BASIQ International Conference
Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
BASIQ International Conference is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and preventing publication malpractice. BASIQ International Conference aligns its policies with best practices, including those promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), to ensure the integrity, transparency, and quality of the scholarly literature published in the conference proceedings. This statement outlines the ethical responsibilities of all parties involved in the publication process, focusing on:
1. Authorship and Contributorship
BASIQ International Conference adheres to the principle that authorship should be based on significant contributions to the research and manuscript preparation. All listed authors must have made a substantial contribution to the submitted work and must approve the final version. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all authors are appropriately credited and that no ghost, guest, or gift authorship is included. The corresponding author is also responsible for ensuring that the author list is accurate, in the order that all the authors have previously agreed, and that all authors have approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission.
Authorship credit should be based on:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
- Final approval of the version to be published;
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Contributorship: All individuals who meet the four criteria above should be identified as authors. Those who contributed to the work but do not meet the authorship criteria should be listed in the “Acknowledgements” section (e.g., technical assistance, writing assistance, general support).
Requests for changes in authorship must be sent, in writing, to basiqconference@gmail.com. Requests should be dealt with fairly and in accordance with the published policy of the conference. Changes in authorship are decided by the Conference Board and will be allowed only if valid reasons are provided and all authors agree with the changes. Post-publication changes to authorship are strictly prohibited.
2. Handling Complaints and Appeals
BASIQ International Conference is committed to providing a transparent and fair process for handling complaints and appeals related to the editorial process.
Complaints: Authors who believe their manuscript has been unfairly handled should submit a formal complaint, in writing, to basiqconference@gmail.com. The complaint must clearly outline the issue and provide supporting evidence.
Appeals: Authors whose submissions have been rejected may appeal the decision if they believe there was a significant misunderstanding of the work, an oversight of a crucial aspect, or a demonstrable error in the review process. Appeals should be submitted within 7 days of the decision notification, to basiqconference@gmail.com, detailing the specific reasons for the appeal and how the decision was flawed.
Process: All complaints and appeals will be acknowledged promptly and investigated by the Conference Board. The parties involved will be given an opportunity to respond. Decisions on complaints and appeals will be communicated in writing, in 7 days, providing reasons for the outcome. The decision of the Conference Board on appeals is final.
3. Handling Allegations of Research Misconduct
BASIQ International Conference takes all allegations of research misconduct seriously and will follow COPE guidelines for investigating and addressing such cases. Research misconduct includes, but is not limited to, plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification/fabrication, and undisclosed conflicts of interest.
Reporting Allegations: Any individual aware of potential research misconduct related to a submission or published paper in the conference proceedings should inform the Conference Board immediately, in writing, by sending an email to basiqconference@gmail.com. Allegations must be supported by sufficient evidence to enable an investigation.
Investigation Process: The Conference Board will conduct an initial assessment to determine if there is a case for misconduct, at a first glance. If so, a formal investigation will be initiated by the Conference Board. This process will be confidential until a conclusion is reached. All parties involved, including the accused, will be given a fair opportunity to respond to the allegations and provide supporting documentation. Based on the investigation, a decision will be made by the Conference Board regarding the validity of the allegation. Depending on the severity and nature of the misconduct, actions may include:
- Issuing a formal warning to the author(s)/reviewer(s).
- Notifying the author’s/reviewer’s institution(s) and/or funding bodies.
- Retracting the published paper from the conference proceedings.
- Publishing a correction or expression of concern.
- Banning the individual(s) from submitting to future editions of the conference for a specified period.
- Notifying relevant professional organizations or ethics committees.
- In extreme cases, legal action may be considered if warranted by the misconduct.
4. Conflicts of Interest
Authors, editors, and reviewers are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest, whether financial, professional, or personal, that could influence their objectivity or decisions.
For Authors: Authors must declare any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest (e.g., employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, patent applications/registrations, grants, and other funding) that might be perceived to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for research / paper development should be disclosed in the acknowledgements.
For Reviewers: Reviewers should decline to review manuscripts where they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the manuscript. If a potential conflict arises during the review process, the reviewer must inform the Conference Board immediately.
For Editors (Program Committee Chairs/Track Chairs): Editors must recuse themselves from decisions on manuscripts where they have conflicts of interest with the authors, institutions, or the content of the paper. This includes personal relationships, financial interests, or direct competition. Submissions where an editor is an author will be handled by another independent editor.
All declared conflicts of interest will be managed to ensure they do not compromise the integrity of the review and publication process. Undisclosed conflicts of interest that come to light post-publication will be investigated as a form of misconduct.
5. Data Sharing and Reproducibility
BASIQ International Conference encourages authors to share their research data to promote transparency and reproducibility, in line with FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).
Data Availability: Authors are encouraged to deposit their research data in a recognized data repository and include a “Data Availability Statement” in their manuscript, indicating where data can be accessed and under what conditions. If data cannot be shared (e.g., due to privacy concerns), it is recommended for the authors to provide a clear justification. However, no reference to data availability is also allowed, but not encouraged.
Reproducibility: Authors should provide sufficient detail on methodology to allow their work to be replicated, or at least for the methodology to be understood and built upon by other researchers. This includes algorithms, code, and experimental setups.
Authors must ensure that any data used in their research has been collected, stored, and shared in an ethically compliant manner, adhering to relevant privacy regulations and informed consent where applicable.
6. Ethical Oversight
BASIQ International Conference is committed to ensuring that all research presented adheres to ethical standards.
Human Subjects: For studies involving human participants, authors must confirm that the research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by an appropriate institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee. Informed consent must be obtained from all participants. A statement confirming ethical approval and informed consent should be included in the manuscript.
Animal Research: For studies involving animals, authors must confirm that the research adhered to internationally accepted guidelines for animal research and was approved by an appropriate institutional ethics committee. A statement confirming adherence to ethical guidelines should be included.
Clinical Trials: Clinical trials should be registered in a publicly accessible database, and the registration number should be included in the manuscript.
Authors should accurately report on the ethical review and approval process for their research. Any concerns regarding ethical conduct in the research presented will be investigated following the procedures for research misconduct.
7. Intellectual Property
BASIQ International Conference respects intellectual property rights and aims to provide clear guidance on copyright and licensing.
Copyright: Authors retain copyright of their work published in the BASIQ International Conference proceedings. However, by submitting their paper, authors grant BASIQ International Conference a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide license to publish, reproduce, distribute, and display the article in all forms and media, including indexing in databases.
Licensing: All papers published in the BASIQ International Conference proceedings will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License which allows immediate free access to the work, permitting any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose.
Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement: Submitting plagiarized content or material that infringes upon the copyright of others is strictly prohibited and will be treated as research misconduct. Authors are responsible for obtaining necessary permissions for any copyrighted material included in their submissions.
8. Options for Post-Publication Discussions
BASIQ International Conference acknowledges the fostering of open scientific discourse and provides avenues for post-publication discussion and critique.
During the conference, direct discussions between authors and attendees are encouraged during Questions & Answers (Q&A) sessions. BASIQ International Conference encourages constructive criticism and scholarly debate on the content of the conference papers. However, such discussions should be respectful and adhere to scholarly norms.
9. Corrections and Retractions
BASIQ International Conference is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record and will issue corrections or retractions when necessary.
Corrections: If errors are identified in a published paper that do not invalidate the scientific integrity of the work but are misleading (e.g., factual inaccuracies, errors in figures/tables, minor methodological errors), a correction notice will be published. This notice will be linked to the original article and will clearly state the nature of the correction.
Retractions: A paper will be retracted if it is found to contain significant errors or is based on fraudulent data, if there is evidence of research misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication/falsification), or if it has been published elsewhere without proper disclosure. Retractions will be clearly marked as such and linked to the original article, explaining the reason for the retraction.
Expressions of Concern: In cases where there are serious concerns about the integrity of a published paper, but an investigation is ongoing or not yet complete, an “Expression of Concern” may be published.
10. Ensuring the Integrity of the Scholarly Literature
BASIQ International Conference is dedicated to upholding the integrity of the scholarly literature published in its proceedings. BASIQ International Conference actively implements policies and procedures to prevent and address issues such as plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication.
Plagiarism Detection: All submitted manuscripts are screened for plagiarism using specialized detection software. Submissions found to contain significant levels of unacknowledged copied material will be rejected. Severe cases of plagiarism, even after publication, will lead to retraction.
Citation Manipulation: BASIQ International Conference discourages excessive self-citation, gratuitous citation of articles from its previous editions, and any other form of citation manipulation intended to artificially inflate metrics. Reviewers and editors should be vigilant in identifying and reporting such practices.
Data Falsification/Fabrication: As detailed in Section 3, allegations of data falsification (manipulating data or results) or fabrication (making up data or results) will be thoroughly investigated as severe forms of research misconduct, leading to immediate retraction if proven.
Image Manipulation: Authors are expected to present images that are representative of the original data. Unethical manipulation of images (e.g., obscuring, enhancing, or removing features to misrepresent results) is prohibited. Any concerns will be investigated.
Transparency and Openness: BASIQ International Conference encourages transparency in reporting, including complete and accurate descriptions of methods, ethical considerations, and funding sources. This promotes scrutiny and helps maintain the integrity of the research.
Post-Publication Vigilance: The Conference Board remains vigilant even after publication. Any concerns raised about the integrity of a published paper will be promptly addressed, and appropriate actions (corrections, retractions, expressions of concern) will be taken to rectify the scholarly record.
This Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement will be regularly reviewed and updated as necessary by BASIQ International Conference Board in accordance with evolving best practices in scholarly publishing.
Contact for Ethics Concerns: basiqconference@gmail.com
Date of Last Review/Update: July 30, 2025