PUBLICATION ETHICS AND OPEN ACCESS POLICY

1. Publication Ethics

The International Journal of Politics and Security (IJPS) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, academic integrity, and transparency. The journal follows the principles and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed by COPE, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

All participants in the publication process—including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher—are expected to adhere to these principles.

2. Research Ethics

All research submitted to IJPS must comply with applicable national and international standards of research ethics.

Studies involving human participants, animals, personal data, or sensitive information must obtain ethics committee approval and other necessary permissions where required. For studies involving human participants, obtain informed consent and protect participants' privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity.

Where ethics committee approval is required, authors must provide the name of the approving committee, the approval date, and the reference or decision number. If a study is exempt from ethical approval, the authors must explain the grounds for exemption.

For research involving children under 18, authors must obtain appropriate consent from parents or legal guardians, along with the child's assent where applicable.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that any photographs, identifiable personal information, or other materials involving participants are used with the necessary consent and permissions.

3. Publication Misconduct

IJPS does not tolerate plagiarism, duplicate publication, inappropriate text recycling, citation manipulation, data fabrication, data falsification, or other forms of research misconduct.

All submissions may be screened using similarity detection software. Authors must properly acknowledge all sources and ensure that their work is original and has not been published previously or submitted simultaneously to another journal.

Authors must report research methods, data, and findings accurately and transparently. Reusing data from previous studies must be appropriately disclosed and justified. Dividing a single study into multiple publications without a legitimate scholarly reason is unacceptable.

The journal investigates suspected misconduct in accordance with COPE guidance. Where misconduct is confirmed, appropriate action may include rejection, correction, retraction, or notification of the relevant institutions.

4. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors submitting manuscripts to IJPS must:

• Ensure that their work is original and falls within the journal's scope.
• Cite sources accurately and consistently, following APA 7th edition guidelines.
• Report research methods, data, and findings honestly and transparently.
• Ensure that authorship reflects substantial scholarly contributions.
• Disclose relevant conflicts of interest, funding sources, and institutional affiliations.
• Obtain necessary ethical approvals, permissions, and informed consent.
• Ensure that all third-party material is used with appropriate permission or under a license that permits the intended use.
• Confirm that the manuscript is not under consideration by another journal.

5. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for ensuring a fair, impartial, confidential, and timely editorial process.

Editorial decisions must be based on a manuscript's originality, academic quality, methodological rigor, relevance to the journal's scope, and reviewers' assessments. Decisions must not be influenced by authors' nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, political views, or personal relationships.

Editors must disclose and manage conflicts of interest, protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, and take appropriate action when ethical concerns arise.

The editorial team is responsible for maintaining editorial independence and safeguarding the integrity of the journal's peer-review and publication processes.

6. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to:

• Evaluate manuscripts objectively, constructively, and within the agreed timeframe.
• Treat manuscripts and the information they contain as confidential.
• Identify relevant literature that has not been cited.
• Report suspected plagiarism, research misconduct, or other ethical concerns to the editors.
• Declare any conflicts of interest that could affect their impartiality.
• Refrain from using unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal or professional advantage.

7. Peer Review Policy

IJPS applies a double-blind peer-review process in which the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from one another.

Each manuscript considered suitable for external review is evaluated by at least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise. Editorial decisions are based on the reviewers' assessments and the editors' evaluation of the manuscript's originality, academic rigor, methodological quality, and relevance to the journal.

The journal reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not meet its academic, ethical, or editorial requirements.

8. Technology Ethics and Dual-Use Research

Given its focus on international politics, security studies, and emerging technologies, IJPS pays particular attention to the ethical, legal, and societal implications of research involving artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cybersecurity, biotechnology, and space technologies.

Authors are encouraged to identify relevant risks, including potential dual-use applications, privacy concerns, human rights implications, and governance challenges. Research must comply with applicable ethical and legal requirements.

9. Corrections, Retractions, and Complaints

IJPS is committed to preserving the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record.

When significant errors, research misconduct, or ethical concerns are identified, the journal will assess the matter and take appropriate action in accordance with COPE guidance. Depending on the circumstances, this may include publishing a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction.

Complaints and appeals are handled fairly, transparently, and in a timely manner. Authors and other relevant parties may be asked to provide supporting information during an investigation.

10. Copyright and Licensing Policy

Authors retain the copyright to their published articles in IJPS. By publishing with the journal, authors grant IJPS the right of first publication and the non-exclusive rights necessary to publish, distribute, archive, and disseminate their work.

All articles published in IJPS are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

This license permits anyone to share, copy, redistribute, adapt, and build upon published material for any purpose, including commercial use, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated. Users may not impose additional legal or technological restrictions that prevent others from exercising the rights granted by the license.

The terms of the license are available at:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Authors are responsible for obtaining any permissions required to reproduce third-party material that is not covered by an applicable open license or other legal exception.

11. Open Access Policy

IJPS is a fully open-access journal. All articles are freely available online immediately upon publication, without subscription fees or access restrictions.

Readers may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to, and reuse published articles in accordance with the CC BY 4.0 license.

IJPS supports the principles of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002) and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003). The journal promotes the unrestricted dissemination of scholarly knowledge and encourages the responsible sharing and reuse of research.

Further information is available at:

• Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Budapest Open Access Initiative: https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read/
• Berlin Declaration on Open Access: https://openaccess.mpg.de/Berlin-Declaration

12. Archiving and Self-Archiving Policy

Authors may deposit and share their published articles in institutional repositories, personal websites, and other appropriate academic platforms under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.

When sharing their work, authors must acknowledge the original publication in IJPS and include the DOI, where available, together with a link to the published version and the applicable license.

The version published on the journal's official website is the definitive version of record.

13. Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in articles published in IJPS are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors, the editorial board, or the publisher. Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, and content of their work.