Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

IJERs abides by the Publication Ethics Committee's "Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" and "Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers" guidelines (COPE). See https://publicationethics.org for more on COPE's "Core Practices" document.

The following ethical guidelines must be followed by authors who submit their work to IJERs:

Authorship of the paper: Authorship need to be restricted to those who significantly contributed to the study. Prior to submission, authorship should be decided upon, and no one is falsely given ("gifted authorship") or refused credit for writing the paper ("ghost authorship").

Acknowledgements: There should be an Acknowledgements section where those (institutions and financial resources) who have supported the study but not made contributions are recognized.

Originality and purity of plagiarism: The submitted work must be wholly original to the writers. The work of other researchers should be properly credited and referenced in the references if it is presented in the publication. The author is required to run the paper using Turnit-in or iThenticate, two programs that detect plagiarism, and then submit the similarity report to the journal for consideration. A 15% similarity rate or above will exclude a manuscript from consideration.

Ethics committee permission and approval: When doing research involving human subjects, authors are obliged to explain in their articles how the research received ethical approval from the relevant committee and how participant permission was gained. The ethical permission form for their study must be uploaded into the journal submission system by the authors.

Redundant publication: To IJERs, authors must submit original, never-before-published work. The paper cannot be submitted for evaluation to another journal at the same time.

Salami publication or salami slicing: Authors shouldn't compromise the integrity of the research by improperly splitting and publishing the research's results in order to present the findings of a study as distinct papers in academic appointments and promotions.

Data access and retention: When editors and referees ask for it, authors must provide the raw data from their study and maintain it even after publication.

Fundamental errors in published works: It is the responsibility of the author to quickly tell the journal editor of any material errors or inaccuracies in his or her own published work and to work with the editor to withdraw or correct the paper.

Conflicts of Interest: Financial ties, interpersonal rivalries or competitiveness, intellectual rivalries, or ideological or religious differences can all lead to possible conflicts of interest. They might be financial, scholarly, political, commercial, or personal. Authors are asked to state any interests they may have in the work they have submitted for publication, whether directly or indirectly. You must provide a declaration as an author guaranteeing that:

  1. All monetary assistance (funds, donations, sponsorships) is authorized.
  2. The cover letter describes a business or financial connection that might create a conflict of interest.
  3. You and your sponsor have not made any agreements that might slant the findings of your research in any manner.
  4. The writers of the article don't have any competing interests.

Please explain any potential conflicts of interest in the cover file if you believe them to exist.

For example;

Disclosure statement: The writers whose names are mentioned below have disclosed the following information regarding their affiliation with or participation in a group or entity that has a financial or non-financial interest in the materials or topics covered in this publication.

If no possible conflict of interest was disclosed by the authors, the following statement will be published: "No potential conflict of interest was disclosed by the authors."

The accuracy of the claims made in the manuscript is the responsibility of the authors. Submissions that do not adhere to the requirements listed in this section may be rejected by the managing editor.

Removal of Published Content: IJERs maintains the right, in extraordinary cases, to take down any piece of material from the site. Such action may be taken in the following situations: (a) IJERs has received notification that content is libelous, violates a third party's intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or other legal rights, or is otherwise unlawful; (b) such content must be removed in accordance with a court or government order that has been issued or is about to be issued; and (c) such content, if used, would pose an immediate and serious risk to health. Removal could be temporary or permanent. A note describing the removal of the material will be included with the retained bibliographic metadata.