PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

The International Journal on e-Learning and Higher Education (IJELHE) is committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards for all parties involved in publishing in a peer-reviewed journal- the author, the journal's editor, the peer reviewer and the publisher. IJELHE publishing ethics are based on Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and Conduct for Journal Publishers practised by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

 

EDITOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Accountability:

As IJELHE is committed to building a respected and reliable network of knowledge by ensuring quality publications, the editor(s) or chief editor(s) and the editorial board of this peer-reviewed journal are accountable for selecting the articles to be published. The editor(s) may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor(s) are responsible for selecting the reviewers for the reviewing process and may confer with other editorial board members or reviewers when deciding to accept or reject manuscripts. Clear instructions must be given to the potential contributors on the submission and review process.

 

Fair play:

The editor(s) should evaluate the intellectual content of the manuscripts without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

 

Confidentiality:

The editor(s) and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

 

Disclosure and conflicts of interest:

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers. Editor(s) must not use any unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript in their research without written consent from the author(s).

 

REVIEWER RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Reviewers must adhere to the timeframe given by the editor(s) for completing the reviews. Requests for extension to review the manuscripts are at the discretion of the editor(s).
• Reviewers must notify IJELHE of any conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
• Reviewers must keep information about the manuscript confidential and not use it for personal advantage.
• Reviewers must not discuss their views with others unless authorised by the editor(s).
• Reviewers must bring to the editor(s) attention any information that may be a reason to reject the publication of a manuscript.
• Reviewers should identify relevant published work that the authors have not cited. This includes any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation.
• Reviewers should alert the editor(s) of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper they have personal knowledge of.
• Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content.
• Reviewers assist the editor(s) in the editorial decisions and, through editorial communications with the author(s), may assist in improving the paper.
• Reviewers should be objective and express their views clearly with supporting arguments. Personal criticisms should be avoided.
• Reviewers who feel unqualified to review the manuscript or cannot revert to the editors with prompt reviews should notify the editor(s) to be relieved of the review duties.

 

AUTHOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Reporting standards:

• Authors should present their results honestly and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation. Authors should describe their methods clearly and unambiguously so that others can confirm or replicate their findings.

Originality, plagiarism and acknowledgement of sources:

• Authors should adhere to publication requirements that the submitted work is original, is not plagiarised, and has not been published elsewhere. Authors are only allowed to publish their manuscript elsewhere after receiving a formal rejection from the editor(s) or if IJELHE accepts their request to withdraw their work in a written reply. Any fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable. Suppose an author has used the work and words of others. In that case, this original is appropriately cited or quoted and accurately reflects individuals' contributions to the work and its reporting. Appropriate software may be used to check for similarities with existing literature. It must be reported as it is when submitting the manuscript.

 

Data Access and Retention:

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review. In any event, they should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

 

Ethics:

Authors should only submit papers on work conducted ethically and responsibly, and that complies with all relevant legislation.

 

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest:

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

 

Authorship of the Paper:

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where others have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

 

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication:

An author should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

 

Fundamental errors in published works:

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, the author must promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

 

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects:

Suppose the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual inherent in their use. In that case, the author must identify these in the manuscript.

 

Plagiarism:

IJELHE considers reproducing text from other papers without properly crediting the source (plagiarism), producing many papers with almost the same content by the same authors (self-plagiarism) and submitting the same results to more than one journal concurrently (duplicate) as unethical. However, IJELHE will consider publication if the manuscript has been rejected by the other publisher(s) at the point of submission to IJELHE. All manuscripts submitted to IJELHE will be screened using Ouriginals or any plagiarism detection tools. Papers leading to plagiarism will be immediately rejected if found to have a similarity index of 20% or more.

 

Corrections and retractions:

All authors are obligated to inform and cooperate with journal editors to provide prompt retractions or correction of errors in published works.

 

The journal will issue retractions if:

• There is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error);
• The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication);
• It constitutes plagiarism;
• It reports unethical research.

 

The journal will issue errata if:

• A small portion of an otherwise reliable publication proves to be misleading (primarily because of honest error);
• The author list is incorrect (i.e., a deserving author has been omitted, or somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been included).

Other forms of misconduct include failure to meet precise ethical and legal requirements, such as misrepresentation of interests, breach of confidentiality, lack of informed consent and abuse of research subjects or materials. Misconduct also includes improper dealing with infringements, such as attempts to cover up misconduct and reprisals on whistle-blowers.

The primary responsibility for handling research misconduct is in the hands of those who employ the researchers. If a possible misconduct is brought to our attention, we will seek advice from the referees and the Editorial Board. If there is evidence, we will resolve the matter by appropriate corrections in the printed and online journals, refusing to consider an author's future work, and contacting affected authors and editors of other journals.