Respecting  the rules of ethics in publications, Iranian Journal of Seed Science and Technology is subject to the rules of the Committee on Ethics in Publication (COPE) and follows the executive regulations of the law on preventing and dealing with fraud in scientific works.

 

Ethical and legal duties of authors:

1. The final responsibility for the content of the article rests with the author(s) of the article.

2. The author(s) must not have submitted the article or part of it to another Journal or to present at a conference or similar events. If this issue is identified, the article will be removed from the publication process and the author(s) will be dealt with according to the regulations.
3. The author(s) must refrain from any kind of unethical research behavior such as: falsifying or distorting data, plagiarism, taking advantage of others to conduct research and mentioning themselves as the author, re-sending the article or a part of their article that It has been published in domestic or foreign journals.

4. The article must be free of any type of plagiarism (from own or others' works, whether quoting a phrase or quoting the theme or stealing other people's ideas, without citation).

5. Before submitting the article to the journal, the corresponding author must be sure of the correctness and compliance of the article with the style of the journal (refer to the author's guide section and also the peer review process)

6. The corresponding author is obliged to clearly state any conflict of interest that may have an effect on the results of the research or the interpretation of their findings or may cause a possible conflict with the interests of other institutions or individuals.

7. If there are financial resources supporting the research, it should be clear and transparent.

8. If the author(s) at any stage (before or after the publication of the article) notices an important mistake or carelessness in their work, they are obliged to inform the journal as soon as possible.

9. The corresponding author should register the names and information of all the co-authors in the journal system at the same time as the article is submitted.

*** It is possible to change the names of the co-authors and the corresponding author before the result of the peer review is clarified, and that too with the approval and signature of all authors. After the acceptance of the article, it is not possible to change the names of the authors, the order of the authors and the corresponding author.

10. It is necessary to sign the commitment form by all the authors of the article and send it along with the article. All authors are responsible for the correctness of the content of the article.

11. In order to respect the confidentiality of the peer review process, the authors should avoid providing any information in the article that would lead to their recognition (this issue should also be observed in naming the files sent to the journal).

12. The use of tables, images, charts and questionnaires developed by others, in an article or research report, requires a reference to the original source.

13. The sources used in the preparation of the article must be reliable and valid and should not be used or cited from sources that are doubtful or lacking in scientific validity.

14. If the author(s) of the article decide to withdraw the article from the publication at any stage of the peer review of the article and before publication, this request must be sent to the journal with the signature and approval of all authors.

Ethical and legal duties of reviewers

1. The reviewers should help the editor in chief and members of the editorial board in accepting or rejecting the article by reviewing the content and quality of the article, and in addition to completing the reviewing form, they should participate in improving the quality of the article and the jounranl by sending the article file containing corrective and critical comments to the authors.

  2. The reviewer should inform the editor in chief of the journal, immediately after reading the abstract  about their decision to accept or not accept the peer review (due to the fact that the subject of the article is not in the reviewer's research area, lack of time, or...). and in case of acceptance of peer review, review the article at the appointed time.

3. The reviewers must respect the confidentiality policy of the reviewering process and must not share information about the article before, during and after the reviewing.

4. Reviewers must evaluate the articles fairly and without bias.

5. The peer review process of the articles should be based on scientific evidents and sufficient reasoning and with clarity of expression.

6. Reviewers are required to identify and review the sources cited to by the author.

7. The reviewers are obliged to inform the editor in chief if they see any similarity or overlap between the submitted work and another article.

8. Reviewers should not use the information or ideas they have obtained in the evaluation process for personal gain.

9. Reviewers are required to refuse to evaluate articles that, in their opinion, are subject to conflict of interest, including financial, organizational, and personal common interests, or any other connections or links with companies, institutions, or people related to the articles.

10. If the reviewers know the identity of the responsible author or the co-author(s), they should not directly enter into discussion and communication with them without the editor in chief's permission.

11. If any of the reviewers of the article find out that the article has been sent to another journal or that the article is taken from the published or unpublished works of others, they should quickly inform the editor in chief.

12. Reviewers should avoid using offensive, harsh and unscientific expressions in presenting their opinions.

13. The reviewers should not entrust the reviewing of the article to another person without informing the editor in chief.

Ethical and legal duties of editors in chief

1. The editor in chief of the journal is responsible for making the final decision in accepting or rejecting the submitted articles, and this is done with the help of the editorial board members and in compliance with issues related to copyright, plagiarism, etc., as well as the discretion of the reviewers.

2. The editor in chief should continuously strive to improve the quality level of the journal.

3. The editor in chief should perform editorial duties, including accepting or rejecting articles, with freedom and authority and maintaining scientific independence, and in this regard, should not be influenced by non-scientific and non-professional factors.

4. The editor in chief's judgment about the articles should be based solely on scientific merit. Therefore, personal bias or consideration of nationality, gender, religion and ethnic, racial and political issues should not be considered as criteria for rejecting and accepting articles.

5. The editor in chief and the members of the editorial board should not disclose the information about the article and the details of its handling process except to the reviewers, authors and editors.

6. Those parts of the submitted articles that have not been published should not be used in the personal research of the editor  in chief or the editorial board members.

7. Confidential information or ideas obtained through evaluation of articles must be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.

8. The editor in chief should continuously propose and implement various strategies aimed at improving the quality of submitted and published articles.

9. The editor in chief should try to respond to the needs and questions and requests of the readers and authors.

10. The editor in chief should be diligent in promoting research ethics to authors and readers.

11. It is necessary in the performance of editorial duties to not be overshadowed by financial needs.

12. The editor in chief must respect the revisions suggested by the reviewers and, in turn, respect the reasoned and logical answers of the author(s).

13. The editor in chief is obliged to select competent reviewers for the articles according to the title of each article and according to the specialized field.

14. The members of the editorial board should help the editor in chief during the initial review of the submitted articles and, while respecting the neutrality and renouncing personal and common interests with the author(s), convey their clear and expert opinion to the editor.

Plagiarism

** According to the International Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE), plagiarism means that the author uses the contents of a published or unpublished work (article, book, thesis, etc.) the writing style of the first author, or with a different wording and style), or has mentioned other people's ideas in his article without citing the original source.

***In plagiarism, it does not matter if the author reprints his previously published material without citing the original work, or the published or unpublished material of others. In any case, using the works of others without referring to them and considering it as one's own work is considered plagiarism.

***If an author is found to have committed plagiarism after the publication of the article, he will be dealt with according to the rules.