The Research Ethics Guidelines

The Research Ethics Guidelines for Literature and Religion(Established on August 2007)


Chapter 1 (Purpose)
The Research Ethics Guidelines for authors, editors, and readers, and for all members, including the Research Ethics Committee, of the Korean Society for Literature and Religion (the KSLR hereafter) aim to prevent research misconduct and provide a fair standard with which to ascertain the truth when research misconduct occurs. 

Chapter 2 (Research Ethics Guidelines)
1. The KSLR supports researchers responsible for their academic honesty.  
2. The submitter should not take part or all of others' research without acknowledgments, which is regarded as an act of plagiarism. In case of any act of plagiarism, the KSLR does not acknowledge such manuscript as a published manuscript. 
3. The submitter should not send one's manuscript to two publishers at the same time for publication; or should not re-publish research if it has already been published elsewhere. Only the participant who has contributed to research should be put as an author.
4. The KSLR promotes high quality of research through all members' free and fair participation and exchange of opinions. 

Chapter 3 (The Research Ethics Committee Regulations)
1. When a case of research misconduct occurs by five or more members or the board of directors, the president of the KSLR can form the research ethics committee (the committee hereafter) to correct the case.  
2. The committee is a temporary committee with five members that lasts from the occurrence and closing of the case. The very former president the KSLR serves as the Chair of the committee. The General Secretary and the Editor-in-Chief serve as ex officio members, and the rest of the committee members are selected among the previous presidents of the KSLR who are appointed by the current president.  
3. The committee shall maintain its independence with regards to its operation and activities.  
4. Any members that are involved in the research of the matter cannot participate in any of the review process.  
5. All committee members shall observe secret with regards to the case.  
6. The committee should allow the submitter to defend oneself fully and handle the review process fairly in a timely manner within 60 days of the initial date of the case.  
7. A committee meeting is held by more than half of the committee members, and a decision is made by more than half of the members present.  
8. The committee should report the result to the board of directors that ends the temporary committee.

Chapter 4 (Decision of the Research Ethics Committee)  
1. The committee review the case and make one of the following decisions:  
1) Approval: the case is clear from suspicion.   
2) Conditional approval: the case does not severely damage the academic aim of the KSLR, but the submitter needs to revise parts of the manuscript.   
3) Reexamination upon revision: the case can be interpreted to conflict against the academic aim of the KSLR, but the manuscript is worth researching that can be revised.   
4) Reject: the case severely conflicts with the academic aim of the KSLR or the code of research conduct and ethics so that the KSLR cannot acknowledge it as a publication of the KSLR.       5) When the case is rejected, the KSLR permanently prohibits the submitter (including co-author(s)) from submitting manuscripts to Literature and Religion and deprives one of one's membership. If the case is rejected upon the publication of the manuscript in Literature and Religion, the KSLR will unload the manuscript from the homepage and make announcement of such finding on the homepage of the KSLR. In addition, the KSLR will inform the submitter's affiliation of the case. (All publications in 2014 will be backdated by chapter 24, 'follow-up on the result of investigation' in accordance with the Ministry Education ordinance 60, <the Research Ethics Guidelines>. )
2. The committee should inform the submitter of the result in writing within 15 days.

Chapter 5 (Others)  
1. If the committee makes a decision on the case of research misconduct as it is, the KSLR does not return all the submission and reviewing fees.    
2. All matters unspecified in the guidelines shall follow the decision of the committee.    
3. The committee should keep the review process in written form and report to the board of directors.    
4. The committee constantly requests the editorial committee to keep and verify a check list of research ethics guidelines for submitters and reviewers.
5. The checklist of research ethics guidelines for submitters and reviewers are as follows:
1) The Editor-in-Chief should examine core themes including key words of the submitted manuscripts through all the domestic and international Internet search engines.
2) The Editor-in-Chief should inspect academic honesty of the submitted manuscripts by comparing the contents and works cited of the manuscripts and domestic and international references.
3) The Editor-in-Chief should inspect similarity of the title, key words and quotes of the submitted manuscripts through similarity search system of the KCI. 
6. The Chair of the committee will examine the contents of the checklist (Article 5) in the Editorial Board meetings.

Addendum
Chapter 1. The Research Ethics Guidelines take effect as from Aug. 1, 2007.    
Chapter 2. The Research Ethics Guidelines take effect as from June 26, 2014.  
Chapter 3. The Research Ethics Guidelines take effect as from Jan. 15, 2015.
Chapter 4. The Research Ethics Guidelines take effect as from Aug. 20, 2015.