1. Purpose

The purpose of this guideline is to present basic principles and directions on the roles and responsibilities necessary to prevent research misconduct, secure and comply with research ethics.

2. Subject

The authors/presenters of the papers submitted to the Journal of Sleep Medicine and presentations of the Korean Sleep Research Society (KSRS), follow the ethics guidelines below.

3. Research Misconduct

• Fabrication: making up research data and results, and recording or reporting them.
• Falsification: manipulating research materials, images, data, equipment, or processes. Falsification includes changing or omitting data or results in such a way that the research is not accurately represented.
• Plagiarism: the appropriation of the language, ideas or thoughts of another without crediting their true source and representation of them as one’s own original work.
• Improprieties of authorship: improper assignment of credit, such as excluding others, inclusion of individuals as authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work published.
• Duplicate publication: publishing the same intellectual material more than once, by the author or publisher.
• Duplicate publication: publishing the same intellectual material more than once, by the author or publisher.
• Inappropriate behavior in relation to misconduct: false accusations of misconduct, failure to report known or suspected misconduct, and retaliation against persons involved in the allegation or investigation.
• Violation of generally accepted research practices

4. Ethical Statements

All authors must agree and sign the authors ‘consent form’ regarding Copyright Transfer Agreement, Conflict of Interest, and Ethical Statement.

5. Research Ethics Committee

For identifying or informing misconduct and unethical behavior, our decision about the breach will be made by in-depth consultation with the research ethics committees. The research ethics committee consists of five members including the Ethics editor.

6. Verification procedures of the Misconduct

In cases of suspected misconduct, the ethics editor shall convene a meeting of the research ethics committee survey. Following proper investigation and deliberations, the decision will be handed to the editorial board.

7. Measures on the Misconduct

1) Protection of Informant’s Right

• Any member or non-member of KSRS may report any violation of research regulations.
• The Informant may provide information in any conceivable form, oral or written, by phone or email, using his/her real name as a matter of principle; provided, however, that any case in which an anonymous provision of information includes the project or paper title accompanied by details and substantive evidence of concrete misbehavior sent by post or email shall be treated as information provided under the real name.
• The informant’s personal information shall not be disclosed, and the research ethics committees shall make their best effort protecting against misuse of information or any disadvantage.
• These provisions shall not apply to the protection of the informants who reported even though they knew or should have known that the contents they reported is false.
• The Informant shall have the right to request that the Society provides information on the ongoing investigation procedure, schedule, etc. after reporting the misconduct.

2) Protection of Examinee’s Right

• The research ethics committee gives the examinee (a person who is under investigation for misconduct) an opportunity to give comments or clarify on the decision.
• The research ethics committee shall take great care not to unjustifiedly infringe on the reputation or rights of the persons subject to an investigation in the course of verification.
• Any suspicion of fraudulent act shall not be disclosed to the outside until the result of investigation is affirmed.

3) Disciplinary Action for Ethics Violations

• If an activity is determined to be an illegitimate research activity, the research ethics committee shall report the results of investigations to the board of directors of the KSRS. The decision of research fraud made by the committee shall be preserved for the period determined by the board of directors of the KSRS
• Depending on degree of violation, the board of directors will make the decision to the authors as follows:
  • ① A letter to the authors covering the misconduct and educating the ethics.
  • ② Suspension or revocation of membership of KSRS
  • ③ Suspension or revocation of future paper submission qualifications to Journal of Sleep Medicine

8. Others

For the policies on the research and publication ethics not stated in this guideline, ‘Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journals (Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors, 2008) can be applied.