Policy
Publication Ethics Policy
Ethical standards exist to ensure reliable, high-quality research publications, public trust in findings, and proper credit to researchers.
KPA Journals is committed to publishing only original material and follows a strict Code of Conduct, adhering to best-practice guidelines for scholarly publishing.
Plagiarism
All articles must be original — neither published elsewhere nor under review elsewhere. Where plagiarism is found, all authors (including the corresponding author) may not submit papers to the journal for three years, and the paper will be removed even if already published.
Duplicate submission
Manuscripts found to have been published or under review elsewhere incur duplicate-submission sanctions. Where authors build on their own prior or in-review work, they must cite it and indicate the novel contribution of the submitted manuscript.
Author contribution & attribution
All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution and approved the manuscript's claims. Everyone who made a significant contribution — including students — must be listed.
Redundant publication
The inappropriate division of a single study's outcomes across several articles is not permitted.
Citation manipulation
Manuscripts containing citations whose primary purpose is to inflate citation counts for a given author or journal will incur a citation-manipulation penalty.
Data fabrication & falsification
Manuscripts found to contain fabricated or falsified results — including image manipulation — will incur a data-fabrication penalty.
Penalties
Where violations of the above are documented, the following apply:
- Immediate rejection of the infringing manuscript.
- Immediate rejection of every other manuscript submitted to the journal by any author of the infringing manuscript.
- Prohibition of all authors from new submissions, individually or in combination with others.
- For particularly flagrant violations, the publisher reserves the right to impose additional restrictions.