Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

 

International Journal of AI in Pedagogy, Innovation, and Learning Futures (IJAIPIL)

Publication Decisions

Publication decisions are based on a codified process. Journal policies are a part of this process. Content compatibility of each submitted paper with the journal's scope is one of the journal's policies. This journal follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org). Submitted papers must be free of allegations such as libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. Reviewer comments and the editor’s decision are another part of the decision process. The results of these two parts determine the final decision for each paper. IJAIPIL has been authorized to select valuable submitted papers for publication.

Confidentiality

IJAIPIL is committed to protecting all information about submitted articles from untrusted sources. In this regard, IJAIPIL’s editorial boards, such as reviewers and advisers, can access the information.

Identification of and Dealing with Allegations of Research Misconduct

The publisher and editor of the journal take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. In no case shall the journal or its editor encourage such misconduct or knowingly allow it to occur.

If the journal’s publisher or editor becomes aware of any allegation of research misconduct related to a published article in the journal, the publisher or editor shall follow COPE’s guidelines ( https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines and https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts ) in handling the allegation.

Revenue Sources / Advertising / Direct Marketing

IJAIPIL is a journal launched by California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) Pfau Library in partnership with the California State University System Chancellor’s Office Open Journal System platform. As a result, no fees are charged to authors. IJAIPIL does not receive subscription payments, as articles are freely accessible online. Authors pay no fees, and there are no submission charges. IJAIPIL accepts no advertisements on its official website.

Publishing Schedule

IJAIPIL publishes four issues per year, with occasional special issues. All journal content is available forever on IJAIPIL’s exclusive website.

Policy on Prior Publication

We recognize that clarity on journal policies regarding prior publication and how these might align with any institutional requirements for authors to deposit their e-theses is important to both authors and institutions.

To avoid any doubt, IJAIPIL does not count the publication of an academic thesis as prior publication. You can find further information in the summary below.

Summary

When work has not already been published or is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, IJAIPIL welcomes submissions from authors and will consider them for publication. The following prior uses of a work are not considered prior publications by IJAIPIL:

Editor Responsibilities

Accountability

Editors of a peer-reviewed journal are responsible for all content published in the journal and for selecting which submitted articles to publish. The editorial board's policies, as well as legal requirements for libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism, may guide these decisions. The editor may seek advice from other editors or reviewers when deciding what to publish. The editor should uphold the integrity of the academic record, refrain from compromising moral and intellectual standards, and be prepared to publish retractions, clarifications, and corrections when appropriate.

Fairness

Editors will assess manuscripts for intellectual content without regard to the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. The editor will not disclose any information about a manuscript under consideration to anyone other than the author(s), reviewers, potential reviewers, and, in some cases, editorial board members.

Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted article to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure, Conflicts of Interest, and Other Issues

When deciding whether to retract, express concerns about, or make modifications to papers that have been published in IJAIPIL, the editor will follow COPE's guidelines for retracting articles ( https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines ). Unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript may not be used by the editor for independent research projects without the author's express written approval. Privileged peer review information or ideas must be kept confidential and not used for one's own benefit. The editors are committed to ensuring that commercial revenue from reprints or other sources does not affect editorial decisions.

The editor should ensure the peer review process is impartial and appropriate. Editors will abstain from reviewing and evaluating manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from cooperative or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, businesses, or institutions associated with the papers. Instead, they should ask a co-editor, associate editor, or other member of the editorial board to do so. All contributors should be required to disclose any pertinent competing interests, and editors should publish revisions if any are discovered after the article has been published. If additional action is required, it should be performed, such as publishing a retraction or expressing concern.

Involvement and Cooperation in Investigation

By issuing corrections and retractions when necessary and looking into suspicions of research and publication misconduct, editors should protect the integrity of the written record. Editors need to investigate reviewer and editorial malpractice. When ethical concerns about a submitted manuscript or published work are raised, an editor should respond in a reasonable manner.

Reviewer Responsibilities

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer review helps the editor make decisions about what to publish.

Promptness

Anyone who has been asked to serve as a referee but feels unqualified to do so or realizes that doing so in a timely manner will be impossible should notify the editor right away so that substitute reviewers can be contacted.

Confidentiality

All manuscripts sent to reviewers for evaluation must be handled confidentially. Other than with the editor's permission, they cannot be displayed to or discussed with others.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews ought to be carried out impartially. It is unacceptable to criticize the author personally. Referees should clearly state their opinions and provide relevant justifications.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Reviewers should note any pertinent published works the authors have not cited. Any claim that a certain observation, deduction, or argument has already been recorded should be supported by the appropriate citation. Any significant overlap or resemblance between the manuscript under consideration and any other published data that the reviewer is aware of should be brought to the editor's notice.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Peer reviewers' privileged knowledge or ideas must be kept secret and not used for personal gain. Reviewers should avoid considering manuscripts for which they have competing, cooperative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, businesses, or organizations associated with the submission.

Author Responsibilities

Reporting Standards

Writers who present the findings of original research should provide a truthful account of the work and an unbiased analysis of its relevance. The article should appropriately reflect the underlying data. A paper should include enough information and citations to allow someone else to duplicate the work. False or deliberately inaccurate statements are inappropriate and represent unethical behavior.

Originality and Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that their writing is wholly original and, if they use someone else's words or work, that they have properly cited or quoted the source.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

Generally speaking, an author shouldn't submit articles detailing essentially the same study to more than one journal or primary publication. Simultaneous submission of the same paper to multiple journals is unacceptable and constitutes an unethical publishing practice.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Always give due credit to other people's contributions. Moreover, the authors should cite publications that helped define the character of the presented study.

Authorship of a Manuscript

Only individuals who significantly contributed to the conception, design, implementation, or interpretation of the reported study should be given the privilege of authorship. Co-authors should be named for everyone who contributed significantly. Those people who contributed to the study effort in meaningful ways should be acknowledged in the acknowledgements section.

The corresponding author should make sure that the author list of the manuscript includes all appropriate co-authors (as defined above) and excludes any inappropriate co-authors. They should also ensure that all co-authors have reviewed the final draft of the paper, approved it, and agreed to its submission for publication.

Use of Generative AI

Authors may use generative AI tools to support writing, language editing, formatting, and code development; however, authors remain fully responsible and accountable for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all submitted content.

Any use of generative AI that materially influences the manuscript (e.g., drafting sections, producing analysis/code, generating images, or assisting with translation) must be disclosed in the manuscript in a “Use of Generative AI” statement describing the tool(s) used and the nature of use.

Generative AI tools must not be listed as authors. Authorship implies responsibility for the work, including the ability to answer questions about methods, data, and conclusions.

Authors must ensure that AI-assisted content does not include plagiarism, copyrighted material used without permission, fabricated references, or confidential/identifiable information. Where AI is used, authors must verify citations, quotations, and factual claims against primary sources.

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects

The authors must make it explicit in the manuscript whether the work uses any chemicals, techniques, or tools that carry special risks inherent to their use.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Any financial or other significant conflict of interest that could be taken to have an impact on the findings or how they are interpreted in the publication should be disclosed by all authors in the manuscript. Disclosure of all funding sources for the project is required.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

It is the duty of the author to contact the journal's editor or publisher as soon as he or she becomes aware of a material error or inaccuracy in his or her own published work and to work with them to either retract the paper or publish an appropriate erratum.

Publisher’s Confirmation

In instances of alleged or established scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism, the publisher (Pfau Library) will take all necessary steps in close coordination with the editors to clarify the matter and rectify the offending article. In the worst-case scenario, the affected work may be completely retracted. This includes the quick release of an erratum.

Post publication corrections

Correction and Retraction Policy

Some articles may need to be corrected after publication for a variety of reasons. They can range from minor inaccuracies to major concerns about ethics and copyright. The many types of errors are handled in the following manner by IJAIPIL in compliance with the rules set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics.

To reduce demands for post-publication edits:

If you think an article needs to be corrected, kindly get in touch with the Journal Editor/Editorial Manager. We maintain the right to determine what counts as a minor or major issue and whether an item needs to be amended or corrected.

Amendment

If a very minor content or metadata error is discovered very quickly (often within 48 hours) after publishing AND the publication has not yet been submitted for indexing, IJAIPIL may directly edit the article (both in PDF and HTML).

Only glaring and minor errors are permitted for in-line changes. A proper correction must be published for any changes to the scientific substance or other significant metadata concerns (such a change in authorship). If an in-line change is made, the publication may also include a note to inform readers of the change.

If a publication has already been sent to indexing services, in-line modifications will not be allowed to prevent the circulation of multiple versions of the same publication.

Correction Article

A published article becomes immediately accessible to the general audience. To help with this distribution, we will also send the publishing details and files to several indexes shortly after publication. All corrections must be made public as a separate publication that is linked to the original after this indexing process has started (often within a day or two of publication). This makes sure that the academic record's transparency and integrity are upheld.

A correction article will be published in cases when an error impacts the material provided, the arguments put forth, or the conclusions of an article (but not the validity of the findings), or contains inaccurate information regarding the article's metadata (author list, title, editor, etc.). To formally correct the scientific record and guarantee that metadata mistakes are correctly noted, correction articles are utilized. Corrected articles will be submitted to indexes as normal and will display as an article in the journal's table of contents. To inform readers, a note with a link to the correction will be included in the original article. The editors and/or authors of IJAIPIL will create the note's language, and both parties will need to approve it. The editor(s) and IJAIPIL will decide if the error needs to be fixed by a correction article in consultation with the author.

For insignificant problems, such as small formatting errors or typos, we won't publish Correction articles after indexing because, when the original is unchanged, such a notice just draws attention to a mistake that readers may overlook or easily overlook.

Retraction

A published paper can be expunged from the scientific record using retractions. Retractions are used in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics ( https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines ) when:

Retraction articles will be written, approved by the editors, and posted in the same manner as correction articles. The original story will still be available, but a note at the top will inform readers that it has been retracted.

Retraction & Withdrawal

Rarely, articles will need to be completely or partially deleted from the journal website. Usually, this is done for legal justifications, such as copyright violations or moral dilemmas. The original article's metadata and abstract will still be present, but the remaining text will be replaced with a note that links to the retraction article.

Archiving Policy

Articles are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode ), which permits unrestricted distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the work is properly cited. All articles are archived in Portico.

Website archiving: All of our electronic content (website, manuscripts, etc.) is stored on three different sources. Content on one server is online and accessible to the readers. A copy of the same content is kept as a backup on two other sources. In the event of a server failure, any of the other sources can be brought online, and the website is expected to be accessible within 24–36 hours.