IV. Research Ethics (partially amended on September 13th, 2015) 

1. Purpose 

The purpose of the following guidelines is to present the basic ethical principles and directions for research ethics, so that helping all researchers and editors of the Journal of Rehabilitation Welfare under Rehabilitation Research Institute affiliated with RI Korea to perform and publish the ethically sound research. 

2. Subjects (partially amended on June 30th, 2014) 

The following ethical guidelines are applied for all members of Rehabilitation Research Institute affiliated with RI Korea and all researchers who want to submit their manuscripts to the Journal of Rehabilitation Welfare. 

3. Definition and Types of Research Misconduct 

1) Definition of Research Misconduct 

Research misconduct refers to following any instances of forgery, falsification, plagiarism, failure to give proper credit to co-authors or redundant publication that may emerge during the entire research process, including research proposal, conduct of research, report and presentation of research.

2) Types of Research Misconduct

(1) Forgery: the act of presenting non-existent data or research results.

(2) Falsification: the acts of distorting research contents or results by artificially manipulating research process, randomly modifying, or deleting data result.

(3) Plagiarism: the acts which pirate other’s work, ideas and research ideas, hypotheses, theories, research contents and research results without justifiable approvals or citation.

(4) Failing to give proper credit to co-authors: the act of failing to list those who have contributed academically to the research process or conversely to the act of listing those who have not made any academic contribution to the manuscript.

(5) Redundant Publication: the act of publishing a paper that is identical or highly similar text to one that has already been published in the past in another academic journal.

(6) Duplication of publication: the act of publishing the same article in two or more different professional journals. Or the act of submission of the same manuscripts while its review process.

(7) Unauthorized modification of manuscript: the act of authors’ modification without editorial chief’s permission on the manuscripts thet already has decided to be published and sent to publisher.

(8) Misrepresentation: the act of making a false statement about researcher’s academic and career backgrounds, and research achievements etc.

(9) The act of intentional interfering to the investigation on research ethics misconduct or giving harm to the informant

(10) Self-plagiarism: the act of using images, graphs or large part of one’s own research already published without identifying the source.

(11) Any other act that is seriously out of the acceptable ethical range or act to need specific judgement will be decided by the Editorial Committee after its review process.

3) Any researcher who contribute to the research but not easy to include as co-author, he/she can be acknowledged appropriately, using in footnotes or in an introductory statement (partially amended on June, 30th, 2014). 

4) In order to avoided self-plagiarism, the researcher must abide by following actions (partially amended on September 13th, 2015). 

(1) To use his/her own study results that have not been published before

(2) Not to publish a work that is the same as or substantially similar to his/her previous research result.

(3) If a researcher wishes to use his/her / previous research results, he / she should cite this or may use it under the permission of the editor or publisher of which the results were first published. 

4. Verification of Research Misconduct (partially amended on Sep 13th, 2015) 

1) The rights of the informant 

(1) An informant refers to a person who has informed the research institution of facts or evidence of research related fraud.

(2) The informant shall be identifiable, but despite an anonymous informant, if the report contains clear evidence of research related fraud, it shall be handled.

(3) When the report has received, the chief editor should convene the editorial committee meeting to judge whether the action is fraudulent and also a research ethics committee should be convened to investigate the case

(4) The identity of an informant must be protected, but a false informant will not be protected.

(5) Once the report has accepted, the informant may ask the research institution for the proceeding and schedule of the investigation. And the research institution should comply with it. 

2) The Composition and Authority of the Research Ethics Committee (partially amended on September 13th, 2015) 

(1) The research ethics committee shall be consisted of five members, and the head of the committee shall be elected by the members.

(2) The research ethics committee may ask the informant, the respondent, witnesses, or reference persons to attend a committee meeting for a statement.

(3) The research ethics committee may request the respondent to submit the relevant data, and the research ethics committee may preserve that data as evidence under the head of the research institution approval.(4) The research ethics committee may propose to the head of the research institution about appropriate follow-up measures for those who violated research ethics.

3) The Respondent’s Rights 

(1) A respondent refers to a person who has been investigated of his/her suspicious ethical misconducts by a report or by the Institute s cognition, and does not include reference persons or witnesses.

(2) A respondent’s identity must not be disclosed to the public until the result of the judgment has confirmed, and the respondent’s honor and right should not be infringed during investigation.

(3) During investigation, the Research Ethics Committee should ensure that a respondent has sufficient opportunity to be called(4) A respondent may ask the research institution for the proceeding and schedule of the investigation. The research institution should comply with it. 

4) Judgment (partially amended on December 29, 2015) 

(1) The Research Ethics Committee shall determine the contents and procedures of the investigation based on the appeal or the call.

(2) The determination of violation of research ethics shall be judged by consent of two-thirds of the research ethics committee. 

5. Measures against Violations of Research Ethics (partially amended on September 13th, 2015)

1) Measures against violations of research ethics 

(1) If it has determined as a clear violation of research ethics, all of the following measures will be conducted by the head of the research institution. 

● To delete that manuscript’s title from the list of journal article from the KCI, RI Korea Homepage etc.

● To prohibit from the author’s submission, who fail in research ethics, to the Journal of Rehabilitation Research “for following three years after the violation judgement has made

● To inform the fact of violation to KCI, RI Korea and the relevant directors of the agency, school, or institution of an author who failed in research ethics

● To warn or make caution against author who fail in research ethics

2) Time limitation of Investigation, Record and Keeping 

(1) If a fraud had committed five years before the date of receipt of the report, it shall not be processed.

(2) But even if the fraudulent act had done five years before, it will be dealt with when author uses the fraud relevant results in various research activities (research planning, research grant application, conducting research etc.), within 5 years.

(3) Record and keeping of investigations 

① Research institution who is in charge of an investigation should keep all records of the investigation process in the form of documents, voices, and images.

② The records should be kept for more than 5 years. 

6. Ethics of the Editorial Committee and the Judges 

(1) The editorial committee and the judges must be fair in the process of receipt, evaluation, and publication of manuscripts, excluding his/her personal interests or connections with the manuscripts’ authors.

(2) The editorial committee and the judges must not divulge information learned during the process of receipt, evaluation, and publication of manuscripts. 

7. Matters other than those listed above shall be applied in accordance with the “Guidelines for Securing Research Ethics” issued by the Ministry of Education (partially amended on December 29, 2015).