Publication Ethics Policy

Journal of Accounting and Management (JAM)  |  e-ISSN 3048-345X

1. Scope and Ethical Framework

This statement defines the overarching responsibilities of authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher. Detailed procedures for authorship, conflicts, data, plagiarism, AI, complaints, and post-publication actions remain in their dedicated policies and are not duplicated here.

2. Responsibilities of Editors

• Evaluate manuscripts fairly and independently on scholarly merit and scope.
• Protect confidentiality, unpublished ideas, personal data, and double-anonymous review.
• Identify and manage conflicts; recuse and appoint an independent handler when necessary.
• Select competent reviewers and assess reports critically rather than mechanically.
• Investigate credible concerns, preserve evidence, obtain responses, and refer matters beyond the journal’s investigative authority.
• Correct the record transparently and never allow fees, sponsorship, advertising, institutional pressure, or personal interests to determine decisions.

3. Responsibilities of Reviewers

• Accept only assignments within their expertise and available time.
• Disclose conflicts and decline when impartiality could reasonably be questioned.
• Treat manuscripts and reports as confidential and never use unpublished information for personal advantage.
• Provide objective, respectful, evidence-based, and timely assessments.
• Identify uncited relevant work and suspected overlap without coercive citation or direct accusation to authors.
• Do not upload manuscripts to public AI platforms or delegate the review to an unauthorized person.

4. Responsibilities of Authors

• Report research honestly, accurately, completely, and reproducibly; never fabricate, falsify, or selectively misrepresent evidence.
• Submit original work only and cite, quote, license, and acknowledge all reused material appropriately.
• Meet authorship criteria, describe contributions, approve the manuscript, and disclose funding and competing interests.
• Obtain ethics approval or documented exemption and informed consent when applicable; protect participants, organizations, and confidential data.
• Make data and code available as required or explain justified restrictions.
• Do not submit substantially the same manuscript concurrently and promptly disclose related manuscripts, preprints, conference versions, and translations.
• Cooperate with peer review and post-publication inquiries and report material errors promptly.

5. Responsibilities of the Publisher

• Provide secure OJS infrastructure, transparent ownership, contact information, fees, policies, and preservation arrangements.
• Protect editorial independence and ensure revenue sources do not influence academic decisions.
• Support editors in ethics cases, legal and privacy matters, corrections, and continuity of the scholarly record.
• Maintain article access, DOI and metadata stewardship, preservation evidence, and policy version control.
• Provide independent escalation when a complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief or editorial team.

6. Research and Publication Misconduct

Potential misconduct includes fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, manipulated peer review, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts, authorship abuse, unethical research, privacy or consent violations, misuse of confidential material, image manipulation, and material undisclosed AI use. Similarity scores or allegations alone are not proof; cases require evidence, conflict checks, notice, an opportunity to respond, and proportionate action.

7. Correction of the Scholarly Record

Repairable errors receive corrections; unresolved credible risks may receive an Expression of Concern; unreliable published work may be retracted. JAM will not silently alter material content or use manuscript withdrawal rules for published articles.

8. Dedicated Procedures