Information For Librarians

The Fari Journal of Social Sciences and Law values the important role that librarians play in supporting the academic publishing ecosystem. This Publication Ethics for Librarians policy outlines the responsibilities and expectations of librarians in their interactions with the journal, ensuring the ethical use and dissemination of published content while upholding the integrity of scholarly publishing.

1. Promotion of Ethical Access to Content

  • Respecting Intellectual Property: Librarians are responsible for ensuring that all published content from the Fari Journal of Social Sciences and Law is made available and accessed in accordance with copyright laws and the journal's licensing agreements.
  • Open Access: As the journal follows an open-access model, librarians should promote free and unrestricted access to the journal’s content to all readers, ensuring the work reaches its intended audience without any barriers. They should support the dissemination of the journal’s content through institutional repositories, digital platforms, and library systems.

2. Archiving and Long-Term Accessibility

  • Long-Term Preservation: Librarians play a key role in ensuring the long-term preservation of the journal’s articles and research. They should participate in archiving the journal's content through institutional, national, and international repositories (e.g., LOCKSS, CLOCKSS, Portico) to guarantee permanent access.
  • Data Preservation: Librarians should also assist in ensuring that supplementary materials such as data sets, figures, or additional research materials are archived alongside the articles, promoting transparency and future access to the full scope of the research.

3. Supporting Authors and Researchers

  • Promoting Ethical Publishing: Librarians should educate authors, researchers, and students about ethical publishing practices, such as proper citation, avoiding plagiarism, and respecting copyright.
  • Support for Self-Archiving: Librarians should encourage authors to deposit the final version of their work into institutional repositories or other appropriate platforms after a certain embargo period (e.g., 12 months), facilitating wider dissemination while adhering to the journal’s open-access policy.
  • Data Sharing: Librarians can support researchers by promoting the use of open data repositories and assisting with the ethical sharing of research data in line with the journal’s guidelines.

4. Copyright and Licensing

  • Copyright Compliance: Librarians must ensure that the journal’s published content is used in compliance with its copyright and licensing terms. This includes making sure that users, including faculty, students, and researchers, understand how the content can be legally shared and reused.
  • Encouraging Proper Citation: Librarians should guide readers on proper citation practices for the journal’s articles, reinforcing the importance of giving credit to authors and the intellectual property contained in the research.

5. Ethical Use of Published Materials

  • Responsible Use: Librarians must ensure that the published content is used for educational, scholarly, and academic purposes. Any commercial use, redistribution, or manipulation of content should be in line with the journal's open-access license or individual copyright agreements.
  • Access to the Research Community: Librarians should provide equitable access to the journal’s research materials, especially to institutions, libraries, or individuals who may face financial barriers to accessing scholarly content. Librarians should also help promote the journal’s work to academic researchers globally.

6. Ensuring Access to Ethical Research

  • Encouraging Engagement with Ethical Research: Librarians should promote content that adheres to high ethical standards, supporting research that is honest, transparent, and rigorously peer-reviewed.
  • Ethics in Resource Sharing: In cases where the journal identifies issues with ethical violations in published content (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication, or ethical misconduct), librarians should ensure that retracted or withdrawn articles are properly flagged and no longer disseminated without the proper retraction notice.

7. Assisting with Retractions and Corrections

  • Handling Retractions: If an article is retracted or corrected, librarians should ensure that retraction notices and correction notices are clearly displayed alongside the original content. This ensures that readers are aware of the reasons for the changes and maintain academic integrity.
  • Up-to-Date Archives: Librarians should ensure that the journal’s archives are up-to-date and accurate, with retracted articles marked accordingly, ensuring the integrity of the academic record.

8. Facilitating Reader and Author Engagement

  • Encouraging Engagement with Content: Librarians can encourage readers to critically engage with the content, facilitating discussions, providing feedback, and sharing research with others in the academic community. This helps foster a collaborative and dynamic scholarly environment.
  • Promoting the Journal’s Content: Librarians should help promote the journal’s articles within the library’s catalog system, digital platforms, and across academic communities, increasing the visibility and accessibility of the journal’s research.

9. Ensuring Privacy and Confidentiality

  • Confidentiality: Librarians must respect the confidentiality of unpublished manuscripts and not disclose any content or data related to the manuscripts before they are formally published, especially when working with manuscripts in the peer review or pre-publication stages.
  • Data Privacy: If the journal handles personal or sensitive data related to authors, reviewers, or readers, librarians must ensure that the data is stored and processed in compliance with data protection laws and institutional privacy policies.

10. Reporting Ethical Issues

  • Encouraging Ethical Reporting: Librarians should be aware of the journal’s policies regarding ethical misconduct and encourage authors, readers, and researchers to report any issues, such as plagiarism or data manipulation, to the editorial team.
  • Supporting Ethical Investigations: If ethical concerns arise about the published content, librarians may assist the editorial team in retrieving previous versions of articles or assisting with the investigation into suspected academic misconduct.

11. Feedback and Suggestions

  • Feedback Channels: Librarians are encouraged to provide feedback to the editorial team regarding the journal’s accessibility, usability, and content delivery. Feedback from libraries and academic communities is invaluable in improving the journal’s policies and practices.

12. Policy Review and Updates

  • This Publication Ethics for Librarians policy will be reviewed periodically to ensure it aligns with current best practices in library science, academic publishing, and ethical standards.
  • Updates to the policy will be communicated to all stakeholders, including librarians, authors, editors, and readers, via the journal’s website and other official channels.

By adhering to this Publication Ethics for Librarians policy, the Fari Journal of Social Sciences and Law ensures that its content is disseminated and preserved with the utmost respect for intellectual property, ethical standards, and academic integrity. Librarians play a vital role in ensuring the ethical use, access, and preservation of the journal’s research, promoting a fair and responsible scholarly community.