Israel Journal of Entomology

Editorial Policy & Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

General:

The Israel Journal of Entomology is published by the Entomological Society of Israel and is an Open Access international peer-reviewed scholarly periodical that covers all areas of entomology, including Uniramia other than insects and non-marine Crustacea and Chelicerata, and has a worldwide scope. The Israel Journal of Entomology is published primarily electronically and accepts original research articles, as well as review papers and smaller contributions. All contributions are published in English (British or American standard). It is understood that manuscripts submitted to the Israel Journal of Entomology have not been offered to any other journal for prior or simultaneous publication. Publication in the Israel Journal of Entomology is currently free of charge.

Organisational structure:

Chief Editor
Associate/Guest Editor(s)
Editorial Board
Production editors: Copy-editor(s), graphics editor(s), DTP specialist(s), proof-reader(s)

Responsibilities:

Chief Editor should be an expert in one of the fields covered by the journal and is chosen by the Entomological Society of Israel office-bearers. Chief Editor leads the Editorial Board and supervises Associate/Guest and Production editors. Chief Editor supervises all stages of the journal production, from manuscript submission through peer-review to online publication and printing hard copies.

Chief Editor and Associate/Guest Editor(s) consider submitted manuscripts and decide if they are suitable for publication in the journal. Only papers considered suitable will be sent out for review.

The Editorial Board members are nominated by Chief Editor and approved by the Entomological Society of Israel office-bearers to represent the diversity of fields covered by the journal. The Editorial Board members can be approached to nominate appropriate reviewers or to act as reviewers themselves. The Editorial Board meets or communicates electronically on a regular basis, to discuss the progress of the journal. The Editorial Board members are expected to comment on the quality of the journal content and production shortly after issues are printed, to ensure that there is no drop in standard.

Chief Editor and the Editorial Board ensure that a high standard is maintained in terms of the content of the journal, the procedures for acceptance of material for publication, and print quality of the final product.

Peer-review process:

An objective, unbiased and timely peer-review is seen as a way to ensure a high academic standard of published papers.

All manuscripts are scrutinized by at least two external experts, i.e. reviewers who are neither members of the Editorial Board nor employees of authors’ host institutions; this does not preclude members of the Editorial Board from reviewing manuscripts. The choice of reviewers is the responsibility of Chief Editor and Associate/Guest Editor(s), who may seek assistance from the Editorial Board. Reviewers’ identity remains anonymous unless they expressly state otherwise.

The decision to accept or reject a manuscript once the review process has been followed is the responsibility of Chief Editor and Associate/Guest Editor(s). No papers may be accepted without going under the above procedure. In case of negative reviews, authors are given an opportunity to respond before a final decision is drawn.

Publication ethics:

Cases of professional misconduct (e.g., redundant submissions, copyright violation, data fabrication, falsification, inappropriate image manipulation, plagiarism, breach of confidentiality, inappropriate language etc.) may result in immediate rejection of the manuscript. However, authors have a right to respond to such allegations and for investigations to be carried out with appropriate speed and due diligence. Chief Editor has a responsibility to alert appropriate bodies (e.g., employers, funders, or regulatory authorities) and encourage them to investigate such allegations.

The list of authors should meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors authorship criteria that state ‘authorship credit should be based on (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2 and 3.

Sources of funding for research or publication should always be disclosed, if applicable.

The Editorial Board will not consider papers in which the study caused unnecessary pain, discomfort, or disturbance to normal health of living animals. Reports of experiments on vertebrates must state that the Principles of Laboratory Animal Care (NIH publication No. 86-23, revised 1985) or UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory Animals (Longman Scientific & Technical, Bath, UK) have been followed, as well as specific national laws where applicable.

The authors are responsible to ensure and, when possible, document (e.g., in the Acknowledgements) that legal requirements pertaining to their work are fulfilled. The publisher of the Israel Journal of Entomology and its editors, while comply to the best of their ability/knowledge with regulations regarding specimen/biological sample/data propriety, indemnify themselves against any legal action undertaken by either a natural person or a private/public organization with regard to specimen/biological sample/data proprietary rights.

Editors, authors and peer reviewers have a responsibility to disclose interests that might appear to affect their ability to present or review data objectively.

Copyright:

The publisher of the Israel Journal of Entomology retains the copyright on the published materials, which are licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License that allows others to copy, distribute and transmit the work with an acknowledgement of the workʼs authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Article processing charges:

Neither page charges nor submission fees nor colour fees are currently levied on authors, publishing in the Israel Journal of Entomology.

Archiving:

Electronic versions of all articles published in the Israel Journal of Entomology are permanently archived at Zenodo.

The Israel Journal of Entomology follows the Open Access policy of RoMEO. Authors can archive publisherʼs version/PDF reprints of their articles on their personal and/or institutional Web sites and/or ResearchGate.

Sources and further information:

Committee on Publication Ethics. 2018. Core practices. https://publicationethics.org/core-practices (accessed 4 January 2018)

Graf, Ch., Wager, E., Bowman, A., Fiack, S., Scott-Lichter, D., Robinson, A. 2007. Best practice guidelines on publication ethics: a publisher’s perspective. International Journal of Clinical Practice 61 (Suppl. 152): 1–26. doi: 10.1111%2Fj.1742-1241.2006.01230.x

[Mostovski, M.]. 2017. Instructions for authors. Israel Journal of Entomology 47: 215–219. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1135167

SHERPA/RoMEO. 2018. Definitions and Terms. https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/about.html (accessed 4 April 2021)