Enactment revised March 20, 2018
Recently revised March 27, 2020

 

For the policies on research and publication ethics not stated in the Instructions, Guidelines on Good Publication (http://publicationethics.org/) or Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journals (http://kamje.or.kr/) can be applied.

1. Conflict-of-Interest statement
The corresponding author of an article is asked to inform the Editor of the authors’ potential conflicts of interest possibly influencing their interpretation of data. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. A potential conflict of interest should be disclosed in the manuscript even when the authors are confident that their judgments have not been influenced in preparing the manuscript. The disclosure form should be the same as the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest (http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-ofinterest/).

2. Statement of human and animal rights
Clinical research should be done in accordance with the Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, as outlined in the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 (revised 2013) (available from: https://www.wma.net/policy) (Korean version is available).
Copies of written informed consents should be kept for studies on human subjects. For the clinical studies with human subjects, there should be a certificate, an agreement, or the approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the author’s affiliated institution. If necessary, the editor or reviewers may request copies of these documents to resolve questions about IRB approval and study conduct.

3. Registration of the clinical trial research
Any research that deals with a clinical trial should be registered with the primary national clinical trial registry site such as the Korea Clinical Research Information Service (CRiS, http://cris.nih.go.kr), other primary national registry sites accredited by the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform/network/primary-registries) or ClinicalTrials.gov (http://clinicaltrials.gov/), a service of the United States National Institutes of Health.

4. Authorship
Authorship credit should be based on: 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, 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; and 4) agreeing to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that the questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authors should meet these 4 conditions. If the number of authors is equal to or greater than 2, there should be a list of each author’s role in the submitted paper. Description of co-first authors or co-corresponding authors is also accepted if the corresponding author believes that such roles existed in contributing to the manuscript. Authors are obliged to participate in peer review process.

5. Ethics Regulations Regarding Special Relationships

1) Introduction
To maintain ethical standards in academic research, it is crucial to address special relationships that may arise within the authorship of a paper. This regulation aims to ensure transparency and prevent improper authorship when authors involve individuals under the age of 19 or family members (spouse, child, etc. within the fourth degree of consanguinity) in their research or collaborate with them.

2) Disclosure of Special Relationships
If an author includes a person under the age of 19 or a family member within the fourth degree of consanguinity in the research or collaborates with them in writing a paper, the author must disclose this information before submission. The author should provide clear and explicit details about the nature of the relationship and their involvement in the research process.

3) Review for Improper Authorship
The Editorial Board will conduct a thorough review to ensure proper authorship when special relationships are disclosed. This review aims to assess whether the involvement of the person under the age of 19 or the family member meets the criteria for appropriate authorship based on their substantial contribution to the research.

4) Ensuring Ethical Practices
The disclosure of special relationships and the subsequent review process for proper authorship aim to maintain the integrity and credibility of the research. By adhering to these ethics regulations, authors can demonstrate their commitment to transparent and responsible research practices.

5) Consequences of Improper Authorship
In cases where improper authorship is identified, the Editorial Board may take appropriate actions based on their policies and guidelines. These actions may include, but are not limited to, requesting the removal or reassignment of authorship, conducting further investigations, or imposing sanctions as deemed necessary.

6. Originality and duplicate publication
Redundant or duplicate publication refers to the publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published. Upon receipt, submitted manuscripts are screened for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication using Crossref Similarity Check. If a paper that might be regarded as duplicate or redundant had already been published in another journal or submitted for publication, the author should notify the fact in advance at the time of submission. Under these conditions, any such work should be referred to and referenced in the new paper. The new manuscript should be submitted together with copies of the duplicate or redundant material to the editorial committee. If redundant or duplicate publication is attempted or occurs without such notification, the submitted manuscript will be rejected immediately. If the editor was not aware of the violations and of the fact that the article had already been published, the editor will announce in the journal that the submitted manuscript had already been published in a duplicate or redundant manner, without seeking the author’s explanation or approval.

7. Process to manage the research and publication misconduct

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, and other issues, the resolving process will follow the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts). The Editorial Board of ACM will discuss the suspected cases and reach a decision. ACM will not hesitate to publish errata, corrigenda, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

8. Scope of the research and publication misconduct

Research and publication misconduct, which is dealt with in this Code of Ethics, refers to forgery, falsification, plagiarism, unfair indication of authorship, etc. that may occur in the proposal of R&D tasks, performance of R&D, reporting and presentation of R&D results, etc. is as follows.

(1) An act of creating false data or research results that do not exist
(2) Distorting research contents or results by artificially manipulating research materials, equipment, and processes, or arbitrarily transforming or deleting data
(3) Stealing other people’s ideas, research contents, and research results without proper approval or citation
(4) The act of not granting thesis authorship to a person who has contributed to research content or research results without a justifiable reason, or granting thesis authorship to a person who has not contributed for reasons such as expressions of gratitude or courtesy
(5) An act of intentionally interfering with an investigation into suspicion of misconduct by oneself or others or harming an informant
(6) Acts that seriously deviate from the range generally accepted in the scientific and technological world
(7) In addition to the acts mentioned above, misconduct that the Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology determines to require investigation or prevention.

However, if a paper with the same content is published in two or more different journals and meets the following requirements, it is regarded as secondary publication and allowed.

(1) When all the editors of the journal have agreed in writing
(2) In the case where the secondary publication and the original text (primary journal) are specified in the secondary publication journal
(3) When the content and conclusion are the same (it is recommended that the second thesis be abbreviated as much as possible).
(4) If the readership of the two journals is different and the publication date of the secondary journal differs by more than one week
(5) When the authors of both papers are the same

9. Committee of the research and publication ethics

(1) In principle, the Committee is composed of 5 or more members appointed by the President of the Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology, but other types of verification organizations may be established and operated in consideration of the scale and scope of misconduct.
(2) The Ethics Committee shall include experts in the research field and outsiders who are not affiliated with the research institute as follows.
 – More than 50% of experts in the research field
 – More than 20% of outsiders who are not affiliated with the Korean Society for Clinical Microbiology
(3) The Ethics Committee is in charge of investigating and reporting misconduct when it recognizes or receives reports of ethical violations related to the Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology.
(4) The chairperson of the Ethics Committee is elected among the members.

10. Authority of the committee

(1) The Committee may request attendance for statements from the informant, the person under investigation, the witness, and the reference person during the investigation process. In this case, the person under investigation must comply, and not cooperating with this investigation itself constitutes a violation of the Code of Ethics.
(2) The Committee may request the examinee to submit data, and to preserve the evidence, the head of the research institute where the examinee works is recommended to restrict access to the laboratory for those involved in misconduct, confiscate and store the research data, etc. can do.
(3) The Committee may recommend appropriate sanctions to the head of the research institute where the person under investigation is involved in misconduct that is determined to be true.

By implementing these ethics regulations, we aim to foster an environment of integrity, fairness, and accountability in academic research, thereby upholding the highest standards of ethical conduct.