Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Policy
Open Veterinary Journal (OVJ) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, research integrity, and responsible scholarly communication.
OVJ follows recognized international standards and best practices in publication ethics, including relevant guidance and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and, where applicable, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
The journal expects all participants in the publication process—including authors, editors, peer reviewers, and the publisher—to act honestly, transparently, fairly, and responsibly.
OVJ takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously. When credible concerns arise, the journal may investigate the matter and take appropriate action to protect the integrity of the scholarly record. Depending on the circumstances, such action may include requesting clarification or documentation, rejecting a manuscript, issuing a correction, publishing an Expression of Concern, retracting a published article, or notifying the relevant institution or authority.
1. Ethical Principles
OVJ is committed to:
maintaining editorial independence;
ensuring fair and rigorous double-blind peer review;
protecting the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts;
promoting research integrity and responsible reporting;
preventing plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, and other forms of misconduct;
ensuring appropriate ethical treatment of animals and human participants;
requiring disclosure and appropriate management of conflicts of interest;
maintaining transparency in authorship, funding, and other relevant disclosures;
correcting the scholarly record when errors or misconduct are identified; and
protecting the integrity and reliability of published research.
2. Double-Blind Peer Review
OVJ uses a double-blind peer-review process. The identities of authors are concealed from reviewers, and the identities of reviewers are concealed from authors throughout the peer-review process, to the extent reasonably practicable.
Editors and reviewers must take reasonable measures to preserve the confidentiality of identities during peer review.
Peer-review decisions are based on the scientific quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, significance, and relevance of the manuscript and must not be influenced by the authors' nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, ethnicity, career stage, or other non-scientific characteristics.
3. Authors' Responsibilities
Authors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts submitted to OVJ meet appropriate standards of research and publication integrity.
Authors must:
ensure that the submitted work is original and has not been plagiarized, fabricated, or falsified;
ensure that the manuscript has not been previously published, except where prior publication is explicitly permitted by the journal's policies;
not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal;
appropriately acknowledge and cite the work and ideas of other researchers;
accurately report the methods, results, data, and interpretation of the research;
ensure that all listed authors have made appropriate contributions and have approved the final manuscript;
disclose relevant financial, professional, institutional, or personal conflicts of interest;
disclose sources of financial or other support for the research;
comply with applicable ethical requirements for research involving animals or human participants;
obtain required ethical approvals and informed consent where applicable;
respond honestly and adequately to editorial and peer-review queries;
provide supporting data, documentation, or other information when reasonably requested for verification of the research;
promptly notify the journal if a significant error or inaccuracy is discovered in a published article; and
cooperate with the journal in correcting or, where necessary, retracting the published article.
Authors are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of their submitted work.
4. Authorship and Contributorship
Authorship must accurately reflect substantial intellectual contributions to the research.
All listed authors should have made meaningful contributions to the conception, design, conduct, analysis, or interpretation of the research, participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript, approved the final version, and agreed to be accountable for the work.
Individuals who do not meet the criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors.
Any request to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be appropriately justified and approved by all affected authors. The journal may request additional documentation before approving changes to authorship.
5. Plagiarism and Textual Similarity
OVJ uses iThenticate and other appropriate screening procedures to identify potential plagiarism and excessive textual similarity.
All manuscripts may be screened at any stage of the editorial and publication process, including after publication where concerns arise.
Similarity scores are not considered in isolation. The editorial team evaluates the nature, extent, location, and context of the identified similarities.
Confirmed plagiarism or inappropriate reuse of another person's work may result in rejection of the manuscript or, for published articles, appropriate corrective action.
6. Fabrication, Falsification, and Image Manipulation
OVJ does not tolerate:
fabrication of data, results, observations, or other research information;
falsification, including manipulation or selective alteration of research materials, methods, data, tables, or results;
inappropriate manipulation or alteration of images that misrepresents the underlying research;
concealment or inappropriate exclusion of relevant research data; or
other practices that materially undermine the reliability of the research record.
Where credible concerns arise, OVJ may request original data, laboratory records, images, ethical documentation, or other supporting evidence.
7. Duplicate, Redundant, and Simultaneous Publication
Manuscripts submitted to OVJ must not be under consideration by another journal at the same time.
Authors must disclose any previous publication, submission, preprint, conference publication, dataset, or other publicly available version that could materially overlap with the submitted manuscript.
Duplicate or redundant publication, inappropriate fragmentation of research, and undisclosed substantial overlap may constitute publication misconduct and will be handled appropriately.
8. Citation Practices and Self-Citation
References must be selected on the basis of their relevance and scientific value.
Authors should not include citations solely to increase citation counts, journal metrics, author metrics, or the visibility of particular individuals or journals.
Self-citations must be scientifically justified. Excessive, irrelevant, or coercive citation practices are considered inappropriate and may be addressed during editorial review.
Editors and reviewers must not require authors to add citations for the sole purpose of increasing citation metrics.
9. Conflicts of Interest
Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, the research or editorial process.
Conflicts may include financial relationships, professional or institutional relationships, personal relationships, competing research interests, or other circumstances that could affect objectivity.
Disclosed conflicts will be assessed and managed appropriately. Where an editor or reviewer has a significant conflict of interest, the individual should not participate in the evaluation or decision-making process.
10. Ethical Conduct of Research
Research involving animals must comply with applicable national and international standards for animal welfare and responsible research.
Where required, authors must obtain approval from an appropriate institutional ethics committee, animal care and use committee, or equivalent authority and provide relevant approval information in the manuscript.
Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical requirements, including ethics approval and informed consent where required.
OVJ may request documentation confirming ethical approval, informed consent, animal-owner consent, or other relevant ethical safeguards.
11. Authors' Use of Artificial Intelligence
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical acceptability of their manuscripts, including material prepared with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
AI tools cannot be listed as authors.
Where AI-assisted technologies have been used in manuscript preparation or other aspects of the research, authors must provide the disclosure required by the journal's Artificial Intelligence Policy.
AI-generated or AI-assisted material must not be used to fabricate or falsify data, references, results, images, or other research information.
12. Editors' Responsibilities
Editors must:
ensure fair and appropriate evaluation of submitted manuscripts;
maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and editorial information;
apply the journal's double-blind peer-review process consistently;
select appropriate and independent reviewers;
manage conflicts of interest appropriately;
make editorial decisions based on scientific and ethical considerations;
avoid discrimination or bias in editorial decision-making;
investigate credible allegations of research or publication misconduct;
protect the integrity of the published scholarly record; and
take appropriate corrective action when errors or misconduct are identified.
Editors must not use unpublished information from submitted manuscripts for personal or professional advantage.
13. Reviewers' Responsibilities
Reviewers must:
evaluate manuscripts objectively and constructively;
assess the scientific quality, validity, originality, clarity, and significance of the work;
maintain strict confidentiality;
disclose actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest;
decline a review when they lack the appropriate expertise or cannot complete it within the required timeframe;
identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately cited where applicable;
alert the editor to suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, falsification, or other serious concerns; and
not use unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal or professional advantage.
Reviewers must not contact authors directly about manuscripts under review unless authorized by the journal.
14. Publisher Responsibilities
The publisher supports the journal's editorial independence and provides the resources necessary for the journal to maintain appropriate publication and ethical standards.
The publisher must not interfere with editorial decisions based on commercial, financial, or other non-scientific considerations.
The publisher and journal work together to maintain the integrity, accessibility, preservation, and reliability of the published scholarly record.
15. Investigation of Alleged Misconduct
When OVJ receives a credible allegation of research or publication misconduct, the journal will assess the concern and determine an appropriate course of action.
Where necessary, the journal may:
request an explanation from the authors;
request original data or supporting documentation;
contact the authors' institution or relevant research authority;
consult independent experts;
seek additional editorial or legal advice where appropriate; and
take corrective action concerning the manuscript or published article.
Investigations are conducted as fairly and confidentially as reasonably possible.
16. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern
OVJ is committed to correcting the scholarly record when significant errors or misconduct are identified.
Depending on the circumstances, the journal may publish:
a Correction when an error affects the accuracy or completeness of the published article but does not invalidate the overall work;
an Expression of Concern when substantial concerns exist but an investigation has not yet provided sufficient evidence for a final corrective action; or
a Retraction when the findings or conclusions of a published article are demonstrated to be unreliable or when serious research or publication misconduct warrants retraction.
Corrective notices will be linked to the affected article and handled in a manner that maintains the transparency and integrity of the scholarly record.
17. Post-Publication Concerns
OVJ welcomes well-supported concerns regarding published articles.
Authors, readers, reviewers, editors, and other members of the scientific community may bring substantive concerns to the journal's attention. The journal will assess credible concerns and, where appropriate, initiate an investigation or take corrective action.
18. Complaints and Appeals
Authors may appeal editorial decisions when they believe that a significant factual error, misunderstanding, or procedural problem materially affected the decision.
Complaints relating to editorial conduct, peer review, publication ethics, or journal procedures will be considered by an appropriate editorial representative who is independent of the matter whenever reasonably possible.
19. Commitment to Ethical Publishing
All participants in the publication process are expected to contribute to a culture of responsible and ethical scholarly communication.
Open Veterinary Journal is committed to maintaining a reliable scholarly record through rigorous double-blind peer review, independent editorial decision-making, appropriate ethical oversight, research-integrity safeguards, transparent authorship and conflict-of-interest practices, and appropriate correction of the published literature when necessary.
The journal reserves the right to take appropriate action whenever credible evidence of research or publication misconduct is identified, including after publication.
