal web site.
- Paginate the retraction statement and make it visible in the online issue of the journal.

Article removal
Although very rare, if the deficiencies in the article are quite serious which may not be addressed with a Retraction or Correction notice, an article removal, at this point, will be issued by IJPBP.

Article removal conditions for IJPBP can be summarized as follows:
- An article content that poses a serious risk if attempted to be applied by other researchers.
- The existence of conditions in the article violating the rights of a participant in the study.
- The article contains statements that disparage other people or violate their legal rights.
- If there is a court decision on the article.

If an article has been removed from IJPBP, IJPBP will issue a removal notice in its respective issue.

Updates on published articles
Addenda
If any information is added to an article after it is published, the notification depicting this change is called an addendum. Addendum is not about correcting any errors on the original article, but rather about updating or adding some required information to the article if needed by the author. Addenda can be peer-reviewed, and is performed under the observation of IJPBP's editors. Addenda are electronically linked to the associated published article.

Comments on published articles
Comments are short articles expressing observations about published articles. If a comment about a published article is submitted to one of the IJPBP editors, it may be directed to peer-review process. The comment will be sent to the authors of the published article and they will be expected to submit a response.

Author responses may also be directed to the peer-review process and will be shared with the commentator, who may be expected to submit a rejoinder. Rejoinder may be sent out for peer-review and shared with the authors of the published article. No more correspondence will be required for publication. Handling editor may reject correspondence at any stage of this process.

All comments, responses, and rejoinders published at the end of this process are linked to the published article to which they associate.

Process for identification of and dealing with research misconduct
The publisher and the Editor-in-Chief (Prof. Dr. Bektas TEPE) of IJPBP in collaboration with the editorial board members will take reasonable steps using the available technological and personal knowledge to identify and block the publication of manuscripts where research misconduct has arisen, containing citation manipulation, plagiarism, and data falsification/fabrication.

IJPBP follows Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics related guidelines, Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) recommendations in dealing with allegations.