Guide for Authors

Peer Review

Multivariate Behavioral Research (MBR) is committed to maintaining peer-review integrity and the highest standards of scholarly evaluation. After an initial assessment of suitability by the editor, each submission undergoes a single-anonymized peer review conducted by an independent expert reviewer. The final decision regarding acceptance or rejection rests with the editorial team.

Our editors are not involved in making decisions about papers which:

  • they have written themselves.
  • have been written by family members or colleagues.
  • relate to products or services in which they have an interest.

Any such submissions will be subject to the journal’s usual procedures and peer review will be handled independently of the editor involved and their research group.

 

Ethics and Policies

Multivariate Behavioral Research (MBR) set out many guidelines for ethical publishing which authors should understand and follow. Below are the major ethical issues you should be aware of as an author.

 

Case 1: Authorship     

Every author listed on a journal article should have made a significant contribution to the work reported. This could be in terms of research conception or design, or acquisition of data, or the analysis and interpretation of data. As an author or co-author, you share responsibility and accountability for the content of your article.

 

What to avoid:

Gift (guest) authorship: Where someone is added to the list of authors who has not been involved in writing the paper.

Ghost authorship: Where someone has been involved in writing the paper but is not included in the list of authors.

 

Case 2: Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that their submitted work is original, properly acknowledges the contributions of others, and is free from any unauthorized use of published or unpublished material. Presenting the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were his/her own and without proper acknowledgment is considered plagiarism.

Self-plagiarism is the redundant reuse of your own work, usually without proper citation. It creates repetition in the academic literature and can skew meta-analyses if you publish the same sets of data multiple times as “new” data. Therefore, if you’re discussing your own previous work, make sure you cite it.

 

Case 3: Data Fabrication / Falsification

It is essential that all data is accurate, and representative of your research. Data fabrication refers to the intentional invention of data, results, or findings that were never observed, while data falsification involves the deliberate manipulation, alteration, or omission of research data, images, figures, or processes in a way that misrepresents the actual research outcomes. Both practices are considered serious violations of research integrity, undermine the credibility of scientific work, and are strictly prohibited. We encourage you to submit your supplemental data with your article.

 

Case 4: Competing Interests

It is very important to be honest about any competing interests, whether sources of research funding, direct or indirect financial support, supply of equipment or materials, or other support.

 

Case 5:  Using Artificial Intelligence

AI provides a host of exciting opportunities for researchers to speed up and expand their work. However, you must always use tools responsibly and choose tools that meet the highest standards of data security, confidentiality, and copyright protection. You should not submit a manuscript where AI has been used for text generation without rigorous revision. You must acknowledge the use of AI in your article and must receive written permission from copyright holders prior to using copyrighted material.

 

Changes to Authorship

The editors of this journal generally will not consider changes to authorship once a manuscript has been submitted. It is important that authors carefully consider the authorship list and order of authors and provide a definitive author list at original submission.

The policy of this journal around authorship changes is as follows:

  • Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should only be made prior to acceptance, and only if approved by the journal editor.
  • Requests to change authorship should be made by the corresponding author, who must provide the reason for the request to the journal editor with written confirmation from all authors, including any authors being added or removed, that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement.
  • Only in exceptional circumstances will the journal editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors post acceptance.
  • Publication of the manuscript may be paused while a change in authorship request is being considered.
  • Any authorship change requests approved by the journal editor will result in a corrigendum if the manuscript has already been published.
  • Any unauthorized authorship changes may result in the rejection of the article, or retraction, if the article has already been published.