PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT
The International Journal on e-Learning and Higher Education (IJELHE) is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and academic integrity throughout the editorial and publication process. The journal adheres to the principles and best practices recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and expects all parties involved, including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher, to uphold these ethical standards.
The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, unethical research practices, or any form of publication misconduct. All manuscripts are evaluated fairly and transparently to ensure the integrity, quality, and credibility of published research.
EDITOR RESPONSIBILITIES
Accountability:
The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board are responsible for making publication decisions based solely on the scholarly merit of submitted manuscripts. The journal's editorial policies guide decisions, reviewers' recommendations, ethical considerations, and applicable legal requirements relating to copyright, plagiarism, and defamation.
Editors are responsible for ensuring a fair, timely, and confidential peer-review process and for providing authors with clear information regarding submission, review, and publication procedures.
Fairness and Impartiality:
Editors evaluate manuscripts exclusively on their academic quality, originality, methodological soundness, and relevance to the journal's scope, without discrimination based on race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion, institutional affiliation, citizenship, political beliefs, or personal characteristics.
Confidentiality:
Editors and editorial staff shall treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents. Information relating to a manuscript will only be shared with the corresponding author, reviewers, editorial advisers, and the publisher, where appropriate.
Conflicts of Interest:
Editors shall not use unpublished information disclosed in submitted manuscripts for their own research without the authors' written consent. Editors who have conflicts of interest concerning a submitted manuscript shall recuse themselves from handling the manuscript.
REVIEWER RESPONSIBILITIES:
Peer reviewers play a vital role in maintaining the quality and integrity of scholarly publications. Reviewers are expected to:
- Conduct reviews objectively, fairly, and constructively.
- Complete reviews within the agreed timeframe or promptly notify the editor if unable to do so.
- Maintain strict confidentiality regarding all manuscript contents.
- Declare any actual or potential conflicts of interest and decline reviews where appropriate.
- Evaluate manuscripts solely on their scholarly merit.
- Provide clear, evidence-based comments and recommendations that assist editors in making editorial decisions and help authors improve their work.
- Identify relevant published literature that has not been cited.
- Alert editors to any suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, ethical concerns, or substantial similarity with previously published work.
- Avoid personal criticism of authors and maintain professionalism throughout the review process.
AUTHOR RESPONSIBILITIES:
Reporting Standards:
Authors are expected to present research accurately, honestly, and transparently. Data should not be fabricated, falsified, manipulated, or selectively reported. Sufficient methodological details should be provided to enable replication where appropriate.
Originality and Plagiarism:
Submitted manuscripts must be original and must not have been published previously or be under consideration elsewhere. Proper acknowledgement and citation of the work of others are mandatory.
All manuscripts submitted to IJELHE are screened using plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin or equivalent tools. Manuscripts with an overall similarity index exceeding 20%, excluding properly quoted and referenced material, may be rejected at the discretion of the Editorial Board.
Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, salami publication, and text recycling without proper attribution constitute unethical publishing practices.
Data Availability and Retention:
Authors should retain original research data for a reasonable period after publication and be prepared to provide the data if requested for editorial review or verification.
Ethical Research:
Research involving human participants, animals, or sensitive data must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international ethical standards. Authors should state that appropriate ethical approval and informed consent were obtained where applicable.
Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest:
Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, personal, or other relationships that could influence or reasonably be perceived to influence the interpretation of their findings. Sources of funding must also be acknowledged.
Authorship:
Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, or interpretation of the study. All listed authors must approve the final manuscript and agree to its submission. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria should be appropriately acknowledged.
Multiple or Concurrent Submission:
Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal. Manuscripts previously rejected elsewhere may be submitted to IJELHE provided they are not under active consideration by another publisher.
Corrections and retractions:
Authors are responsible for promptly informing the journal if a significant error or inaccuracy is discovered after publication and must cooperate fully in issuing corrections, errata, or retractions where necessary.
Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects:
If the work involves chemicals, procedures, or equipment that have any unusual inherent risks in their use. In that case, the author must identify these in the manuscript.
Declaration of Generative AI in the Writing Process
IJELHE recognises that generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, and similar technologies) may assist authors during manuscript preparation. However, their use must be transparent and responsible.
Authors who use generative AI solely to improve language, readability, grammar, or writing style must include a declaration in the manuscript under a separate section entitled "Declaration of Generative AI in the Writing Process."
The declaration should specify:
- the name of the AI tool used;
- the purpose for which it was used (e.g., language editing, grammar improvement, or text refinement); and
- confirmation that the authors carefully reviewed, verified, and take full responsibility for all content in the manuscript.
An example declaration is provided below:
Declaration of Generative AI in the Writing Process
During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [Name of AI Tool] to improve language clarity and grammar. The authors reviewed and edited the generated output as necessary and accept full responsibility for the content of the published work.
Generative AI must not be used to fabricate, manipulate, or falsify research data, generate images or results without appropriate disclosure, produce unsupported scientific interpretations, or replace critical scholarly judgment. AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the integrity, originality, or accountability of scholarly work.
Failure to disclose the use of generative AI where appropriate may be considered a breach of publication ethics.
Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions
IJELHE follows COPE guidelines when handling post-publication issues.
A retraction may be issued when:
- findings are unreliable due to misconduct or honest error;
- plagiarism or duplicate publication is confirmed;
- unethical research has been conducted;
- significant ethical violations have occurred.
An erratum or correction may be issued when:
- minor errors affect the accuracy or clarity of the publication without invalidating its findings;
- authorship information requires correction;
- factual or typographical errors are identified after publication.
Where necessary, the journal may publish an Expression of Concern while an investigation is ongoing.
Research Misconduct
Research misconduct includes, but is not limited to:
- plagiarism;
- data fabrication or falsification;
- image manipulation;
- duplicate or redundant publication;
- inappropriate authorship;
- undisclosed conflicts of interest;
- breach of confidentiality;
- unethical research involving human or animal subjects;
- citation manipulation; and
- deliberate misuse of generative AI.
Allegations of misconduct will be investigated in accordance with COPE recommendations. The journal may consult reviewers, editors, authors' institutions, or other relevant parties during investigations.
Where misconduct is confirmed, IJELHE reserves the right to reject manuscripts, publish corrections or retractions, notify authors' institutions or funding agencies, and decline future submissions from the responsible authors where appropriate.
IJELHE remains committed to promoting integrity, transparency, fairness, and accountability in scholarly publishing while fostering high-quality research that advances the field of e-learning and higher education.