Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Integrity • Transparency • Accountability

Salus Publica: Journal of Community Service is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, editorial independence, and responsible scholarly communication.

The journal's ethical policies are informed by recognized principles and guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) . All parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher, are expected to adhere to appropriate standards of scholarly and professional conduct.

Author Responsibilities

• Authors must submit original work that has not been published previously and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
• All sources, ideas, data, text, images, or other materials derived from the work of others must be appropriately cited, acknowledged, and used with permission where required.
• Plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate data manipulation, duplicate publication, and other forms of research misconduct are unacceptable.
• Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, execution, interpretation, or preparation of the work.
• All listed authors must approve the submitted manuscript and agree to its submission to the journal.
• Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately rather than listed as authors.
• Authors must disclose relevant financial, institutional, professional, or personal conflicts of interest that could reasonably influence the work.
• All sources of research funding and the role of funders, where applicable, must be disclosed.
• Authors must obtain appropriate ethical approval, informed consent, permissions, and institutional authorization where required by the nature of the research.
• Research involving human participants must protect privacy, confidentiality, dignity, and applicable rights of participants.
• Research involving human participants or animals must comply with applicable ethical, institutional, national, and international standards.
• Authors may be requested to provide supporting data, documentation, ethical approvals, permissions, or other evidence necessary to verify the integrity of the submitted work.
• Authors must promptly notify the journal if they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in a submitted or published article and must cooperate with any necessary correction, clarification, or retraction process.
• Authors must not attempt to contact reviewers or otherwise interfere with the integrity of the peer-review process.

Authorship and Contributor Changes

Authors should determine the complete author list and order before submission. Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be supported by a valid explanation and written agreement from all affected authors and are subject to editorial approval.

Authorship changes after acceptance are permitted only in exceptional and adequately justified circumstances.

Research Involving Humans and Animals

Where applicable, studies involving human participants must comply with relevant ethical principles and institutional requirements. Authors should provide information concerning ethical approval and informed consent where required.

Research involving human participants should be conducted in accordance with applicable ethical standards, including the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki , where relevant.

Animal studies must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international animal-welfare requirements and reporting standards relevant to the study.

Editor Responsibilities

• Editors are responsible for making fair, independent, and academically justified editorial decisions.
• Manuscripts are evaluated on scholarly merit, relevance, originality, methodological or practical soundness, and suitability for the journal without discrimination based on personal characteristics or background.
• The journal applies a Double-Blind Peer Review process for scholarly manuscripts, normally involving at least two independent reviewers.
• Editors are responsible for selecting reviewers with suitable expertise and for avoiding reviewer assignments that may present conflicts of interest or compromise review independence.
• Editors must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports, author information, and related editorial correspondence.
• Editors must not use unpublished information obtained through the editorial or peer-review process for personal or professional advantage.
• Editors must disclose potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where impartiality could reasonably be questioned.
• Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members, or individuals with close professional relationships to an editor must be handled independently and must undergo the same editorial and peer-review standards as other submissions.
• Editors must not require unnecessary citations or manipulate references for the purpose of artificially increasing journal, editor, reviewer, or author citation metrics.
• Editors should take appropriate action when credible concerns relating to research misconduct, publication misconduct, or integrity of the scholarly record are raised.

Reviewer Responsibilities

• Reviewers should accept assignments only when they have appropriate subject expertise and sufficient time to provide a responsible review.
• Reviews must be objective, constructive, respectful, and supported by appropriate scholarly reasoning.
• Personal criticism, discriminatory comments, offensive language, or inappropriate remarks concerning authors are unacceptable.
• Reviewers must treat manuscripts and related materials as confidential.
• Reviewers must not attempt to identify authors during the journal's double-blind review process.
• Reviewers must not contact authors directly concerning a manuscript under review.
• Reviewers must disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest and decline the review when impartiality could reasonably be compromised.
• Reviewers must not use unpublished data, ideas, methods, or other information obtained through peer review for personal, academic, commercial, or competitive advantage.
• Citation recommendations must be based solely on genuine scholarly relevance and must not be used to manipulate citation counts.
• Reviewers should complete their assessments within the agreed editorial timeframe or promptly notify the editor if they are unable to do so.

Publisher Responsibilities

• The publisher supports the editorial independence of the journal and does not interfere improperly with individual editorial decisions.
• The publisher supports appropriate infrastructure, publication processes, archiving, metadata management, and long-term preservation of the scholarly record.
• The publisher supports editors in addressing suspected plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, unethical research, authorship disputes, peer-review manipulation, and other forms of publication misconduct.
• The publisher supports the publication of corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or other notices when necessary to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.
• Copyright ownership remains with the author(s) in accordance with the journal's Copyright and Licensing Policy.
• Published articles are distributed under the journal's Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could reasonably influence scholarly judgment, peer review, editorial decisions, or the interpretation of research. Where a conflict exists, appropriate steps must be taken to preserve editorial independence and impartiality.

Research and Publication Misconduct

Suspected misconduct may include, but is not limited to:

• Plagiarism;
• Fabrication or falsification of data;
• Duplicate or redundant publication;
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest;
• Inappropriate authorship;
• Peer-review manipulation;
• Citation manipulation;
• Image or data manipulation;
• Unethical research involving participants or animals; and
• Other conduct that compromises the integrity of the scholarly record.

The journal may request clarification, supporting documentation, raw data, ethical approval, institutional information, or other relevant evidence when investigating credible concerns.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

When a published article is found to contain significant errors, unreliable findings, ethical violations, or evidence of serious publication misconduct, the journal may issue an appropriate correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other notice in accordance with recognized publication-ethics practices. The published scholarly record should remain transparent and traceable.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors and other stakeholders may raise legitimate concerns regarding editorial procedures, ethical issues, or publication decisions. Complaints and appeals should be handled fairly, confidentially, and independently from individuals directly involved in the matter where appropriate. Detailed procedures may be provided separately in the journal's Complaints and Appeals Policy.