ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND PUBLICATION POLICY
General Principles and Publication Ethics Statement
International Journal of Commerce and Finance bases all of its publication processes on the principle that knowledge is produced, developed, and shared through the scientific method in an impartial and reputable manner. Throughout all its publication processes, the journal adheres to the ethical publishing principles issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All parties involved in the publication process — the publisher, editors, authors, reviewers, and readers — are required to comply with these ethical principles.
Manuscripts submitted to the journal must be original; they must not have been previously published, must not be under review by another journal, and must have had their content and submission approved by all authors. Plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, duplicate publication, salami slicing/salami publication, ghost/honorary authorship, copyright infringement, and the concealment of conflicts of interest are considered unethical behaviours, and such manuscripts are rejected. This also covers any malpractice detected after publication. The scientific and legal responsibility for published works rests with the author(s).
Evaluation Process
Manuscripts submitted to the journal are first subjected to a preliminary review by the editor in terms of their conformity with the aim and scope of the journal, originality, methodology, and author guidelines. Manuscripts that pass the preliminary review are evaluated through the double-blind peer-review method (anonymous author – anonymous reviewer). Each manuscript is sent to at least two reviewers who are experts in the field; if the two reviewers' opinions differ, the manuscript is sent to a third reviewer. Manuscripts for which revisions are requested must be completed by the authors within the specified period; manuscripts whose revisions are not submitted on time are removed from the evaluation process. Reviewer evaluations are conveyed to the author through the journal's management system; no direct communication occurs between reviewers and authors. The final decision on whether to publish a manuscript rests with the Editorial Board.
Plagiarism Check
All manuscripts that pass the preliminary check are subjected to a similarity scan using plagiarism detection software. Manuscripts containing excessive direct quotation are returned to the authors for correction. The acceptable upper limit in the similarity scan, excluding the references, is 20%; manuscripts exceeding this rate are rejected by the Editorial Board without being taken into the evaluation process. The Editorial Board may, if it deems necessary, carry out a further plagiarism check at any stage of the evaluation or production process. High similarity may lead to the rejection of a manuscript either before or after acceptance.
Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
Submitted manuscripts must be original; where other works are drawn upon, they must be cited completely and accurately.
Persons who do not make an intellectual contribution to the content of the work cannot be listed as authors; mere technical support, funding, or general supervision does not, on its own, confer authorship. Such contributions are acknowledged in the "acknowledgements" section.
The order of authors is determined by the authors themselves. Once the evaluation process has begun, no author may be added or removed, and the order may not be changed, without the written consent of all authors.
All authors must declare any financial relationships and conflicts of interest that could affect the results.
In studies that collect data directly from human participants — such as surveys, interviews, scales, or experiments — approval must be obtained from the relevant ethics committee of the author's affiliated institution before the data are collected; the name of the committee, the date, and the approval number must be stated in the "Method" section, and the document must be uploaded to the system. For studies based solely on publicly available secondary data (market data, official statistics, company financials, etc.), ethics committee approval is not required; this should be stated in the "Method" section. Obtaining and documenting ethics committee approval, where required, is the responsibility of the author(s) and is not provided by the journal.
Written permission must be obtained from the relevant person or institution for copyright-protected data collection tools, tables, graphs, and images belonging to third parties.
During the evaluation process, authors may be asked to provide raw data; authors must be prepared to submit such information.
If authors notice an error in a published manuscript or one under evaluation, they are obliged to inform the editor and to cooperate in the correction/retraction process.
The same manuscript may not be under submission to more than one journal simultaneously.
Ethical Responsibilities of Editors
Editors make their decisions in accordance with the principle of editorial independence. Editors evaluate manuscripts solely on the basis of their scientific merit, originality, and conformity with the scope of the journal. They ensure that the double-blind peer-review process operates fairly, impartially, and in a timely manner, and that conflicts of interest among authors, reviewers, and editors are managed. They guarantee that information concerning submitted manuscripts remains confidential until publication and protect the identities of the reviewers. When necessary, they arrange for the publication of corrections or retractions. Editors are also responsible for protecting the personal data of authors, reviewers, and readers.
Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers
Reviewers should accept only manuscripts related to their areas of expertise.
They must conduct their evaluation with impartiality and confidentiality, based solely on the scientific content of the manuscript.
Evaluations must be written in constructive and courteous language; disparaging or personal remarks must be avoided.
If there is a conflict of interest, or if they are unable to complete the evaluation in a timely manner, they must inform the editor and withdraw from the process.
If they notice any copyright infringement or plagiarism, or identify relevant published works that have not been cited, they must report this to the editor.
Manuscripts under evaluation belong to the authors and may not be shared with others.
Open Access, Licensing, and Archiving
The journal embraces the open access principle; all published content is made available to readers free of charge and without barriers. All works published in the journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. All issues and articles are archived on a long-term basis.