Taiwanese Journal of Public Administration (JPA) is dedicated to publishing high quality manuscripts of new discoveries and of scientific and pragmatic properties. JPA does not accept any research manuscripts that involve any form of improper conduct, including plagiarism, multiple submissions, fabricated (fake) data, fake authorship, and undisclosed conflict of interest, etc. JPA employs the Publishing Ethics suggested by Elsevier B.V. (http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/rights) and the contents of publication and writing ethics covered by the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines). The following regulations include the obligations of the authors, the editorial board of JPA and the referees.
Obligations of the Authors
Originality and Plagiarism:The authors should ensure the originality of their manuscripts. When citing other people’s papers or discourses, the authors should obey the regulatory publishing considerations for literature references. Acts of plagiarism such as appropriating others’ research results, and copying and illustrating other people’s discourses without citation are prohibited.
Using and Retaining Information:The authors should retain their original data for post-publication editorial review and public access.
Multiple, Repeated, or Simultaneous Publication:The authors should not publish manuscripts of the same research nature in other journals or publications at the same time. Multiple submissions or the submission of other already published manuscripts is not allowed for submission to JPA. Manuscripts that have been presented in domestic or international conferences are not regarded as published papers.
Obligation of Informing the Source of Information:The authors are obligated to disclose the source of the research data and the citations of others’ works. Information acquired privately, such as via conversations, letters or discussions with a third party etc. should not be used or published without a hard copy authorization letter of the source. Information acquired by reviewing other people’s documents, for example, reviewing other people’s manuscripts or applications, should not be used or published without a clear hard copy authorization letter from the original authors.
Conflict of Interest:The authors should disclose any information concerned with conflict of interest that may affect the research results and provide information including funding subsidies, research project subsidies, employment, consultant, ownership of materials, remuneration, expert testimony fee, patent application/registration or donation authorization, etc., as soon as possible.
Post-publication Errors:When the authors discover major mistakes or misinformation after the publication of their accepted manuscripts, the authors are obligated to notify the editors or the editorial department of the journal and retrieve the manuscripts or provide the editorial department with the corrected versions.
Standards of the Reports:The authors of the original research reports should describe the completed tasks accurately and discuss their importance objectively.
Obligations of the Editors/Editorial Board
Peer Review:Editors may decide whether to publish the accepted manuscripts that have undergone “peer review” based on their research topics or their significance to other researchers or readers of the manuscripts. The editors should follow the journal’s editorial guidelines and legal principles. The editors may authorize the discretion of publication to the referees.
Fair Competition:The editors should review the manuscripts in accordance with the contents instead of the race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality or political stance of the authors.
Confidentiality Principle:Editors and the personnel assisting with the editing should not disclose any information regarding the manuscripts to the authors, referees, consultant editors and publishers.
Openness Principle:
The editors are not allowed to use the information of the unpublished manuscripts for purposes of personal research without the consent of the authors.
Suggestions and information provided by the referees of the peer review panel are not allowed for private use.
When the editors consider that some form of competition, collaboration or any other form of conflict of interest with the authors, businesses or organizations, review of the manuscripts should be avoided.
The editors are obliged to require all the contributors of the manuscripts to reveal information concerning conflict of interest pertaining to the manuscripts. If situations of conflict of interest are uncovered post-publication, the editors should issue a correction announcement or cancel the publication or declare a conflict of interest statement and apply other necessary measures.
Conflict of interest:
Sponsored supplements should be guaranteed without special treatment during peer review. The review requirement should be the same as for other manuscripts.
Sponsored supplements should totally comply with academic values, notwithstanding commercial interest considerations.
Investigation Participation:In situations where the manuscripts are discovered with events that violate writing ethics, the editorial board and the distribution and printing agency should take adequate measures which include contacting the authors or reporting the defects to relevant units. Once the violation is confirmed, correction, revocation, and clarification should be undertaken immediately. Retroactive effect still applies to published manuscripts.
Obligations of the Referees
Review Competence:The appointed referees, in the event they consider themselves disqualified or unable to finish the review in timely fashion, must notify the editorial board or the chief editor and voluntarily ask for dismissal from the referee membership.
Confidentiality Principle:The referees must regard the manuscripts under review as confidential documents and should not disclose any information to people other than the editors.
Objectivism:The referees should remove all personal opinions, conduct the review in an objective and fair manner and provide constructive suggestions with appropriate evidence. Personal criticism directed against the authors is unacceptable.
Notification of the Source:The referees should identify information that has not been cited by the authors. For example, the monitoring, investigation or contents implemented by the predecessors should be specified in references and quotations. The referees are obligated to remind the editors of any similar or partially identical parts to other authors’ works in the manuscripts.
