Publication Ethics and Research Integrity

1. Duties and Responsibilities of Authors

• Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must submit original scholarly work and appropriately acknowledge all sources, ideas, data, quotations, and materials derived from other works. Plagiarism, including inappropriate copying or unattributed reuse, is unacceptable.
• Multiple, Redundant, or Simultaneous Submission: Authors must not submit substantially the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal or submit work that constitutes inappropriate duplicate or redundant publication.
• Accuracy and Research Integrity: Authors must accurately report research methods, data, analysis, findings, and conclusions. Fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation of data, misleading reporting, and inappropriate image or data manipulation are prohibited.
• Authorship: Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work and who accept responsibility for the published article. All listed authors must approve the submitted and final versions of the manuscript.
• Author Contributions: Authors may be required to describe their individual contributions to the conception, methodology, investigation, analysis, writing, supervision, or other substantive components of the research.
• Acknowledgement of Sources: Authors must appropriately cite relevant scholarly work and must not engage in citation manipulation, unnecessary self-citation, or citation practices intended primarily to artificially increase citation indicators.
• Data and Supporting Information: Authors may be requested to provide relevant data, instruments, documentation, or other supporting information where necessary for editorial evaluation or investigation of research-integrity concerns, subject to ethical, legal, and confidentiality limitations.
• Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose financial, institutional, personal, professional, or other interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research or its interpretation.
• Funding Disclosure: Authors must identify relevant sources of financial or institutional support and describe the role of funders where applicable.
• Research Ethics: Research involving human participants, animals, identifiable personal information, or other ethically sensitive materials must comply with applicable ethical standards and institutional requirements. Ethical approval, exemption, or other relevant ethical information must be reported where applicable.
• Informed Consent and Privacy: Where applicable, authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate informed consent and protecting the privacy, confidentiality, and rights of research participants.
• Errors After Publication: Authors who identify a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work must promptly inform the journal and cooperate with appropriate correction, clarification, or retraction procedures.

2. Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

• Editorial Independence: Editorial decisions must be based on scholarly merit, relevance to the journal's focus and scope, methodological quality, research integrity, peer-review evidence, and publication ethics.
• Fair and Impartial Evaluation: Manuscripts must be evaluated without inappropriate discrimination or consideration of personal characteristics unrelated to scholarly merit.
• Confidentiality: Editors must protect unpublished manuscripts, editorial correspondence, reviewer identities, and confidential information obtained during manuscript processing.
• Conflict of Interest: Editors must disclose relevant conflicts and must not handle manuscripts where their impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Such manuscripts must be assigned to another qualified editor.
• Peer-Review Integrity: Editors are responsible for selecting appropriate, independent reviewers and for ensuring that the peer-review process is conducted fairly, confidentially, and substantively.
• Research-Integrity Concerns: Editors must take reasonable action when credible concerns involving plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, authorship, ethical approval, conflicts of interest, citation manipulation, or other misconduct are raised.
• Post-Publication Responsibility: Editorial responsibility does not end when an article is published. Credible post-publication concerns must be assessed and, where necessary, addressed through correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other appropriate editorial action.

3. Duties and Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

• Confidentiality: Manuscripts and supplementary materials received for review are confidential documents and must not be shared or used for personal or professional advantage.
• Objectivity: Reviews must be objective, substantive, respectful, and supported by clear scholarly reasoning. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate.
• Relevant Expertise: Reviewers should accept assignments only when they have sufficient expertise to evaluate the relevant scholarly content and can complete the review within a reasonable period.
• Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must disclose actual or potential conflicts of interest and decline assignments where independent evaluation cannot reasonably be assured.
• Research-Integrity Concerns: Reviewers should inform the editor when they identify suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, inappropriate citation, ethical concerns, substantial methodological problems, or other potential research-integrity issues.
• Use of Artificial Intelligence: Reviewers must not upload unpublished manuscripts or confidential manuscript content to generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems and must not use AI tools to analyze, evaluate, or generate the substantive peer-review report.

4. Peer Review Integrity

SIBOOK Journal applies a double-blind peer-review process, in which the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from each other during peer review.

Reviewer selection is based on subject expertise, independence, availability, and the absence of relevant conflicts of interest. Review reports are expected to provide substantive evaluation that assists editors in making informed editorial decisions.

5. Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants, animals, vulnerable populations, identifiable personal data, or other ethically sensitive matters must comply with applicable ethical and legal requirements.

Where ethical review is required, authors must provide the name of the approving or reviewing institution or ethics committee, relevant approval information where available, and an appropriate statement concerning informed consent when applicable.

Where formal ethical approval is not required, authors may be requested to explain the ethical basis or exemption applicable to the research.

6. Publisher Responsibilities

• The publisher supports the journal's ethical, administrative, technical, and publication infrastructure while respecting editorial independence.
• The publisher must not interfere improperly with editorial decisions concerning the acceptance, revision, or rejection of individual manuscripts.
• The publisher supports appropriate mechanisms for handling ethical concerns, complaints, corrections, retractions, preservation, and the integrity of the scholarly record.

7. Allegations of Research and Publication Misconduct

Allegations of research or publication misconduct may concern, among other matters, plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, citation manipulation, ethical violations, manipulation of the peer-review process, or other conduct that compromises the integrity of the scholarly record.

The journal will assess credible allegations fairly and confidentially and may request explanations, supporting evidence, original data, documentation, or other information necessary to evaluate the concern.

Depending on the evidence and stage of publication, appropriate action may include rejection of a manuscript, editorial correction, publication of a correction or clarification, expression of concern, retraction, or referral of serious matters to an author's institution or other appropriate authority where warranted.

No finding of misconduct should be made solely on the basis of an unverified allegation. Authors and other relevant parties should normally be given an appropriate opportunity to respond.

8. Corrections, Retractions, and the Scholarly Record

SIBOOK Journal is committed to preserving an accurate and transparent scholarly record. Material errors or integrity concerns identified after publication will be evaluated according to their nature and seriousness.

Where appropriate, the journal may issue a correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction. Such notices should be clearly identified, linked to the affected article, and maintained as part of the permanent publication record.

Published articles must not be silently altered in ways that obscure the publication history or the nature of a substantive correction.

9. Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other parties may submit complaints or appeals concerning editorial procedures, decisions, ethical issues, or published content through the journal's official contact channel.

Appeals should present a clear scholarly or procedural basis and, where relevant, supporting evidence. An appeal does not guarantee reversal of an editorial decision.

Where reasonably possible, complaints or appeals concerning the conduct or decision of a particular editor should be considered by another qualified editor or responsible person who was not directly involved in the disputed matter.

10. Artificial Intelligence and Publication Ethics

Artificial Intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors and cannot assume responsibility for the accuracy, originality, integrity, or accountability required of human authors.

Authors and editors must comply with the journal's policy concerning appropriate use and disclosure of Artificial Intelligence tools. Peer reviewers must not use generative AI to evaluate confidential manuscripts or generate substantive peer-review reports.

11. Compliance with Journal Policies

These publication ethics principles should be read together with the journal's Editorial Policies , including policies concerning peer review, plagiarism, copyright and licensing, conflicts of interest, corrections and retractions, and other applicable publication requirements.