Publication Code of Ethics

When an author submits a manuscript to Malaysian Cocoa Journal, the manuscript must be an original work. If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, this must be appropriately cited or quoted. If the manuscript contains materials that overlap with work that is previously published, or is in-press, or that is under consideration for publication elsewhere, the Author must cite this work in the manuscript. The Author must also inform the Malaysian Cocoa Journal’s Chief of Editor of the related work and, if requested, send the manuscript to him.

It is strongly suggested that authors wishing to submit manuscripts for intending publication in Malaysian Cocoa Journal should check their manuscripts for possible plagiarism using any anti-plagiarism software such as TurnItIn before submitting it to the Chief of Editor. All work in the manuscript should be free of any plagiarism, falsification, fabrication, or omission of significant material. Plagiarism is scientific misconduct and in all its forms constitutes unethical and unacceptable publishing behavior.

Authors must not submit to Malaysian Cocoa Journal the same work, in whole or in part, to two places of publication at the same time, or at any time while the manuscript is under review, or has been previously published. It is also improper for an Author to submit a manuscript describing essentially the same research to more than one place of publication, unless it is a resubmission of a manuscript rejected for, or withdrawn from publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Submitted manuscripts that are found to include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal and all its forms constitutes unethical and unacceptable publishing behavior.

All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution, including students and laboratory technicians.

The corresponding (submitting) author is solely responsible for communicating with the journal and with managing communication between co-authors. Before submission, the corresponding author ensures that all authors are included in the author list, its order has been agreed by all authors, and that all authors are aware that the paper was submitted.

Malaysian Cocoa Journal’s policy on authorship does not support adding or removing of names once the article has been submitted to Malaysian Cocoa Journal and has completed the review process. However, a request for a change to the authorship can be considered by the Chief of Editor.

Copyright violation is an important, and possibly related, ethical issue. Authors should check their manuscripts for possible breaches of copyright law (e.g., where permissions are needed for quotations, artwork or tables taken from other publications or other freely available sources on the Internet) and secure the necessary permissions before submission to Malaysian Cocoa Journal.

Authors should avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest throughout the research process. When submitting a manuscript to Malaysian Cocoa Journal, the Corresponding Author has the opportunity to recommend potential Reviewers for the manuscript. The suggested reviewers must not be the Co-Authors listed in this manuscript and have not seen the manuscript before. All authors should disclose in their manuscript all sources of financial support for the project.

Authors may write to the Chief of Editor requesting for the withdrawal of a manuscript that has been previously submitted for intended publication in Malaysian Cocoa Journal. However, such withdrawal is usually permitted within two weeks from the date of initial submission to Malaysian Cocoa Journal, or before the peer-review process, whichever is earlier.

The Chief of Editor has a responsibility to provide the Author with an explanation of the editorial decision on a manuscript. Editors should write high-quality editorial letters that integrate reviewers’ comments and offer additional suggestions to the Author. Editors should not send a decision letter, without explanation, attached to a set of reviewers’ comments.

For primary research, manuscripts in Malaysian Cocoa Journal, reporting experiments on live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates, the corresponding author must confirm that all experiments were performed by relevant guidelines and regulations and the necessary ethics clearance has been obtained from the relevant body. The research should adhere to the guidelines for the care and use of animals in research, the legal requirements of the country in which the work was carried out, and all relevant institutional guidelines. For experiments involving human subjects, authors must identify the committee approving the experiments, and include with their submission a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all subjects.