Publication Ethics

Standards for research integrity

The editorial board of the Journal of Information and Learning (JIL) aims to disseminate academic works accurately, with quality and in accordance with ethical publishing standards. Therefore, the journal establishes publishing ethics based on the following roles and responsibilities:

Ethics of Authors

  1. Authors must not submit a manuscript that has already been published or under consideration by another journal. All forms of plagiarism are prohibited.
  2. Authors must ensure that the submitted manuscript is entirely an original work with proper referencing.
  3. Authors must report data, methods and findings accurately, without fabrication or falsification. Conclusions and scholarly arguments must be supported by evidence or reasoned analysis appropriate to the article type, with findings distinguished from interpretation and proposals.
  4. Named authors must have made genuine scholarly contributions, approved the manuscript and its submission, and accept responsibility for their contributions. CRediT statements must accurately describe those contributions and be agreed by all authors.
  5. Authors must disclose research funding sources and any conflicts of interest.

Ethics of Editors

  1. The editor must not accept for publication and publish manuscripts that have been previously published in other sources and must not reject articles without thorough examination, especially in areas that may pose problems for manuscript acceptance.
  2. The editor needs to check all manuscripts submitted with a software package that is accepted by the general academic standard. If a manuscript contains plagiarized materials, the editor needs to stop the evaluation process and contact the authors immediately for a clarification statement.
  3. Editors assess relevance to the journal, scholarly quality and ethical integrity. After examining a submission, they may decline it without external review if it is unsuitable for further consideration. For manuscripts sent to peer review, decisions take account of the review reports and the authors' responses under the journal's review process.
  4. The editor shall select reviewers who do not have any conflicts of interest with the manuscript being peer-reviewed for publication. Additionally, they must ensure that the author and reviewer information remains confidential and is not disclosed to unrelated parties during the quality-screening process.
  5. The editor must be free from any conflicts of interest with authors or peer reviewers in order to maintain the highest standards of ethical conduct in the editorial process.
  6. The editor must appropriately handle authors or manuscripts that engage in unethical or immoral conduct.
  7. The editor must not impose publication fees that lack transparency, fairness, and equality for authors.

Ethics of Reviewers

  1. Reviewers should respect the confidentiality of the review process. They must not disclose or discuss manuscripts under review with unrelated parties until the manuscript has been published.
  2. If the reviewer discovers, upon receiving a manuscript for review, that they have participated in the described research, or for any other reason cannot provide an impartial review, they should promptly inform the editors and decline the review. Conflicts of interest may arise from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the paper under review.
  3. Manuscripts should be reviewed objectively in the context of the reviewer's expertise in the field. Personal opinions without backing evidence should not be used as criteria for review decisions.
  4. In cases where the reviewer identifies any parts of the article under review that contain statements similar to or duplicated from those of other publications, the reviewer shall promptly notify the editor of such similarity in content.
  5. Reviewers must protect the confidentiality of manuscripts, review reports and communications received through peer review, and must not use them for personal advantage or disclose them without authorisation. Publication of the article does not automatically make other confidential review information public.

 

Concerns about misconduct are handled under the Research and Publication Misconduct policy, with consideration of the evidence, fair procedures and an opportunity for the parties concerned to respond.