Statement of Ethics

Harmonized Ethics Framework

The Wah Academia Journal of Health and Nutrition is committed to maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity, transparency, and ethical responsibility. Ethical publishing sustains the credibility of science and protects public trust in research.

The journal follows internationally recognized standards, including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Principles of Transparency and Best Practice https://publicationethics.org/principles-transparency and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/. All participants in the publication process are expected to comply with these frameworks. 

Core Ethical Frameworks and Support Resources

Our editorial policies are guided by internationally established ethical and reporting standards, including

These resources provide practical guidance for responsible authorship, peer review, and editorial governance. Authors and reviewers are encouraged to consult these guidelines during manuscript preparation and evaluation.

This framework governs all editorial, peer-review, and publishing activities of WAJHN and is applied uniformly across all journal policy pages.

  1. Allegations of Misconduct

(COPE Core Practice: Allegations of Misconduct)

WAJHN follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance for identifying, investigating, and resolving allegations of research or publication misconduct, including plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, image manipulation, citation manipulation, and unethical research practices. All allegations are handled confidentially, fairly, and transparently using COPE flowcharts and recommendations. COPE guidance on misconduct: https://publicationethics.org/guidance

  1. Authorship and Contributorship

(COPE Core Practice: Authorship and Contributorship)

Authorship is restricted to individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to the research, manuscript preparation, and final approval. All listed authors share responsibility for the integrity of the work. Practices such as ghost authorship, gift authorship, or honorary authorship are not permitted, in accordance with COPE and WAME principles. WAME authorship policies: https://wame.org/policies

  1. Conflicts of Interest

(COPE Core Practice: Conflicts of Interest)

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose all financial, personal, institutional, or professional relationships that could influence their work or decision-making. Declared conflicts are assessed and managed transparently. COPE conflict of interest guidance: https://publicationethics.org/competing-interests

  1. Data Integrity and Reproducibility

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of their data. Fabrication, falsification, or selective reporting of data constitutes misconduct. Where appropriate and ethically permissible, authors are encouraged to retain and share underlying data in line with transparency and reproducibility standards.

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts:

  • Are original and have not been published or submitted elsewhere
  • Accurately report data and methods in a transparent manner
  • Properly cite all sources and acknowledge contributions
  • Comply with relevant ethical and legal requirements

Authorship should be based on substantial intellectual contribution, in accordance with ICMJE authorship criteria http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/ The journal encourages the use of the CRediT taxonomy for contributor roles https://credit.niso.org/

  1. Ethical Oversight

(COPE Core Practice: Ethical Oversight)

5.1 Research Involving Human Participants

WAJHN requires that all research involving human participants adheres to the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and receives prior approval from a recognized ethics committee or institutional review board.

Authors must confirm:

  • Ethical approval was obtained
  • Informed consent was secured
  • Participant confidentiality and welfare were protected

Official Declaration of Helsinki (full text): https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/

5.2 Research Involving Animals

Research involving animals must comply with internationally accepted standards for animal care and welfare and must be approved by an appropriate institutional animal ethics committee. Animal research must follow internationally accepted welfare standards, including the ARRIVE guidelines https://arriveguidelines.org/

  • Manuscripts lacking clear ethical justification or approval may be rejected.

5.3 Reporting Standards and Clinical Trial Registration

To promote transparency and reproducibility, authors are encouraged to follow recognized reporting guidelines:

Clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov) before participant enrollment. Registration details must be reported in the manuscript.

  1. Intellectual Property

(COPE Core Practice: Intellectual Property)

Authors must ensure that submitted work is original and properly cites all sources. Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism and redundant publication, is unacceptable. WAJHN uses plagiarism detection tools and follows COPE recommendations when overlap or duplication is detected.
COPE plagiarism guidance: https://publicationethics.org/plagiarism

  1. Journal Management

(COPE Core Practice: Journal Management)

The Wah Academia Journal of Health and Nutrition is managed in accordance with internationally recognized standards of transparency, accountability, and editorial responsibility. The journal maintains clearly defined governance structures, documented editorial workflows, and publicly accessible policies covering submission, peer review, decision-making, and publication.

Editorial roles and responsibilities are explicitly defined to ensure integrity, consistency, and fairness throughout the publication process. Editorial decisions are based solely on scholarly merit, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal’s scope, without influence from commercial, institutional, or personal interests.

The journal regularly reviews and updates its policies to reflect evolving best practices in scholarly publishing and ethical oversight, in alignment with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices. Operational procedures are designed to support ethical decision-making, efficient manuscript handling, and the long-term integrity of the scholarly record. COPE Core Practices – Journal Management: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices

  1. Peer Review Processes

(COPE Core Practice: Peer Review Processes)

Peer review at WAJHN is conducted in a fair, unbiased, and confidential manner. Reviewers are required to:

  • Maintain confidentiality
  • Declare conflicts of interest
  • Provide objective and constructive evaluations

Editorial decisions are based solely on scholarly merit, relevance, and methodological rigor. COPE peer review guidance: https://publicationethics.org/peerreview

  1. Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections

(COPE Core Practice: Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections)

WAJHN supports scholarly debate and transparency after publication. Where errors or concerns arise, the journal may issue corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern following COPE procedures. COPE retraction guidelines: https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines

  1. Editorial Independence

(COPE Core Practice: Editorial Independence)

Editorial decisions are made independently and are not influenced by the journal’s owners, sponsors, advertisers, or institutional affiliations. This principle aligns with COPE and WAME recommendations. WAME editorial independence statement: https://wame.org/editorial-independence

Attribution and Use of Third-Party Ethical Standards

WAJHN acknowledges that the ethical principles referenced in this framework are developed and owned by their respective organizations. The journal does not reproduce protected texts in full but adopts these standards through explicit attribution and direct access to official sources.

Policy Review and Updates

This policy is reviewed periodically to ensure continued alignment with international ethical standards and indexing requirements, including Web of Science and Embase.

Updates are published on the journal’s official website.