Publishing Ethics & Policies

Journals Online is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and integrity. Our policies are guided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), ICMJE, and Open Access guidelines. This page outlines our policies regarding ethical responsibilities, misconduct, and transparency.

1. Responsibilities of Authors

• All submitted work must be original, properly cited, and not under review elsewhere.
• Authors must acknowledge all sources of funding and conflicts of interest.
• All co-authors must approve the final version before submission.
• Plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, and duplicate publication are strictly prohibited.

2. Responsibilities of Editors

• Editors will evaluate manuscripts based on academic merit, originality, and relevance without bias.
• Confidentiality of submitted work is strictly maintained.
• Editors must recuse themselves in case of conflicts of interest.
• Allegations of misconduct will be investigated thoroughly and fairly.

3. Responsibilities of Reviewers

• Peer review must be objective, timely, and constructive.
• Confidentiality of submitted material must be respected.
• Reviewers should identify unethical content such as plagiarism or data manipulation.
• Conflicts of interest must be disclosed and may disqualify a reviewer.

4. Plagiarism Policy

All submissions are screened using plagiarism detection tools. Manuscripts found to contain plagiarized content will be immediately rejected or retracted, and authors may be blacklisted from future submissions.

5. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

Authors are encouraged to share underlying data in repositories and ensure that results are replicable. Data availability statements may be required depending on the journal’s scope.

6. Human and Animal Rights

Research involving human participants or animals must have appropriate institutional ethics approval and comply with international ethical standards. A statement of compliance must be included in the manuscript.

7. Informed Consent

For all research involving human participants, informed consent must be obtained and documented. Authors must state this clearly in the manuscript.

8. Conflict of Interest Disclosure

All authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any financial or non-financial interests that could influence the content or decision-making process.

9. Retraction, Correction, and Withdrawal Policy

• Retractions will be issued for articles found to involve major ethical misconduct, plagiarism, or unreliable data.
• Corrections will be published for honest errors that do not invalidate the results.
• Withdrawals may occur before publication if ethical issues are identified or the author requests with valid reason.

10. Open Access and Licensing

All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), allowing anyone to share and adapt the work with proper citation.

11. Appeals and Complaints

Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions. Complaints about unethical behavior by authors, reviewers, or editors should be directed to ethics@journalsonline.org and will be handled confidentially by the Ethics Committee.

12. Policy Updates

These policies are reviewed periodically and updated as needed to reflect evolving ethical standards in academic publishing.

For any questions regarding ethical practices, please contact us at editors@journalsonline.org.