Chapter 1. General Provisions

Article 1 (Purpose)

This provision aims to establish ethics on manuscripts posted (expected to be posted) in the Asian Journal of Canadian Studies (hence, AJCS), preempt acts contrary to such ethics, and determine matters related to the founding and operation of the Publishing Ethics Committee (hence, the PEC) for fair and systematic ethics verification when acts contrary to publishing ethics occur.

Article 2 (Application)

This provision shall apply to manuscripts posted (expected to be posted) in the AJCS published by the Korean Association for Canadian Studies.

Article 3 (Scopes)

This provision shall be applied except for when there is other special provision in relation to the establishment of publishing ethics and verification of publishing ethics.

Article 4 (Definition of Terms)

① Acts contrary to publishing ethics (hereinafter referred to as “misconducts”) include forgery, falsification, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and improper authorship committed during publication of manuscripts, which are defined as follows.

1. ‘Forgery’ refers to acts creating non-existing data or research results falsely.

2. ‘Falsification’ refers to artificial manipulation of research materials, equipment, and process or arbitrary modification or deletion of data, thereby distorting the content or results of a manuscript.

3. ‘Plagiarism’ refers to acts of using others’ ideas, research content, or results without proper citation.

4. ‘Self-plagiarism’ refers to acts of reusing a significant part of manuscripts in the same language that has been already posted in another academic journal by the author as it is or with small modification without proper citation or reference.

5. ‘Improper authorship’ refers to acts of not granting qualification as a co-author to those who made scientific or technological contribution, or granting qualification as a co-author to those who did not make a significant role in the preparing the manuscript out of appreciation or respect.

② “An informant” refers to one who notified the fact or relevant evidence of having perceived misconducts, or relevant evidence to this Society.
③ “An examinee” refers to one who became the subject of investigation on misconducts through report or recognition by this Society, and testifiers or witnesses in the process of investigation are not included in examinees.
④ “Preliminary investigation” refers to a procedure to determine whether there is need to officially investigate charges of misconducts.
⑤ “Main investigation” refers to a procedure to prove whether the charge of unjust behaviors is true or not.
⑥ “Judgment” refers to the procedure of confirming investigation results and notifying this to the informant and the examinee.
⑦ Effective date refers to the date when the manuscript to which misconducts were done was posted and in case the same manuscript was related to misconducts several times, the latest posting date shall become the effective date.

Chapter 2. The Founding and Operation of the Publishing Ethics Committee

Article 5 (Functions)

The Committee deliberates and decides each of the following Items aimed at obtaining ethics of manuscripts.

① Matters related to establishment and operation of institutions related to publishing ethics

② Matters related to receipt of report about misconducts, formation of an investigation committee, and appointment of investigation members

③ Initiation of preliminary and main investigations

④ Matters related to protection of the informant and regaining of the impaired reputation of the examinee

⑤ Matters related to treatment of preliminary and main investigation results and follow-up measures

⑥ Other matters brought up by the President of the Committee

Article 6 (Composition)

The Committee shall be composed of one President and up to five number of committee members. The President shall be served by the President of the Committee and the committee members shall be appointed by the President of the Committee.

Article 7 (The President of the Committee)

The President of the Committee shall represent the Committee, and shall convene and preside over meetings.

Article 8 (Assistant Administrator)

The Committee shall have one assistant administrator to deal with tasks of the Committee.

Article 9 (Meeting)

① The President of the Committee shall convene meetings and act as the Chairman of the meetings.
② The committee meeting shall be assembled when a majority of the current members is present, and the resolution shall be passed by a majority of those present. Provided that the resolution on the demand for disciplinary actions in accordance with misconducts identified by the Investigation Committee formed pursuant to Article 14 requires agreement by two thirds of those present.
③ The President of the Committee may submit the deliberative agenda to written deliberation when it is considered minor.

Chapter 3. Verification of Publication Ethics

Article 10 (Reports on and Receipt of Misconducts)

The assistant administrator of the Committee may receive reports with all possible methods such as written document, phone, and e-mail and shall receive reports by real names in principle. Provided that when receiving reports with anonymity, the assistant administrator shall try to receive the title of the relevant manuscript and the specific content and evidence of misconducts in it via e-mail.

Article 11 (Period and Methods of Preliminary Investigation)

① A preliminary investigation shall be initiated within 15 days after a report was accepted and completed within 30 days from the investigation initiation date, with approval from the Committee.
② In the preliminary investigation, matters related to each of the following items will be reviewed and whether there is need to conduct the main investigation shall be judged.

1. Whether the content of report itself relates to the misconducts in Article 4

2. If the content of the report is equipped with specificity and clearness so that investigation on whether it is true is possible

3. Whether five years has lapsed since the effective date as of the report date

③ A preliminary investigation shall be taken charge of by the bureau of this Comittee under the control of the assistant administrator, and additional information may be requested from the informant and if necessary, investigation may be commissioned to relevant experts.

Article 12 (Notification of the Results of a Preliminary Investigation)

① The results of a preliminary investigation shall be notified in written form to the informant within 10 days after approval by the President of the Committee. Provided that the above shall not be applied in case the informant is anonymous.
② The result reports of the preliminary investigation shall include the content of each of the following items.

1. Specific content of the report

2. The charge of the misconduct as the subject of investigation and explanation on relevant manuscript

3. Recommendation on whether to conduct the main investigation and the grounds for such decision

4. Other relevant evidence and data

Article 13 (Initiation of the Main Investigation and Investigation Period)

① This investigation shall be initiated within 30 days after approval from the President of the Committee on the results of the preliminary investigation, and the Committee shall form a subcommittee (hereinafter, “investigation committee”) for performance of the main investigation during the period.
② The main investigation including judgment shall be completed within 90 days from the initiation date of the investigation.
③ If it is judged that the investigation committee cannot complete the investigation within the period of the Clause 2, the investigation committee shall explain the reasons to the Committee and request for extension of the term.

Article 14 (Composition of the Investigation Committee)

⓵ The investigation committee shall be formed with less than five number of publishing ethics committee members and relevant experts.
② The investigation committee may appoint those who have sufficient professional knowledge and experiences in their relevant area as an investigation member but they shall not be the members of the publishing ethics committee.
③ Those who have conflicts of interest with the relevant investigation issue shall not be included in the investigation committee.
④ Prior to the initiation of the main investigation, the list of investigation committee members shall be notified to the informant and if the informant makes a justifiable objection for avoiding a Committee member, it shall be accepted

Article 15 (Request for Information)

The investigation committee may demand submission of additional information to the informant, examinee, and witness and in this case the examinee must accede to submit the requested information.

Article 16 (Protection of Rights of the Informant and Examinee, and Secrecy)

① In any case, the identification of the informant shall not be exposed directly or indirectly. The name of the informant shall not be included in the report on the investigation result unless it is absolutely necessary.
② The identification of the examinee or the fact that the examinee is under investigation shall not be exposed to outside the investigation committee in any case until verification of whether there was a misconduct or not is complete. Care should be taken not to infringe the honor or rights of the examinee. Efforts shall be made to recover the honor of the examinee who proved to be free from suspicion.
③ All matters related to the investigation such as report, investigation, deliberation, decision and suggestions should be maintained confidential and those who directly or indirectly participated in the investigation should not disclose all information obtained in the process of investigation and task performance. The information can be disclosed only when it is necessary through the agreement of the committee.

Article 17 (Formal Objection and Guarantee of the Right of Defense)

The investigation committee shall guarantee the assistant administrator and the examinee’s right and opportunity to state opinions, raise objects, and defend in an equal manner and inform relevant procedures in advance.

Article 18 (Judgment)

① The investigation committee shall determine the investigation content and result based on the objection raised or the content of defense, and notify it to the informant and the examinee
② In case the investigation content and result is not agreed upon, it may be determined by a vote. The decision shall be made with a majority of attendance of the investigation committee members and with approval of more than two-thirds of the members present.
③ When the informant or the examiner disobeys the result of the investigation by the investigation committee, he or she may request re-deliberation by submitting a written explanation containing the relevant reason within 15 days from the date of notification of the result.
④ The committee shall determine whether to review the validity of the written explanation and to re-deliberate it within 15 days after acceptance of the written explanation. In case the committee determined to re-deliberate it, the committee may reconvene the same investigation committee or convene a new investigation committee.
⑤ If re-deliberation is decided upon, the investigation committee in charge of the re-deliberation shall re-investigate the raised matter within 30 days after convening the investigation committee, determine the result, and notify it to the informant and the examinee.

Article 19 (Submission of the Report on the Main Investigation Result)

① The investigation committee shall submit the report on the main investigation result (hereinafter referred to as the “final report”) to the committee within 10 days after the final judgment.
② The final report shall include each of the following Items.

1. Detailed content of the report

2. Charge of the misconduct, which is the subject of the investigation, and relevant manuscript

3. The role of the examinee in the relevant manuscript and whether there is any charge in that regard

4. Relevant evidence

5. The informant’s and the examinee’s raising of objection to the investigation result or the content of defense and the result of dealing with it

6. The list of the investigation committee members

Chapter 4. Measures after Verification

Article 20 (Measures for the Result)

① The committee may put forward disciplinary actions to the President of this Society with more than a majority attendance and with more than two-thirds approval of the members present.
② The President of the Korean Association for Canadian Studies shall determine appropriate disciplinary measures and notify them to the relevant author in a written form. Matters related to disciplinary measures may be pursuant to other relevant provisions or determined separately.

Article 21 (Disciplinary Measures)

① In case there is a recommendation of disciplinary action by the Committee, the President of the Committee shall determine the level of disciplinary measures in reference to each of the following Items. If the President of the Committee judges that there is more appropriate disciplinary measure, he or she may follow it.

1. (Caution) All the authors of the relevant manuscript are notified of their misconduct and advised to be more careful when writing their next manuscript.

2. (Warning) All the authors of the relevant manuscript are notified of their misconduct and the publication is withdrawn. Authors are advised to be more careful when writing their next manuscript.

3. (Censure) All the authors of the relevant manuscript are notified of their misconduct and the publication is withdrawn. Notice of said misconduct is posted on the Committee’s homepage for one month. For every author at fault, all papers currently under review or awaiting publication are barred from publication and the main author is prohibited from submitting a paper to the Committee for three years.

4. (Strict Censure) Chairmen of the organizations with which each author is affiliated and the authors are officially notified in writing of the misconduct, and the published manuscript will be retracted. Notice of said misconduct is posted on the Committee’s homepage for one month. For every author at fault, all manuscripts currently under review or awaiting publication are barred from publication and each author is prohibited from submitting a manuscript to the Committee for three years.

② If the misconduct is one of plagiarism, the President of the Committee will provide an official letter of apology to the authors of the original paper.

Article 22 (Storage and Release of Records)

① The bureau should keep records regarding preliminary and official investigations and records of any disciplinary measures taken for at least five years after the conclusion of investigation and/or disciplinary action.
② A final report can be opened after a judgment has been made, but information regarding the identities of those involved such as the list of the informant, investigators, witnesses, testifiers, and consultants can be excluded if the release of said information may disadvantage someone involved.

Article 23 (Detailed Rules of Operation)

Other matters necessary for the management of the Committee are separately determined through deliberation of the Committee.

Supplementary Provision (Enforcement date) This provision shall be enforced from March 1, 2016.