Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

The International Journal of Mathematics and Sciences Education (IJMSEd) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and scholarly integrity. This Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement applies to all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher.

IJMSEd follows internationally recognized principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing and is committed to handling ethical issues fairly, objectively, confidentially, and transparently. Editorial decisions are based on the scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance, and contribution of submitted manuscripts without discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, gender, religious or political beliefs, institutional affiliation, or other personal characteristics.

1. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to the conception or design of the study; acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; development of the theoretical or methodological framework; or drafting and substantial revision of the manuscript.

All listed authors must:

1. have made a substantial contribution to the work;
2. approve the final version of the manuscript;
3. agree to its submission to IJMSEd; and
4. accept accountability for the integrity and accuracy of their contribution.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all eligible contributors are included as authors, that inappropriate authorship such as guest, honorary, or ghost authorship does not occur, and that all co-authors have approved the submitted manuscript.

Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be accompanied by a clear explanation and written agreement from all authors concerned. After acceptance, authorship changes will only be permitted in exceptional circumstances and at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

Where appropriate, IJMSEd encourages authors to describe individual contributions using a recognized contributor-role framework such as CRediT.

2. Originality, Plagiarism, and Duplicate Publication

Manuscripts submitted to IJMSEd must be original works that have not previously been published and are not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.

Authors must appropriately acknowledge and cite all sources used in their work. Plagiarism in any form, including direct plagiarism, inappropriate paraphrasing, self-plagiarism, and the unattributed use of ideas, data, figures, tables, or other intellectual material, is unacceptable.

IJMSEd may use similarity-detection software as part of its editorial screening. Similarity reports are interpreted by editors in context and are not used as the sole basis for editorial decisions.

Redundant, duplicate, or substantially overlapping publication is not permitted. Authors must disclose related manuscripts, conference papers, preprints, datasets, or previous publications where necessary to allow editors to assess potential overlap.

If plagiarism or duplicate publication is identified after publication, IJMSEd may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, depending on the nature and severity of the problem.

3. Research Misconduct

IJMSEd does not tolerate research misconduct, including but not limited to:

• fabrication of data or results;
• falsification or inappropriate manipulation of data;
• plagiarism;
• manipulation or inappropriate alteration of images;
• citation manipulation;
• fraudulent authorship;
• undisclosed conflicts of interest;
• unethical research involving human participants;
• manipulation of the peer-review process; and
• deliberate misrepresentation of research methods, findings, or sources.

When an allegation of misconduct is received, the journal will conduct an initial assessment to determine whether the allegation is credible and falls within the journal's responsibility.

The journal will not make unsupported accusations against authors, reviewers, or editors. Where institutional investigation is necessary, IJMSEd may contact the relevant institution, research ethics committee, funding body, or other appropriate authority.

If misconduct is established, appropriate editorial action may include rejection of the manuscript, publication of a correction, expression of concern, or retraction.

4. Data Fabrication, Falsification, and Image Manipulation

Authors must accurately present the data, procedures, analyses, and results of their research. Fabricating or falsifying data is a serious violation of publication ethics.

Figures, photographs, screenshots, graphs, and other visual materials must accurately represent the underlying information. Adjustments to images are acceptable only when they improve clarity and do not selectively alter, obscure, remove, or misrepresent information.

Editors may request original data or files when concerns arise regarding the authenticity or integrity of submitted materials.

5. Citation Practices and Citation Manipulation

Authors should cite publications that are genuinely relevant to their research and necessary to support the theoretical, methodological, or empirical basis of the manuscript.

Authors must not artificially increase citations to their own work, the work of particular researchers, IJMSEd, or another journal.

Editors and reviewers must not require authors to add citations merely to increase citation counts. Recommendations for additional references must be academically justified and relevant to improving the manuscript.

Coercive citation and citation cartels are inconsistent with IJMSEd's publication ethics.

6. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, academic, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their work or decisions.

Authors must include a Conflict of Interest Statement in their manuscript. If no conflict exists, authors should explicitly state that they have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Reviewers must decline invitations when a relationship with the authors, institutions, research project, or subject matter could compromise—or reasonably appear to compromise—their impartiality.

Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest. Such manuscripts will be assigned to another qualified editor who can make an independent editorial decision.

Funding sources must also be disclosed, together with the role of the funder in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to publish, where applicable.

7. Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants, identifiable human data, vulnerable populations, animals, or other ethically sensitive materials must comply with relevant institutional, national, and international ethical standards.

Where applicable, authors must provide the name of the approving institutional review board, research ethics committee, or equivalent authority and the approval/reference number.

For research involving human participants, authors must state whether informed consent was obtained. When participants are minors or otherwise unable to provide consent independently, appropriate consent from parents, guardians, or legally authorized representatives must be obtained where required.

Authors are responsible for protecting participant privacy and confidentiality. Identifying information should not be published unless it is essential for scholarly purposes and appropriate consent for publication has been obtained.

Editors may request documentation of ethical approval or informed consent when necessary.

8. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

IJMSEd supports transparency, reproducibility, and responsible research-data practices.

Authors should preserve the data underlying their published findings in accordance with disciplinary standards, institutional policies, ethical requirements, and applicable laws.

Where ethically and legally possible, authors are encouraged to make relevant data, instruments, analytical procedures, code, and supplementary materials available through appropriate repositories or upon reasonable request.

All articles should include a Data Availability Statement explaining whether and under what conditions the supporting data can be accessed.

Data sharing is not required when disclosure would violate participant confidentiality, informed consent, legal requirements, intellectual property rights, or legitimate ethical restrictions. Such restrictions should be clearly stated.

9. Intellectual Property

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts do not infringe the copyright, trademark, privacy, confidentiality, or other intellectual property rights of third parties.

Permission must be obtained for copyrighted material reproduced from other sources when such permission is required.

Copyright ownership and the applicable open-access license shall be clearly stated on the journal website and in published articles.

The terms of copyright and licensing shall be applied consistently to all published content.

10. Peer-Review Ethics

IJMSEd applies a double-blind peer-review process for scholarly manuscripts subject to external peer review.

Reviewers are expected to evaluate manuscripts objectively, constructively, and confidentially. Reviewer comments should focus on scholarly content and should not contain personal criticism, discriminatory remarks, or inappropriate language.

Reviewers must:

• maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and associated materials;
• not share or distribute unpublished manuscripts;
• not use unpublished information for personal advantage;
• disclose potential conflicts of interest;
• provide objective and evidence-based assessments;
• identify relevant uncited work when appropriate; and
• notify the editor of suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabrication, falsification, or other ethical concerns.

Information obtained through peer review must not be used for personal research or other purposes without appropriate authorization.

11. Editorial Responsibilities and Independence

Editors are responsible for maintaining the integrity, fairness, confidentiality, and independence of the editorial process.

Editorial decisions shall be based on the manuscript's academic quality, originality, methodological rigor, clarity, relevance to IJMSEd's aims and scope, and contribution to knowledge.

Commercial considerations, author fees, institutional relationships, nationality, personal relationships, or other non-academic considerations must not influence editorial decisions.

Editors must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and must not use unpublished information obtained through the editorial process for personal advantage.

Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members, or individuals closely associated with IJMSEd must undergo the same editorial standards as other submissions and must be handled independently by an editor without a relevant conflict of interest.

12. Confidentiality

Editors and reviewers must treat submitted manuscripts and all related correspondence as confidential documents.

Information concerning a manuscript should not be disclosed to anyone other than those legitimately involved in the editorial and peer-review process.

Reviewers and editors must not upload unpublished manuscripts, confidential reviewer reports, identifiable participant information, or other confidential submission materials to external services when doing so could compromise confidentiality, privacy, intellectual property, or data protection obligations.

13. Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

Artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for published work.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, citations, interpretations, and integrity of all submitted content, including content developed with the assistance of AI tools.

Where generative AI or AI-assisted technologies have been used substantively in preparing a manuscript, authors should transparently disclose their use in accordance with the journal's AI policy. Routine spelling, grammar, and language editing tools may be treated differently where they do not generate substantive scholarly content.

AI-generated references, quotations, data, or factual claims must be independently verified by the authors.

Reviewers and editors must protect manuscript confidentiality when using AI-assisted technologies and must not upload confidential manuscripts or unpublished research materials to external generative AI systems where confidentiality cannot be guaranteed.

The use of AI does not transfer responsibility from authors, reviewers, or editors to the technology.

14. Complaints and Appeals

IJMSEd provides authors and other stakeholders with a mechanism to submit complaints or appeal editorial decisions.

Appeals must provide a clear academic justification and should identify the specific aspects of the editorial decision or peer-review process being challenged.

An appeal does not guarantee reconsideration or acceptance of a manuscript. Appeals will be evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief or another qualified editor who was not directly involved in the disputed decision whenever independence is necessary.

Complaints concerning editorial conduct, peer review, publication ethics, or journal procedures will be investigated objectively and confidentially.

When a complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief, the matter will be handled by the publisher or another independent person designated by the publisher.

IJMSEd will not discriminate against individuals who raise legitimate ethical concerns in good faith.

15. Corrections

IJMSEd is committed to maintaining an accurate scholarly record.

A correction may be published when an error affects the accuracy, interpretation, attribution, or discoverability of an article but does not invalidate its principal findings.

Corrections will be clearly identified, linked to the original article, and describe the nature of the error and the correction made.

Minor typographical errors that do not affect the scientific meaning of an article may be corrected without a formal correction notice when appropriate.

16. Retractions

An article may be considered for retraction when there is reliable evidence that its findings are seriously unreliable as a result of misconduct or major error, when substantial plagiarism is identified, when the findings have previously been published without appropriate disclosure, when unethical research is identified, or when other serious breaches of publication ethics invalidate the integrity of the article.

Retraction notices will:

• be clearly identified as retractions;
• identify the article concerned;
• explain the reason for the retraction;
• distinguish, where possible, between honest error and misconduct; and
• remain permanently linked to the original article.

Retracted articles will normally remain part of the scholarly record and be clearly marked as retracted rather than silently removed.

17. Expressions of Concern

The journal may publish an Expression of Concern when substantial concerns have been raised regarding a published article but available evidence is inconclusive, an investigation is ongoing, or a final determination cannot yet be made.

The Expression of Concern will be linked to the article and may subsequently be replaced or supplemented by a correction, retraction, or other editorial notice when the matter is resolved.

18. Article Removal

Published articles will not normally be removed from the journal website.

Removal may be considered only in exceptional circumstances, such as when continued publication would create serious legal risks, violate privacy rights, reveal confidential information, or pose a significant risk of harm.

Where removal is necessary, the bibliographic record should normally remain accessible with an explanation of why the content was removed, subject to applicable legal requirements.

19. Post-Publication Discussion

IJMSEd welcomes responsible scholarly discussion concerning published articles.

Readers, researchers, and other interested parties may contact the editorial office regarding substantive errors, methodological concerns, ethical issues, or other matters affecting the integrity of a published article.

Concerns will be evaluated objectively. Where appropriate, authors will be given an opportunity to respond. Depending on the evidence, the journal may take no further action or may publish a correction, response, expression of concern, retraction, or other appropriate editorial notice.

20. Duties of the Publisher

The publisher supports the editorial independence of IJMSEd and shall not interfere with editorial decisions based on commercial, institutional, political, or personal interests.

The publisher works with the editorial team to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record, support appropriate responses to allegations of misconduct, preserve published content, and ensure transparency concerning journal policies.

Advertising, sponsorship, fees, or other sources of revenue shall not determine editorial decisions.

21. Handling Allegations of Misconduct

Ethical concerns may be raised before or after publication.

When IJMSEd receives a credible allegation, the journal will:

1. document and acknowledge the concern;
2. conduct an initial assessment;
3. preserve confidentiality to the extent reasonably possible;
4. provide the person concerned with an opportunity to respond where appropriate;
5. seek additional evidence when necessary;
6. consult relevant institutional or ethical authorities where appropriate;
7. avoid making conclusions before sufficient evidence is available; and
8. take proportionate editorial action based on the findings.

The journal's role is primarily to protect the integrity of the scholarly record. Where formal investigation of researcher conduct is required, responsibility may rest with the researcher's institution, employer, ethics committee, funding agency, or other competent authority.

22. Policy on Special Issues

Special issues, thematic collections, and invited collections are subject to the same standards of publication ethics, peer review, editorial independence, authorship, conflict-of-interest management, and research integrity as regular issues.

Guest editors must disclose conflicts of interest and must not make editorial decisions on manuscripts where their impartiality could reasonably be questioned.

The Editor-in-Chief retains responsibility for oversight of the journal's editorial standards, including special issues.

23. Commitment to the Integrity of the Scholarly Record

IJMSEd recognizes that maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record is an ongoing responsibility.

The journal may revise its publication ethics policies periodically to reflect developments in scholarly publishing standards and research-integrity practices.

Questions, complaints, appeals, allegations of misconduct, or concerns regarding published material should be directed to the IJMSEd Editorial Office through the official contact information provided on the journal website.

International Journal of Mathematics and Sciences Education (IJMSEd)
Publisher: Nashir Al-Kutub Indonesia
Official Journal Email: ijmsed@nakiscience.com