Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Research Integrity

WALABI: Animal Reproduction, Genetics and Breeding is a peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal published by the Faculty of Animal Science, Universitas Papua. The journal is committed to maintaining high standards of research integrity, editorial independence, transparency, fairness, and responsible scholarly publishing.

This publication ethics statement applies to all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, members of the Editorial Board, peer reviewers, and the publisher. The journal's editorial and ethical practices are guided by internationally recognized principles of publication ethics, including relevant guidance provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1. Ethical Principles for Journal Publication

The publication of scientific research in a peer-reviewed journal contributes to the development of a reliable and transparent scholarly record. Authors, editors, reviewers, and publishers share responsibility for maintaining the quality, credibility, and integrity of this record.

WALABI evaluates manuscripts based on their scientific merit, methodological quality, relevance to the journal's scope, originality of contribution, and compliance with ethical and editorial requirements. Editorial decisions must not be influenced by commercial, personal, institutional, or other inappropriate interests.

The publisher supports editorial independence and does not interfere with editorial decisions concerning individual manuscripts.

2. Allegations of Research and Publication Misconduct

Research and publication misconduct may include, but is not limited to:

  • fabrication or falsification of data;
  • plagiarism;
  • duplicate or redundant publication;
  • inappropriate authorship;
  • citation manipulation;
  • undisclosed conflicts of interest;
  • inappropriate image manipulation;
  • misrepresentation of research methods or results;
  • breaches of research ethics or animal welfare requirements; and
  • manipulation of the peer-review or editorial process.

WALABI takes allegations of misconduct seriously and seeks to handle them fairly, confidentially, and consistently. When credible concerns are raised, the journal may take the following actions:

  1. Conduct an initial assessment of the allegation and available evidence.
  2. Contact the corresponding author or other relevant parties for an explanation when appropriate.
  3. Request supporting documentation, raw data, ethical approval records, or other relevant information where necessary.
  4. Seek independent expert advice when additional scientific or ethical assessment is required.
  5. Contact the authors' institution or another responsible authority when institutional investigation is necessary.
  6. Take appropriate editorial action, which may include rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other measures appropriate to the circumstances.

The journal will seek to preserve the integrity of the scientific record while ensuring that allegations are handled without prejudgment.

3. Publication Decisions

The Editor-in-Chief and responsible editors determine whether a manuscript is accepted, revised, resubmitted, or rejected. Decisions are based on the scientific quality and relevance of the manuscript, reviewers' evaluations, editorial policies, and applicable ethical and legal requirements.

Editors should not make decisions based on personal relationships, commercial interests, institutional affiliations, or other factors unrelated to the scientific and ethical quality of the manuscript.

4. Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made independently by the editorial team. The publisher, sponsors, institutions, advertisers, or other third parties must not influence decisions regarding the acceptance or rejection of individual manuscripts.

5. Fairness and Non-Discrimination

Editors evaluate submitted manuscripts on the basis of academic and scientific merit. Manuscripts must not be evaluated differently because of an author's gender, nationality, ethnicity, institutional affiliation, religion, political views, or other characteristics unrelated to the quality of the research.

6. Confidentiality

Editors, editorial staff, and reviewers must treat submitted manuscripts and related communications as confidential. Information concerning a submitted manuscript should be disclosed only to individuals directly involved in the editorial and peer-review process, or where disclosure is required to address ethical or legal concerns.

Unpublished information obtained during manuscript handling or peer review must not be used for personal, professional, academic, or financial advantage.

7. Conflicts of Interest

Editors, reviewers, and authors must disclose actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, their judgment or interpretation.

Editors and reviewers should decline involvement with a manuscript when a conflict of interest prevents an independent and objective assessment. Authors must disclose relevant financial, institutional, professional, or personal relationships that could be perceived to influence the research.

8. Duties of Editors

  1. Editorial Evaluation: Editors should assess manuscripts fairly and consistently according to the journal's scope, scientific standards, and ethical requirements.
  2. Peer Review Management: Editors should select reviewers with appropriate expertise and seek sufficiently independent assessments of submitted manuscripts.
  3. Confidentiality: Editors must protect confidential information obtained during the manuscript evaluation and peer-review process.
  4. Conflicts of Interest: Editors must disclose and appropriately manage conflicts of interest.
  5. Research Integrity: Editors should investigate credible concerns regarding research or publication misconduct.
  6. Corrections to the Scholarly Record: Editors should take appropriate action when published work contains material errors or when concerns arise regarding its reliability or integrity.

9. Duties of Reviewers

  1. Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Reviewers assist editors in evaluating manuscripts and may provide constructive recommendations to help authors improve their work.
  2. Expertise and Timeliness: Reviewers should accept assignments only when they possess appropriate expertise and can complete the review within the requested timeframe.
  3. Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents.
  4. Objectivity: Reviews should be objective, respectful, scientifically justified, and free from inappropriate personal criticism.
  5. Identification of Relevant Literature: Reviewers may identify relevant scientific work that has not been appropriately acknowledged when this is important to the evaluation of the manuscript.
  6. Research Integrity: Reviewers should inform the editor of suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data irregularities, unethical research practices, or other serious concerns.
  7. Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers should disclose relevant conflicts and decline assignments when impartial evaluation cannot reasonably be maintained.

10. Duties of Authors

  1. Accuracy and Reporting Standards: Authors must present their research accurately and provide sufficient information to allow readers to understand how the study was conducted and how conclusions were reached.
  2. Originality: Submitted manuscripts must represent original scholarly work and must appropriately acknowledge the work and ideas of others.
  3. Plagiarism: Authors must not present the words, data, ideas, figures, or other intellectual contributions of others as their own.
  4. Data Integrity: Authors must not fabricate, falsify, selectively manipulate, or intentionally misrepresent research data or findings.
  5. Multiple or Redundant Publication: Authors should not submit substantially the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously or publish substantially redundant work without appropriate disclosure and justification.
  6. Authorship: Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work and who accept responsibility for the published article.
  7. Author Approval: All listed authors must approve the final manuscript and agree to its submission and publication.
  8. Acknowledgment of Sources: Authors must appropriately cite relevant sources and acknowledge intellectual contributions that influenced the research.
  9. Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose relevant financial, professional, personal, or institutional conflicts of interest.
  10. Funding Disclosure: Sources of financial or material support should be reported where applicable.
  11. Correction of Errors: Authors who identify substantial errors in their submitted or published work should promptly inform the journal and cooperate with appropriate corrective action.

11. Animal Research Ethics and Welfare

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and internationally recognized standards for animal welfare and ethical research.

Where ethical approval is required, authors must provide information regarding the approving ethics committee or responsible institution and, where applicable, the approval number or other relevant documentation.

The manuscript should provide sufficient information on animal handling, housing, experimental procedures, anesthesia, analgesia, humane endpoints, euthanasia, or other welfare-related measures when these aspects are relevant to the study.

12. Human Participants and Biological Materials

If a study involves human participants, identifiable human information, biological materials of human origin, or other research requiring ethical oversight, authors must comply with applicable ethical, legal, and institutional requirements and obtain appropriate approval and informed consent where required.

13. Authorship and Contributorship

All individuals listed as authors should have made a meaningful scholarly contribution to the work. Individuals who contributed to the research but do not meet the journal's authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission may require written agreement from all authors and an explanation acceptable to the editorial team.

14. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

WALABI is committed to maintaining the accuracy of the published scientific record. When substantial errors or integrity concerns are identified after publication, the journal may publish a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or another appropriate notice.

Such actions should clearly identify the affected article and explain the reason for the editorial action to the extent appropriate and legally permissible.

15. Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, or other parties may raise concerns regarding editorial procedures, ethical matters, peer review, published content, or editorial decisions.

Complaints and appeals will be considered objectively and should be supported by relevant information or documentation. An appeal does not automatically result in reversal of an editorial decision; the journal will assess whether the original decision was made fairly and in accordance with editorial policy.

16. Citation Practices

Authors should cite literature because it is relevant to the scientific background, methods, interpretation, or discussion of their work. Editors and reviewers must not require authors to add citations for the primary purpose of increasing citations to particular authors, journals, institutions, or individuals.

17. Peer-Review Integrity

Any attempt to manipulate reviewer identities, peer-review reports, reviewer recommendations, editorial decisions, or other components of the peer-review process is considered a serious breach of publication ethics.

Reviewers must not delegate a review to another person without prior permission from the responsible editor.

18. Use of Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

Authors, reviewers, and editors remain responsible for the accuracy, confidentiality, integrity, and ethical compliance of their scholarly work and editorial activities. Automated or artificial intelligence tools must not be treated as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for published content.

Authors should transparently disclose the use of artificial intelligence tools when such use materially contributed to manuscript preparation, data analysis, image generation, or another substantive part of the research or reporting, where disclosure is relevant under the journal's policies.

Reviewers and editors must not upload confidential manuscripts or unpublished research materials to external artificial intelligence systems when doing so would compromise confidentiality or data protection requirements.

19. Data and Supporting Materials

Authors are expected to retain research data and supporting documentation in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and disciplinary requirements. When appropriate, editors may request access to supporting data or documentation for the purpose of evaluating the reliability and integrity of a manuscript.

20. Publisher Responsibilities

The Faculty of Animal Science, Universitas Papua, as publisher of WALABI: Animal Reproduction, Genetics and Breeding, supports the editorial independence of the journal and the maintenance of responsible scholarly publishing practices.

The publisher supports appropriate corrective action when ethical concerns, significant errors, or threats to the integrity of the published scholarly record are identified.

Commitment to Publication Integrity

Through these policies, WALABI: Animal Reproduction, Genetics and Breeding seeks to maintain a trustworthy scientific record and to support responsible research and scholarly communication in animal reproduction, genetics, breeding, reproductive biotechnology, animal genetic resources, and related fields.