About the Journal

This journal started in 1998 as one of the earliest journals in the Davao region formerly called the Davao Oriental State College of Science and Technology (DOSCST) Research Journal which was originally conceptualized to be a platform for local and regional researchers to publish their works in the region. In recent times, this has changed and all contents of the previous issues of this journal have been made available online for their further utilization in other research, and policies as well as for evidence-based decision-making. The journal adheres to the strictest core values of research and publication as it endeavors to follow the COPE guidelines in its editorial process (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices).

About the Publisher

The office of the Journal Publication and Development of the Davao Oriental State University (DOrSU) oversees the editorial process of manuscripts received from various researchers and scientists. The office is usually headed by the Editor-in-Chief and welcomes all contributions on various topics related to conservation, fisheries, humanities, marine science, management, and social sciences from around the world. The publication is free of charge and made available online immediately after peer review and acceptance.

Aims and Scope of the Journal

The Davao Research Journal (DRJ) publishes peer-reviewed articles of original investigations not published elsewhere except as a brief abstract in a scientific meeting, proceedings, or symposium. It aims to publish articles on applied or scientific research in Agriculture, Aquatic Sciences, Biology, Ecology, Education, Environmental Science, Governance, Humanities, and Social Sciences that directly or indirectly affect communities, students, and researchers. The quality of the journal is guaranteed by the Editorial Board, consisting of well-published researchers in various fields of study. DRJ publishes research in English and welcomes papers from all over the world on a variety of topics mentioned above and endeavors to make the accepted articles immediately available online for the wider scientific community by publishing content on this platform. We adhere to the belief of making these contents publicly available online which contributes to human and scientific development.

Editorial Team

The members of the Editorial Team and Editorial Board are made up of internationally recognized researchers and scientists in the journal's field of discipline. They are chosen by the editorial team to provide professional input on key policy and content issues. They will also review articles that have been submitted, solicit new authors and submissions, and promote the journal to the scientific community. The Editorial Team members will help to improve and strengthen the quality, integrity, reputation, and sustainability of our journal publication through their field of expertise and substantial work as scientists and researchers.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice

Ethical standards for publication exist to ensure a high-quality scientific publication, provide easy access to scientific findings, especially research that is funded by the government, and provide legitimate recognition to authors, researchers, and scientists for their work.

Publication Process

The DRJ uses the Open Journal System which is an open-source journal management and publishing software developed, supported, and freely distributed by the Public Knowledge Project under the General Public Licence (GNU). All articles received through the DRJ website are evaluated by members of the Editorial Committee (EC) for preliminary checking based on the aims and scopes of the journal. The EC can reject the works received without resorting to an external peer review process if it deems the manuscript as below the required level of quality, lacks adherence to the submission guidelines, or does not follow the required ethics consideration for publication which includes evidence of plagiarism or fraud. Manuscripts that pass the initial stage of the evaluation process are then submitted to more than two peer reviewers who are specialists in the field and evaluated under the "double-blind" peer review system (evaluators do not know the name of the author and vice versa). The evaluators must not belong to the same institution where the article came from. The peer reviewers assess the quality of the paper based on their conceptual rigor, academic relevance, originality, and clarity of presentation. Once the reviewed paper is returned by the peer reviewers, the Editor-in-Chief will decide based on the decision of the peer reviewers to accept or reject the authors' works and then send the paper back to the authors for minor revision, major revision, or rejection depending on the reviewers' comments and decision. Once the paper is revised and returned by the authors to the journal together with the answers to the questions or answers to the comments sheet by the authors, then the Editor-in-Chief will decide on its final acceptance. If the authors have sufficiently revised the paper and answered point by point the questions or comments of the peer reviewers, then the Editor-in-Chief will decide in favor of its acceptance and provide the authors with a certificate of acceptance. Then the article goes to the production stage e.g. proofreading, final plagiarism checking, correction of style, design, and publication. If the Editor-in-Chief or reviewers consider that changes were not fully made, the article will not be published online until it is fully revised.

Peer Review Process

This journal practices the double-blind peer review system where the authors do not know the peer reviewers and the peer reviewers also do not know who the authors of the paper are reviewing. Once the Managing Editor receives submitted papers, these are acknowledged and then checked for plagiarism, formatting checklists, and rigor or novelty to be published in the journal. If the paper is deemed publishable and needs additional changes, the authors are asked to make the necessary revisions before being sent for peer review. Once the Editor accepts the paper for peer review, the paper is sent to more than two peer reviewers who are experts in the field of the topic of the paper. After the peer review of the evaluators, the paper is sent back to the journal for acceptance with no revision, acceptance with minor revision, acceptance with major revision, or rejection. In the case of revision, the authors are asked to revise their papers based on the comments of the reviewers and once the manuscript meets all the requirements of the peer reviewers, this will be checked by the Editor-in-Chief whether it is suitable for publication. In the case that the article is rejected, and does not meet the minimum standards for publication, the judgment of the peer reviewers and with the concurrence of the Editor-in-Chief will be final. Once the article has been accepted by the Editor-in-Chief, this is sent for production e.g. proofreading, plagiarism checking, correction of style, design, and production of galley proof PDF. Once the final version is approved by the authors, and all necessary changes are fully reflected in the article, then this will be published online. In the case that an accepted paper took time to be revised, the authors' paper will be scheduled for another issue or volume as it did not meet the deadline of production. If the authors meet the deadline for production and make the necessary corrections, then the article will be published online.

Evaluation and Notification

The evaluation process will take place throughout the year while the review process will take on average at least 1-2 months. Notification to the authors of the articles will be made at the time of receiving all the arbitrations.

Article Processing Charges

The journal is subsidized by the Davao Oriental State University (DOrSU) and all costs of publications are free.

Redundant/Duplicate Publications

The journal does not allow the publication of redundant manuscripts that have already been published elsewhere whether as local, national, or international journals. This practice constitutes a violation of the code of conduct for ethical research practices and any type of submitted manuscript that has been flagged as redundant or very similar to another published article will be rejected. The use of software to aid in detecting such redundancies or copies of another work will be utilized for this purpose.

Simultaneous Submissions

The journal does not allow simultaneous submission of articles by an author. Unless the results of the peer review come out with rejection, all authors are advised to wait and allow the peer review process to be finished. Once the authors decide that they cannot respond to the peer review, and opt to withdraw their article, then they are free to do so.

Withdrawal of any submitted paper

All articles that have already undergone a peer review process should be allowed to finish the process to avoid hindering the work of peer reviewers. Unless the article has been rejected, the authors are advised to continue the process, and in the event that the authors want to withdraw their article in the middle of a peer review process or think that they cannot respond to the given questions or suggestions of the peer reviewers, they must write to the editor that they are respectfully withdrawing their papers for inability to answer the questions of the reviewers or that they cannot fulfill the suggestions of the reviewers.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

The journal has zero tolerance for fabricated or falsified data and this constitutes a failure in ethics or research integrity for any researcher who is aspiring for future research careers. Any paper that has been found to violate this policy after being flagged and investigated by the Editorial Team will be rejected or if already published will be retracted. The journal reserves the right to remove such articles that contain fabricated or falsified and manipulated data.

Plagiarism Policy

Similar to the case of data fabrication and falsification, this journal has zero tolerance for plagiarized papers as this constitutes a failure in ethics or research integrity for any researcher. Plagiarism can occur through lack of proper author citation, lack of proper research review, or lack of awareness with regards to the substance of ideas that are being used in the paper. It could be possible that such a lack of knowledge could occur, and the only way to prevent plagiarism from occurring in a paper is by thoroughly checking the papers and giving proper recognition to authors of the original ideas by attributing their works. A plagiarism checker can flag such papers and in the case of this journal, a 20-15% plagiarism checker result will be acceptable provided that these are only with regards to author affiliation address, or very similar titles or methods used but different locale of the study and at a different time that this has been conducted. A blatant and willful plagiarism however can occur and in that case, after being investigated the Editorial Team can decide to reject such submissions or papers. The journal also reserves the right to remove any article that contains plagiarism, manipulated data, or results.

Policy on Retraction

The journal reserves the right to retract any paper or papers that have been examined as fraudulent or did not conform to COPE practices for ethical research. The journal Editorial Team will ensure that all papers accepted are not authored by fake researchers or fake authors by thoroughly examining these papers with the aid of available software technology.

Authorship Statement

This Editorial Team of this journal believes that authorship is both a privilege and a responsibility. In that regard, all authors of a paper must adhere to a very high level of research ethics and integrity and therefore this journal also conforms to the following recommended definition of who must be included as an author of a paper based on the definition of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html) of who qualifies to be included as an author:

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; 
4.  Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

The following works alone do not qualify as being part of an authorship:
Acquisition for funding used for research or funding used to transport researchers; general supervision of a research group or general administrative support for a project; photo-editing or writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading.

Improper Author Contribution

All submitted papers must follow the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) guideline where authors must recognize the roles that they have contributed in the crafting of the research paper being submitted. This proper attribution will help minimize or remove courtesy authorships in submitted papers and will help reduce authorship disputes.
The corresponding author will be responsible for ensuring that the descriptions are accurate and agreed upon by all authors. The role(s) of all authors should be listed, and authors must have contributed in multiple roles. Credit statements must be provided during the submission process (under the section Author Contributions).
Sample CRediT author statement based on initials of authors
EDM: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data Visualization; LLS: Methodology, Data curation, Writing- Original draft preparation; ISM: Visualization, Investigation; MAC: Supervision; ESA: Software, Validation; RPB: Writing- Reviewing and Editing; LDS: Funding Acquisition, Project administration.

Conflict of Interest

All authors must disclose any conflict of interest that might influence the authors’ objectivity or paper. Conflicts of interest are defined as financial, personal, social, or other interests that can directly or indirectly influence the author’s writings or submission of the manuscript. If there is no conflict of interest, then the authors must state it explicitly, both in the cover letter and the manuscript (under the section Conflicts of Interest). A potential conflict of interest includes the following examples: a) The suggested reviewer has a substantial direct or indirect financial interest in the subject matter of the manuscript; b) One of the authors belong to the same institute as the suggested reviewer; c) The suggested reviewer has an on-going research collaboration or grants with one of the authors; d) The suggested reviewer is a friend of one of the authors.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in the Davao Research Journal (DRJ) will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Davao Research Journal Publication Ethics

The Davao Research Journal (DRJ) subscribes to all ethical standards for publication as stated in the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) statement for core practices in publishing scholarly literature to ensure high-quality scientific publications, public trust in scientific findings, and that authors receive the due credit for their work and ideas. The Davao Research Journal (DRJ) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication and integrity through a rigorous peer-review process in accordance with existing standard ethical practices such as with regard to animal experiments, and the involvement of human subjects in any experiments or their involvement in interviews. Any infringements of professional ethical codes, such as plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, bogus claims of authorship, or infringement of animal rights will be taken very seriously by the editors with zero tolerance and result in the rejection of the paper. DRJ adheres to the following COPE core practices in the publication of scientific articles (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices), follows COPE ethical guidelines on authorship(https://publicationethics.org/resources/discussion-documents/authorship), and follows the COPE Flowcharts (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts) for resolving any cases of suspected misconduct.

Submission

Papers for submission with multiple authors constitute a representation that all listed authors have agreed together with the submission of the paper and have approved the version being submitted. Before submission, authors must adhere to the following checklists together with their cover letter:

1. All authors have agreed to the submission of this manuscript;
2. The corresponding author has been authorized by all co-authors;
3. The submitted article has not been published before and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere;
4. This manuscript for submission does not violate any copyright, contain other proprietary right of any person or entity, and does not contain any abusive, defamatory, obscene, or fraudulent statements, or anything unlawful in any way;
5. The authors are invited to suggest qualified reviewers for their article and the editors may or may not utilize these suggestions;

Licensing Information

 Davao Research Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Under the Open Access Policy, appropriate attribution can be provided by simply citing the original article (e.g., Laureano, L., Simo, Wilkin, Nanual, B., Sacay, A.-J., & Dongiapon, D. (2022). RDInfratech: An Online Repository of Species and Research for Mt. Hamiguitan Range. Davao Research Journal, 13(2), 67–77. https://doi.org/10.59120/drj.v13i2.95).

If you have a question about the license, please email editor.drj@dorsu.edu.ph.

Copyright and Permission

Following the submission of the paper, all changes to the authorship (including order, deletion, and addition) must be approved by all authors and must inform the DRJ Journal regarding this deliberation. The Journal's Editor-in-Chief must give his final approval before an author's name can be changed, at the author's request, with the written consent of all the other authors. The authors who wrote their papers and published them in this journal are still the exclusive owners of their work and have unrestricted copyright.

Open Access Policy

The Davao Research Journal applies the 'open access policy', which means that once published online, the published original articles, review papers, policy briefs, research notes, letters and commentaries, viewpoints, book reviews, and editorials are freely available on the internet, allowing anyone to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without any financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inextricably linked to obtaining access to the web itself. The only restriction on replication and distribution should be to give contributors control over the quality of their work and the right to be properly credited and cited by others.

 Davao Research Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. 

Copyright Notice

This is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

Publication Frequency

The Davao Research Journal was initially published as an annual from 1998 to 2006 and then as a semi-annual publication from 2012 to 2023 which comes out around June and December. In 2024, because of increasing submissions to the journal, the Editorial Board decided to change the publication frequency to a quarterly basis coming out every March, June, September and December.

Self-archiving policy

The Davao Research Journal permits self-archiving, and authors are encouraged to deposit their final published PDF in their institutional repository or any suitable repository on publication. Moreover, authors are encouraged to provide a link from the deposited version to the URL of the journal website with the online published version on the journal website clearly identified as the definitive version of the record.

Repository Policy

Since this journal is fully open-access, authors are highly encouraged that their data, software, and computer codes underlying reported findings should be deposited in proper public repositories, unless already provided as part of the published article. Repositories may be either subject-specific repositories that accept specific types of structured data and/or software, or cross-disciplinary generalist repositories that accept multiple data and/or software types. In the case of field-specific standards for data or software deposition, authors are required to comply with these standards. In the case where no available community repositories exist, institutional repositories that adhere to free and unrestricted use or public domain, and that adhere to best practices pertaining to responsible sharing, digital preservation, proper citation, and openness are also deemed suitable repositories.

Revenue Sources

Subsidized by the university