The publication ethics and publication malpractice statement

For all parties involved in the act of publishing (authors, journal editors, peer reviewers, and publishers), there is a need to agree on expected standards of ethical conduct. This journal's ethics statement is based on the Publication Ethics Committee's best practice guidelines.

1 Responsibilities of Chief editor

1.1 Fair treatment: Evaluation of scholarly content without regard to the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, national origin, or political views.

1.2 Confidentiality: The Editor-in-Chief and any editorial staff shall not disclose any information about the submitted manuscript to other than the relevant authors, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial consultants and publishers.

1.3 Disclosure and conflict of Interest: Unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript may not be used in the editor's research without the express written consent of the author.

1.4 Publication Decisions: The Managing Editor is responsible for deciding which submissions should be published. Final editorials are guided by the policies of the Journal Editorial Board and are subject to legal requirements such as defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The chief editor may also make publication decisions together with other editors or reviewers.

2 Responsibilities of peer review reviewers

2.1 Contributing to publication decisions: Peer review helps editors make editorial decisions and, through editorial communication with authors, can also help authors improve their manuscripts.

2.2 Speed: Any invited reviewer who believes that he or she is not competent for the review of the relevant research in the submission or knows that the review cannot be completed in time should immediately notify the chief editor so that other reviewers can be contacted to replace them.

2.3 Confidentiality: All manuscripts reviewed shall be kept confidential. It must not be shown or discussed to others unless authorized by the editor-in-chief.

2.4 Objective criteria: Manuscript evaluation shall adhere to the objective principle and shall not criticize the author personally. Reviewers should have appropriate evidence to support their views.

2.5 Identifying sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published works not cited by the author. Any statement of observation, derivation or argument should be accompanied by the relevant citation. The reviewer shall bring to the editor's attention any material similarity or overlap between the manuscript being considered by the editor and any other published data of which the reviewer is aware.

2.6 Conflict of Interest: Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and cannot be used for personal gain. Reviewers should avoid submissions where they have a conflict of interest due to competition, collaboration, or other association with the author, company, or institution.

3 Author Duties

3.1 Reporting criteria: The original research findings reported by the author should provide an accurate description of the work done and an objective discussion of its importance. Submissions should accurately represent the underlying data and should include sufficient detail and references to allow others to replicate the research. Fraudulent or deliberately inaccurate descriptions are unethical and unacceptable.

3.2 Originality and Plagiarism: Authors should ensure that their writing is completely original, and if they use the work and/or words of others, they should cite them appropriately.

3.3 Multiple submissions or duplicate submissions: Authors should not submit essentially the same manuscript to more than one journal or original literature publication. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is an unethical publishing practice and will not be accepted.

3.4 Identifying sources: The work of others must be properly acknowledged, and authors should cite relevant literature that influences their own research.

3.5 Attribution of Contributors: Authors should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the concept, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported research. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as authors. If others are involved in some substantive aspect of the research project, this should be clearly indicated in the volunteer section. Corresponding authors should ensure that none of the authors meet the criteria and that all authors have seen and approved the final version of the submission and have consented to submission and publication.

3.6 Human and laboratory animal hazards: If there are any unusual hazards associated with the chemicals involved in the study, the research procedures, or the use of the equipment, the author must clearly indicate this in the original draft.

3.7 Conflict of Interest: All authors should declare in their submissions any financial or other material conflict of interest that could have an impact on the findings or interpretation of the results. All sources of financial support for research should be clearly stated.

3.8 Basic Errors in Published Works: When the author discovers that his published work has significant errors or inaccuracies, the author is obliged to promptly notify the Editor-in-Chief or publisher of the journal and cooperate with them to withdraw the paper or publish the corresponding errata.

4 Publisher's Statement

In cases of alleged or proven academic misconduct, the publisher, working closely with the editor-in-chief, will take all appropriate steps to clarify the situation and make changes to the article, including immediate publication of the errata. In severe cases, the affected article may be withdrawn completely.

Publishers and journals do not discriminate in the publishing process, services and activities on the basis of age, color, religion, creed, disability, marital status, veteran status, national origin, race, gender, genetic predisposition or carrier status, or sexual orientation.

Hong Kong Academy of Social Sciences Limited

Journal of Social Science Development Research (Editorial Department)

June 15, 2023