Chapter 1 Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Article 1 All authors submitting manuscripts to this journal shall sign the Research Ethics Pledge.

Article 2 The scope of research misconduct shall be determined as follows, and authors who have performed the following actions shall be investigated and deliberated by the Research Ethics Committee.

• 1. Fabrication refers to the act of falsifying research data or research results that do not exist.
• 2. Falsification refers to the act of distorting the research content or results by artificially manipulating research materials, equipment, and processes, or by randomly modifying or deleting research data.
• 3. Plagiarism refers to the act of presenting ideas, creations, research contents, and research results of others as if they were the author's own without proper approval or proper source indication, and making a third party recognize them as the author's own creation.
  • 1) When all or part of the research content of another person is used without proper acknowledgement of the other work (i.e., the source is not indicated)
  • 2) When the words and the sentence structure of another person's work are partially modified, and the source is not indicated
  • 3) When other people's original ideas are used, and the source is not indicated
  • 4) When the work of others is translated and utilized, and the source is not indicated
• 4. Inappropriate author labeling does not grant authorship to the person who contributed or contributed to the research content or results without good cause, or refers to the act of granting authorship as a cause of gratitude or courtesy to a person who has not contributed or contributed:
  • 1) When authorship is granted even though there was no contribution to the research content or results
  • 2) When authorship was not granted even though there was contribution to the research content or results
  • 3) When the manuscript of the student advisee is published in the sole name of the academic advisor
• 5. Interfering with investigations into research misconduct means deliberately interfering with investigations into suspicion of misconduct by the author or others, or the act of harming the informant.
• 6. Research misconduct also includes activities that seriously deviate from research-related norms generally accepted in each academic field.

Article 3 Publication achievement

• 1. Authors shall be only responsible for the research they actually conducted or contributed and are also recognized for their achievements.
• 2. The order of authors shall accurately reflect the degree of contribution to the research regardless of their relative positions.
• 3. When multiple authors participate in joint research, they shall not submit or publish a manuscript as if it were their own without the consent of all the authors.

Article 4 Overlapping or dual publication of research materials

• 1. The author shall not publish (submit) or attempt to publish their previously published works (including those to be published or under review) as new ones, whether at home or abroad.
• 2. The author who intends to publish using a research article that has already been presented, must provide information about the previous publication to the editors of the journals he (she) wants to publish, and check whether it is eligible for duplicate publication or double publication. However, this regulation shall not apply to a paper presented at a conference.

Article 5 Citation and quotation marks

• 1. When quoting published academic material, it must be accurately described and the source must be clearly disclosed, unless it is considered common knowledge.
• 2. When quoting other people's writings or borrowing (reference) ideas, be sure to indicate whether it is cited or not or referenced or not.

Chapter 2 Ethical Responsibilities of Editorial board (members)

Article 1 The editorial board (members) shall be responsible for deciding whether to publish the submitted paper and shall respect the author's character and his (her) independence as a scholar.

Article 2 The editorial board (members) shall fairly treat papers submitted for journal publication based solely on the quality of the papers and the submission rules.

Article 3 The editorial board (members) shall refer to reviewers who have the expertise and fair judgment in the field to evaluate the submitted papers. However, the review of the author by a reviewer belonging to the same institution should be excluded.

Article 4 The editorial board (members) shall not disclose any information about the author or the contents of the paper to anyone other than the reviewer until the publication of the submitted manuscript is decided.

Chapter 3 Ethical Responsibilities of the Reviewer

Article 1 The reviewer shall faithfully evaluate the papers requested by the journal's editorial board (members) and notify the editorial board (members) of the evaluation results.

Article 2 The reviewer shall evaluate the paper fairly according to objective criteria, regardless of their personal academic beliefs or personal relationship with the author.

Article 3 The reviewer shall respect the character and independence of the author as a professional intellectual. S/he shall use polite and gentle expressions, as much as possible, and refrain from criticizing or insulting the author.

Article 4 The reviewer shall maintain the confidentiality of the author and the contents of the paper being reviewed and respect the copyright of the author.

Chapter 4 Guidelines for the Implementation of Ethical Responsibilities

Article 1 Report on violation of ethical responsibilities

When the editorial board (members), reviewer, and author become aware that the ethical responsibilities have been violated, efforts shall be made to correct the problem by reminding the subject of his (their) ethical responsibilities. However, if the problem is not corrected or an apparent violation of ethical responsibilities is revealed, it may be investigated and deliberated through the Research Ethics Committee of the Korean Society for Early Childhood Education.

Article 2 Purpose of the Research Ethics Committee

The Research Ethics Committee shall maintain the functions of the society and protect the rights and interests of members through warning and disciplinary action, in the event of the occurrence of conducts contrary to the purpose of the society.

Article 3 Composition of the Research Ethics Committee

• 1. The Research Ethics Committee shall consist of one Chairperson and few members constituting no more than 20 persons, which shall include the President of the KSECE, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors-in-Chief, Editorial board members, and Assistant Administrator.
• 2. Subcommittees may be established to pursue specific tasks of the Committee.

Article 4 Investigation and deliberation by the Research Ethics Committee

The Research Ethics Committee shall determine the contents of disciplinary action through investigation and deliberation. Those subject to review shall cooperate with the investigation and deliberation conducted by the Research Ethics Committee. Failure to cooperate with the investigation will in itself be a violation of the Ethical Responsibilities.

Article 5 Deliberation report

The Research Ethics Committee shall deliberate on the subject's violations of the Ethical Responsibilities and report the deliberation results to the President of the Society. The subject's violation of Ethical Responsibilities and deliberation results shall be documented in writing and reported. The report must include the contents of the subject's violation of Ethical Responsibilities, the list of members and the deliberation process of the Research Ethics Committee, the results of the deliberation and relevant grounds, and the subject's explanation and the procedure for handling the subject's violation of the Ethical Responsibilities.

Article 6 Guarantee of opportunity to explain

The subject of deliberation shall be given ample opportunity for clarification. If the subject of deliberation disputes the decision of the Research Ethics Committee, the Research Ethics Committee may be asked to re-deliberate or to supplement the report. Requests for re-deliberation or supplementation of the report shall be made to the Research Ethics Committee with documents that cite specific reasons for the request.

Article 7 Contents and procedures for disciplinary action

The Research Ethics Committee determines the content of disciplinary action through investigation and deliberation. Disciplinary actions may include revocation of the manuscript and prohibition of citation, deletion from the list of published manuscripts in the journal, public apology and announcement on the website of the society, suspension or expulsion of membership, prohibition of manuscript submission (at least 3 years), detailed notification to the National Research Foundation of Korea and to the institution the subject belongs (and the research support institution in the case research funding has been received), and such disciplinary actions can be determined in duplicate. Any violations of the Ethical Responsibilities shall be recorded in writing and preserved, and the President of the Society shall immediately implement the Research Ethics Committee's decisions after approval (in accordance with Chapter 3, Article 9 (2017.4.) of the Korean Research Foundation's Guidelines for Management of the Journal Registration System).

Article 8 Confidentiality protection for the author

The Research Ethics Committee must not disclose the identity of the author to the outside world until a final disciplinary decision has been made for violating the Ethical Responsibilities.

Article 9 Revisions to the Ethical Responsibilities

• Revisions to the Ethical Responsibilities must be made in accordance with the procedure for revising the regulations relating to this journal. When the Ethical Responsibilities is revised, authors who had pledged to comply with the existing rules are deemed to have pledged to comply with the new rules without additional pledges.
• ※ Matters not specified in this Ethical Responsibilities will be decided after deliberation by the Research Ethics Committee of the Korean Society for Early Childhood Education.