Background
Coastal and Ocean Journal (COJ)  has to ensure that all published works within the journal follow ethical principles on academic publishing. It is therefore essential to set an ethical standard for all stakeholders to create a conducive environment and to avoid problems that may arise due to a certain conflict of interest. This document presents the policy of Coastal and Ocean Journal on the respective publication ethics and malpractice statement as guidance for all stakeholders of the journal. Publication ethics of this journal are adopted from COPE's Core Practices and Elsevier Publishing Ethics.

Publication and authorship
All persons listed as authors should qualify for authorship. Such authorship should be limited to persons who have contributed significantly to the conception, design, execution, data acquisition, data analysis or interpretation of the manuscript. All other persons who have participated in certain important aspects of the research but do not qualify as authors, then they should be acknowledged. Authorship is a responsibility of the corresponding author; he or she should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included in the manuscript. The corresponding author, on behalf of all co-authors, should submit a form (Form A) stating that all of them have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to submit it for publication. Request to add or remove author(s) or to arrange the author names of the accepted manuscript before it is published, must be sent to Chief Editor.

Responsibilities of authors
Authors are obliged to follow in peer review process set by Coastal and Ocean Journal (COJ). Authors are responsible to provide original and accurate data (no plagiarism, no fraudulent data) concerning the manuscript submitted, and to provide the data when they are requested. The submitted manuscript should not be under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere. Where parts of the data have been published elsewhere, the sources have to be acknowledged or cited accordingly. When reproducing data from other sources, proper citation and permission are required. Authors should ensure that studies involving animals are performed according to animal ethics and welfare. Any potential conflict of interest has to be declared including any financial, personal, or other relationships with other people or organizations related to their work that could affect their work. All sources of financial supports for the research project and study sponsor(s) (if any) along with their role in the research or study, should be disclosed in the Acknowledgement. Authors are requested to be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Responsibilities of reviewers
Reviewers are requested to assist in improving the quality of the manuscript through an objective review process within a scheduled period of time, and to contribute to the decision-making process on the manuscript. If reviewers find any published or submitted content similar to that under review, the editor has to be informed. Reviewers should have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors, and/or the research funders. Any confidentiality of information supplied by the editor or author should be maintained.

Responsibilities of editors
Editors have complete responsibility and authority to accept or reject an article. They should have no conflict of interest with regard to articles they accept or reject. Editors should be objective and fair when conducting their duties without making any discrimination on gender, ethnic, religion, political view or geographical origin of the authors. Editors should also accept manuscripts on the basis of academic merit and without commercial influence. Anonymity of reviewers should be preserved by editors.

Publishing ethics issues
Authors, reviewers, and editors should maintain the integrity of the academic record during the whole process of publication. Business needs should be precluded from compromising intellectual and ethical standards.

Animal ethics issues
Authors should ensure that studies involving animals are performed according to animal ethics and welfare. All experimental animals should be cared for and used in compliance with international, national or local regulations. The authors should state explicitly in a statement/letter including the name of ethics authority and the approval number, that experiments were approved by an authority concerning the compliance with animal ethics and welfare.

Authors could refer to International Standards for Editors and Authors (https://publicationethics.org/resources/resources-and-further-reading/international-standards-editors-and-authors) by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) for policies that are not stated in this instructions.