Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The Malaysian Journal of Sustainable Environment (MySE) is committed to promoting ethical publishing practices and maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. The journal encourages the publication of original and scholarly research that contributes to sustainable environment studies.

MySE expects editors, editorial board members, reviewers, and authors to uphold ethical and professional standards throughout the publication process. Honesty, originality, transparency, fairness, objectivity and confidentiality are important principles that guide the journal’s editorial and publishing practices.

The Journal adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices to ensure editorial and publication integrity.

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices

Editorial Responsibilities

The Editors are responsible for determining which manuscripts submitted to the journal are considered for publication.

The Editors shall:

• Evaluate manuscripts based on academic merit, originality, clarity, relevance to the journal’s scope and contribution to the field;
• Facilitate a fair, objective and timely peer review process;
• Treat submitted manuscripts as confidential documents;
• Not disclose information regarding submitted manuscripts except where necessary for the editorial and peer review process;
• Make editorial decisions without discrimination based on race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, institutional affiliation or political philosophy;
• Avoid using unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts for personal research without the author’s written consent;
• Respond appropriately to ethical concerns or suspected publication misconduct;
• Issue corrections, retractions or editorial notices where necessary.

Editorial Board Responsibilities

Members of the Editorial Board shall:

• Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts;
• Disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest;
• Evaluate manuscripts objectively and based on scholarly merit;
• Support the Editors in the editorial decision-making process;
• Encourage ethical publishing practices and adherence to journal policies.

Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers contribute to maintaining the quality and integrity of scholarly publication.

Reviewers shall:

• Treat manuscripts received for review as confidential information;
• Conduct reviews objectively, professionally and constructively;
• Provide clear comments and recommendations supported by appropriate reasoning;
• Identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors where appropriate;
• Inform the Editors of any substantial similarity, overlap, plagiarism or suspected misconduct identified in the manuscript;
• Decline review invitations where conflicts of interest may affect objectivity;
• Notify the Editors promptly if unable to complete the review within the requested timeframe;
• Refrain from using unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal advantage or research purposes.

Publication Ethics

Submission of a manuscript to MySE indicates that:

• The manuscript is original and has not been previously published except where appropriately disclosed, such as in the form of an abstract, thesis, dissertation, conference proceeding or academic lecture;
• The manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere;
• All authors have approved the submission of the manuscript;
• The work does not involve plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, data falsification, or misappropriation of the work of others;
• Sources used in the research and manuscript preparation have been appropriately acknowledged and cited.

Concerns regarding unethical publishing practices may be reviewed in accordance with the journal’s policies and relevant COPE guidance.

Author Responsibilities

Authors submitting manuscripts to MySE shall:

• Ensure that the research has been conducted ethically and in compliance with relevant laws and regulations;
• Present research findings honestly and accurately without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation;
• Describe research methods clearly and sufficiently where appropriate;
• Submit original work that has not been plagiarised or published elsewhere;
• Ensure that the manuscript is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal;
• Properly acknowledge and cite the work, ideas, and words of others;
• Accept responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the submitted work;
• Ensure that authorship reflects individual contributions to the research and manuscript preparation;
• Acknowledge contributors who do not meet authorship criteria;
• Disclose funding sources and any actual or potential conflicts of interest;
• Notify the Editors promptly if significant errors or inaccuracies are identified in published work and cooperate in issuing corrections or retractions where necessary.

The journal may reject manuscripts associated with unethical practices, including paper mills, fabricated peer review, fraudulent authorship arrangements, or misleading artificial intelligence generated content presented as original human authored work.

Post Publication Discussions, Corrections and Retractions

Articles published in MySE constitute the Version of Record, which represents the final and citable version of the scholarly work.

The Version of Record includes:

• The final peer reviewed and accepted manuscript, including the abstract, full text, references, tables, figures, and related materials;
• Supplementary materials associated with the article, where applicable.

MySE aims to preserve the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record. Where necessary, the journal may publish corrections, retractions, clarifications or expressions of concern.

Post publication updates will be identified and linked to the original article where appropriate, in accordance with accepted publishing practices and relevant COPE guidance.