Identifying ethical malpractice by authors and journal editors

This chapter discusses some of the main ethical issues in scholarly journal publishing of which journal editors need to be aware, particularly in their consideration of manuscripts. These issues encompass, for example, plagiarism - including self-plagiarism - and multiple submissions. Also, this chapter describes key ethical challenges that may confront journal editors in the performance of their role. These include such critical challenges as potential editorial bias and favouritism, conflicts of interest in handling manuscripts, and publishing own manuscripts in the edited journal. Understanding of these ethical issues and challenges should facilitate the enshrining of good research practice and discourage ethical malpractice.