Ethics, Integrity & Misconduct Policy

Last reviewed: 2026. This policy is binding on all parties involved in the publication of a manuscript in IJAEDF and is applied to every submission without exception.

1. Scope and Standards

IJAEDF is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against publication malpractice. The journal adheres to:

• COPE Core Practices — for handling allegations of misconduct, complaints, appeals, conflicts of interest, data and reproducibility, ethical oversight, intellectual property, journal management, peer-review processes, and post-publication discussions.
• ICMJE Recommendations — for authorship, contributorship, disclosure of conflicts, protection of research participants, and registration of clinical trials where applicable.
• DOAJ Principles of Transparency and Best Practice — for open-access publishing, licensing, and editorial transparency.
• UGC-CARE expectations — for indexing eligibility, periodicity, plagiarism limits, and editorial board transparency.

2. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship credit is granted only to those who meet all four ICMJE authorship criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Final approval of the version to be published; and
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All contributors who do not meet the authorship criteria must be listed in the Acknowledgements. Gift, guest, and ghost authorship are prohibited. Use of generative AI tools must be disclosed in the methods and acknowledgements sections — AI tools cannot be listed as authors.

3. Originality and Plagiarism

• All submissions are screened with iThenticate / Turnitin. The maximum permitted similarity index is 10%, with no single source contributing more than 2%.
• Self-plagiarism, duplicate submission, and salami-slicing are treated as misconduct.
• Proper attribution must be given to all sources, including verbatim quotations and previously published figures or tables (with copyright clearance where required).

4. Research Integrity and Data

Authors must ensure that data are genuine, accurately reported, and obtained ethically. Fabrication, falsification, image manipulation, and selective reporting are forms of misconduct. Authors should retain raw data for at least five years after publication and make them available to editors or reviewers on reasonable request.

5. Ethical Oversight

• Research involving human participants, human data, or animals must have prior approval from a relevant ethics committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB), and the approval reference must be stated in the manuscript.
• Informed consent must be obtained and documented for all participants.
• Where applicable, clinical trials must be prospectively registered in a public trial registry recognised by ICMJE.

6. Conflicts of Interest

All authors, reviewers, and editors must declare any financial, personal, academic, or institutional relationships that could be perceived as influencing their work. Authors complete an ICMJE-style disclosure statement at submission. Reviewers and editors recuse themselves from any manuscript where a conflict exists.

7. Editorial Independence and Decision-Making

Editorial decisions are based solely on scholarly merit — originality, significance, methodological rigor, and clarity — without regard to the authors' nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, race, religion, citizenship, or political views. The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over editorial content and the timing of publication.

8. Peer Review

IJAEDF uses double-blind peer review. Reviewers must keep manuscripts confidential, must not use information from the manuscript for personal advantage, and must alert the editor to any suspected misconduct. See our full Peer Review Process page for details.

9. Misconduct Allegations and Investigation

Allegations of misconduct (including but not limited to plagiarism, data fabrication, image manipulation, undisclosed conflicts, and authorship disputes) are investigated using the relevant COPE flowcharts. The journal may:

• Request clarification, raw data, or institutional review;
• Issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction;
• Notify the authors' institution and funders;
• Ban authors from future submissions for a defined period.

10. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

• Correction (corrigendum / erratum): for honest errors that do not affect the conclusions.
• Expression of Concern: issued when investigation is ongoing and readers should be alerted.
• Retraction: issued for unreliable findings (whether due to misconduct or honest error), redundant publication, plagiarism, or unethical research. Retraction notices are linked to the original article, freely accessible, and follow COPE retraction guidelines. Retracted articles are clearly watermarked but remain available to preserve the scholarly record.

11. Complaints and Appeals

Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision may write to the Editor-in-Chief at editor@ijaedf.com within 30 days of the decision, stating the grounds for appeal. Appeals are reviewed by an editor not previously involved in the decision. Complaints about editorial process, publication ethics, or staff conduct follow the same channel and are handled per COPE complaint procedures. If a complainant remains dissatisfied, the matter may be referred to COPE.

12. Post-Publication Discussion

IJAEDF welcomes substantive post-publication commentary in the form of letters to the editor. The journal will engage with reasonable critiques and update the published record with corrections or clarifications where warranted.

13. Intellectual Property and Licensing

Authors retain copyright of their work. All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. See our Open Access & Licensing page.

14. Archiving and Availability

Articles are deposited and preserved through long-term digital archiving arrangements to ensure permanent access. Authors are permitted to self-archive the published version in institutional and subject repositories without embargo.

15. Publisher's Responsibilities

The publisher (RCD Strategic Solutions) supports the editors in handling allegations of misconduct, ensures editorial independence, and is committed to publishing corrections, clarifications, and retractions when needed.

16. Contact

Ethical concerns, complaints, and appeals: editor@ijaedf.com