Taiwan Journal of Applied Economics

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Taiwan Journal of Applied Economics is an academic journal published by the Department of Applied Economics of National Chung Hsing University and is based on the principles of fairness, impartiality, and objectivity. Research methods, models, and empirical analysis are required for submissions. Research topics include industrial organization, energy, environment, economic growth, international trade, international finance, evidence-based finance, health, labor, agriculture, natural resources, or other academic and professional papers with policy implications. The Taiwan Journal of Applied Economics does not accept research reports that violate academic ethics, including multiple submissions, forgery, falsification, plagiarism, infringement of intellectual property rights of third parties, and concealment of part of a published work or publication. The Taiwan Journal of Applied Economics draws on the ethical guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Elsevier B.V. The following is an ethical statement of the obligations of the editors, reviewers, and authors of the Taiwan Journal of Applied Economics.

Editorial Obligations

Publication Decisions

The Taiwan Journal of Applied Economics maintains its editorial independence, oversees the review process, and makes decisions on acceptance for publication based on the results of the review. Editors are required to follow the guidelines of the Committee of Journal Editing and the legal restrictions on defamation, copyright, and plagiarism. Editors may delegate publication decisions to reviewers.

Peer Review

The editors shall ensure that the peer-review processes are fair, impartial, and timely. Submissions should normally be reviewed by at least two external independent reviewers. If necessary, the editors should seek additional advice. Editors should select reviewers with expertise in the relevant fields and avoid selecting deceptive peer reviewers. Editors should review all proposals from reviewers regarding potential "conflict of interest" and "self-referencing" to determine if there is any potential bias.

Fair Play

Editors should ensure that all articles are reviewed on their own merits, regardless of the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnicity, nationality, political affiliation, etc. The journal's editorial policy should contain a transparent, complete, and honest description and ensure that reviewers and authors are aware of it. Editors should use the online submission system to review all types of manuscripts and, in conjunction with the publisher, establish a transparent mechanism for appealing review results.

Journal Guidelines

Editors should not attempt to artificially add any journal metrics to influence the ranking of a journal. The editors should not ask authors to cite articles in the journal or the editors except for genuine academic reasons.

Confidentiality

Editors may not disclose information about a manuscript. All editorial processes must be fully confidential. The review mechanism is anonymous. Authors and reviewers do not know each other's identities. Editors are not permitted to use unpublished manuscript information in their own research without the author’s consent.

Statement of Competing Interests

Any potential conflicts of interest relating to the editor should be declared in writing to the Journal before the editor is appointed. Any additional conflicts of interest should be updated as they arise.

Editors must not involve themselves, their families, or colleagues in the editorial process or in decisions about papers in which they have an interest. In addition, any article submitted must comply with the journal's rules.

Elsevier's policy on disclosure of potential conflicts of interest by authors and reviewers, e.g. ICJME guidelines, should apply to editors.

Survey Participation

When a manuscript or published paper is reported to be in breach of academic ethics, the editor should take appropriate action and submit it to the Academic Ethics Committee of the issuing institution for review. In the event of a review being conducted in breach of academic ethics, the editor should take the necessary steps to correct, withdraw, clarify by making statement, or otherwise.

Obligations of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer review helps editors to make editorial decisions and, through review recommendations, helps authors to improve their papers. Peer review is an important part of academic communication and is the core of the scientific method. In addition to the specific ethics-related duties described below, reviewers must adhere to good review practices.

Timeliness

Any invited reviewer who feels unable to provide adequate review comments on a review article because it is not his/her own expertise, or who is unable to review it immediately, should inform the editor immediately and decline to participate in the review process.

Confidentiality and anonymous review

Manuscripts that are reviewed are considered to be confidential. Reviewers must not share reviews or information about them with anyone.

Reviewers may not appropriate unpublished material from the review paper for their own use. Information or ideas obtained through the review must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

The review process is anonymous and reviewers should not reveal their identities.

Be aware of ethical issues

Reviewers should be alert to potential ethical issues in articles. Reviewers must also draw the editor's attention to any general similarities or partial overlaps with other authors. Any previously reported statements of observation, deduction, or argument should be accompanied by the relevant citations.

Objective Standards and Competitive Interests

Reviewers should be objective, impartial, and professional in their reviews of manuscripts, avoiding personal biases in their comments and expressing their views clearly with relevant arguments.

Reviewers with potential conflicts of interest should consult with the editor for suitability before agreeing to review a manuscript. Potential conflicts of interest include competition, collaborative relationships; or any possible links between authors, companies, or organizations associated with the article.

If a reviewer believes that an author should cite the reviewer's research, it must be for genuine academic reasons and not deliberately done to increase the number or visibility of the reviewer's research.

Authors' Obligations

Essay Standards

The author should be able to accurately describe the research process of the thesis work and provide an objective discussion of its significance. The subject matter of the paper should also be accurately presented. In addition, the paper should contain important details and references to facilitate the repetition of the experiment by others. Any account of fraud or inaccuracy is not acceptable.

The review should be accurate and objective and editorial comments about the article should be clearly identified in the work.

Data Access and Retention

The authors are required to retain the original data and make it available to editors, reviewers, and the public after publication.

Confirmation of Originality and Provenance

The author should ensure that the entire report is original work. If any contents from other authors are used, they must be cited appropriately and explicitly. Authors must take due responsibility for citing the work of others and should cite publications that have a significant impact on their research papers. Information obtained privately by the author (e.g. conversations, letters, discussions with third parties, etc.) should not be used or published without appropriate written authorization. Information obtained from the review of other people's manuscripts or applications may not be used or published without the appropriate authorization of the original author.

All forms of unethical behavior constituting plagiarism are unacceptable, including using another person's work as one's own, copying or paraphrasing extracts from another person's paper (without attribution), claiming another person's research as one's own.

Multiple, Duplicate, or Simultaneous Publications

Authors should not submit more than one manuscript or publish substantially the same research paper in several journals or publications at the same time. The Journal does not consider the following types of manuscripts as published: abstracts, dissertations, and electronically published research papers.

Confidentiality and anonymous review

As for information obtained during the review process (e.g. review comments), authors should respect their confidentiality and conduct the review anonymously, and should not reveal their identity to the reviewer.

Authorship of a paper

Authors of papers are those who have made a significant contributions to the conceptions, designs, executions, and interpretations of the papers. All significant contributors to the thesis must be listed as co-authors. Those involved in the substantive content of the research project must also be listed. Corresponding authors need to ensure that all contributing co-authors are listed in the paper. Those who do not contribute to the paper should not be listed in the paper. Corresponding authors should confirm that each co-author has reviewed the document and agreed to the manuscript being submitted before submission.

Authors should carefully consider the list and order of authors before submission and provide the correct order of authors at the time of initial submission. Additions, deletions, or reordering of authors must be submitted and approved by the Executive Editor before acceptance of the manuscript. Only in exceptional cases will the Executive Editor consider adding, deleting, or reordering names in the author list after a manuscript has been accepted.

All authors are jointly responsible for this research. All authors may ensure that questions relating to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the research are properly investigated and answered.

Declaration of hazards and subjects containing humans or animals

Authors must make a statement if any of the following conditions apply to the study:

(1) The study is potentially harmful in the performance of the procedures or use of the equipment;

(2) The study is conducted on human or animal subjects.

Statement of Competing Interests

Authors are required to publicly disclose any conflicts of interest that may be perceived as affecting the results or interpretation of the results, including grants, project grants, employment relationships, consultants, ownership of material items, remuneration, expert testimony fees, patent applications/registrations or donor authorizations. Information on potential future conflicts of interest must be provided as soon as possible.

Obligation to inform about errors in the publication

When an author becomes aware of a major error or omission in a published work, he or she should immediately notify the publisher and withdraw or correct the paper. The author shall clearly explain the contents to be corrected in the paper.

Image Integrity

It is unacceptable to enhance, hide, move, remove or introduce specific features into an image. However, adjustments can be made to brightness, contrast, or color balance as long as they do not affect or eliminate any information in the original. It is acceptable to alter an image to improve clarity. However, if the image is altered for other purposes, this may be considered an abuse of scientific ethics and will be treated as such, mutatis mutandis, following the aforementioned guidelines.

Authors should adhere to the specific graphic and image policies of the relevant journal, for example, by providing original images as supplementary material to articles, or by storing images in appropriate repositories.