Publication Ethics
Publication Ethics
NJAP is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics in order to protect the integrity of the applied physics literature and maintain public confidence in scientific research. All authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to uphold the standards set out below. These guidelines are consistent with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Data Fabrication and Falsification
Fabrication is the invention of data or results that were never generated through an actual study. Falsification is the manipulation, distortion, or selective omission of genuine research data to alter or misrepresent the findings. Both constitute serious research misconduct.
Consequences: Any manuscript found to contain fabricated or falsified data — including manipulation of figures or images — will be rejected immediately. Published articles later found to involve such misconduct will be retracted. Authors responsible may be permanently barred from submitting to NJAP and from serving as reviewers or editors.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the use of another person's work, data, ideas, or expressions — whether published or unpublished — without appropriate acknowledgement and attribution. It encompasses direct copying, close paraphrasing, and the reuse of one's own previously published work without disclosure (self-plagiarism). All submitted manuscripts are screened with Turnitin, and a similarity index above 35% results in automatic rejection.
Consequences: Manuscripts identified as containing plagiarised content will be rejected. Published articles subsequently found to involve plagiarism will be retracted or corrected as appropriate.
Multiple and Simultaneous Submissions
The submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time is prohibited. This practice constitutes a serious breach of publishing ethics that wastes editorial and reviewer resources and risks duplicate publication, which distorts the scientific record.
Consequences: Authors confirmed to have submitted the same manuscript concurrently to multiple journals will have their manuscript rejected and will be banned from submitting to NJAP for a period of two years.
Redundant Publication
Splitting a single dataset or body of findings across multiple papers to inflate publication output — without each paper making a genuinely new contribution — constitutes redundant or "salami" publication. Authors are required to present their research comprehensively in complete, standalone manuscripts.
Consequences: Identified redundant publications will be rejected or retracted and may result in sanctions against the author(s) involved.
Authorship and Attribution
Every individual listed as an author must have made a genuine and demonstrable intellectual contribution to the research and the manuscript. All individuals who contributed meaningfully — including students, laboratory staff, and technical personnel — must be named. Adding contributors who did not make a substantive contribution ("gift authorship") is unethical and strictly prohibited, as is concealing the contributions of actual contributors.
Consequences: Misrepresented authorship may lead to manuscript rejection, notification of the authors' institutions, and prohibitions on future submissions.
Citation Manipulation
Authors must not pad their reference lists with unnecessary self-citations or citations designed to inflate the metrics of specific journals or individuals. Editors and reviewers must not request that authors add citations for any purpose other than genuine academic relevance.
Consequences: Confirmed citation manipulation will result in manuscript rejection and potential sanctions against those responsible.
Editor and Reviewer Responsibilities
Editors and reviewers who have a conflict of interest with a manuscript — including recent co-authorship, institutional affiliation, personal relationships, or shared funding — must recuse themselves and declare the conflict to the Editorial Office. Reviewers must treat all manuscripts as confidential and must not share, cite, or use unpublished content from a manuscript under review without explicit written consent from the authors.
Sanctions for Ethics Violations
NJAP may impose the following sanctions for confirmed breaches of publication ethics:
- Rejection of the offending manuscript and all other pending NJAP submissions from the same author(s)
- Submission ban: Prohibition from submitting to NJAP for a period of 2 years following a confirmed violation
- Editorial restrictions: Removal from roles as reviewer, section editor, or editorial board member
- Additional measures: For serious violations, NJAP reserves the right to impose further sanctions proportionate to the severity of the misconduct
In cases of grave misconduct, NJAP may publicly disclose the violation and formally notify the author's institution and funding bodies.
Reporting Suspected Misconduct
Suspected breaches of these publication ethics — whether identified before or after publication — should be reported promptly to the NJAP Editorial Office. All investigations will be conducted in accordance with established procedures, with appropriate confidentiality for all parties involved.
Corrections and Retractions
When errors are identified in published articles, NJAP will respond as follows:
- Assessment: The Editorial Board will evaluate the nature and severity of the error in consultation with editors and, where appropriate, the authors' institutions.
- Minor corrections: Authors may submit corrections for minor errors; these will be published as an Erratum linked permanently to the original article.
- Significant errors: Where errors are material but do not invalidate the main conclusions, NJAP will publish a formal correction notice.
- Misconduct-related retractions: Where misconduct is confirmed, the article will be retracted in accordance with COPE Retraction Guidelines. The retraction notice will remain permanently linked to the original article and clearly marked as retracted across all indexing databases.
Author Acknowledgement
Submission of a manuscript to NJAP constitutes the authors' confirmation that they have read and understood these publication ethics guidelines, that they agree to comply with all requirements set out herein, and that they accept full responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and ethical soundness of the submitted work.
Contact and Support
For enquiries regarding publication ethics, contact the NJAP Editorial Office:
Website: https://njap.nipngr.org/index.php/njap/about/contact
NIP Contact: info@nipngr.org | +2348036251745
