Publication Ethicsand and Misconduct
Tinombala: Journal of Social Sciences and Arts Education is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against any publication malpractices. All parties involved in the act of publishing (authors, editors, peer reviewers, and the publisher) must agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior.
1. Duties of Editors
- Publication Decisions: The editor is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published based on the manuscript’s merit, importance to the community, and the reviewers’ comments.
- Fair Play: Editors evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
- Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and the publisher.
- Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.
2. Duties of Reviewers
- Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and may also assist the author in improving the paper.
- Promptness: Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse themselves from the review process.
- Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
- Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
3. Duties of Authors
- Reporting Standards: Authors of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance.
- Originality and Plagiarism: The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
- Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: An author should not, in general, publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal.
- Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study.
- Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.
4. Dealing with Unethical Behavior
- Identification of Misconduct: Misconduct and unethical behavior may be identified and brought to the attention of the editor and publisher at any time, by anyone.
- Investigation: The editor, in consultation with the publisher, will take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper.
- Sanctions: In cases of proven misconduct, the journal may apply sanctions such as:
- A formal letter to the author outlining the misconduct.
- Formal retraction of the publication from the journal.
- A ban on submissions from the individual for a defined period.
