Publication Ethics Policy

JKAS has a stringent publication ethics policy. Every submitted paper is checked for similarity index using www.turnitin.com

All articles published in the Journal of Kerbala Agricultural Sciences (JKAS) are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly cited.

Under this license:

  • The authors retain full copyright of their work.
  • Anyone may reuse, adapt, build upon, or share the article—even for commercial purposes—as long as appropriate credit is given, and any changes made are indicated.

Author Responsibilities and Copyright Declaration

By submitting a manuscript to JKAS, the authors confirm the following:

  1. The submitted work is original, has not been published previously in a similar form, and is not under consideration by any other journal or publisher.
  2. All authors have read and approved the submitted manuscript.
  3. Any use of third-party materials (e.g., figures, data, text) has been properly licensed, acknowledged, and cited. The authors confirm they have obtained exclusive permission to reuse such content when required and are fully responsible for any breach of copyright or intellectual property law.
  4. There is no conflict of interest among the authors regarding authorship or content of the submission.
  5. Once published, the article becomes part of the permanent scientific record. Articles will not be withdrawn or retracted, unless serious issues regarding data integrity, plagiarism, or scientific misconduct are identified.

Ethical Guidelines for Animal Research

JKAS does not publish studies that focus on human subjects. For research involving animals, the journal adheres to the ARRIVE Guidelines (PLoS Biol. 8(6): e1000412, 2010) and emphasizes the ethical principles of the ‘3Rs’:

  • Replacement: Use alternative methods where possible.
  • Reduction: Minimize the number of animals used.
  • Refinement: Improve procedures to reduce suffering.

All animal studies must be reviewed and approved by a formally constituted ethical review committee at the institution of the corresponding author. The ethical approval number or statement must be included in the Materials and Methods section or listed just before the References. Submissions will not proceed unless this certification is provided.

Manuscript Approval Statement

The corresponding author must explicitly confirm, within the manuscript, that all authors have read and approved the version submitted to JKAS.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

JKAS requires all authors to declare any conflicts of interest related to:

  • Authorship or collaboration
  • Institutional affiliations
  • Prior publications
  • Financial or non-financial interests

This declaration must be included within the manuscript under a clearly labeled section titled "Conflict of Interest". If no conflict exists, authors should state: "The authors declare no conflict of interest."

Publication Malpractice Statement

The Journal of Kerbala for Agricultural Sciences (JKAS) strictly adheres to the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against publication malpractice. The journal follows the principles of integrity, transparency, and accountability in scientific publishing, in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

All parties involved in the publication process—including authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers—must agree upon and uphold ethical standards. JKAS does not tolerate any form of publication misconduct, including but not limited to plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, duplicate or redundant publication, unethical authorship practices, or citation manipulation.

In cases where unethical behavior or malpractice is suspected, the editorial board will conduct a thorough investigation following COPE procedures. If misconduct is confirmed, appropriate actions will be taken, which may include the rejection of the manuscript, retraction of published articles, and notification to relevant authorities or institutions.

JKAS is fully committed to maintaining the integrity of the academic record and ensuring that all published work contributes ethically and responsibly to scientific knowledge.