Built Environment Journal Ethics

Once published in the Built Environment Journal, the copyright including electronic copyrights of the article is automatically invested with UiTM. The copyright covers the exclusive use of rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photography reproductions, microfilm, electronic publication or any reproduction of a similar nature and translations. Permission to publish illustrations must be obtained by the author before submission. Any acknowledgements should be included in the figure captions.

1. Authorship should be limited to

• those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study.
• others who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors.
• others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged.

2. The corresponding author should

• ensure that all appropriate co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper.
• have agreed to its submission for publication.
• manage any requests to add, delete or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue.

3. The authors should

• ensure that they have written entirely original works, and If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, this must be appropriately cited or quoted. If the manuscript contains materials that overlap with work that is previously published, or is in-press, or that is under consideration for publication elsewhere, the Author must cite this work in the manuscript.
• secured the necessary reproduction rights with the rights holder for any third party material (images, digital content, etc.) you have used prior to submission.
• ensure that they have acknowledge any funding that have contributed to the publication.
• NOT submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Authors must withdraw papers that are under review with any other journal, if the paper is submitted to BEJ subsequently.
• include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest.
• promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
• ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) has approved them.
• obtain appropriate consents, permissions and releases where an author wishes to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals.

4. Plagiarism and Self Plagiarism

• All work in the manuscript should be free of any plagiarism, falsification, fabrication, or omission of significant material. (refer https://www.ithenticate.com/hs-fs/hub/92785/file-5414624-pdf/media/ith-selfplagiarism-whitepaper.pdf)
• Self-plagiarism (or ”redundancy”) can occur in at least two ways:
  1. Authors recycle portions of their previous writings by using identical or nearly identical sentences or paragraphs from earlier writings in subsequent research papers, without quotation or acknowledgement; or
  2. Authors create multiple papers that are slight variations of each other, which are submitted for publication in different journals but without acknowledgement of the other papers.
• BEJ does not accept any submission of papers that have been published in full in a conference proceeding as novelty is an important criterion in the selection of papers.

5. Copyright Law

Copyright violation is an important, and possibly related, ethical issue. Authors should check their manuscripts for possible breaches of copyright law (e.g., where permissions are needed for quotations, artwork or tables taken from other publications or from other freely available sources on the Internet) and secure the necessary permissions before submission to BEJ. Post publication Our Publisher, UiTM Press holds the copyright to all published articles. The author(s) should submit the BEJ’s Copyright Permission form to the Chief Executive Editor once the manuscript has been accepted for publication. BEJ authors must ask for permission to publish their article (or a selection from the article) elsewhere, such as a BEJ article later appearing as a book chapter or as a translation.

Consequences Authors:

Any work in the manuscript that has been proven to contain any form of plagiarism, falsification, fabrications, or omission of significant material constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Such cases will be handled according to the practices of the Journal’s Editorial Board and University Publications Committee. Editors and/or reviewers shall report cases of suspected unethical publishing behavior of the author(s) to the attention of the Editor-in-Chief or Chief Executive Editor who shall ensure an appropriate action and subsequently bring it to the Journal’s Editorial Board and University Publications Committee for a suitable action below depending upon the severity of the unethical behavior.

1. Notice to the author(s) involved,
2. Rejection of the manuscript,
3. Ban (subjects to the Editorial board).

6. The Editors and/or Editorial Board should

• keep information pertaining to submitted manuscripts confidential.
• disclose any conflicts of interest.
• evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
• be responsible for making publication decisions for submitted manuscripts.
• review suspected incidents of plagiarism.

7. Reviewers should

• notify the journal of any conflicts of interest.
• keep information pertaining to the manuscript confidential.
• bring to the attention of the Editors any information that may be reason to reject publication of a manuscript.
• evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.