Code Of Conduct

The Code of Conduct for the Cosmic Journal of Chemistry (CJC) sets the ethical standards, professional expectations, and social responsibilities expected from all participants in the publication process—including Authors, Editors, Reviewers, and Staff.

The journal enforces this policy to maintain a safe, respectful, and unbiased environment for scholarly discourse, strictly following guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

1. Professional Conduct & Communication

  • Respectful Interaction: All communications between authors, section editors, handling staff, and peer reviewers must remain respectful, professional, and constructive.

  • Zero Tolerance for Harassment: Personal attacks, unprofessional language, discriminatory remarks, or hostile behavior based on race, gender, nationality, religion, age, or institutional affiliation will not be tolerated.

  • Constructive Feedback: Peer reviewers and editors must provide objective, well-reasoned criticism designed to help authors improve their scientific contributions, avoiding dismissive or aggressive critique.

2. Integrity & Honesty in Research

  • Scientific Truthfulness: Authors are expected to represent their data, experimental setups, and results with absolute honesty. Fabricating, manipulating, or selectively reporting data to fit a narrative is a direct breach of conduct.

  • Originality & Proper Citation: Submissions must reflect genuine scholarly contribution. Authors must properly cite all prior foundational work and avoid all forms of plagiarism, including verbatim copying, improper paraphrasing, or undeclared self-plagiarism (text recycling).

3. Confidentiality & Intellectual Security

  • Protection of Submissions: Unpublished manuscripts, supplementary data, and peer-review proceedings are strictly confidential. Editors and reviewers cannot share, quote, or utilize unpublished manuscript material for personal research or gain.

  • Reviewer Anonymity: Reviewers must respect the double-blind process and refrain from trying to uncover author identities or contacting authors directly outside the official Open Journal Systems (OJS) workflow.

4. Conflict of Interest & Impartiality

  • Disclosure: All parties (authors, editors, and reviewers) are required to declare any financial, commercial, personal, or institutional conflicts of interest prior to participating in the evaluation process.

  • Recusal: Reviewers and handling editors must proactively step down from evaluating or making decisions on manuscripts where a personal or professional connection might compromise objective judgment.

5. Violations & Enforcement

Breaches of the Code of Conduct are taken seriously and addressed according to established COPE flowcharts:

  1. Initial Review: Allegations of unprofessional behavior or ethical breaches are reviewed by the Chief Editor and the journal's governance board.

  2. Corrective Action: Minor infractions may result in a formal warning or request for communication adjustments.

  3. Severe Sanctions: Serious or repeated violations (e.g., severe harassment, blatant data fraud, or unrevealed gross COI) can result in:

    • Immediate rejection or retraction of submitted/published articles.

    • Suspension of user privileges on the CJC portal.

    • Formal reporting to the violator’s parent university or funding agency.

Official Resources