Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Editorial and Publication Ethics Policy

Journal of Emerging Educational Studies (JEES) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and research integrity. To ensure a transparent and rigorous academic environment, JEES strictly adheres to the core principles, flowcharts, and guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

All stakeholders in the publishing process—the Publisher, Editors, Authors, and Reviewers—are required to agree upon and uphold the ethical standards outlined below.

1. Ethical Responsibilities of the Publisher

The Publisher of JEES operates on a non-profit basis with the sole mission of fostering the dissemination of educational research. The Publisher ensures that:

  • Editorial Independence: The editorial decision-making process is entirely independent. The publisher does not interfere with decisions regarding the acceptance, revision, or rejection of manuscripts.

  • Copyright & Archiving: The publisher safeguards the intellectual property rights of published works and ensures long-term digital preservation and archiving of the journal’s content.

  • Ethical Vigilance: The publisher, in collaboration with the editors, takes immediate action in cases of alleged research misconduct, plagiarism, or data fabrication.

2. Ethical Responsibilities of the Editors

The Editorial Board holds ultimate accountability for the quality, integrity, and scholarly impact of JEES. Editors must ensure the following:

  • Impartiality and Fairness: Manuscripts are evaluated solely based on their intellectual merit, methodology, and relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.

  • Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and potential reviewers.

  • Conflict of Interest Management: Editors will recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors or institutions.

  • Upholding Reviewer Anonymity: Editors must strictly maintain the integrity of the double-blind peer-review process, ensuring that both author and reviewer identities are fully masked.

  • Publication Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which of the manuscripts submitted to the journal will be published, guided by peer review reports and COPE ethical standards.

3. Ethical Responsibilities of the Reviewers

Peer review is the cornerstone of scholarly publishing. Reviewers for JEES are expected to fulfill the following ethical duties:

  • Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Reviewers assist the editors in making editorial decisions and help authors improve the quality of their manuscripts through constructive feedback.

  • Promptness and Reliability: Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research or knows that its prompt completion will be impossible should immediately notify the editor and decline the invitation.

  • Strict Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

  • Objectivity Standards: Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers must express their views clearly with supporting arguments and evidence.

  • Acknowledgment of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation.

4. Ethical Responsibilities of the Authors

Authors submitting their work to JEES must certify the integrity of their research by adhering to these standards:

  • Reporting Standards: Authors of original research reports should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data must be represented accurately in the paper.

  • Data Access and Retention: Authors may be asked to provide the raw data connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data if practicable.

  • Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

  • Data Integrity (Fabrication/Falsification): Any instances of manipulated, falsified, or fabricated data are strictly prohibited. If detected, the manuscript will be rejected immediately, and the authors' affiliated institutions will be formally notified.

  • Research Ethics Committee Approval: For all studies involving human participants (e.g., surveys, interviews, focus groups), authors are suggested to obtain formal approval from a recognized Institutional Review Board / Research Ethics Committee. This approval (including the committee name and reference number) must be explicitly stated in the methodology section of the manuscript.

5. Dealing with Academic Misconduct and Violations

JEES does not hesitate to address complaints or suspected violations:

  • Investigation Protocol: In the event of an ethical violation complaint, the journal will follow the procedures and flowcharts outlined by COPE. Authors will always be given a fair opportunity to respond to any allegations.

  • Corrections and Retractions: The Editorial Board demonstrates responsible behavior when publishing corrections, expressions of concern, clarifications, or formal retractions. If a post-publication violation is proven, a formal Retraction Note will be issued, and indexing databases will be updated.