Handling Allegations of Misconduct

1- Statement of Principle and Commitment

Regeneration, Reconstruction & Restoration (Triple R) Journal is committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and ethics in scientific research and scholarly publishing. All allegations of potential research and publication misconduct are taken seriously. The journal strictly adheres to the guidelines and flowcharts established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Any form of scientific misconduct undermines the integrity of the scholarly record and will not be tolerated.

2- Definition and Scope of Misconduct

Scientific and publication misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

-Plagiarism: The appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or text without giving appropriate credit or acknowledgement.

-Data Fabrication: Making up data, observations, or experimental results and recording or reporting them as real findings.

-Data Falsification: Manipulating research materials, equipment, images, or processes, or changing/omitting data and results such that the research is not accurately represented.

-Redundant / Duplicate Publication: Publishing the same, or substantially similar, work or findings across multiple outlets without proper disclosure, justification, or referencing.

-Unethical Research Practices: Failing to conduct research within an approved ethical framework, including research involving human participants (or human data/material) without valid ethical approval/informed consent, or mistreatment of animal subjects.

Authorship and Contributorship Violations: Inclusion of gift/guest authors, omission of ghost authors, or disputes over contributor roles.

3- Investigation and Response Process

When an allegation or suspicion of misconduct arises (either prior to publication or after an article has been published), Regeneration, Reconstruction & Restoration (Triple R) Journal follows a transparent, objective, and step-by-step process aligned with COPE recommendations:

1. Initial Assessment: The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board conduct a preliminary evaluation of the allegation to assess its validity, evidence, and severity.
2. Right to Respond: The corresponding author (and co-authors, where appropriate) will be notified and given a fair opportunity to provide explanations, raw data, or clarifications before a final determination is reached.
3. Formal Investigation & Third-Party Consultation: If reasonable concerns persist or explanations are unsatisfactory, the Editor may:

    -Initiate a formal, in-depth investigation.

    -Contact and share the manuscript/case details with relevant third parties, including the author’s affiliated institution(s), research ethics committee(s), and funding agencies.

    -Seek formal advice from COPE by submitting an anonymized case study to the COPE Forum.

4- Editorial Actions, Sanctions, and Corrections

Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis depending on the severity and intent of the confirmed misconduct:

-Rejection of Manuscript: Manuscripts under review that involve confirmed ethical breaches or fraudulent data will be rejected immediately.

-Author Monitoring & Submission Bans: Authors found responsible for misconduct may be placed under closer editorial scrutiny or prohibited from submitting to Regeneration, Reconstruction & Restoration (Triple R) Journal for a defined period.

-Institutional Notification: The journal reserves the right to inform the author’s home institution, ethics oversight committees, and funding bodies of confirmed misconduct for further institutional actions.

Post-Publication Corrective Measures:

 -Corrections (Erratum / Corrigendum): If minor, non-fraudulent errors are identified that do not fundamentally invalidate the study’s core conclusions, a formal correction will be published.

-Retraction: If severe scientific misconduct, data manipulation, or critical ethical violations significantly undermine the reliability or integrity of a published paper, the article will be retracted in strict compliance with COPE Retraction Guidelines.

-A public Retraction Notice will be published, clearly detailing the reasons and evidence for the retraction.

-The original publication will remain accessible in online archives to preserve the historical scholarly record, but will be prominently watermarked/labeled as “RETRACTED” across all PDF and HTML versions.

5- Reporting Suspicions and Preventive Measures

Authors, reviewers, and readers are encouraged to uphold scientific integrity and report any suspected research or publication misconduct directly to the Editorial Office at tripler@sbmu.ac.ir. All whistleblowing reports are handled confidentially and investigated impartially.

Authors are strongly advised to screen their manuscripts (e.g., using professional similarity detection software), verify all raw data, and ensure full ethical compliance prior to submission.