Research and Publication Ethics

Ethical Provision of the Korean Society of Steel Construction

Established on April 23, 2008,
Revised on May 18, 2016

Article 1: Objective

Ethical provision for the Korean Society of Steel Construction (KSSC) helps executives and members to observe the ethical principle and regulations that are required in the course of achieving KSSC’s goals. The ethical provision is intended to enhance the morality of each member as well as the KSSC’s one.

Article 2: Responsibilities of Executives and Members

Executives and members of KSSC should fulfill the following responsibilities.

① The president and executives of KSSC should be impartial and sincere towards all business and associated affairs.

② The president should act on the purpose of establishment and must not defame the political neutrality of the Society.

③ Members should work on developing the field of steel structures and producing public interests.

④ Members should be ethical and have conscience towards education, research activities and voluntary services.

⑤ For the submitted manuscript, members should not use the ideas or words of another person without giving appropriate credit to that source and should not have falsified research data. Members should respect other’s copyrights.

⑥ Members who review and counsel should judge the submitted manuscript fairly, with academic conscience. Members must keep the author and the information of manuscript confidential when needed.

⑦ The referees should fairly evaluate the paper submitted for publication by objective criteria, regardless of prejudice and any personal relationship with the author, as well as the author’s gender, age and affiliation.

⑧ Members should not use research information to gain corrupt or inappropriate profits.

⑨ New members of the KSSC must follow the present ethical provision. When the ethical provision comes in effect, current members should also follow the provision.

Article 3: Integrity of Researcher

① Researchers should be honest at all times when performing researches. The researchers should be honest for the idea’s derivation, the plan of experiment, the analysis of results, research grant, publication of journal article, research assistants’ compensation, etc.

② Plagiarism, fraud, fake and falsification are all considered as serious crimes. Researchers must do their best in order for these to not occur.

③ When using the words or ideas of another person, the researchers should make clear their citations and references through footnotes. Make sure to distinguish the existing results and the originality of idea, opinion and analysis clearly to the readers.

④ Notify the Society in proper manner if there is any suspicion of dishonesty.

Article 4: Definition of Plagiarism

KSSC defines plagiarism as use of other’s intellectual property without identifying the source clearly, even when unintentional.

Article 5: Types of Plagiarism

The followings are the most common types of plagiarism.

① Using the original author’s idea, logic, particular terminology, data, and analysis system without acknowledging the source.

② Copying words and ideas in the manuscript of another person without giving appropriate citation symbols.

③ Duplicating of the same manuscript in another journal.

Article 6: Judgement of Plagiarism

The judgement of plagiarism is done when members and referees ask plagiarism problems to the editor-in-chief or editor-in-chief perceives them. Then, in an ethical committee the editor-in-chief and president of the Committee discuss about problems and judge whether or not plagiarism is present.

Article 7: Sanction of Plagiarism

For authors and manuscripts that are confirmed as plagiarism, the following regulations apply:

① Prohibition of submitting manuscripts in the Magazine and the Journal of the KSSC for five years.

② Public announcement of the plagiarism fact on the web site of the KSSC and the first Magazine of the KSSC published after refereeing the plagiarism.

③ Notify the affiliations of the participants who plagiarized.

Supplementary Provision

Article 1: Date of Effectiveness

These provisions are in effect starting on April 23, 2008.

Publication Ethics of the Korean Society of Steel Construction

Established on January 31, 2020

Article 1: Authorship and Contributorship

(1) Every author should meet all four these conditions. and authorship credit should be based on:

ⓛ substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, and/or analysis and interpretation of data;

② drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content;

③ final approval of the version to be published;

④ agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work and ensuring that issues related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

(2) After the initial submission of a manuscript, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made before the manuscript has been accepted—and only if approved by the journal editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author:

① the reason for requesting a change in the list of authors; and

② written confirmation (by e-mail or letter) from all authors to say that they agree with the addition, removal, or rearrangement.

(3) Correction of authorship after publication: KSSC does not correct authorship after publication unless a mistake has been made by the editorial staff. Authorship may be changed before publication but after submission, only if authorship correction is requested by all of the authors involved with the manuscript.

Article 2: Complaints and appeal

(1) The policy of the journal is primarily aimed at protecting the authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher of the journal.

(2) If not described below, the process of handling complaints and appeals will follow the guidelines of the Committee of Publication Ethics.

(3) Submitters, authors, reviewers, and readers may register complaints and appeals in a variety of cases as including such as:

① falsification, fabrication, plagiarism, duplicate publication, authorship dispute, conflict of interest, unethical treatment of animals, informed consent, bias or unfair/inappropriate competitive acts, copyright violation, stolen data, defamation, and legal problems.

② If any individuals or institutions want to inform the Editor about such cases, they should send a letter to the Editor. For complaints or appeals, concrete data with factual answers to all the following questions: who, when, where, what, how, and why, should be provided.

(4) The Editor, Editorial Board, or Editorial Office is responsible for them.

(5) It depends on the type or degree of misconduct. The consequences of resolution will follow the guidelines of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE).

Article 3: Conflicts of Interest

(1) The corresponding author must inform the Editor of any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the authors’ interpretation of the data.

① Examples of potential conflicts of interest are financial support from or connections to companies, political pressure from interest groups, and academically related issues.

② In particular, all sources of funding applicable to the study should be explicitly stated.

(2) Editorial members of KSSC can also participate as corresponding or co-authors. However, in these roles, they are not allowed to participate in the peer reviewer selection, evaluation, or final selection process of the article for which one is author.

Article 4: Data sharing and reproducibility policy

(1) For clarification on the accuracy and reproducibility of the results, raw data or analysis data will be deposited in a public repository, after acceptance of the manuscript. Therefore, submission of the raw data or analysis data is mandatory.

(2) If the data is already public, its URL site or sources should be disclosed.

(3) If data cannot be publicized, conditions should be negotiated with the Editor.

(4) If there are any inquiries about depositing data, authors should contact the editorial office.

Article 5: Ethical oversight(research ethics, informed consent, IRB)

(1) When the Journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as a redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, an ethical problem discovered with the submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, or other issues; the resolving process will follow the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics.

(2) The Editorial Board will discuss the suspected cases and reach a decision. We will not hesitate to publish errata, corrigenda, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Article 6: Intellectual Property

(1) All published papers become the permanent property of the Korean Society of Steel Construction.

(2) Copyrights of all published materials are owned by the Korean Society of Steel Construction.

Article 7: Post-publication

(1) Post-publication discussion is available through a letter to the Editor.

(2) If readers have concerns about any articles published, they can submit a letter to the Editor about that articles.

(3) If any errors or mistakes are found in the article, they can be corrected through errata, corrigenda, or retraction.

Supplementary Provision

These ethics are in effect staring on January 31, 2020.

Management Guidelines for the Korean Society of Steel Construction’s Ethics Committee

Established on April 23, 2008

Article 1: Objective

The management guidelines for the Korean Society of Steel Construction’s (KSSC’s) ethics committee should regulate executives and members when they have violated the ethical provisions and are sued for violation.

Article 2: Organization of Ethics Committee

① The ethics committee is established and operated to achieve the objective of this management guidelines.

② The ethics committee includes the president, the administrative vice-president, the academic vice-president, the business vice- president, the chief of research laboratory, the editor-in-chief of Journal, the editor-in-chief of Magazine, and the administrative director of general affairs.

③ The term of the chief editor and members of the ethics committee is two years.

④ The chief of the ethics committee is elected by mutual votes.

Article 3: The Ethics Committee’s Rights

The ethics committee has the right to investigate informants, examinees, witnesses, testifiers and evidences in cases where there have been ethical violations. Then, the committee can propose disciplinary measures to the president of the Society if the violations were valid.

Article 4: Management of the Ethics Committee

① The ethics committee is responsible to judge the members who are filed for ethical violations.

② The ethics committee should come to a decision within 60 days. The process of deliberation should follow the processes of the other committees of the Society.

③ The disciplinary action such as the dismissal and suspension of membership, public apology, etc and its publication will be decided by the ethics committee.

Article 5: Filing for Ethical Violations

① More than twenty signatures are needed in order to file an ethical violation to the ethics committee.

② Executives and members who have been filed for ethical violations must cooperate in the investigations done by the ethics committee of the KSSC.

Article 6: Opportunities of Excuse and Protection of Privacy

① Individuals who are filed for violations will not be considered as violators until the facts are confirmed.

② Individuals who have been filed for violations to the ethics committee should have sufficient opportunities for excuse.

③ Personal identity should be confidential to the public until decisions have been made.

Article 7: Amendment to the Management Guidelines of the Ethics Committee

The management guidelines should be revised by the board of directors and the board of trustees.

Supplementary Provision

The management guidelines of ethics committee will be in effect starting April 23, 2008.