Academic journals are important carriers of scientific research achievements and platforms for monitoring academic misconduct, which playing a crucial role in promoting and maintaining research integrity. In order to resist academic misconduct, based on the actual situation of this journal, Scientia Agricultura Sinica has formulated ethical norms for publication, referring to relevant documents and standards such as Several Opinions on Further Strengthening the Construction of Scientific Research Integrity, Academic Publishing Norms-Definition of Academic Misconduct in Journals (CY/T174-2019), Ethics Norms for Publication of Science and Technology Journals, as well as guidelines formulated and published by the International Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE).
1．Responsibilities for Author
1) Author’s signature Only those who have made outstanding contributions to the research topic, experimental design, data acquisition and analysis, article writing, and content review can be listed as authors. Other individuals who have made auxiliary contributions to the article can express their gratitude in the acknowledgments section with consent.
2) The originality of the article The original author of the article should ensure that the content of the paper is original (excluding reviews) and has not been officially published in other books or journals. It is strictly prohibited to engage in academic misconduct such as plagiarism, forgery, tampering with data, and submitting multiple manuscripts. Reasonable citations and objective expressions are required.
3) Copyright transfer agreement The copyright transfer agreement does not involve any national secrets, any infringement related to intellectual property, or any interest disputes in the paper. All authors in the copyright transfer agreement shall sign and affix their official seal. Once the article is accepted, the order of authors should not be changed.
4) Corrections and withdrawals Before publishing the article, the author should carefully check the content of the article to ensure accuracy. After the article is published, if major issues are found, the editorial department should be contacted in a timely manner to make corrections or withdraw the manuscript.
2．Reviewer’s Responsibilities
1) Anonymous review The anonymous review of Scientia Agricultura Sinica adopts “Double-blind review” system, and the reviewing experts should objectively and fairly evaluate the innovation, rationality, rigor, and standardization of the article.
2) Review time If an article is invited for review, it should be reviewed within the specified time. If it cannot be completed on time due to objective factors or if you are not familiar with the review content, you should inform the editorial department in a timely manner.
3) Confidentiality of review Avoid disclosing the content and related information of the manuscript to unrelated personnel during and after the review process. Without permission from the editorial department, reviewers are not allowed to transfer the manuscript to others for reading, discussion, and review, and are not allowed to use or publish the data, viewpoints, and conclusions of the reviewed manuscript. For papers with conflicts of interest or shared benefits that hinder objective evaluation, review may be avoided.
3．Editor’s Responsibilities
1) Formality examination The editorial department conducts innovative, ideological, and other tests of all submissions. Those which fail will be directly rejected. 2) Timely and fair handling of manuscripts. Editors should complete the initial review of manuscripts in time, handle all incoming manuscripts fairly and objectively, and provide detailed revision suggestions or reasons for rejection of manuscripts. During the manuscript processing, editor should not interfere with the independent review by the reviewing experts. 3) Accurate selection of reviewers Accurately select reviewers based on the content of the manuscript, and select experts in the corresponding research direction to submit for review. For the experts recommended by the author, editor should carefully verify and avoid experts who have interests with the author or are in the same unit (research group) as the author. 4) Confidentiality of manuscripts During the process of handling manuscripts, the author's name, organization, funding project, and other relevant information should not be disclosed to the reviewers. At the same time, the reviewer information should not be disclosed to the author. Timely establish connections and coordinate communication between authors and reviewers on academic issues. 5) Appeal and complaint The editorial department is responsible for verifying and reviewing all appeals and complaints from authors and readers, and providing timely responses. 6) Archive management The archive management strictly implements the “Three-review and three-proofread” system, establishes true and complete processing records for all submissions, and completes the archiving and preservation of the processing process of publication articles. 7) Academic misconduct handling If the published article is found to have significant errors or academic misconduct after verification, the editorial department will issue a “Withdrawal” statement on paper or journal websites, and delete all information in relevant databases.
