Policies

1. Publication Ethics

This is the statement of ethics for the Compendium of Oral Science (COS) published by Universiti Teknologi MARA Press (Penerbit UiTM). COS aspires to select and publish, through double-blind peer-review. A guideline on the COS code of ethics is largely based upon the principles upheld by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). It covers the code of ethics for the chief editor, editorial board members, reviewers and authors.

Duties of Authors
• To be responsible of ensuring only new and original work is submitted. If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, this must be appropriately cited or quoted
• To ensure the work produced is factually accurate and contains no matter unfounded or illegitimate, and has not been previously published in other journals.
• To ensure that submitted articles are not being reviewed or considered by other journals simultaneously. The articles are only allowed to be published after receiving a formal rejection from the journal or if withdrawal request is officially accepted by the journal.
• To inform the Chief Editor or the publisher of any inaccuracy of data in their published work so that correction or retraction of article can be done.
• To make significant contributions and be held accountable for any shortcomings in their work.
• To do corrections and improvements as commented by reviewers/editor and submit the Copyright Transfer Agreement (as attached).
• To ensure that the manuscript does not violate any proprietary or personal rights of others (including, without limitation, any copyrights or privacy rights).
• To declare that no financial interest is gained in the subject matter of the manuscript, nor is affiliated with an organization or entity with a financial interest in the subject matter of the manuscript.

Duties of Reviewers
• To disclose any competing interest before agreeing to review a submission.
• To refuse to review any submission due to a conflict of interest or inadequate knowledge.
• To review all submissions objectively, fairly and professionally.
• To reveal any ethical misconduct encountered while reviewing to the Chief Editor for further action.
• To ensure the originality of a submission and be alert to any plagiarism and redundant publication.
• To obtain permission from the publisher before disclosing the content of the submission.
• To adhere to the time allocated for the review process and request for extension to review the submission from the Chief Editor.

Duties of Chief Editor
• To evaluate manuscripts fairly and solely on their intellectual merit.
• To ensure confidentiality of manuscripts and not disclose any information regarding manuscripts to anyone other than the people involved in the publishing process.
• To be responsible for deciding when and which articles are to be published.
• To actively seek the views of board members, reviewers and authors on how to improve/ increase the image and visibility of the journal.
• To give clear instructions to potential contributors on the submission process and what is expected of the authors.
• To ensure appropriate reviewers are selected/ identified for the reviewing process.
• To ensure authors should submit only original work that is not plagiarized, and has not been published or being considered elsewhere. Appropriate softwares may be used by the editorial office to check for similarities of submitted manuscripts with existing literature. Inclusion of fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements are unacceptable.
• To ensure work and/or words from other publications are appropriately cited or quoted.

REPORTING
Authors should state their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation. The methods used in the work should be clearly and unambiguously described so that the findings can be repeated and confirmed by other researchers.
A good abstract should consist of introduction, problem statement, QUANTITATIVE results and QUANTITATIVE conclusion. Chemistry formula and equations are correctly typed. Any article that does not comply will be returned for either can be corrected or permanently rejected.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
A statement on conflict of interest must be included in the manuscript if authors receive any support that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

AUTHORSHIP AND COLLABORATION
The names of authors listed in a paper should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the report. Only those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the work must be acknowledged or listed as contributors. It is the duty of the corresponding author to ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper. All co-authors must approve the final version of the paper and agree to the version of the paper before submission.

MULTIPLE OR REDUNDANT
Authors should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research output in more than one journal or primary publication. A similar manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal concurrently as this constitutes as unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

PLAGIARISM AND SELF-PLAGIARISM
All works in the manuscript should be free of any plagiarism, falsification, fabrication, or omission of significant material. Authors are expected to explicitly cite others' work and ideas, even if the work or ideas are not quoted exactly or paraphrased. Self-plagiarism (or ”redundancy”) can occur in at least two ways:
• Authors recycle portions of their previous writings by using identical or nearly identical sentences or paragraphs from earlier writings in subsequent research papers, without quotation or acknowledgement; or
• Authors create multiple papers that are slight variations of each other, which are submitted for publication in different journals but without acknowledgement of the other papers.

AI USE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
Authors must disclose the use of any artificial intelligence (AI) tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Grammarly, etc.) during manuscript preparation. The disclosure; Specify the name and version of the AI tool used and how the tool was used (e.g., language editing, idea generation, code assistance) [describe purpose: e.g., language editing, grammar correction, summarizing background literature, improving clarity, or generating draft text]. Confirm that all intellectual content is the authors’ own and that the authors take full responsibility for the final manuscript.

RESEARCH MISCONDUCT AND PUBLICATION ETHICS
The Compendium of Oral Science (COS) is fully committed to promoting ethical research and ensuring the integrity of the scientific record. This document outlines our approach to identifying and addressing research misconduct, as well as our broader policies on publication ethics.

This includes, but is not limited to:
• Plagiarism
• Data fabrication or falsification
• Citation manipulation
• Inappropriate authorship practices

We do not encourage or tolerate any form of unethical behavior. If misconduct is suspected, COS follows the procedures outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Process When Allegations Are Made
• Allegations can come from authors, reviewers, readers, institutions, or third parties.
• The editorial team will initiate a confidential investigation.
• Authors will be contacted and given an opportunity to respond.
• In complex cases, we may consult independent experts or the author’s institution.
• If misconduct is confirmed, we may issue a correction, retraction, or expression of concern, depending on the severity of the issue.

Complaints and Appeals
• Authors, reviewers, and readers can raise concerns about editorial decisions, review fairness, or suspected misconduct.
• All complaints will be investigated objectively, and appeals will be reviewed by senior editorial staff or an independent board, if necessary.

Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections
• If significant issues are found after an article is published, we may issue a correction, retraction, or expression of concern.
• These actions will be clearly explained and linked to the original article.
• We are committed to updating records to maintain accuracy and transparency.

All of COS’s publication ethics policies are publicly available on our website to ensure clarity for authors, reviewers, and readers. We aim to uphold the trust of the academic community and comply with internationally recognized ethical guidelines, particularly those outlined by COPE.

Corrections
If we find small mistakes in a published article that don’t change the main results, we will publish a correction.
• Corrigendum: A correction written by the authors if they notice an error.
• Erratum: A correction made by the journal if the mistake happened during the publishing process.
• Authorship Corrections: Once a manuscript has been submitted, no changes to the authorship (including the order of authors, addition, or removal of authors) will be permitted without a formal request and valid justification.

2. ⁠Open Access

The Compendium of Oral Science (COS) provides immediate open access to its content under a CC BY-NC-ND licence, on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Under the CC BY-NC-ND license, user must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. User may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses user or his/her use. User may not use the material for commercial purposes, distribute the modified material (by way of remix, transform, or build upon the existing material. User may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

3. ⁠Copyright 

Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, or thesis 

Materials contained in the journal may be reproduced for educational purposes provided that both the author(s) and the journal are appropriately recognised; otherwise duplication is not permitted. No articles, reports, or portions there of may be translated into other languages, published in books, journals, magazines, or any other print form without written permission from the authors and from the journal.

Disclaimer: The statements, opinions and data expressed in the articles and reports herein are those of the author(s) and not of the publisher and the editor(s). The publisher and the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any schemes, methods, instructions or ideas referred to in the content.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

4. ⁠Withdrawal

Sometimes, an article may need to be removed before it is officially published. This may happen if:

• It was already published somewhere else

• It has serious formatting or policy problems

• It is an early version (article-in-press) with major issues

If an article is withdrawn, we will explain why on the journal website. 

5. ⁠Retraction

A published article may be retracted if:
• It contains major errors
• It includes false or fake data
• It was copied from another source
• There are ethical problems or legal concerns
• The results can’t be trusted or reproduced
• There was an undisclosed conflict of interest
Retractions can be requested by the authors, editors, or others in the research community. We always try to contact the authors first and may consult experts before making a decision.

Retraction Notices & Expressions of Concern
• Retraction Notice: Clearly explains why an article was retracted and stays linked to the article.
• Expression of Concern: A warning issued when there are serious doubts about a paper, but more investigation is needed.
We follow COPE guidelines to make sure our process is fair, clear, and in line with best practices.