ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Scientific and legal responsibilities of all articles belong to their authors. The authors acknowledge that all their copyrights are transferred to the Asian Journal of Instruction. The article evaluation process in the Asian Journal of Instruction is carried out with a “double-blind, peer-reviewed” principle. The reviewers cannot directly contact the authors, and the assessments and comments are delivered to the authors through the journal system.
All or some part of the articles submitted to the journal should not have been published elsewhere and should not be in the process of publication. Fabrication of data, making up of research findings, manipulating research data with the intention of giving a false impression, presenting the work of others (plagiarism) such as data, text, or theories, submitting the same study to two journals, splitting one study into several parts and submitted to two or more journals are all-important ethical violations. Necessary legal actions will be taken in the case of ethical violations.
It is very important that all stakeholders of the process (editor, journal team, authors, and reviewers) comply with the ethical principles and responsibilities. Ethical principles and responsibilities in the Asian Journal of Instruction have been prepared in consideration of open-access policies and guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Elsevier standards.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EDITOR
The editor of the Asian Journal of Instruction has the following responsibilities- The editor is responsible for everything published in the journal and therefore should take all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of materials.
- The editor should make efforts to meet the demand for knowledge from readers and authors.
- The editor should try to ensure the continuous development of the journal.
- The editor should manage the procedures aimed to improve the quality of the studies published in the journal.
- The editor should support freedom of expression.
- The editor should try to ensure academic integrity.
- The editor should follow the procedures without making concessions on intellectual property rights and ethical standards.
- The editor should always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.
Relations with Readers
- The editor must make decisions taking into consideration the knowledge, skills, and expectations of all readers, researchers and practitioners need. They must also ensure that the published studies contribute to the literature and be original. Moreover, they must take notice of the feedback received from researchers and practitioners and provide explanatory and informative feedback.
Relations with Authors
- The editor should review the journal’s instructions to authors to ensure they are up to date with current guidelines. These instructions should clearly state what is expected of authors and what the journal will do in cases of suspected misconduct such as plagiarism or data fabrication.
- Decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based only on the paper’s importance, originality, and clarity, and the study’s relevance to the remit of the journal.
- Electronic submission systems can be designed to ensure the authors provide all the required information.
- The editor should monitor the process regularly and try to increase efficiency and prevent delays.
- The editor must be sure that the journal adopts and publishes its procedures for considering authors’ appeals against editorial decisions and for handling complaints.
- The editors must not ignore positive suggestions made by reviewers unless there are serious problems with the study.
- The authors should be provided with explanatory and informative feedback.
- "Blind Review and Review Process" must be published and editors must prevent possible diversions in the defined processes.
Relations with Reviewers
- The editor should adopt a peer-review process that is appropriate for the journal. The editor should have systems to ensure that material submitted to the journal remains confidential while under review.
- The editor must be sure to provide guidance to reviewers on everything that is expected of them. This guidance should be regularly updated and on the journal page, there should be a link to this.
- The editor should choose reviewers according to the subject of the study.
- The editor should observe whether there are conflicting interests between reviewers and authors.
- The editor should keep the identities of reviewers confidential in a blind review.
- The editor should encourage the reviewers to review the manuscript in an unbiased, scientific, and objective tone.
- The editor should take the necessary steps to update the reviewer pool dynamically and make an effort to ensure the reviewer pool has a wide range.
- The editor should prevent unkind and unscientific reviews.
Relations with Journal Team
- In some journals, the editor-in-chief will be expected to work with a team of co-editors.
- The editor is responsible for identifying the roles and responsibilities of the editorial staff so that everybody is clear about who does what.
- The editor is responsible for guiding people involved in the team on everything that is expected of them, and to inform them about new developments and policies.
- The editor should select the new members of the journal team from those who can contribute to the journal and are qualified enough.
ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AUTHORS
The authors of the Asian Journal of Instruction have the following responsibilities:- The manuscript submitted for publication must be original.
- The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
- The manuscript has not been published previously partly or in full.
- A single study is not split up into several parts to increase the number of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time.
- No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author's own. If the authors have used the works of other authors, they should ensure that they are properly quoted.
- The authors whose names are written in the article are considered to have contributed sufficiently to the scientific study. Therefore they share the common responsibility for the results.
- Authors should not put down the names of people who took little or no part in the research and should not leave out names of people who did take part.
- The authors should provide a description of what each contributed.
- The authors may be asked to provide raw data for an article to be reviewed. Therefore, the raw data should be stored.
- All others who contributed to the work who are not authors should be named in the “Acknowledgments”, and what they did should be described.
- Changes of authorship or in the order of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.
- The corresponding author who receives the reviewers’ comments and whose contact details are printed on the article so that readers can request reprints or contact the research group.
- If the research involves chemicals, procedures, and equipment with unusual hazards, authors should have the necessary permissions in this regard.
- If subjects (animal or human) are used in the research, a certificate indicating the consent of the subjects should be obtained.
- When an author detects any serious error in his published work, should immediately notify and cooperate with the journal editor or publisher to retract or correct the article.
ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS
The reviewers of the Asian Journal of Instruction have the following responsibilities:- Authors who have benefited from the peer review process should consider becoming peer reviewers as a part of their professional responsibilities.
- The reviewers should express their views clearly by supporting them with arguments and necessary references.
- The reviewers should not include insulting statements in their evaluations. They should not personally criticize the authors.
- If reviewers have not reviewed the whole manuscript, do indicate which aspects of the manuscript you have assessed.
- The journal may ask for a recommendation to accept/revise/reject; any recommendation should be congruent with the comments provided in the review.
- Reviewers should agree to review only if you are able to return a review within the proposed or mutually agreed with time-frame.
- The reviewers should evaluate the principles of impartiality and objectivity.
- Reviewers should declare all potential competing, or conflicting, interests. Competing interests may be personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political, or religious in nature.
- If reviewers are currently employed at the same institution as any of the authors they should not agree to review.
- Reviewers should not agree to review a manuscript just to gain sight of it with no intention of submitting a review.
- Reviewers should respect the confidentiality of the peer-review process and refrain from using information obtained during the peer review process for your own or another’s an advantage, or to disadvantage or discredit others.
- Reviewers should not contact the authors directly without the permission of the journal.
- Reviewers should prepare the report by themselves unless they have permission from the journal to involve another person.
- If reviewers come across any irregularities with respect to research and publication ethics should let the journal know.