Ethical Approach of Editors-in-Chief and Their Share of Publishing Articles in Their Own Journals

Like other different aspects of individual and social life, in the publishing world, editors should preserve professional’s ethics principles and just choose articles that are accurate, ethical, scientific and responsibly made. This article shows any abuse of scientific status and consequently immorality in scientific publications of editor’s in chief.
The present study is a descriptive – analytic survey with a scientometric approach. The sample of this research is 248 journals out of 691 journals with IF. Data was extracted from Science Citation Index (SCI) and analysis was done by Excel.
Findings show that journals in which editors in chief have the greatest share with 5 and 3.6% belongs to Natural resources , humanities and agricultural sciences fields and the journals in which members of the publishing institute have the greatest share, belong to medical sciences and veterinary. In some journals of humanities and agricultural sciences, more than 10% of articles published over these 2 years belong to editors in chief, which have resulted in the fact that in many cases editors in chief have become the most prolific authors of their own journals.
Ethical practice of editors and journal’s publisher members can encourage writers, especially young ones in sending their papers in prestigious journals. Therefore having ethical principles by members of the Editorial Board will have an effect in creation of a positive attitude to the journal and promotion of respect and dignity of the journal, over time.