Publication Ethics

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Confluence (IJMRC)

The International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Confluence (IJMRC) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, academic transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing.

This Publication Ethics Policy applies to authors, co-authors, reviewers, editors, editorial-board members, and other individuals involved in the scholarly publication process of the journal.

IJMRC's publication ethics practices are informed by internationally recognized principles of responsible scholarly publishing, including relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and established principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing.

1. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submitted manuscripts are original, accurate, ethically conducted, and appropriately presented. Authors must ensure that their work complies with applicable academic, ethical, and legal requirements.

Authors are expected to:

Submit original work that has not been published elsewhere.
Ensure that the manuscript is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
Report research findings accurately and honestly.
Avoid plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, and other forms of research misconduct.
Provide accurate citations and acknowledge the work of other researchers.
Ensure that all listed authors have made genuine and substantial contributions to the work.
Obtain appropriate permissions for copyrighted material where required.
Declare relevant financial, personal, professional, or institutional conflicts of interest.
Provide information about ethical approval and informed consent where applicable.
Cooperate with reasonable editorial requests concerning data, methodology, authorship, and research integrity.
Notify the journal promptly if a significant error is identified in a published article.

2. Authorship and Contributions

Authorship should accurately reflect significant intellectual or scholarly contributions to the research and manuscript. Individuals who have contributed substantially should receive appropriate authorship, while individuals who have not made an authorship-level contribution should not be listed as authors.

The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with the journal and should ensure that all listed authors have approved the submitted manuscript and agree with its contents.

Requests to add, remove, or change the order of authors after submission should include a clear explanation and, where appropriate, confirmation from all affected authors. The journal may request additional information before approving such changes.

Honorary, gift, guest, and ghost authorship are not considered acceptable publication practices.

3. Plagiarism and Similarity

IJMRC does not tolerate plagiarism or the inappropriate use of another person's intellectual work. Plagiarism includes presenting another person's words, ideas, data, images, or other intellectual contributions as one's own without appropriate acknowledgement.

Manuscripts may be screened using appropriate similarity-detection or plagiarism- detection tools. Similarity results may be considered together with editorial assessment and the context of the identified material.

Where substantial plagiarism or other inappropriate textual reuse is identified, the journal may reject the manuscript or take appropriate post-publication action where the article has already been published.

4. Research Misconduct

IJMRC considers fabrication, falsification, manipulation of research data, deceptive image manipulation, plagiarism, serious ethical violations, and other forms of research misconduct to be serious matters.

Where a credible concern is raised, the journal may request explanations or supporting documentation from the authors and may, where appropriate, communicate with the relevant institution or organization.

Depending on the nature and seriousness of the issue, possible editorial actions may include rejection, correction, expression of concern, withdrawal, or retraction.

5. Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Authors must not submit substantially the same manuscript simultaneously to multiple journals. Duplicate publication, redundant publication, and inappropriate fragmentation of research findings may compromise the integrity of the scholarly record.

Authors must disclose relevant previous publications, preprints, conference papers, or related manuscripts where such information is necessary to assess originality and potential overlap.

6. Peer Review Ethics

IJMRC seeks to maintain a fair, objective, confidential, and constructive peer-review process. Manuscripts are evaluated by appropriate reviewers according to the journal's editorial and peer-review procedures.

Reviewers are expected to:

Evaluate manuscripts objectively and independently.
Provide clear, constructive, and academically relevant comments.
Maintain confidentiality regarding unpublished manuscripts.
Declare any actual or potential conflict of interest.
Decline a review assignment where a conflict could affect impartiality.
Not use unpublished information for personal, professional, or academic advantage.
Identify relevant published work that should reasonably be considered by the authors.
Complete reviews within the requested timeframe or inform the editorial office when additional time is required.

Reviewers should not request citations solely to increase citation counts or for reasons unrelated to the scholarly quality and relevance of the manuscript.

7. Editorial Responsibilities

Editors are responsible for maintaining the academic and ethical integrity of the journal's editorial process. Editorial decisions should be based on the scholarly quality, originality, relevance, and ethical acceptability of the submitted work.

Editors are expected to:

Maintain confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.
Select suitable and independent reviewers where peer review is required.
Manage conflicts of interest appropriately.
Treat authors and reviewers fairly and professionally.
Protect the integrity and independence of editorial decision-making.
Investigate credible publication-ethics concerns.
Maintain appropriate procedures for corrections and retractions.
Provide appropriate mechanisms for complaints and appeals.

Editorial decisions should not be based on an author's nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, institutional affiliation, political views, or other characteristics unrelated to the scholarly merits of the work.

8. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial-board members should disclose any financial, personal, professional, academic, or institutional relationship that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, review, or editorial decision.

Editors who have a significant conflict of interest in relation to a manuscript should not participate in the relevant editorial decision. Where necessary, another qualified editor may be assigned to manage the manuscript.

Disclosure of a conflict of interest does not necessarily imply wrongdoing. The purpose of disclosure is to promote transparency and allow appropriate safeguards to be applied.

9. Research Ethics and Informed Consent

Research involving human participants, personal data, vulnerable populations, animals, or other ethically sensitive subjects must comply with applicable ethical standards and institutional requirements.

Where applicable, authors should provide information regarding:

Ethics committee or institutional review approval.
Informed consent from participants.
Consent for publication where required.
Protection of participant confidentiality and personal information.
Responsible treatment and welfare of research animals.
Compliance with relevant laws, regulations, and institutional requirements.

The journal may request evidence of ethical approval or informed consent when appropriate to the nature of the research.

10. Data Availability and Research Transparency

Authors should provide sufficient methodological information to enable readers and researchers to understand and evaluate the reported research.

Where appropriate and ethically permissible, authors are encouraged to make relevant research data, materials, protocols, software, code, or other supporting resources available through suitable repositories.

Where data cannot be publicly shared because of privacy, confidentiality, legal, intellectual-property, or ethical restrictions, authors should clearly state the applicable limitations where appropriate.

11. Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical compliance of their manuscripts, including content produced or assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) or generative AI tools.

AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, or accountability of scholarly work.

Where AI or generative AI tools are used substantially in manuscript preparation, translation, coding, analysis, image generation, or other research-related activities, authors should disclose such use where relevant and comply with the journal's applicable requirements.

Authors must verify AI-assisted content, references, quotations, data, calculations, and factual claims before submission. Authors remain responsible for any errors or misleading information contained in the submitted manuscript.

Editors and reviewers must protect the confidentiality of unpublished manuscripts. Confidential manuscript content should not be entered into external AI systems where doing so could compromise confidentiality or intellectual property.

12. Citation Ethics

Authors should cite sources accurately and appropriately. Citations should be relevant to the claims, arguments, methods, or scholarly context for which they are provided.

Citation manipulation, including unnecessary citation requests, coercive citation, excessive self-citation intended primarily to influence citation metrics, and other practices designed to artificially increase citation counts, is not acceptable.

13. Corrections and Retractions

IJMRC is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the published scholarly record. When a significant error or integrity concern is identified after publication, the journal will assess the matter and take appropriate action.

Depending on the circumstances, the journal may publish a correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction.

Retraction may be considered when findings are materially unreliable, serious research misconduct is established, substantial plagiarism or duplicate publication is identified, ethical requirements have been seriously violated, or other circumstances significantly undermine the reliability of the published article.

Corrections and retractions are intended to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record and provide readers with an accurate publication record.

14. Manuscript Withdrawal

Authors who wish to withdraw a manuscript before publication should contact the editorial office and provide a clear reason for the withdrawal.

Manuscripts should not be withdrawn for the purpose of submitting the same work simultaneously to another journal or avoiding legitimate editorial or peer-review procedures.

Once an article has been formally published, withdrawal is generally not equivalent to retraction. Post-publication actions will be considered according to the circumstances and the need to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.

15. Appeals and Complaints

Authors may submit a reasoned appeal regarding an editorial decision where they believe that a significant factual, procedural, or review-related issue may have affected the decision.

Appeals should provide specific reasons and relevant evidence. The journal may seek additional editorial assessment or independent review where appropriate.

Complaints concerning publication ethics or editorial conduct will be considered confidentially and handled as fairly and promptly as reasonably possible.

16. Intellectual Property and Copyright

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts respect applicable copyright, intellectual-property, privacy, and other legal rights.

Tables, figures, photographs, instruments, substantial quotations, and other copyrighted materials reproduced from third-party sources must be appropriately cited and, where necessary, used with permission.

17. Confidentiality

Unpublished manuscripts and associated editorial information must be treated as confidential. Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff should not disclose or use confidential manuscript information except as necessary for legitimate editorial, peer-review, or publication-ethics purposes.

18. Post-Publication Concerns

IJMRC welcomes responsible scholarly communication concerning published articles. Readers and researchers who identify a potentially significant error, ethical concern, or integrity issue are encouraged to contact the journal through its official communication channel.

Concerns will be assessed using appropriate evidence and, where necessary, relevant authors, editors, institutions, or other parties may be contacted.

19. Commitment to Research Integrity

The International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Confluence (IJMRC) is committed to ethical publishing, responsible peer review, academic integrity, editorial transparency, and preservation of the scholarly record.

All participants in the publication process are expected to act honestly, responsibly, transparently, and respectfully. The journal may periodically review and update this policy to reflect developments in research integrity, scholarly communication, publishing standards, and responsible use of emerging technologies.

Publication Ethics – Frequently Asked Questions

What is the publication ethics policy of IJMRC?

The IJMRC Publication Ethics Policy establishes standards for authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial staff concerning research integrity, plagiarism, authorship, peer review, conflicts of interest, research ethics, artificial intelligence, corrections, retractions, and responsible scholarly publishing.

Does IJMRC allow plagiarism?

No. IJMRC does not accept plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, or other forms of academic and research misconduct. Submitted manuscripts may be screened for textual similarity and assessed by the editorial team.

What are the responsibilities of authors at IJMRC?

Authors are responsible for submitting original and accurate research, providing appropriate citations, declaring conflicts of interest, ensuring appropriate authorship, obtaining required ethical approvals, and correcting significant errors discovered after publication.

How does IJMRC handle peer review?

IJMRC seeks to conduct peer review in a fair, objective, confidential, and constructive manner. Reviewers are expected to maintain confidentiality, disclose conflicts of interest, and provide academically relevant and constructive evaluations.

Can authors use artificial intelligence in manuscript preparation?

Authors may use AI tools where appropriate, but they remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical compliance of their manuscripts. Substantive use of AI should be disclosed where relevant, and AI systems cannot be listed as authors.

How does IJMRC handle research misconduct?

Allegations of research misconduct are assessed carefully. Depending on the evidence and seriousness of the issue, the journal may request explanations or documentation, contact relevant institutions, reject a manuscript, publish a correction or expression of concern, or retract a published article.

How does IJMRC correct the scholarly record?

When a published article contains a significant error or integrity concern, IJMRC may issue a correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction depending on the circumstances and impact on the reliability of the published record.