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Publication Ethics

Our commitment to the highest standards of research integrity, based on COPE guidelines

COPE Compliance Statement
ThePublishHub strictly follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All editors, reviewers, and authors are expected to uphold these standards. Violations are investigated using COPE flowcharts and may result in retraction, blacklisting, and institutional reporting.

Plagiarism Policy

All manuscripts are screened using iThenticate before review. The acceptable similarity threshold is ≤ 15% overall, with no single source exceeding 5%. Self-plagiarism (reusing your own previously published text verbatim) is also prohibited. Authors must disclose any pre-prints deposited on arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN, or similar platforms in their cover letter.

Rejected if >15% similarity

Duplicate Submission

Submitting the same manuscript simultaneously to multiple journals is prohibited. Authors must declare that their manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere. Violations result in immediate rejection, and we reserve the right to notify the other journal and the author's institution.

Immediate rejection + blacklist

Authorship Integrity

Only individuals who have made substantial contributions to conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation should be listed as authors. All listed authors must have drafted or critically revised the manuscript and approved the final version. Guest, gift, and ghost authorship are strictly prohibited. Any changes to authorship after submission require written justification from all authors and approval from the Editor-in-Chief.

Institutional reporting required

Conflict of Interest

All authors must disclose any financial relationships, affiliations, or competing interests that could be perceived as influencing the research. This includes: employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership, expert testimony, patents, or research funding. Funding sources must be acknowledged. Reviewers must declare conflicts of interest and recuse themselves if any exist.

Mandatory disclosure

Data Integrity & Fabrication

The integrity of all data presented in submissions must be preserved. Fabrication (inventing data), falsification (manipulating results), and selective reporting are serious violations. Raw data must be retained for a minimum of 10 years post-publication. All figures must accurately represent the underlying data — image manipulation beyond standard adjustments (brightness/contrast applied uniformly) is prohibited.

Permanent blacklist + legal action

Corrections & Retractions

Corrections are issued for honest errors that do not affect the main conclusions. Retractions are issued for major errors in methodology, data fabrication, plagiarism, or ethical violations that invalidate the work. Retraction notices are permanent, linked to the original article, and submitted to CrossRef. ThePublishHub follows all COPE retraction guidelines.

Transparent retraction notice

Human & Animal Research Ethics

Research involving human subjects must have Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee approval. Research involving animals must have IACUC or equivalent approval. The ethics approval number must be stated in the Methods section. Clinical trials must be registered in a public registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov).

Ethics number required

Reporting Misconduct

Anyone who suspects research or publication misconduct in a ThePublishHub paper is encouraged to report it confidentially. All reports are investigated impartially. Whistleblowers are protected from retaliation. We follow COPE flowcharts for all misconduct investigations.

thepublishhub@gmail.com
Report an Ethics Concern

All reports are handled confidentially and investigated impartially.

thepublishhub@gmail.com