Code of Research Ethics

THE COSTUME CULTURE ASSOCIATION
Code of Research Ethics
The Research Journal of the Costume Culture

Enacted in April 12, 2008
Most recently revised in August 11, 2021

Preamble

The role of regular members of The Costume Culture Association (CCA) is to expand their knowledge in the textiles and fashion field and to provide their knowledge and ability for the well-being of individuals and society through professional and scientific research activities. This Code of Research Ethics stipulates the principles and standards that members of CCA are required to follow in the course of their research and academic activities. Its members’ duty is to always endeavor to act with the highest standard of ethical responsibilities. Members have an obligation to recognize the scope of their knowledge and ability on the basis of professional and scientific activities and to try to avoid from the personal, social, economic, and political influence that may make them exploit or abuse their knowledge and ability.

Chapter 1. General Ethics

1. Basic Obligations of Members
1) Members shall strive for the development of individuals and society.
2) Members shall carry out tasks truthfully, honestly, and accurately in the fields of academic research, teaching, and assessment.
3) Members should be aware that their work could have an impact on society and humanity and, therefore, perform their responsibilities as experts based on trust.
4) Members shall use their best efforts to ensure that the results of their research and services can be provided fairly to everyone who needs them.
5) Members respect the dignity and value of people, as well as individuals’ rights to privacy and self-determination.

2. Expertise
1) Members’ efforts should be continued to develop and maintain their skills and expertise.
2) Members shall pursue scientific knowledge in their professional fields and should constantly strive to deliver it accurately.

3. Work-related Relationships
1) Members shall respect fellow members and shall not give criticism that is not based on facts in regard to the work-related activities of fellow members.
2) Members will work collaboratively with professionals in other fields of expertise while maintaining integrity and patience.

Chapter 2. Research-related Ethics

1. Academic Freedom and Social Responsibilities
Members engaged in research have the fundamental right to academic freedom and the social obligations and responsibilities that it entails.
1) Members should not discriminate on the basis of ideology, religion, age, gender, social class, or cultural group and should accept and recognize academic achievements in their own rights.
2) Members shall endeavor to correct their errors if convincing evidence has been found to refute their claims.
3) Members shall review new research issues, system of thought, and approaches without prejudice.
4) Bioethics:
Respect and Protection of Research Participants
(1) In case of conducting a research on life, members should respect participants and prioritize safety and protection of them.
(2) Personal information that may violate the human rights and privacy of participants should be protected as confidential except with the agreement of the participants or for legal provisions.
(3) Members should respect research participants' autonomy and acknowledge that voluntary agreements are valid only when participants are fully informed.
(4) Members should take special protective measures for participants when conducting research on individuals or groups in vulnerable situations.
(5) In case of planning a life-based research, members are strongly recommended to obtain approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Members should notice that it is an IRB-approved study when publishing.
5) Sex and gender identity
(1) In the research of human subjects, sex (biological factors) and gender (socio-cultural factors) should be distinguished and described accurately.
(2) Research participants should be arranged and presented by sexual or gender components and the interpretation of research results should reflect the characteristics of participants.
(3) Researchers should provide academic justification for the research when studying a single sex or gender.

2. Research-related Misconduct
1) Members shall not commit plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, unjustified authorship, or other acts that deviate from the acceptable range in each academic field. Fabrication is the act of inventing data or results without actually measuring them or acquiring them through investigation. Data falsification is manipulating research procedures or changing or omitting data without reasonable justification. Unjustified authorship is defined as the act of not attributing authorship to an individual who has made scientific contributions or attributing authorship to an individual who has not made scientific contributions, which is prohibited on the grounds of treating others with honor.
2) When members discover critical errors from the published data, members shall take measures to rectify the errors using appropriate publication means, such as correction, cancellation, and errata. If a publication is suspected of research misconduct, the manuscript’s original view service through the journal homepage is temporarily suspended until a verdict has been reached. If the manuscript is cleared of suspension as a final decision of research ethics committee, the service is resumed.

3. Publishing Credits and Authorship
The following are recognized as authors' results and authorship.
1) Members are only responsible and accredited as an author for studies they have conducted or contributed to.
2) Authors should not present or publish their own research works (including those under review or those to be published in other journals) in any other journals domestically and internationally published.
3) With regard to the order of author names in an article, the order shall accurately reflect authors’ relative contribution to the study, regardless of hierarchical position.
4) All people who contributed to the manuscript have authorship. When members request to add or remove an author or to rearrange the author names, the following regulations are followed.
(1) An authorship change is only possible when all authors agree with the change.
(2) An authorship change follows the decision by the editorial committee after the submission of a statement of reason for change signed by all authors.
(3) If the editorial committee approves the authorship change, the author(s) have to send the submission form, copyright transfer agreement, and declaration of ethical conduct form, explicitly stating the full author list.
(4) All authorship changes are only possible before the stage of publishing.
5) The author improves the reliability of the research by providing detailed information of the affiliation and position (author information) of the author including ORCID number.
6) When an article stems from a master’s thesis or a doctoral dissertation, the relevant student shall be the first author. The author should indicate that the manuscript is condensed from the author’s master’s thesis (doctoral dissertation).
7) The authorship should be satisfied with all the following four requirements. If not, the authorship is not to be given and participants are considered as contributors. (1) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; (2) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; (3) Final approval of the version to be published; and (4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work.

Chapter 3. Review-related Ethics

1. Review
1) Reviewers should respect the confidentiality of the review process. It is important to recognize that the manuscript is confidential. Reviewers should not cite the manuscript before publishing without permission.
2) Reviewers should be prompt with their reviews unless a reason is given.
3) Reviewers of the same affiliations with authors are excluded from the reviews. Reviewers should evaluate manuscripts according to objective standards, regardless of personal relationships with the authors or personal beliefs.
4) When research misconduct or redundant publication is discovered during the review process, the reviewer should inform the editorial board of the result and return it.

Chapter 4. Guidelines for the Implementation of the Code of Research Ethics

1. Pledge to Code of Research Ethics
And individual must pledge to the Code of Research Ethics to become a member of The Costume Culture Association. Those who were already members when this Code of Research Ethics took effect are deemed to have pledged to it.

2. Research Ethics Committee Establishment and Operation
1) The Costume Culture Association establishes a research ethics committee in order to reach a verdict on code of ethics violations. The Research Ethics committee constitutes the president, vice president, editor in chief, advisers, and external specialists. The president is in charge of the committee chairperson, and a chairperson can appoint an expert at the committee meeting.
2) The function of the committee is to reach a verdict on claimed issues of research ethics in paper or reports with regard to the association, investigation of research misconduct in the association, and other claimed issues of research ethics.
3) When the committee reaches a verdict of misconduct, the committee requires over half of the committee members to attend and makes a decision with the agreement of two thirds of the attendees.
4) A chairperson reports the results of the investigation to whistleblowers, respondents, and other related persons promptly.
5) When the respondents or whistleblowers protest against a committee’s decision, they can request reinvestigation in writing within fourteen (14) days from the date on which they receive the notification.

3. Cooperating with Ethics Committee and Guaranteeing the Opportunity to Explain Their Justifications
1) The members reported for violation of the Code of Ethics shall cooperate with the investigations conducted by the Research Ethics Committee.
2) Members who have been reported for violation of the Code of Ethics should be given sufficient opportunities to explain their justifications.

4. Protecting the Rights of Examinee
Identification and personal information of the examinee are confidential until the decision on a certain disciplinary action is made.

5. Result of Research Ethics Violation
The research ethics committee shall impose a sanction against the author who is determined to have carried out research misconduct as well as against their research paper based on the seriousness of the misconduct and the regulations of the National Research Foundation of Korea.
1) Retraction of journal publication, deletion of the research paper from the corresponding issue of the academic journal
2) Banned from submitting an article to the journal for a certain period of time (at least three years)
3) Notify readers of the journal publication retraction officially through the journal homepage
4) Suspension and disqualification of membership
5) Notification to the related institution and the National Research Foundation of Korea providing detailed information about the author’s misconduct.
6) Other disciplinary action

6. Amendments of the Code of Research Ethics
The procedure of amending the Code of Research Ethics is consistent with the amendment procedures of CCA. If the Code of Research Ethics is amended, it shall be deemed that CCA-affiliated members will have automatically pledged to the new Code of Research Ethics without a further pledge insofar as they have already pledged to the existing Code before the amendment.

By law
For the policies on the research and publication ethics not indicated in these instructions, international standards for editors and authors (http://publicationethics.org/resources/international-standards-for- editors-and-authors) can be applied.