Ethical Considerations
Authors are responsible for ensuring the originality and integrity of their work. Submissions must comply with academic ethical standards:
• No plagiarism or self-plagiarism
• Disclosure of conflicts of interest
• Ethical clearance for research involving human subjects or copyrighted content
Copyright and Open Access
Design Nexus is an open-access journal. Authors retain copyright and the work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Publication Ethics
Design Nexus is committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical conduct in academic publishing. The journal follows the guidelines and best practices outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We expect authors, reviewers, and editors to adhere to the following ethical principles:
1. Author Responsibilities
• Submitted work must be original, unpublished, and not under review elsewhere.
• All sources and references must be accurately cited using APA 7th edition style.
• Plagiarism (including self-plagiarism) is strictly prohibited. Submissions are checked using plagiarism detection tools.
• Authors must disclose any conflicts of interest that could influence the research.
• If the study involves human subjects, images, interviews, or personal data, authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained and provide ethical approval documentation where applicable.
• All authors listed must have made a significant contribution to the manuscript and agree to its submission and publication.
2. Reviewer Responsibilities
• Reviewers must provide fair, constructive, and timely evaluations of submissions.
• Reviews must be conducted objectively and confidentially; personal criticism is inappropriate.
• Reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest and decline to review if there is a potential bias.
• Reviewers should not use unpublished material from submissions for their own benefit.
3. Editorial Responsibilities
• Editors are responsible for fair and unbiased decision-making based solely on academic merit.
• All manuscripts will be evaluated without regard to the authors’ race, gender, nationality, institutional affiliation, or political views.
• The editorial team ensures a double-blind peer review process is maintained.
• Editors will take appropriate action in the case of ethical complaints or misconduct, including retractions or corrections if necessary.
4. Misconduct and Retractions
Design Nexus will investigate all allegations of misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication, authorship disputes) and follow COPE procedures to resolve them. If misconduct is confirmed:
• The article may be retracted or corrected
• The authors may be banned from future submissions
• The institution may be notified, if applicable