Ethical Standards and Misconducts

Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests
All authors must declare any competing interests relevant to, or perceived to be relevant to, the article. Competing interests may be financial or non-financial in nature where such relationships could influence the author’s research or interpretation of results. Authors should also disclose conflicts of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

If in doubt, authors should consult their institution or the Editor-in-Chief of NEPJ, who can guide them on the appropriate course of action.

Misconduct
The journal addresses all forms of misconduct in accordance with COPE guidelines, including but not limited to:
Affiliation misrepresentation
Copyright breaches
Citation manipulation
Data or image fabrication and falsification
Duplicate submission or publication
Ethics dumping
Improper authorship attribution
Peer review manipulation
Plagiarism
Redundant publication and self-plagiarism
Undisclosed competing interests
Unethical research

Reviewers are also expected to uphold integrity, confidentiality, and conflict-of-interest disclosure throughout the review process.

Data Falsification/Fabrication
Deliberate manipulation or fabrication of data is a serious form of academic misconduct. Authors are responsible for ensuring that all data presented are accurate and correctly represent their work. Authors are expected to retain original data and provide them upon request. Failure to produce original data may result in rejection or retraction.

Plagiarism
The Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal (NEPJ) places immense importance on integrity in publishing all works, assuring that all established standards are met during the publication of any work. NEPJ supports a comprehensive anti-plagiarism approach. All manuscripts that are submitted are checked for plagiarism using Turnitin. Manuscripts exceeding a 30% similarity index are rejected.

Citation Integrity
Citations are an integral part of maintaining the integrity of publications. Authors must ensure that they cite relevant, timely, and verified literature to support claims made in the article. Authors must avoid excessive or inappropriate self-citation or prearrangements among author groups to inappropriately cite each other’s work, as this constitutes a form of academic misconduct. Authors are referred to COPE guidance on citation manipulation.

Appeals and Complaints
The journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on appeals to editorial decisions and on the management of the peer-review process.

The journal welcomes genuine appeals, including concerns raised post-publication. Appeals should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief, who shall investigate the claims by first requesting information from all parties involved and second proposing a course of action in line with academic ethical principles. Submissions may be halted in the review or publication process until issues are resolved.

In situations in which the Editor-in-Chief is involved in the complaint, the Editorial Board members, led by the most senior member, shall investigate the claims and propose a course of action.