Ethical Standards & Policies
Cornous Biology (eISSN: 2584-0134) is a peer-reviewed journal that guarantees the highest standards of publication ethics regarding ethical issues, errors, and retractions. The Journal's editorial board is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the publications by preventing malpractices such as plagiarism, multiple submissions, and conflict of interest. The Journal is bound to COPE's ethical standards and its principles for dealing with acts of misconduct and pledging to investigate any misconduct complaints to ensure the integrity of research.
Authorship and Contributorship
Authorship should be reserved for those who have made significant intellectual contributions to the conception, design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation of the research. All authors are required to:
- Approve the final version of the manuscript,
- Take responsibility for all aspects of the work.
Anyone who contributed to the work but doesn’t qualify for authorship must be appropriately acknowledged.
Originality, Plagiarism, and Redundant Publication
All submissions must be completely original and should not be under review or previously published elsewhere, except for abstracts, academic theses, or preprints. The journal has a strict policy against:
- Plagiarism,
- Fabricating or falsifying data,
- Duplicate or redundant publication,
- Self-plagiarism without proper citation.
All submissions may undergo screening with plagiarism detection software (Turnitin).
Data Access, Integrity, and Retention
Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy, integrity, and reproducibility of their data. Upon request, they must provide raw data for editorial or peer review and keep the original research data for a reasonable period after publication. When applicable, authors are encouraged to deposit their data in publicly accessible repositories.
Acknowledgment of Sources and Funding
It’s essential to properly acknowledge all sources of funding, institutional support, and contributions that don’t meet authorship criteria. All cited works must be referenced correctly to prevent academic misconduct.
Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest
Every author is required to disclose any financial, professional, institutional, or personal relationships that might influence, or seem to influence, their research. A formal Conflict of Interest Statement must accompany each submission. Not disclosing relevant conflicts could lead to rejection or retraction of the work.
Reporting Standards and Research Transparency
Authors should provide a clear, transparent, and unbiased account of their research. Manuscripts need to:
- Clearly outline methodologies and analyses,
- Report results honestly, without any data manipulation,
- Offer a balanced interpretation of the findings.
Engaging in selective reporting or misrepresenting results is deemed unethical.
Research Involving Animals
Research involving animals must follow internationally recognized animal welfare guidelines and be approved by a relevant institutional animal care and use committee.
Approval numbers and ethics statements should be included in the manuscript. The journal follows cope guidelines for the manuscript acceptance
Hazards and Safety Compliance
When conducting research that involves hazardous chemicals, biological agents, genetic materials, or high-risk procedures, it’s crucial to include clear safety statements and proof of compliance with regulations. Authors need to take responsibility for making sure that all potential risks are fully disclosed.
Fundamental Errors, Corrections, and Retractions
If authors find significant errors or inaccuracies in their published work, they should quickly inform the editorial office. The journal will adhere to COPE Retraction and Correction Guidelines to make necessary corrections, express concerns, or retract articles as needed.
Editorial Independence and Ethical Oversight
Editorial decisions are made solely based on scientific merit, originality, clarity, and how relevant the work is to the journal’s focus. Editors and reviewers are expected to:
- Keep information confidential,
- Disclose any conflicts of interest,
- Act impartially and without bias.
The journal strictly follows COPE procedures when addressing allegations of misconduct.
Publisher Responsibilities
The publisher is committed to upholding the highest standards of publishing ethics and best practices. The publisher actively monitors and safeguards ethical compliance throughout the publication process, clearly communicates all journal policies, and fully respects the privacy and confidentiality of authors, reviewers, and readers. Editorial independence is strictly protected to ensure that publishing decisions are free from commercial or institutional influence. The publisher is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the academic record by protecting intellectual property and copyright, and by issuing corrections, clarifications, and retractions whenever necessary. Through continuous evaluation and improvement of editorial and publishing practices, the publisher strives to enhance the quality, credibility, and global impact of the journal.
Author's responsibility
Author(s) should submit their work to the Journal, and the same manuscript should not be published elsewhere also not being considered for publication in any other journal. The author should take sole responsibility for getting ethical clearance for the manuscript. Suppose any manuscript is published in multiple journals. In that case, the authors(s) should take complete responsibility for retracting the manuscript from the Journal where the same manuscript is published redundantly.
Individual contributions should be described as an Author Contributions statement to provide appropriate credit to all contributors and assign accountability for published work. The Statement of Author Contributions is essential. It should be included in the submission. It can be a few sentences long and should quickly define each author's responsibilities.
During the submission, peer review, and publication process, the corresponding author should take responsibility for being in contact with the Journal and editorial office till the publication process end. After publishing, the corresponding author should be willing to address any questions or comments.
In case of a change of address, the current address may also be stated if the author has moved since the work was primarily done. Addresses will not be updated or changed after the publication of the article.
Upon submission, authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, corresponding author, and order of authors. Adding or deleting authors, or changing the corresponding author, or changing the order of authors is not acceptable for submission after the acceptance of the manuscript for publication.
Editor-in-Chief's Responsibilities
The Editor-in-Chief is ultimately responsible for improving the Journal's quality and impact while upholding the highest ethical and competence standards. The Editor-in-Chief is the deciding authority to select the Journal's editors. Editor in Chief shall analyze editorial member inclusion applications' quality and select the editorial board members. The Editor in Chief creates journal policies and ethics.
Editorial Board Member's Responsibilities
The Editor is responsible for the publication's contents and general quality, which can be guaranteed with the support of appropriate reviewers and authors. Editors employ techniques to improve research work's quality, usefulness, originality, completeness, and clarity. The eligible manuscripts will be sent for peer review with a minimum of two reviewers (double-blinded). Internal (Registered in the article submission system) and External reviewers (through invitations) will be selected for the review process as per the need of subject matter specialization. The Editor will analyse the comments from the reviewers, and the recommendations will be communicated to the corresponding author. The Editor has prime responsibility to maintain the integrity of the research contents in the manuscript. Editors should not expose or disclose the contents submitted by authors to any others except editorial board members and potential reviewers. Conflicts of interest between employees, authors, reviewers, and board members should not be permitted by editors. The Editor must follow the COPE flowcharts in situations involving alleged misconduct or disputed authorship.
Reviewer's Responsibilities
Reviewers have the right to reject or accept the review invitation promptly. The manuscript received by reviewers should be treated as a confidential document to ensure the secrecy of the information or content present in the manuscript. Reviewers should not process the manuscript further for publication if there is any conflict of interest on authorship, institution, ownership, license, and funding. Reviewers should ensure that all the contributors are acknowledged with the proper citation in the manuscript content by the author(s). Reviewer(s) should not consider the race, age, gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, citizenship, political orientation, or social class of authors during the peer review process.
Plagiarism Policy
The Journal considers the following types of plagiarism to be serious ethical
Full Plagiarism: This happens when someone takes previously published content whether it’s text, ideas, or data and reproduces it word-for-word without making any changes or giving proper credit. Claiming this material as your own is what we call full plagiarism.
Partial Plagiarism: This involves taking content from various sources, where the text has been significantly reworded, but the core ideas or structure are still unoriginal and not credited. Even if the wording is different, partial plagiarism is still considered unethical.
Self-Plagiarism: This occurs when authors reuse their own earlier published work, either fully or in parts, without giving proper citation. Complete self-plagiarism means republishing an entire article that was previously published in another journal, while partial self-plagiarism refers to reusing sections of earlier work without acknowledgment.
Every manuscript submitted to the journal goes through a plagiarism check (with Turnitin), and any violations could lead to rejection, retraction, or other actions as outlined by COPE guidelines.
Ethics on AI Tools Usage
This journal strongly adhering the guidelines of COPE stating that AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements.
Authors who use AI tools during the manuscript should disclose that how the AI tool was used and which tool was used. Authors should avoid using AI tools to generate scientific content, interpret data, create citations, or write the discussion section of a manuscript. Our journal permits authors to use AI tools to improve the language of their manuscripts by correcting grammatical errors and enhancing clarity and readability, without altering the original scientific meaning. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts corrected by an AI tool.
Editors and reviewers are not permitted to use the AI tools to review or validate the manuscripts for the decision making.
Conflict of Interest
If there is a conflict of interest during the review process or after acceptance and publication, the Journal will not be responsible for investigating or arbitrate. Authors should take responsibility for resolving the dispute themselves. If this is not possible, the Journal reserves the right to withdraw the manuscript from the editorial process. The Journal reserves the right to retract the manuscript if it is published.
Retractions Policy
Suppose anyone points out a factual error in the published manuscript. In that case, the Editor is responsible for correcting the errors in the manuscript with the consent and support of the corresponding author. If there is no chance to resolve the error by the corresponding author and Editor, the manuscript could be retracted without any tolerance. Also the duplicated publication will be retracted after asking the clarifications from the corresponding author even he is not able to respond back.
Erratum
An erratum is issued to correct minor errors found after publication that do not compromise the validity of the research findings. These can include typographical errors, formatting problems, graphical inaccuracies, spelling mistakes, or grammatical errors that occurred during the publishing process. Errata are provided by the editorial production team at no cost to the author and are usually listed in a separate section at the end of the print or online article.
Corrigendum
A corrigendum is used to correct errors that originate from the authors, such as misspellings, changes in affiliations, omitted authors, missing information, or other factual inaccuracies. Minor corrections may be published in later issues, while major changes might require editorial discussion or investigation and could involve additional costs. Corrigenda help ensure that the research record remains accurate and transparent.
Addenda
An addendum is basically a formal way to include extra information or clarify something in an article that’s already been published. These addenda are meant to add to the original data without contradicting it or fixing any mistakes; those corrections are usually handled through errata or corrigenda. Authors can submit an addendum to bring in important new insights or information that really enhances the original research. According to journal policy, addenda might go through peer review and are typically overseen by the editor who handled the original article, ensuring everything stays consistent and scientifically accurate.
Removal of Published Content
In certain exceptional situations, the Journal has the authority to remove content that has already been published on its website. This action may be taken if the journal discovers that the content:
- Is defamatory or includes false or misleading information regarding a research method or an individual;
- Violates the intellectual property, privacy, or other legal rights of someone else;
- Represents an immediate and serious threat to safety, public health, or the integrity of the scientific record.
Any decision to take down content is made with great care, following international publishing ethics standards, and may involve discussions with authors and other relevant parties.
Appeal and Complaint Process
Authors who want to appeal editorial decisions or raise ethical complaints to be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief with detailed justification. Appeals and complaints will be reviewed by an independent editorial committee by following COPE guidelines.
Data and reproducibility
When it comes to sharing research findings, authors are encouraged to present their work at conferences, regardless of whether it has been formally published. This practice is quite common across various fields. While copyright law protects the unique expression of ideas, authors can create new presentations or materials based on their work without infringing on copyright. It's important for authors to clearly state in their manuscripts if any part of their results has been shared at a conference before. To prevent any accidental duplicate publications, unpublished manuscripts should not be submitted to conference committees, and authors should think ahead about which materials-like figures, tables, or datasets-they are comfortable sharing. Being transparent about previous presentations and data sharing not only fosters reproducibility but also enhances the integrity of the scientific record.
Ethical Oversight
On the topic of ethical oversight, the Journal follows the ethical guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This oversight includes obtaining consent for publication, safeguarding vulnerable populations, conducting research ethically with both humans and animals, responsibly managing confidential data, and upholding ethical business practices. Any studies involving animal subjects must receive prior approval from a recognized institutional review board or ethics committee, and this must be documented in the manuscript. The journal may ask for additional information from authors to ensure ethical compliance.
Authors conducting research with human participants must ensure that their studies follow accepted ethical guidelines. Before beginning the research, approval must be obtained from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee. Authors should also confirm that all participants provided informed consent and that their privacy, confidentiality, and rights were safeguarded throughout the study.
Each manuscript must include details of the ethical approval, including the approval number, the name of the ethics committee, and how informed consent was obtained. Studies that do not meet these ethical requirements will not be considered for publication
Intellectual property
The Journal offers open access to all its published articles through a reasonable Article Publication Charge (APC), making it easy for everyone to submit their work. This fee covers everything from editorial management and article production to secure hosting, dissemination, indexing, and customer support. Just a heads up: the APC needs to be paid once your manuscript is accepted, and articles won’t be published until the fee is settled.
Authors keep the copyright to their work while granting the journal the right to publish it first under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This means authors can share, adapt, and even use their work commercially, as long as they give proper credit and don’t impose any extra legal restrictions. They can also make separate agreements for non-exclusive distribution, like posting their article in institutional repositories or including it in books, as long as the journal is recognized as the original publisher. We encourage preprints and early online sharing since they can boost visibility, collaboration, and citations of research. Plus, every published paper gets a DOI (Crossref), ensuring it’s permanently identifiable and easily accessible.
Duplicate and Prior Publication
When it comes to submitting a manuscript, author(s) should avoid sending the same manuscript to multiple journals at the same time, regardless of the language. Doing so can lead to conflicts between journals over who has the rights to publish your work, and it can also result in unnecessary peer reviews and editorial efforts, not to mention the risk of publishing the same article more than once.
Duplicate publication happens when a paper is published that significantly overlaps with something already out there, without giving proper credit to the original source. If you've shared your research publicly before-like on preprint servers, at conferences, or in institutional repositories-it's important to acknowledge that clearly.
Journals are expected to deliver original content, unless they specifically indicate that a piece is a republication, which might be acceptable for historically important studies. The issue of duplicate publication is particularly serious for original research, as it can lead to double-counting data or misrepresenting findings, ultimately skewing the scientific evidence.
If author(s) submitting a manuscript that has significant overlap with previously published work or is under review elsewhere, it needs to be upfront about it in a cover letter. Include copies of any related materials to help the editor assess your submission. For preprints, make sure to use servers that clearly mark the content as not peer-reviewed, and disclose any relevant author relationships or activities. It's author's responsibility to keep the journal informed about any prior postings or related publications to maintain transparency and uphold the integrity of the scientific record.
Copyright and Licensing Policy
For all articles published in this Journal, the authors keep the copyright without any restrictions. They give the journal the right to be the first to publish their work, along with non-exclusive rights to share and distribute it. The journal and its metadata are covered by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which means anyone can read, download, share, and reuse the article as long as they properly cite the original published version. This approach maximizes the visibility and impact of the work while ensuring that authors receive the credit they deserve.
Authors need to confirm that their manuscript is original, hasn’t been published anywhere else, and isn’t being considered by another journal. Once a manuscript is accepted, it cannot be withdrawn. Authors also guarantee that their work doesn’t contain any libelous statements and doesn’t violate any copyright, trademark, patent, or other proprietary rights. Additionally, they take responsibility for releasing the material on behalf of all co-authors.
Authors can use their work, including tables and figures, in future publications, presentations, or for personal use, as long as they acknowledge the journal as the first publisher. They can make copies for personal use, but selling them is not allowed. The journal has strict anti-plagiarism policies; any form of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, will lead to the rejection of the manuscript and possible restrictions on future submissions. Authors found guilty of plagiarism may also need to issue a formal apology to the original authors.
The journal values the intellectual property rights of authors and actively promotes the sharing of research through preprints, institutional repositories, and personal websites. This approach not only boosts the visibility of their work but also increases citation rates. With open access articles, the journal can apply a relevant third-party license that allows for reuse, including for commercial purposes, while authors still hold onto their copyright and other intellectual property rights, like patents or trademarks.
For articles behind a subscription paywall, authors transfer copyright to the publisher through a publishing agreement but keep the right to share their work for personal, internal, and scholarly use, along with retaining other intellectual property rights. In the case of open access articles, authors grant exclusive rights to the publisher while maintaining their copyright, ensuring they receive proper attribution and credit. In both scenarios, the publisher is empowered to publish, distribute, and provide access to the article across all media, enforce rights against infringement, and safeguard the authors’ work.
Self-plagiarism occurs when an author reuses parts or the entirety of their previously published work without making significant changes or providing proper citation. Complete self-plagiarism, which involves republishing an article in a new journal without any modifications, is not allowed. Authors are encouraged to reach out to the journal for guidance if they suspect any instances of plagiarism, fraud, or copyright infringement. The journal is dedicated to protecting the rights and reputation of authors, as well as maintaining the integrity of the scientific record.
Repository Policy
Authors are encouraged to share their research findings and related datasets in publicly accessible repositories that adhere to established standards for archiving, curation, and citation. This practice not only ensures the long-term preservation of their work but also enhances discoverability, reproducibility, and proper attribution within the research community. Repositories keep data in its original format, enabling other researchers to validate, replicate, and build upon the work with confidence. By maintaining data in its native state, we preserve accuracy and integrity, which are crucial for generating reliable results. This approach is especially beneficial in both academic and applied research environments, where transparent and reproducible data lead to stronger insights, improved decision-making, and the advancement of knowledge.
Advertising Policy
Our publication and journal websites are not including any commercial advertisements in its website and other forms of communication.
Archiving: For the long-term preservation of published content, the journal archived all its articles in INTERNET ARCHIVE (https://archive.org/details/@dr_selvakumar).