The Asian Journal of Agriculture and Biology (AJAB) is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics. We adhere to the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) which can be accessed from COPE website: https://publicationethics.org/getting-started. This is also necessary to win public trust in scientific findings. All authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to follow these guidelines to ensure the integrity of the scientific record and maintain public trust in research findings.

1. Authorship and Contributorship Policy

Authorship should be based on significant intellectual contributions to a research paper. AJAB follows the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) system to ensure transparency. To qualify as an author, an individual must have made a substantial contribution in at least one of the following areas:

• Conception or design of the work.
• Data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation.
• Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
• Final approval of the version to be published.
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

AJAB does not permit ghost authorship (unlisted contributors) or honorary authorship (listing individuals who do not meet the criteria). All individuals who have contributed to the research but do not qualify for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgements section. Any changes to the authorship list after initial submission must be approved by all authors, including those being added or removed, and a duly completed and signed Change in Authorship Form, available on request, must be submitted for our records and for processing the change.

2. Research Misconduct and Malpractice

AJAB is dedicated to preventing and addressing misconduct. The following are considered serious violations of our ethical policy and will result in sanctions as per COPE guidelines.

• Duplicate Submission: Manuscripts that are found to have been published elsewhere, or to be under review elsewhere, will incur sanctions. If authors have used their own previously published work, or work that is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they are required to cite the previous work and indicate how their submitted manuscript offers novel contributions beyond those of the previous work.
• Redundant Publications: This refers to the inappropriate division of study outcomes into several articles.
• Citation Manipulation: Submitted manuscripts that are found to include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal, will incur any of the below mentioned sanctions as per COPE guidelines.
• Data Fabrication and Falsification: Submitted manuscripts that are found to have either fabricated or falsified experimental results, including the manipulation of images, will incur sanctions as per COPE guidelines.
• Improper Author Contribution or Attribution: All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution, including students and laboratory technicians.

3. Conflicts of Interest / Competing Interests

All parties involved in the publication process, including authors, reviewers and editors, must disclose any potential conflicts of interest.

• For Authors: Authors must include a statement in their manuscript disclosing any financial or personal relationships that could be seen as influencing their research. This includes, but is not limited to, employment, consultancy, stock ownership, grants and patents. If no conflicts exist, they must explicitly state: “The authors declare no conflict of interest or None.”
• For Reviewers: Reviewers must decline a review if they have a conflict of interest, such as being a recent collaborator with the authors or working at the same institution. If a potential conflict arises during the review process, the reviewer should immediately notify the editor.
• For Editors: Editors with a conflict of interest related to a submitted manuscript (e.g., they work at the same institution as an author) must recuse themselves from the editorial process and ask another editor to handle the submission.

4. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

AJAB promotes a culture of transparency and reproducibility. Authors are strongly encouraged to make their research data, code, and other materials openly available.

• Data Availability Statement: Authors must include a data availability statement in their manuscript, specifying where the data supporting the findings can be accessed. This can be a public repository, a link to the data within the article, or an explanation for why data cannot be made public (e.g., ethical or legal restrictions).
• Reporting Guidelines: To ensure clarity and reproducibility, authors are expected to follow relevant discipline-specific reporting guidelines (e.g., ARRIVE for animal research, CONSORT for clinical trials).

5. Ethical Oversight

All research submitted to the AJAB, whether in a laboratory or a natural setting, must have been conducted in an ethically responsible manner.

• Animal Studies: For research involving animals, authors must confirm that they followed institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. The manuscript must state that the study was approved by an institutional ethics committee.
• Human Subjects: Studies involving human participants must have been conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must state that they have obtained approval from an ethics committee and that informed consent was secured from all participants.

6. Intellectual Property

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their work does not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. All copyrighted material, figures, or tables from other sources must be used with proper permission.

• Copyright: AJAB publishes articles under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, which allows for broader distribution and use of the work while the authors retain copyright.
• Plagiarism: AJAB is committed to publishing only original material. The journal uses plagiarism detection software “Turnitin” to screen all submissions. Any instance of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism or text recycling, will be dealt with in accordance with COPE guidelines, which may result in rejection or retraction.

7. Handling Complaints and Appeals

AJAB is committed to a fair and transparent process for handling complaints and appeals.

• Complaints: Any concerns regarding potential research or publication misconduct (plagiarism, data fabrication, conflicts of interest, etc.) should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief in writing. The complaint will be handled in accordance with the relevant COPE flowcharts. AJAB will conduct a thorough investigation, which may involve contacting the authors’ institution(s). The complainant will be kept informed of the progress and outcome of the investigation.
• Appeals: Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision must provide a detailed letter outlining their reasons for the appeal, including specific scientific or factual points. New data is not permitted during the appeal process. Appeals will be reviewed by a different editor and, if necessary, an independent third party to ensure an unbiased re-evaluation. The final decision on the appeal is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

8. Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections

AJAB is committed to maintaining the integrity of the published record.

• Corrections: For minor errors that do not affect the integrity of the data or conclusions, an Erratum (for author errors) or Corrigendum (for publisher errors) will be published.
• Retractions: Articles will be retracted in cases of confirmed research misconduct. A retraction notice will be published and linked to the original article, and the article will be watermarked as “Retracted.”
• Expressions of Concern: In cases where there are serious concerns about an article’s integrity but a full investigation has not been completed, an Expression of Concern may be published.
• Post-Publication Discussions: The journal encourages post-publication commentary and discussions via letters to the editor. These discussions will be moderated and, if appropriate, published to foster scientific debate and transparency.

9. Sanctions

If documented violations of the above policies are found in any journal, the following sanctions will be applied:

• Immediate rejection of the infringing manuscript.
• Immediate rejection of every other manuscript submitted to AJAB by any of the authors of the infringing manuscript.
• Prohibition against all the authors from submitting any new manuscripts to AJAB for a minimum of 36 months. This applies whether they submit individually or in combination with other authors of the infringing manuscript.
• Prohibition against all the authors from serving on the Editorial Board of AJAB.

In cases where the violations are found to be particularly flagrant, the publisher reserves the right to impose additional sanctions beyond those described above.