Academic Journal Research

Publication Ethics & Publication Malpractice Statement

Academic Journal Research (ACJOURE) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and academic quality. This statement applies to all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and the publisher.

The journal's editorial policies are informed by internationally recognized principles of publication ethics, including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

1. Editorial Responsibilities

Editors are responsible for evaluating manuscripts fairly, independently, and solely on the basis of their academic merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance to the journal's aims and scope, and contribution to the field of education.

Editorial decisions shall not be influenced by the authors' nationality, ethnicity, gender, religious belief, institutional affiliation, political views, or other personal characteristics unrelated to the scholarly quality of the manuscript.

Editors must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and must not disclose information regarding manuscripts to individuals other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers, and publisher when necessary for the editorial process.

Editors must disclose any potential conflict of interest and must withdraw from handling manuscripts where such conflicts could compromise, or reasonably be perceived to compromise, editorial independence.

2. Peer Review and Reviewer Responsibilities

ACJOURE applies a double-blind peer review process. Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, evidence-based, and timely evaluations of manuscripts.

Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents and must not disclose, distribute, reproduce, or use unpublished material contained in manuscripts for personal or professional advantage.

Reviewers must disclose any conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, institutional, financial, personal, or other relationships with the authors or the research under review. Reviewers who believe that they cannot provide an impartial evaluation must decline the review assignment.

Reviewers should identify significant published work that has not been appropriately acknowledged and should inform the editor of any suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data manipulation, citation manipulation, or other potential research misconduct.

3. Author Responsibilities

Authors must submit work that is original, accurate, transparent, and conducted according to accepted standards of research integrity. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all data, analyses, citations, statements, and conclusions presented in their manuscripts.

Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal. Redundant, duplicate, fabricated, falsified, plagiarized, or improperly manipulated publications are considered serious violations of publication ethics.

4. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the conception or design of the research; acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; preparation or critical revision of the manuscript; and who approve the final version of the manuscript and accept responsibility for the work.

Individuals who contributed to the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all listed authors have approved the submitted manuscript and that no person who qualifies for authorship has been inappropriately excluded.

Any authorship dispute identified before or after publication will be investigated by the editorial team. When necessary, the journal may request clarification or supporting documentation from the authors and/or their institutions.

5. Originality, Plagiarism, and Duplicate Publication

Authors must ensure that their work is original and that all ideas, words, data, figures, and materials derived from other sources are appropriately acknowledged and cited.

Submitted manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism-detection software. Evidence of plagiarism, substantial unattributed overlap, duplicate publication, or inappropriate reuse of previously published material may result in rejection, correction, retraction, or other appropriate editorial action.

The journal does not permit simultaneous submission or publication of substantially the same research in multiple journals.

6. Research Misconduct

ACJOURE takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously. Misconduct may include, but is not limited to:

• plagiarism;
• fabrication or falsification of data;
• image or data manipulation intended to mislead;
• duplicate or redundant publication;
• inappropriate authorship;
• citation manipulation;
• undeclared conflicts of interest;
• peer-review manipulation;
• ethical violations involving human or animal participants; and
• other practices that compromise the integrity of the scholarly record.

Allegations may be raised before or after publication. The editor and publisher will assess allegations fairly and confidentially and may request explanations, original data, documentation, or other evidence from the parties involved.

Where appropriate, the journal may contact the authors' institution, research ethics committee, funding body, or other relevant organization. Editorial action may include rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other measures necessary to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.

The journal will not knowingly encourage, facilitate, or permit research or publication misconduct.

7. Conflicts of Interest and Competing Interests

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose financial, institutional, professional, personal, or other interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence the research, review process, or editorial decision.

Funding sources and their role, where applicable, must be disclosed by authors. Editorial decisions must remain independent of commercial interests, publication fees, institutional relationships, or other external influences.

8. Data Integrity, Availability, and Reproducibility

Authors are responsible for maintaining accurate research records and should retain underlying research data for an appropriate period following publication.

Where appropriate and ethically permissible, authors are encouraged to make supporting data available through recognized repositories or provide a data availability statement explaining how the data may be accessed.

Editors may request original data, instruments, ethical approval documents, or other supporting materials when necessary to verify the integrity of a submitted or published work.

Fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation, or deliberate misrepresentation of research data is unacceptable.

9. Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical standards and, where required, obtain approval from an appropriate institutional ethics committee or review board.

Authors must state relevant ethical approval information in the manuscript when applicable. Research involving identifiable human participants must obtain appropriate informed consent, including consent for publication where identifiable information is presented.

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international standards for animal welfare and research ethics.

The journal may request documentation of ethical approval or informed consent when necessary.

10. Confidentiality and Privacy

Editors and reviewers must protect confidential information obtained through the submission and peer-review process.

Personally identifiable or sensitive information should not be published unless its inclusion is scientifically necessary and appropriate consent has been obtained.

11. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

ACJOURE is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record.

When significant errors are identified after publication, the journal may publish a correction or other appropriate notice. Articles may be retracted when findings are shown to be unreliable as a result of misconduct or major error, when plagiarism or redundant publication has occurred, or when other serious ethical violations invalidate the publication.

An Expression of Concern may be issued when substantial concerns exist regarding a publication but an investigation has not yet reached a definitive conclusion.

Corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern will be clearly identified and linked to the original publication to preserve the transparency of the scholarly record.

12. Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other parties may submit complaints concerning editorial procedures, publication ethics, reviewer conduct, editorial decisions, or published content.

Complaints will be handled fairly, confidentially, and independently from inappropriate influence.

Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they believe that a significant error occurred during the review or decision-making process. Appeals must provide a clear academic justification and supporting evidence.

An appeal will normally be reviewed by an editor who was not directly responsible for the original decision whenever practicable. The outcome of the appeal will be communicated to the appellant after editorial consideration.

13. Post-Publication Discussion

ACJOURE supports responsible scholarly discussion after publication. Readers may communicate substantive concerns regarding published articles to the editorial office.

Where concerns affect the reliability, interpretation, or integrity of the scholarly record, the journal will evaluate them and take appropriate editorial action, including issuing corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions when necessary.

14. Intellectual Property

Authors must respect copyright, licensing requirements, attribution, and other intellectual property rights. Materials reproduced from third parties must be used with appropriate permission when required.

Detailed information regarding copyright and licensing is provided in the journal's Copyright and Licensing Policy.

15. Editorial Independence and Publication Fees

Editorial decisions are independent of the journal's business model and financial considerations. Payment or waiver of article processing charges does not influence whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected.

The publisher shall not interfere with editorial decisions based on commercial considerations.

16. Publisher Responsibilities

Antis Publisher supports the editorial independence of Academic Journal Research and is committed to maintaining the integrity, accessibility, preservation, and transparency of the scholarly record.

The publisher works with the editorial team to address allegations of misconduct, corrections, retractions, complaints, and other publication ethics matters when necessary.

Reference to International Best Practices

The journal's publication ethics policies are informed by the principles and guidance provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Reference to COPE guidance does not imply or claim COPE membership unless such membership has been formally obtained.

Official COPE website: https://publicationethics.org/