Ethical Rules

First promulgated on June 20, 2007.
Last modified on August 27, 2021.

Chapter 1 General Provisions

Article 1 (Purpose)
The purpose of the Journal of Korean Law Code of Ethics is to specify the standards of research ethics for all manuscripts submitted to and published by the Journal of Korean Law (JKL).

Article 2 (Respect for Research Ethics)
① All editors of JKL shall respect and observe this Code.
② The Editorial Board of JKL (the “Editorial Board”) shall share this Code with all concerned parties when announcing a call for papers.
③ All authors are presumed to have agreed to observe this Code when submitting manuscripts to JKL, and all reviewers are presumed to have agreed to observe this Code when agreeing to review manuscripts.
④ The Editorial board is responsible for ensuring that all editors are aware of the basic research ethics principles contained in this code.

Article 3 (Definition of Unethical Acts in Research)
Unethical acts in research refer to acts in violation of Chapter 2 of this Code.

Chapter 2 Research Ethics

Section 1 Submission Ethics

Article 4 (Standards for Author’s Ethics)
① All manuscripts submitted to JKL shall be original works that have not previously been published in any other periodical, academic journal, monograph or other forms of publication.
② All manuscripts submitted to JKL shall not include any plagiarized content.
③ All manuscripts submitted to JKL shall clearly indicate whenever the author is drawing on another authors’ work or analysis.
④ Authors are allowed to draw upon and further elaborate on their own previous research. In such cases the prior analysis shall be clearly referenced, even if the previous research was contained in manuscripts that were never published in an academic journal or manuscript (for example in an author’s personal Masters or Ph.D. thesis).
⑤ Submitted manuscripts shall not fabricate or falsify research materials, results, or data.
⑥ JKL does not accept manuscripts which have been simultaneously submitted to another academic journal or publisher, and it does not accept a manuscript when manuscripts with a similar content to the submitted manuscript have been simultaneously submitted to another academic journal or publisher. The author shall take appropriate actions to prevent duplicate publications of the same or similar article.

Article 5 (Determination of Authorship and Standards for Representing Authorship)
① Any failure to assign authorship credit to persons who made scientific or technological contributions to the research process or results or assigning authorship credit to persons who did not make a scientific or technological contribution to the research process or results is not allowed.
② When two or more authors have written a manuscript, the authors may specify their respective roles. In this case the authors shall notify the Editorial Board of the author who shall be responsible for any communications with the Editorial Board during the submission, review and publication process (the “corresponding author”).

Section 2 Editing Ethics

Article 6 (Standards of Editing Ethics)
① Editors shall ensure a timely and effective review process and are responsible for all issues related to the publication of manuscripts that pass the editorial process.
② Editors shall always respect the author(s)’ personal, political and academic freedoms, including the right to hold or defend minority opinions and shall treat all submissions equally regardless of the author’s age, sex, affiliation, and private relationship. The scientific quality and originality of the submission, as well as the adherence to JKL’s Submission Guide are the only permissible standards for reviewers to apply when deciding on whether or not to recommend that a submission be published.
③ The Editorial Board shall request reviewers to evaluate submissions based on their expertise in a relevant field and their capacity for objective and fair treatment of the given submission.
④ The Editorial Board shall not disclose to reviewers any identifying information about the author of the manuscript before the decision has been made as to whether (or not) to publish the manuscript.

Section 3 Review Ethics

Article 7 (Standards of Review Ethics)
① Reviewers shall evaluate manuscripts according to their scholarly conscience and maintain the confidentiality of the review.
② Reviewers shall follow the evaluation standards and conduct the reviewing process in a diligent manner. Reviewers who believe they might be inappropriate reviewers for the relevant topic shall promptly report their concerns to the Editorial Board.
③ Reviewers shall evaluate the submission with fair standards of judgment unaffected by personal beliefs or personal relationships with the author(s). Reviewers shall respect the author(s)’ personal, political and academic freedoms, including the right to hold or defend minority opinions at all times. Reviewers shall clearly elaborate their reasons for recommending that an article is inappropriate for publication in JKL. Professional or personal disagreements with the arguments put forward by the author alone may not constitute sufficient grounds for denying the manuscript’s publication.

Article 8 (Obligation to Inform of Violations)
Reviewers shall inform the Editorial Board immediately when they suspect that an author may have violated the provisions of Articles 3 or 4 above. The Editorial Board may refer any such suspicions to an appropriately constituted Ethics Committee to conduct a more thorough review of the alleged facts if it deems such a referral to be necessary.

Article 9 (Obligation to Preserve Confidentiality)
① Reviewers shall not disclose to anyone the fact that they have been requested to anonymously review a JKL manuscript.
② Reviewers shall never disclose, reference, or describe the contents of a manuscript prior to its publication by JKL. If a manuscript is not accepted for publication by JKL, it is as if it had never been published. In such situations the Editorial Board is unable to facilitate contact between a reviewer and the author of the manuscript.

Chapter 3 Ethics Committee

Section 1 Establishment and Operations

Article 10 (Establishment and Composition)
① To achieve the purposes of this Code, an Ethics Committee shall be established.
② The Ethics Committee (the “Committee”) shall include the Director of the Asia-Pacific Law Institute, the Associate Director of the Asia-Pacific Law Institute, the Editor-in-Chief of JKL, the Managing Editor of JKL, and anyone who is not a faculty member of the Seoul National University School of Law selected by the Director of the Asia-Pacific Law Institute (an associate professor or above of law or a judge, a public prosecutor, or anyone licensed to practice as an attorney by the Korean Bar). The Director of the Asia-Pacific Law Institute may appoint no more than four such ad-hoc members to the Ethics Committee.
③ The Director of the Asia-Pacific Law Institute shall also serve as the Chair of the Committee.

Article 11 (Term of Committee Members)
Members of the Committee serve for a term of two years and may be reappointed to subsequent terms.

Article 12 (Committee Meetings)
① The Chairperson of the Committee shall convene and chair meetings.
② Unless otherwise stated, a resolution shall pass only when the majority of the committee membership attends a meeting and the majority of those attending members consent to the proposed resolution. A resolution for the Committee’s decision on the existence of a research misconduct shall pass according to the criteria of Article 19 paragraph 1.
③ If the Committee deems it necessary, any relevant personnel may be summoned to provide their opinions to the Committee, either in person or through virtual means of communication.
④ The fact that the Committee is convening shall remain confidential and shall not be disclosed or discussed unnecessarily.

Article 13 (Operational Bylaws)
The Committee is charged with determining and periodically reviewing its internal operating procedures.

Section 2 The Authority and Duties of the Ethics Committee

Article 14 (Authorities and Duties)
① The Committee may, as part of its investigations, seek contributions and review of relevant materials from informants, authors or other JKL associates under investigations (“examinees”), witnesses, references, etc.
② The Committee may take measures within its mandate to prevent the loss, destruction, concealment, or tampering of evidence.
③ Any member of the Committee shall apply her- or him-self with diligence and earnestness to the investigation and review process.

Section 3 Investigating Research Misconduct

Article 15 (Initiating Investigations Concerning Research Misconduct)
① In cases where there is a specific report of a misconduct or a high likelihood of such an occurrence, the Committee shall initiate an investigation to either confirm or disconfirm such allegations.
② The Chairperson of the Committee may conduct a preliminary investigation in coordination with the Editor-in-Chief.

Article 16 (The Protection of the Rights and Confidentiality of Informants and Examinees)
① Any member (including preliminary investigators or participants in an investigation) shall not disclose the identity of the informant. The only exception to this rule is when the informant’s identity has already been disclosed by other means, or if the Committee deems that the disclosure would not result in any disadvantage to the informant.
② The identity of any individual(s) under investigation shall be kept confidential until the conclusion of the said investigation in order to prevent any unwarranted infringement of the examinee’s honor or rights.
③All matters relating to the investigations, including the informant, investigations, review, and voting shall be kept confidential, and anyone who has participated either directly or indirectly in the investigation shall not disclose any information they have acquired over the course of the investigation. Only in exceptional situations where there exists a considerable need for such disclosure shall the Committee itself deliberate and decide upon such disclosures.

Article 17 (Exclusion, Challenge and Avoidance of a Member of the Committee)
① Any member with a direct interest in the outcome of an investigation shall be excluded from the investigation, review, and voting on the matter.
② Informants and examinees have standing to challenge the impartiality of any member of the Committee. If such individuals feel that a member of the Committee may be compromised in her or his impartiality, they may elaborate on their grounds motivating such a challenge and request to have the member removed from the matter. If the Committee votes in favor of the motion to challenge a particular Committee member, that particular Committee member shall be removed from further participation in the investigations, review, and voting on the matter.
③ If a member of the Committee feels him- or her-self to be compromised in their impartiality or stands accused of having an interest in the matter by an informant or an examinee, he or she may voluntarily seek to be removed from the matter with the consent of the Chairperson.

Article 18 (Guarantee of Objections and Opportunities for Statements)
The Committee shall safeguard the right of the informant and the examinee to state their opinions, to raise objections to and to refute accusations against them, and to be informed of the relevant investigatory procedures in advance.

Article 19 (Determination)
① The Committee shall determine the details and results of the investigation based on the evidence presented and any objections and rebuttals by the examinee.
② The Committee shall determine the conduct of the examinee to constitute a research misconduct if the majority of the members of the Committee attend the deliberative meeting (quorum), and more than two-thirds of those attending members consent with the conclusion that the conduct constitutes a research misconduct.

Section 4 Sanctions 

Article 20 (Sanctions Based on the Results of the Investigation) 
① The Committee may impose any or all the of following non-exhaustive list of potential sanctions in response to the demonstrated research misconduct, depending on the gravity of the misconduct.
1. If a work violating these regulations is published in JKL, the publication of the work may be retroactively invalidated and removed from the article list on print and on JKL’s website.2. The author may be barred from ever again submitting future manuscripts to JKL for a period of three years or more.3. JKL may decide to make a public announcement detailing the research misconduct on its homepage and/or in the subsequent issue of JKL. The said announcement may include the offending author’s name, title of the manuscript, the number of the issue in which the article in question appeared, the date on which the article was cancelled, and the reasons for that cancellation.4. Notice detailing the research misconduct may be sent to the Korea Research Foundation, the author’s employer or funding agency, and/or the author’s relevant academic association(s).5. Other sanctions necessary to reinforce the importance of adhering to research ethics may be made at the Committee’s discretion.② The previous paragraph shall apply to cases where violations of the Code are identified during the review process of the submitted manuscript. 

Article 21 (Notice of Investigation Results) 
The Chairperson shall record the Committee’s decision regarding the results of the investigation in written format and promptly notify the informant, the examinee, and other related persons.

Article 22 (Reinvestigation) 
If the examinee or informant disagrees with the Ethics Committee’s decision, he or she may request – in written format – the Committee to reinvestigate the case. Such requests shall include the reasons for the disagreement and shall be sent to the Committee within 20 days of the date of receiving the notice described in Article 21. 

Article 23 (Follow-up Measures, such as Restoration of Honor) 
If, upon an initial determination of research misconduct the Committee reinvestigates and finds instead that there had been no research misconduct (i.e., that it had erred in its earlier investigation), the Committee shall take appropriate follow-up measures to restore the honor of the examinee.

Article 24 (Payment of Allowances and Other Expenses) 
Allowances may be paid, within budget, to those who participate in an investigation of an allegation of research misconduct.

Article 25 (Storage and Disclosure of Records) 
① All records related to the investigation shall be kept for five years after the completion of the investigation.
② Upon completion of the investigation, the results shall be reported to the Editorial Board and the Managing Committee of the Asia-Pacific Law Institute. However, through the decision of the Committee, personal information about informants, Committee members, testifiers, and other persons who participated in the investigation may be excluded from the disclosure.
③ If the examinee wishes to gain access to the records of the investigation for the purpose of contesting the Committee’s decision, he or she may file a written request to the Director of the Asia-Pacific Law Institute. The Director shall, unless he or she deems the request to have no reasonable merit, instruct the Committee to send the relevant records to the examinee. However, the Committee shall ensure that personal information about informants, Committee members, testifiers, and other persons who participated in the investigation be excluded from the disclosure unless necessary for ensuring the examinee’s right of gaining access to a fair contestation process.

Chapter 4 Supplementary Rules 

Article 26 (Amendment of the Code) 
This Code may be amended by the decision of the Editorial Board.