The Adventist University of Africa (AUA) and the Pan-African Journals are committed to the highest ethical standards at all stages of the publication process. We subscribe to the guidelines outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Ethical Guidelines for Authors

Originality. Authors should ensure that papers submitted to AUA Pan-African Journals have not been published or are not under consideration for publication in another journal.

Plagiarism. Authors must not use the words, figures, or ideas of others without attribution. Copying even one sentence from someone else's manuscript, or even one of your own that has previously been published, without proper citation, is considered plagiarism. All manuscripts submitted for publication to AUA Pan-African Journals are cross-checked for plagiarism using Turnitin software.

Manuscripts found to be plagiarized during the initial stages of review are outrightly rejected. If evidence of plagiarism is discovered after acceptance or publication of the paper, the author will be offered a chance for rebuttal. If the arguments are not satisfactory, we reserve the right to take action; including, but not limited to: retracting the article; taking up the matter with the author’s Institution / University, Funding Agency, or relevant academic bodies or societies.

Permissions. Authors must ensure their contribution does not infringe any copyright or other intellectual property rights or any other rights of any third party. Permission must be obtained to use copyrighted material (text and images)from other sources (including the Internet).

Authorship. All authors who have made a substantive scientific contribution to the article should be listed. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

Conflict of Interest. All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Salami publication. A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the number of submissions (i.e., ‘salami-slicing/publishing’). Salami slicing is where papers cover the same study population, methods, and research question.

 

Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers
Peer reviewers must conduct reviews in an ethical and accountable manner. They are required to:

1. Declare any potential conflicts of interest relating to a specific article or author.
2. Assess the scholarly merits and value of the assigned manuscript and determine if it is valuable enough to be published.
3. Provide constructive critique and feedback that will help the author(s) to improve the manuscript.
4. Check and highlight any errors, inconsistent arguments, or gaps in the manuscript.
5. Maintain the confidentiality of the review process: not sharing, discussing with third parties, or disclosing information from the reviewed paper.
6. Assist and uphold the credibility of the journal by helping to maintain the quality of the journal.
7. Submit written review reports on time.

 

Ethical Guidelines for Journal Editor
The Chief Editor is ultimately responsible for the overall quality of the intellectual content of the Journal. He/She is required to :

1. Initially assess all manuscripts for suitability for the journal and determine if they should go through the review process.
2. Oversee the review process to ensure it is thorough, fair, and timely.
3. Provide explicit guidance to authors and reviewers on what is expected of them.
4. Make final decisions regarding which articles to accept or reject for publicationbased on quality and suitability for the journal.
5. Monitor the review process and resolve differences of opinion between reviewers and authors.
6. Maintain the highest standards of ethics and competence.
7. Protect the confidentiality of all material submitted to the journal and all communications with reviewers.
8. Inform the editorial Chair and recuse from the duties regarding a specific manuscript in case of a conflict of interest.