Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statements
As a peer-reviewed journal, one of The Online Journal of Distance Education and e-Learning’s [TOJDEL] priorities is to ensure high standards of publishing. Publication ethics and publication malpractice statement are an important concern. Therefore, editors, peer-reviewers, and authors should pay great attention to meet the ethical standards. The Online Journal of Distance Education and e-Learning is committed to keeping the integrity of the research papers we publish. The value of academic publishing depends on every person involved behaving ethically. Ethical duties and responsibilities are written in the light of the guides made by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Retrieved from http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf
| TOJDEL’s Editor’s responsibilities for Publication decisions|
TOJDEL’s editor is in charge of determining manuscripts submitted to the journal that will be published without looking at authors’ backgrounds such as race, gender, country, religion. TOJDEL’s editor will make a decision based on the manuscript’s significance, uniqueness, and relevance to the scope of TOJDEL. The Online Journal of Distance Education and e-Learning with the help of its editors takes plagiarism extremely seriously. Our authors are cautioned against this. TOJDEL with the help of its editors will not accept research articles or manuscripts submitted for publication elsewhere.
|Confidentiality| TOJDEL’s editor and any editorial members have to keep any information related to authors and submitted manuscripts confidential and must not share such information with anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and publisher.
|Disclosure and conflicts of interest| Rejected manuscripts, papers, or articles and their materials submitted to TOJDEL are extremely seriously not allowed to be used by TOJDEL’s editor and any editorial members for their own interests and purposes. All will be archived in the system confidentially.
|Reviewers' responsibilities for helping TOJDEL’s editorial decisions|
Research articles or Manuscripts submitted to TOJDEL are initially reviewed by the editors for general fit with the TOJDEL focus and scope and for the writing quality. Only those research articles meeting the TOJDEL focus and scope will be sent to reviewers for a double blind review. Review time is typically 4-6 months.
|Confidentiality| The function of the peer-reviewing process is to help TOJDEL’s editor and its members to make decisions through reviewer’s professional, scientific, and objective arguments on the reviewed manuscript. All reviewers must treat all manuscripts confidentially and must not discuss about with others without an authorization from the TOJDEL’s editor. Reviewers must do their review processes objectively. Personal reviews and blame to the author of manuscript are extremely seriously not allowed. All reviews must be supported by professional, scientific, and objective arguments.
|Detecting plagiarism| another function of the peer-reviewing process is to help TOJDEL’s editor and its members to identify others’ work that has not been cited in-text reference and in the reference section. TOJDEL’s reviewers have to make sure that the authors of manuscript being reviewed provide appropriate sources. When TOJDEL’s reviewers find the manuscript being reviewed similar to other published manuscript, they must inform TOJDEL’s editor as soon as possible as the TOJDEL takes plagiarism extremely seriously. Our authors are cautioned against this.
|Disclosure and conflicts of interest| TOJDEL’s reviewers must not use confidential information obtained from reviewing any manuscripts for personal purposes. They must keep all information confidential. TOJDEL’s reviewers must NOT review any manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest due to their relationships with the authors of the reviewed manuscripts. They must inform the editor as soon as possible if they find the case.
|Authors’ Responsibilities|
Authors who want to submit their manuscripts to TOJDEL must ensure that they pay attention to a variety of responsibilities including: reporting standards, data access and retention, originality and plagiarism, multiple, redundant or concurrent publication, acknowledgement of sources, authorship of the paper, hazards and human or animal subjects, disclosure and conflicts of interest, fundamental errors in published works.
Authors who want to submit their manuscripts to TOJDEL must confirm that their manuscripts have not been formerly submitted or published in other journals. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously is an unethical behavior and it is unacceptable.
Authors who want to submit their manuscripts to TOJDEL must ensure the originality of the manuscripts and all others’ works have to be properly cited according to TOJDEL’s references format. All authors must ensure that they have cited published works that have been used in determining the nature of the submitted work.
Authors who want to submit their manuscripts to TOJDEL must ensure that all people who have made a significant contribution to the submitted manuscript are inclusive and acknowledged. The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
Authors who want to submit their manuscripts to TOJDEL must ensure that if the work involves chemicals, human subject approvals, or animals, it must be clearly identified and clarified in the submitted manuscript.
Authors who want to submit their manuscripts to TOJDEL must ensure that they have disclosed any financial or other substantive conflict of interest in their submitted manuscript that might be construed to affect the results of their manuscript.
