Publication Ethics

JPESI adheres to the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This statement defines the ethical duties of all parties involved in publication.

Duties of Editors

  • Publication decisions. The Editor-in-Chief decides which manuscripts to publish based on academic merit, validity, and relevance to the scope, and is guided by the policies of the Editorial Board and by applicable legal requirements on defamation, copyright, and plagiarism.
  • Fair play. Editors evaluate manuscripts on intellectual content alone, without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, or political position.
  • Confidentiality. Editors do not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and the publisher.
  • Disclosure and conflicts of interest. Editors do not use unpublished material from a submitted manuscript in their own research without the author's written consent. Editors recuse themselves from manuscripts in which they have a competing interest.
  • Vigilance over the published record. Editors respond to every complaint of ethical misconduct and publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, or apologies when required.

Duties of Reviewers

  • Contribution to editorial decisions. Reviewers assist the editor in reaching a decision and help authors improve the manuscript.
  • Promptness. A reviewer who feels unqualified or unable to review within the agreed time notifies the editor immediately and withdraws.
  • Confidentiality. Manuscripts under review are confidential documents. Reviewers do not share them with, or discuss them with, third parties without editorial authorisation.
  • Standards of objectivity. Reviews are conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. Reviewers express their views with supporting arguments.
  • Acknowledgement of sources. Reviewers identify relevant published work not cited by the authors, and alert the editor to substantial overlap with any other manuscript of which they have personal knowledge.
  • Disclosure and conflicts of interest. Reviewers do not use privileged information obtained through review for personal advantage, and decline to review manuscripts in which they have a competitive, collaborative, or other conflicting relationship with the authors.

Duties of Authors

  • Reporting standards. Authors present an accurate account of the work performed and an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data are represented accurately. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour.
  • Data access and retention. Authors provide the raw data of their study on editorial request and retain that data for at least [[five years]] after publication.
  • Originality and plagiarism. Authors submit only original work and cite the work of others appropriately.
  • Multiple publication. Authors do not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently, and do not publish the same research in more than one journal.
  • Authorship. Authorship is limited to those who made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study. All co-authors must approve the final version and its submission. Contributors who do not meet the authorship criteria are named in the Acknowledgements.
  • Human and animal subjects. Studies involving human participants must report approval from an institutional ethics committee, including the approval number, and confirm that informed consent was obtained. Studies involving animals must confirm compliance with institutional and national animal welfare regulations.
  • Conflicts of interest. Authors disclose all financial and personal relationships that could be perceived to influence the work, and identify all sources of funding.
  • Errors in published work. An author who discovers a significant error in their published article notifies the editor and cooperates in issuing a correction or retraction.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Authors may use AI tools for language editing, translation, or reference formatting, and must disclose such use in the Methods or Acknowledgements section, naming the tool and describing its function. AI tools cannot be listed as authors, since they cannot take responsibility for the content or declare conflicts of interest. Authors remain fully accountable for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of every part of the manuscript, including material produced with AI assistance. Fabricated references or data generated by AI are treated as research misconduct. Reviewers must not upload manuscripts to public AI systems, as this breaches confidentiality.

Handling of Allegations

Any reader may report suspected misconduct to [[cvlangitkita@gmail.com]]. The Editorial Board investigates every report using COPE flowcharts, gives the authors an opportunity to respond, and communicates the outcome in writing. Where misconduct is confirmed, the Board issues a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction, and notifies the authors' institutions.