The scientific journal should provide accurate instructions for writing and submitting article manuscripts. This helps the journal to establish a favorable relationship with the authors. This relationship must be honest, professional, and polite.
The chief editor and editorial board should have professional interaction with the authors too. They should also make sure that the ethical standards are followed and no confidential information is disclosed.
Authors are also expected to maintain a professional relationship with the scientific journals, and consider conflicts of interest in their articles. The chief editor must know the opinion of the author about the scientific journal. When conflicts of interest occur, the deputy and assistant editor should feel responsible and try to resolve the problem. Thus the authors can make sure that this issue will not affect the final decision made for the article.
In short, the journal should have an honest, polite, and professional relationship with its authors. When a writer submits a manuscript to a scientific journal, she/he must give the journal the publication right. It is needless to mention that the journal first after reviews and applies the necessary changes. Many journals ask the authors to sign a copyright form. This means that the journal becomes the rightful owner of the article and also has the right to publish it. If the authors sign this form, they no longer have the right to publish the article unless the journal allows it. But, some scientific journals allow authors to use the article for non-commercial purposes. Another way of transferring the copyright is to grant a license to the journal for specific purposes. In this way, the authors can use the article for educational purposes. Furthermore, the author can give the journal the right to make changes to the article.
Copyright Ownership
When an author submits a manuscript to a journal, she/he must also give the journal the right to publish it, since submitting the manuscript does not mean so. Many scientific journals ask the authors to transfer the copyright. By doing this the scientific journal owns the article and has the permission to publish it. In this way, the authors have no right to copy or publish the article unless they have the permission of the scientific journal.
The authors can also give the journal a publishing license. This license means that the journal only has the publication right, and the author remains the article’s rightful owner.
Even if the authors transfer the copyright of their article to the scientific journal, their moral rights must be preserved. This means that the article’s content should not change without the author’s consent.
In some cases, the authors cannot transfer the copyright to the scientific journal. For example, some organizations like the World Health Organization do not transfer the copyright ownership of their articles. So, if transferring the copyright is mandatory according to some journals’ guidelines, there should be an alternative system for authors who are not allowed to do it.