A research publication is considered as the highest-level medium of dissemination of research findings. Scholarly publications play an important role in disseminating findings, thoughts, and analysis to the scientific, academic, and lay communities. Transparency is an ethic that strengthens the credibility and integrity of research work as well as bonding among the scholarly communities. Due to frequent questioning on research credibility, pressure for open access by governments, and high incidences of research frauds, it has become important to form and follow the principles of transparency.
Principles of Transparency
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) together have structured the principles of transparency, discuss all aspects of publication ethics and formulate the best practices to overcome any issue in this regard. The various principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing are described as under:
These principle also help in differentiating the legitimate journals and publishers from the non-legitimate ones.
As per transparency, the scholars should give an access to the research data and methods employed for deriving the conclusion. The data production methods should be shared in a much wider platform. If scholar’s research is based on another researcher’s data, he or she should always cite their data clearly. The rules of data confidentiality, wherever applicable should be followed ethically.
Both the perspectives of transparency, viz. transparency in policy context and transparency in research process should be followed to make the scholarly publishing stronger and more reliable.
Publication plan carrying complete information about all types of publications or articles to be formed from the research or clinical studies also contributes towards ethical practice. A proper and firm publication planning can help researchers follow appropriate publishing practices, in time publication of research and hence, increased transparency.
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