Purpose

The purpose of this Regulation is to present the basic principles and directions intended to secure the members’ research ethics of Korean Institute of Fire Science and Engineering (hereinafter referred to as the “Society”). The journal adheres to the ethical guidelines for research and publication described in Guidelines on Good Publication (http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines)

Objects of Application

This provision shall apply to those who participate in the academic activities of the Society organizing academic events, research projects, publishing, education business, and so forth.

Coverage of Application

The coverage of application for the Society’s research ethics shall be in accordance with this Regulation, except pursuant to the special provisions of upper laws and regulations established by national institutions.

Authorship

Authors must meet all four criteria below, and participating researches who do not meet all criteria are contributors.

• ① Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• ② Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• ③ Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• ④ Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved

Conflict of interest statement

The corresponding author must inform the editor of any potential conflicts of interest that a influence the authors’ interpretation of the data. Examples of potential conflicts of interest are financial support from or connections to companies, political pressure from interest groups, and academically related issues. In particular, all sources of funding applicable to the study should be explicitly stated.

Definition of Research Misconduct

Research misconduct (hereinafter referred to as the “Misconduct”) as presented in this Regulation refers to forgery, falsification, plagiarism and unfair acts of displaying theses and their authors executed in research proposals, conduct, results reporting and announcements as follows:

• ① Counterfeiting, which is the act of creating data or research results that do not exist
• ② Falsification, which is the act of distorting research information or results by artificially manipulating research materials, equipment, process, or by randomly transforming or deleting data
• ③ Plagiarism, which is the act of fraudulent use of other people’s ideas, research content, results, etc., without appropriate approval or quotation.
• ④ Duplicate publication, which is the academic act of showing the same or substantially similar academic work as the researcher’s own previous findings in another journal or literary work, without permission of the copyright holders or journal editors who first published it, or without displaying appropriate sources.
• ⑤ Display of unjustified paper authors, which is the act of granting paper authorship to persons without justifiable reason, who made no scientific and technical contribution in content or results of research, or granting paper authorship as a gesture of gratitude or courtesy to persons who did not make any scientific or technical contribution.
• ⑥ The act of willfully interfering with investigating allegations of one’s own or someone else’s Misconduct and harming the informant.
• ⑦ The act of seriously deviating from the range of science and technology that is commonly accepted
• ⑧ In addition, such Misconduct may also be included that is deemed necessary for its own investigation or prevention.

Validity of Verification

Information on prior Misconduct that occurred more than five years prior to the date of receipt shall be disregarded in principle. Even though the Misconduct was made five years ago, if the examinee performed subsequent research directly quoting results of earlier Misconduct, it shall be considered exceptional.

Rights Protection of Informant

• ① The informant means the person who notifies the Society of information regarding the fact of his recognizing the Misconduct and its relevant evidence.
• ② The informant may report the information in any way possible, including orally, in writing, by phone, via e-mail and so forth, so long as a real name is verifiable in principle. Even if anonymous, however, such information on the Misconduct specifically evidenced by the title of the research or thesis in writing or by e-mail shall be handled on a real name basis.
• ③ The Society shall endeavor to prevent the disclosure of information regarding the identity of the informant and avoid any disadvantage from corresponding authorities that may be caused from his or her having reported the information.
• ④ If the informant wants to know the investigation procedures, schedule and so forth after reporting the Misconduct, he or she shall be able to request them.
• ⑤ If the informant reported the information, despite the fact he or she knew or was able to know that its content was untrue, the Society shall not be responsible to protect him or her.

Protection of Examinee’s Rights

• ① The examinee shall be a person who is subject to the investigation of the Misconduct due to reported information or the recognition of the Society, or a person whose involvement in fraudulent activities was found out, during the course of the investigation. Any persons required for reference or witness during the course of the investigation shall not be included.
• ② The Society shall protect the examinee from unduly infringing his or her honor or rights during the course of the investigation.
• ③ The Society shall not disclose suspicions about the Misconduct before the results of the judgment are confirmed.
• ④ The examinee shall be able to ask the Society to inform him or her of handling procedures and processing schedules during the investigation of the Misconduct.

Editorial responsibilities

The Editorial Board will continuously work to monitor and safeguard publication ethics: guidelines for retracting articles; maintenance of the integrity of the academic record; preclusion of business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed; and excluding plagiarism and fraudulent data. The editors maintain the following responsibilities: responsibility and authority to reject and accept articles; avoiding any conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept; promoting publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preservation of the anonymity of reviewers.

Composition and Authority of Research Ethics Committee

• ① The Chairman of the Research Ethics Committee of the Society shall be elected by the Board of Directors and appointed by the President of the Society. The term of the Chairman shall be three years and the term of other members shall be one year.
• ② The Board shall comprise seven members including the Chairman. The Journal Editor, Korean and English, shall be an ex officio member.
• ③ The remaining three members of the Committee shall be appointed by the President of the Society in accordance with the recommendations of the Chairman.
• ④ In such cases as the examinee is included in the members, he or she shall be excluded from the Committee.
• ⑤ The attendance of the informant, examinee, witness and testifier shall be requested, along with preparation materials for the affidavit. In such case, the examinee must be responsive.

Investigation Report of Research Misconduct

Upon receipt of research ethics issues in relation to the academic activities of the Society, the President of the Society shall inform the Research Ethics Committee of the matter for their investigation. The Committee shall investigate the Misconduct and report the results within five months in principle. Each of the following paragraphs shall be included:

• ① Contents of information
• ② The Misconduct subject to investigation
• ③ Names of Committee members and meeting minutes
• ④ Judgment of the investigation scope and whether it is true or not
• ⑤ Relevant evidence and witnesses

When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fraudulent or fabricated data, changes in authorship, an undisclosed conflict of interest, ethical problems with a submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and so on, the resolution process will follow the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The discussion and decision on the suspected cases are carried out by the Research Ethics Committee.

• ① Process for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern
• ① Cases that require editorial expressions of concern or retraction shall follow the COPE flowcharts available from:http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts.

Principle of Verification

The Research Ethics Committee shall be responsible for verifying whether the Misconduct is true or not. The Committee shall ensure that both the informant and the examinee’s equal rights and opportunities for statements of opinion, appeals of objection and pleading are respected, and notify them of related procedures in advance. In addition, the Board of Directors shall endeavor to maintain the independence and impartiality of the Committee.

Follow-up Action on Investigation Results Report

If no research Misconduct is confirmed, the Society shall conduct appropriate follow-up action in order to restore the honor and reputation of related researchers. If on the contrary research Misconduct is confirmed, this shall be published and each of the following actions shall be taken in accordance with the gravity of cases that shall be determined by a resolution of the Board of Directors:

• ① Demand for cancellation or modification of research results
• ② Cancellation of publication of research results (Official written notice for cancellation shall be sent to relevant agencies.)
• ③ Disqualification of membership for a reasonable period
• ④ Removal of the name of relevant persons
• ⑤ Names of persons involved shall be provided to law enforcement authorities

Others

The provisions not specified in this Regulation shall be in accordance with the resolution by the Board of Directors or the relevant laws and regulations.