Publication Ethics And Malpractice Statement
Precision Digital Publishers (PDP) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, academic integrity, transparency, and responsible research practices.
PDP follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.
All participants in the publication process including authors, reviewers, editors, Editorial Board Members, and the Publisher are expected to uphold these principles. Allegations of research or publication misconduct are handled fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with applicable ethical guidance.
Responsibilities of Authors
Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must submit original work and properly acknowledge all sources, ideas, data, and previously published material. Plagiarism, including direct copying, inappropriate paraphrasing, unattributed use of ideas, and substantial text recycling, is not acceptable.
Research Integrity: Authors must report their research accurately and transparently. Fabrication, falsification, inappropriate data manipulation, image manipulation, selective reporting, and other forms of research misconduct are prohibited.
Duplicate and Concurrent Publication: Authors must not submit the same manuscript, or substantially overlapping work, to more than one journal simultaneously. Previously published material must be appropriately disclosed and referenced.
Authorship and Contributorship: Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the research and who have participated sufficiently in the work to take responsibility for their contribution. All listed authors must approve the final manuscript and agree to its submission and publication.
Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be appropriately acknowledged in the Acknowledgement section.
Generative AI and AI-Assisted Tools: Generative AI and large language model tools cannot be listed as authors. Where AI tools are used in manuscript preparation, analysis, coding, image generation, or other aspects of the research, their use should be disclosed where relevant and in accordance with the journal’s applicable AI policy.
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and final content of their work, including content produced or modified with the assistance of AI tools.
Ethical Approval and Informed Consent: Research involving human participants, personal data, animals, or other ethically sensitive subjects must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international ethical requirements. Where required, authors must provide information regarding ethical approval and informed consent.
Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose any financial, professional, personal, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research or its interpretation.
Funding and Acknowledgments: Authors should accurately disclose sources of financial or other support for the research and appropriately acknowledge individuals or organizations that contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship.
Corrections and Post-Publication Issues: Authors should promptly notify the journal if they identify a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work. Depending on the nature and significance of the issue, the journal may publish a correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other appropriate notice.
Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers
Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential. Reviewers must not share, reproduce, distribute, or use unpublished information from a manuscript for personal or professional purposes.
Reviewers should not upload or disclose confidential manuscript content to external generative AI or other third-party tools unless explicitly permitted by the journal.
Objectivity and Constructive Evaluation: Reviews should be objective, fair, respectful, and supported by clear academic reasoning. Reviewers should avoid personal criticism and provide constructive comments that can assist authors in improving their work.
Expertise and Availability: Reviewers should accept invitations only when the manuscript falls within their area of expertise and they can provide an appropriate and timely review.
Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest. They should decline the review where such a conflict could compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, their impartiality.
Recognition of Relevant Work: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited where appropriate. Reviewers should not request unnecessary citations solely to increase their own citations, those of colleagues, or a particular journal.
Reporting Potential Misconduct: Reviewers should notify the handling editor if they identify substantial similarity, suspected plagiarism, possible data manipulation, ethical concerns, or other issues that may require editorial investigation.
Citation Ethics and Integrity: Peer reviewers should recommend citations only when they are genuinely relevant and necessary to support, clarify, or strengthen the manuscript. Reviewers must not request authors to cite their own work, the reviewer’s colleagues, or the journal for the purpose of increasing citations, visibility, or citation metrics. Reviewers must not engage in citation manipulation, coercive citation practices, or any attempt to influence citation counts or journal metrics for personal or institutional benefit.
Responsibilities of Editors and Editorial Board Members
Fair and Impartial Evaluation: Editors evaluate manuscripts based on academic quality, originality, methodological soundness, relevance, and alignment with the journal’s scope. Editorial decisions should not be influenced by an author’s race, gender, nationality, institutional affiliation, personal characteristics, or other irrelevant considerations.
Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and associated editorial and peer-review information.
Editorial Independence: Editorial decisions must remain independent of commercial interests, advertising, sponsorship, publication fees, or other financial considerations. The Publisher does not interfere with academic evaluation or editorial decisions.
Conflicts of Interest and Recusal: Editors and Editorial Board Members must disclose relevant conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where their impartiality may reasonably be questioned.
Manuscripts submitted by Editors or Editorial Board Members should be handled by an independent editor who has no conflict of interest with the submission.
Peer-Review Integrity: Editors are responsible for selecting appropriate reviewers and ensuring that manuscripts receive fair and relevant scholarly evaluation. Editors should take reasonable measures to prevent conflicts, inappropriate reviewer influence, and other forms of peer-review manipulation.
Misconduct and Ethical Concerns: Editors are responsible for responding appropriately to credible allegations of research or publication misconduct. Investigations may include communication with authors, reviewers, institutions, or other relevant parties as appropriate.
Where necessary, the journal may publish a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other editorial notice in accordance with applicable COPE guidance.
Responsibilities of the Publisher
PDP supports the journals, editors, reviewers, and authors in maintaining ethical and transparent publishing practices and is responsible for:
- Supporting the independence of editorial decision-making.
- Providing appropriate procedures for addressing publication ethics concerns.
- Supporting editors in investigating suspected research and publication misconduct.
- Maintaining transparent publication policies and procedures.
- Supporting the correction or retraction of published content when necessary.
- Maintaining appropriate systems for digital preservation and long-term accessibility of published content.
- Taking reasonable measures to prevent unethical publishing practices and publication malpractice.
- Cooperating with relevant institutions, indexing services, and ethical organizations where appropriate.
PDP does not determine the academic outcome of individual manuscripts and does not use commercial considerations to influence editorial decisions.
Handling Allegations of Misconduct
PDP takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously. Concerns may relate to plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated or falsified data, authorship disputes, undisclosed conflicts of interest, peer-review manipulation, citation manipulation, unethical research practices, or other forms of misconduct.
When a credible concern is raised, PDP may conduct an appropriate preliminary assessment and, where necessary, seek clarification or supporting information from the authors, reviewers, institutions, or other relevant parties.
Investigations and editorial actions will be conducted in accordance with applicable COPE guidance and relevant disciplinary standards. Depending on the findings, possible actions may include correction, retraction, expression of concern, rejection of a manuscript, or other appropriate measures.
Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern
PDP is committed to maintaining the integrity of the published scholarly record.
When a published article contains a significant error, correction or other appropriate notice may be issued. Where the reliability or integrity of a published article is substantially compromised, the article may be retracted. An Expression of Concern may be published where significant concerns exist but an investigation has not yet reached a definitive conclusion.
Editorial actions will be taken in accordance with applicable ethical guidance and will be documented transparently.
Commitment to Ethical Publishing
PDP is committed to continuously reviewing and improving their publication ethics procedures. All parties involved in scholarly publishing are encouraged to raise legitimate ethical concerns through the appropriate editorial channels.
The journal may update its policies when necessary to reflect developments in scholarly publishing, research ethics, and international publication standards.