Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The publication process at International Online Journal of Primary Education (IOJPE) is the basis of the improvement and dissemination of information objectively and respectfully. Therefore, the procedures in this process improves the quality of the studies.

Peer-reviewed studies are the ones that support and materialize the scientific method. At this point, it is of utmost importance that all parties included in the publication process (authors, readers and researchers, publisher, reviewers and editors) comply with the standards of ethical considerations. International Online Journal of Primary Education (IOJPE) expects all parties to hold the following ethical responsibilities.

Ethical duties and responsibilities are written in the light of the guide and policies made by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Responsibilities of Editors

The editor and field editors of International Online Journal of Primary Education (IOJPE) should hold the following ethical responsibilities that are based on the guides "COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" and "COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" published as open Access by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

General duties and responsibilities

Editors are responsible for each study published in International Online Journal of Primary Education (IOJPE). In this respect, the editors have the following roles and responsibilities:

Making efforts to meet the demand for knowledge from readers and authors,
Ensuring the continuous development of the journal,
Managing the procedures aimed to improve the quality of the studies published in the journal,
Supporting freedom of expression,
Ensuring academic integrity,
Following the procedures without making concessions on intellectual property rights and ethical standards,
Being transparent and clear in issues that require correction or explanation.

Relationships with Readers

Editors 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 literature and be original. Moreover, they must take notice of the feedback received from researchers and practitioners and provide explanatory and informative feedback.

Relationships with Authors

Editors have the following duties and responsibilities in their relations with authors:

Editors must make positive or negative decisions about the studies' importance, originality, validity, clarity in wording and suitability with the journal's aims and objectives.
Editors must accept the studies that are within the scope of publication into pre review process unless there are serious problems with the study.
Editors must not ignore positive suggestions made by reviewers unless there are serious problems with the study.
New editors, unless there are serious issues, must not change the previous editor's decisions about the studies.
Blind Review and Review Process must be published and editors must prevent possible diversions in the defined processes.
Editors must publish an Author's Guide that is comprehensive enough in answering queries by authors. This guide must be updated regularly.
Authors should be provided with explanatory and informative feedback.

Relationships with Reviewers

Editors have the following duties and responsibilities in their relations with reviewers:

Editors must

choose reviewers according to the subject of the study.
provide the information and guidance reviewers may need during the review process.
observe whether there are conflicting interests between reviewers and authors.
keep the identities of reviewers confidential in blind review.
encourage the reviewers to review the manuscript in an unbiased, scientific and objective tone.
evaluate reviewers regularly based on criteria like performance and timing.
develop practices and policies that increase the performance of reviewers.
take necessary steps to update the reviewer pool dynamically.
prevent unkind and unscientific reviews.
make effort to ensure the reviewer pool has a wide range.

Relationships with the Editorial Advisory Board

Editors must make sure that the members of the Editorial Advisory Board follow the procedures in accordance with the publication policies and guidelines, and must inform the members about the publication policies and developments. The editors must also train new members of the Editorial Advisory Board and provide the information they need.

Moreover, editors must

ensure that the members of the Editorial Advisory Board review the manuscripts in an unbiased and independent manner.
select the new members of the Editorial Advisory Board from those who can contribute to the journal and are qualified enough.
send manuscripts for review based on the subject of expertise of the Editorial Advisory Board.
regularly communicate with the Editorial Advisory Board.
arrange regular meetings with the Editorial Advisory Board for the development of publication policies and the journal.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

The authors who submit their manuscripts to International Online Journal of Primary Education (IOJPE) are expected to comply with the following ethical responsibilities:

Author(s) must submit original studies to the journal. If they utilize or use other studies, they must make the in-text and end-text references accurately and completely.
People who have not contributed to the study at the intellectual level should not be indicated as author.
If the manuscripts submitted to be published are subject of conflicting interests or relations, these must be explained.
During the review process of their manuscripts, author(s) may be asked to supply raw data. In such a case, author(s) should be ready to submit such data and information to the editorial and scientific boards.
Author(s) should document that they have the participants' consent and the necessary permissions related with the sharing and research/analysis of the data that are used.
Author(s) bears the responsibility to inform the editor of the journal or publisher if they happen to notice a mistake in their study which is in early release or publication process and to cooperate with the editors during the correction or withdrawal process.
Authors cannot submit their studies to multiple journals simultaneously. Each submission can be made only after the previous one is completed. A study published in another journal cannot be submitted to International Online Journal of Primary Education.
Author responsibilities given in a study (e.g.: adding an author, reordering of author names) whose review process has begun cannot be changed.

Conflicts-of-Interest Statement

Authors

According to general publication policy of the International Online Journal of Primary Education (IOJPE), only the researchers who contributed to the work in a real sense should be considered as an author. Authors should be responsible to disclose all the personal and financial relationships which might bias their work. Financial relationships such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony can be classified as the most easily identifiable conflicts-of-interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal. To clarify conflicts-of-interest issue, authors must submit a letter to the editorial office accompanying the submitted manuscript and explicitly state if any potential conflicts exist or not.

Peer Reviewers

Peer Reviewers should be responsible to decline the review process if any substantial conflicts-of-interest exists. In case of any doubt, they should consult to the Editor to make a decision regarding the review process. Researchers from authors' institutions should not be considered as peer reviewers to prevent any conflicts-of-interest.

Editors

Editors should be responsible to manage the review process and have the right of declining any submission in case of any conflict-of-interest. They should not have any direct personal and/or financial conflicts with their assigned manuscripts. They should not be assigned to manuscripts if they are in the author list of them.

Plagiarism Control

All the submitted articles to International Online Journal of Primary Education (IOJPE) are evaluated by using the 

 plagiarism detection software. After evaluating the generated similarity report, the editorial board decides to proceed the submission to the review or directly decline it.

However, manuscripts based on papers published at related conferences and workshops proceedings may be submitted for consideration provided that: the papers are not identical; the authors cite their earlier conference paper on which this new work is based; the journal publication includes clearly shown novel elements (e.g., more comprehensive experiments). All the responsibility of the manuscripts regarding to ethical issues belong to authors. According to the publication policy of the International Online Journal of Primary Education (IOJPE), the plagiarism rate must not exceed 15%.

Complaints Policy

Complaints regarding any published materials will only be accepted within 12 months from the first publication date. In case of any complaint, the authors are required to submit their complaints along with their reasons to the editorial office via e-mail (editor.online.iojpe@gmail.com).