For a peer-reviewed journal, the publication of articles plays an essential role in the development of a coherent network of knowledge. It is, therefore, essential that all publishers, editors, authors, and reviewers, in the process of publishing the journals, conduct themselves in accordance with the highest level of professional ethics and standards.

authorship

- Acknowledging contributors:  All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance or a department chair who provided only general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged. Please ensure that anyone acknowledged has granted permission to be listed. 

- Contributorship statement: A contributor ship statement is required for every manuscript submitted and should outline who has contributed what to the planning, conduct, and reporting of the work described in the article. This should include both authors and contributors. 

- Alteration to authorship: Any change in authors after initial submission must be approved by all authors. This applies to additions, deletions, a change of order to the authors’ names or a change to the attribution of contributions. Any alterations must be explained to the Editor. The Editor may contact any of the authors and/or contributors to ascertain whether they have agreed to any alteration.

The author has the following responsibilities

- Choose a journal that is appropriate.

- All manuscripts should be written in good English. Read and follow the ‘Instructions for    Authors’ carefully and prepare manuscripts according to the format given in Guidelines.

- Keep the editor and publisher informed of any change in contact details.

- Respond to the editor and publisher promptly (including returning the copyright agreement and proofs when asked to do so).

- Declare any conflicts of interest.

- Do not submit the same or similar articles to any other journal.

- Submit original work and avoid fragmenting your research to maximize the number of articles submitted.

- Present an accurate account of the research you have performed and give Sufficient details and references to public sources of information to permit your peers to repeat the work.

- Give credit to other people who have helped or influenced your work.

- Obtain permission to reproduce figures, tables or extensive extracts from the text of a source that is copyrighted or owned by someone else.

- Declare sources of research funding, including any grant ID numbers.

- Make sure that co-authors review the manuscript before you submit it and that

all authors agree on the order in which authors will be listed.

- Do not list people as co-authors unless they have made a significant contribution to the work and will share responsibility and accountability for the results.

- Do not make significant changes to your manuscript after it has been accepted

without informing the journal editor. Significant changes would include new

data, new content or a change in the list of authors.

Make sure that you notify the journal if an error is found after publication that

would require a correction to be printed.

The reviewer has the following responsibilities

- Our peer review process is confidential and identities of reviewers cannot be revealed.

- All publication decisions are made by the journal's Editors-in-Chief on the basis of the referees' reports.

- Manuscripts with contents outside the scope will not be considered for review.

- The reviewer should not use for his or her own research any part of any data or work reported in submitted and as yet unpublished articles.

- The reviewer should treat the manuscript in a confidential manner. The manuscript should not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

The editor has the following responsibilities

-The editor should acknowledge receipt of submitted manuscripts within two working days of receipt and ensure an efficient, fair, and timely review process.

- Manuscripts submitted are first screened by the editors; only those on subject matters within the scope of the Journal are sent to expert referees for evaluation. This two-tier screening process helps to ensure an appropriate focus as well as high scientific quality of the Journal.

- The editor should ensure that submitted manuscripts are processed in a confidential manner, and that no content of the manuscripts will be disclosed to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

- The editor should not disclose the names and other details of the reviewers to a third party without the permission of the reviewers.

Publishing ethics issues

- Avoid plagiarism: Paraphrasing is rewriting other people’s ideas in different words and referencing them. This is better than quoting because too many quotations will lead to a poorly written assignment. To use an author’s exact words, quote (cite) the author by using quotation marks and referencing the  quotation. This would be either in the text or in a footnote at the bottom of the page.

- COPE principle: If any duplication, fabrication, plagiarism and other misconduct is identified, COPE guideline will be followed. The RMM uses the COPE flowchart