Code of Ethics for Research and Prevention of Malpractice

Ethical Guidelines

Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical practice and is unacceptable. The purpose of these guidelines is to maintain integrity in research activity. The institution publishes KLE Law Journal and CHIGURU annually. To achieve the objectives stated above it has been made mandatory to the Authors, Editors, Reviewers & Publisher are adhere to the codes. The code envisages the following duties.

Duties of authors:

1. Author’s report of original research should disclose an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. A research paper should contain sufficient details and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements would constitute unethical practices.    

• Authors shall be submitted on request the raw data of the research paper for review, and such a data may be retained by the institution for a reasonable period.

• Author should ensure that his research work is original, and any use of work of others without appropriate acknowledgement would constitute unethical practices.

• An author should ensure that his research work has not been published in any other journal or should not submit to more than one journal for publication.

• Information obtained privately/confidentially, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties by the author, must not be used or reported without explicit and written permission from the source.

• Authorship is limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the research work subjected to two authors. Further others who have contributed substantially in the research study; their participation may be acknowledged. The corresponding author should ensure that co-author have agreed to its submission for publication.

• The authors should disclose at the beginning of the manuscript, any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their research work.

• An author who finds through editor, publisher or from any third party that a published work contains a significant errors, then it is the obligation of the authors to promptly retract or correct the paper. Further the authors are required to provide the evidence of the same to the editor.

Duties of Editor:

• Editor is under obligation to evaluate the submitted manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic merit and its relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to any other considerations. The editor shall be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and other legal framework such as libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

• The editor and other editorial staff shall not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

• Submitted unpublished materials shall be kept confidential and must not be used in an editor’s own research work without the express written consent of the author.

•  Editors should refrain themselves from editing the works involving conflict of interest.

• The editor should take responsive measures wherever complaints have been made concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper, in conjunction with the publisher.

Duties of Reviewers:

1. Peer review shall review the research work objectively, and make necessary suggestions for the improvement of the paper in order to publish in journal. Further they may make appropriate suggestions to editors  in taking a decision in respect of selecting paper for publication
2. Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research paper or knows that its prompt review will be impossible, should notify the editors and excuse himself from the review process.
3. Any research work received for review shall be treated as confidential and it shall not be shown or discussed with others except as authorized by the editors.
4. Reviewer shall be refrained from making personal criticism on the research work. Further they should express their view with reasons.
5. Reviewers shall identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. A reviewer shall also call to the editor’s attention on any substantial similarity or overlap between the research work under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
6. Submitted unpublished materials shall be kept confidential and must not be used in a reviewer’s own research work without the express written consent of the author.
7. Reviewers shall not review the research work in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

4. Publisher:

• KLE Society’s Law College, Bengaluru, the publisher of KLE Law Journal does not allow any form of plagiarism. The college shall ensure that the Research Committee of college shall constantly support/advise and takes suggestions from Editorial Board/Reviewers on eliminating any kind of malpractice in publication of research work. The college shall promote the socio-legal research leading to creation of knowledge of and /or resolution of socio-legal concerns.