IERJ

Committed to Ethical Publishing with Integrity, Transparency, and Academic Responsibility

At IERJ - International Education and Research Journal, we are committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, editorial independence, transparency, and responsible scholarly communication. Every manuscript submitted to the journal is handled fairly, confidentially, and objectively throughout the editorial and publication process.

Our publication policies are designed to protect the integrity of academic research and the reliability of the scholarly record. Authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and the publisher are expected to perform their respective responsibilities honestly, professionally, and without improper influence.

IERJ - International Education and Research Journal follows a Double-Blind Peer Review process and evaluates manuscripts on the basis of originality, academic quality, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal's scope, and contribution to knowledge. Commercial considerations, publication charges, personal relationships, institutional affiliations, nationality, gender, religion, or political views do not influence editorial decisions.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for the originality, accuracy, authenticity, ethical compliance, and scholarly quality of the manuscripts submitted to IERJ - International Education and Research Journal. By submitting a manuscript, all authors confirm that the work complies with the journal's publication policies.

Originality and Authenticity: Authors must submit original scholarly work. All ideas, text, data, methods, figures, tables, images, and findings obtained from other sources must be properly acknowledged and referenced.

Accuracy of Research: Authors must present research findings accurately and honestly. Fabrication, falsification, selective reporting, inappropriate data manipulation, misleading interpretation, or deliberate omission of relevant information is strictly prohibited.

Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism: Manuscripts must be free from plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, redundant publication, and unauthorized reuse of previously published material. Proper citation must be provided for all borrowed or adapted content.

Exclusive Submission: A manuscript submitted to IERJ must not be simultaneously submitted to, under review by, accepted by, or published in another journal. Authors must disclose any related, overlapping, or previously disseminated work.

Authorship Criteria: Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, drafting, or critical revision of the research. All listed authors must approve the final manuscript and agree to its submission.

Contributor Acknowledgement: Individuals who assisted with technical support, language editing, administrative work, funding acquisition, data collection, or other limited contributions that do not justify authorship should be acknowledged appropriately with their permission.

Corresponding Author's Responsibility: The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with the journal, confirming the approval of all co-authors, submitting revisions, responding to reviewer comments, verifying author information, and ensuring that all authors are informed about editorial decisions.

Conflict of Interest: Authors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, commercial, personal, or other relationship that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, the research or its interpretation.

Funding Disclosure: All sources of financial support, institutional assistance, grants, sponsorship, equipment, materials, or other research support must be clearly disclosed in the manuscript.

Ethical Approval: Research involving human participants, identifiable personal information, biological samples, animals, or clinical interventions must receive approval from the appropriate institutional ethics committee or review board wherever applicable.

Informed Consent: Authors must obtain informed consent from participants when required. Written consent for publication must be obtained before publishing identifiable personal details, clinical photographs, images, videos, or case information.

Clinical Trial Registration: Clinical trials should be registered in an appropriate publicly accessible trial registry before participant enrolment whenever required by applicable regulations or research standards.

Animal Research: Research involving animals must follow applicable institutional and national guidelines for animal welfare. Authors should clearly report ethical approval, humane procedures, and measures taken to minimize pain, distress, and unnecessary animal use.

Data Integrity and Availability: Authors must preserve the integrity of research data and retain supporting records for a reasonable period. The Editorial Office may request raw data, supporting documents, ethical approvals, consent forms, or other evidence when clarification or verification is necessary.

Images, Figures and Tables: Images, figures, graphs, tables, and illustrations must accurately represent the underlying data. Manipulation that changes, hides, enhances, removes, or misrepresents significant information is unacceptable.

Copyright and Permissions: Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material, including figures, tables, photographs, scales, questionnaires, illustrations, or substantial excerpts owned by another party.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools: Artificial intelligence and AI-assisted tools must not be listed as authors. Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, citations, interpretation, confidentiality, and integrity of all submitted content. Any substantial use of AI-assisted tools should be disclosed appropriately.

Errors Identified by Authors: If an author discovers a significant error, omission, inaccuracy, ethical concern, or misleading statement after submission or publication, the author must promptly inform the Editorial Office and cooperate in issuing a correction, clarification, retraction, or other appropriate notice.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers play an essential role in maintaining the quality, credibility, fairness, and academic value of published research. Reviews must be conducted objectively, confidentially, constructively, and within the agreed timeframe.

Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review are confidential documents. Reviewers must not share, reproduce, discuss, upload, distribute, or use manuscript content without authorization from the Editorial Office.

Double-Blind Review: Reviewers must respect the Double-Blind Peer Review process. They should not attempt to identify authors and must not disclose their own identity to the authors during the review process.

Subject Competence: A reviewer should accept an assignment only when possessing appropriate expertise to evaluate the manuscript. A reviewer who lacks sufficient knowledge or cannot provide a timely review should decline the invitation promptly.

Objective Evaluation: Reviewers must assess manuscripts solely on academic merit, originality, methodology, ethical compliance, clarity, validity, relevance, and contribution to the discipline.

Constructive Feedback: Reviewer comments should be clear, specific, respectful, evidence-based, and helpful to authors and editors. Personal criticism, insulting language, unsupported accusations, hostile remarks, and discriminatory comments are unacceptable.

Supporting Recommendations: Reviewers should explain the reasons supporting their recommendations and identify important strengths, weaknesses, methodological limitations, missing references, reporting concerns, or necessary revisions.

Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, academic, competitive, collaborative, or personal conflict that may affect their impartiality. When a conflict exists, the reviewer should decline the assignment.

Detection of Misconduct: Reviewers should notify the editor if they identify suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated data, manipulated images, unethical research, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts, or substantial similarity with another work.

Appropriate Citation: Reviewers may recommend relevant references when genuinely necessary to improve the manuscript. Reviewers must not pressure authors to cite the reviewer's own work, the journal's articles, or unrelated publications merely to increase citation counts.

Timeliness: Reviewers should submit their reports within the agreed period. When delays are unavoidable, the reviewer should notify the Editorial Office promptly.

Prohibited Use of Manuscript Content: Unpublished ideas, methods, findings, data, or interpretations obtained through peer review must not be used for personal, professional, commercial, or competitive advantage.

Responsibilities of the Editor and Editorial Board

Editors and Editorial Board members are responsible for safeguarding the integrity of the editorial process and the scholarly record. They must act independently, impartially, confidentially, and consistently while handling submitted manuscripts.

Editorial Independence: Editorial decisions must be based solely on the manuscript's academic quality, originality, methodological validity, ethical compliance, relevance, and contribution to knowledge. Publication charges, commercial interests, institutional relationships, sponsorships, or external pressure must not influence acceptance or rejection.

Fair and Impartial Evaluation: Manuscripts must be evaluated without discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, citizenship, disability, institutional affiliation, social status, or political philosophy.

Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript except to the corresponding author, assigned reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers, authorized staff members, or the publisher when necessary for legitimate editorial processing.

Peer-Review Management: Editors are responsible for selecting suitable independent reviewers, protecting reviewer confidentiality, monitoring the quality and timeliness of reviews, and ensuring that the Double-Blind Peer Review process is conducted fairly.

Conflict of Interest: An editor who has a conflict of interest relating to a manuscript must not participate in its evaluation or decision. The manuscript should be assigned to another qualified editor.

Editorial Decisions: Editors may accept, request minor revisions, request major revisions, reject, or seek additional review based on the manuscript's quality and reviewer recommendations. The final publication decision rests with the Editor-in-Chief.

Handling Ethical Concerns: Editors must take reasonable action when credible concerns are raised regarding plagiarism, authorship, data integrity, ethical approval, conflicts of interest, duplicate publication, citation manipulation, or other forms of misconduct.

Corrections and Retractions: Editors must protect the accuracy of the published record by issuing corrections, clarifications, expressions of concern, retractions, or removal notices when justified.

Citation Integrity: Editors must not encourage or require unnecessary citations for the purpose of artificially increasing journal, editor, reviewer, or author citation metrics.

Complaints and Appeals: Authors may raise reasonable concerns regarding editorial handling or decisions. Complaints and appeals should be considered objectively, respectfully, and without retaliation.

Responsibilities Towards Readers and the Scholarly Community

Ensure that published articles are clearly presented, appropriately attributed, and sufficiently documented.

Maintain the accuracy, reliability, accessibility, and integrity of the scholarly record.

Publish corrections, clarifications, expressions of concern, or retractions when significant problems are identified.

Ensure that manuscripts fall within the journal's declared scope and meet its academic and ethical requirements.

Protect confidential information relating to authors, reviewers, research participants, and unpublished manuscripts.

Prevent citation manipulation, fraudulent authorship, duplicate publication, and other practices that compromise scholarly integrity.

Role of IERJ

Decision-Making: IERJ - International Education and Research Journal makes publication decisions through its editorial structure after considering editorial screening, reviewer recommendations, author responses, research quality, and ethical compliance.

Impartiality: Every manuscript is evaluated on its intellectual and scholarly merit without improper discrimination or influence.

Confidentiality: Submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports, correspondence, and editorial records are handled confidentially and shared only with authorized individuals involved in legitimate journal operations.

Double-Blind Peer Review: The identities of authors and reviewers remain concealed from one another during the review process to reduce potential bias and support objective assessment.

Research Integrity: IERJ may request explanations, supporting data, ethical approvals, authorship confirmations, conflict-of-interest disclosures, or other documentation when necessary to evaluate concerns.

Role of the Publisher

Journals published by Koryfi Group of Media and Publications are supported through editorial administration, technological infrastructure, digital publishing services, website management, long-term accessibility, and ethical publication policies.

Editorial Independence: The publisher supports independent editorial decision-making and does not interfere with decisions made on academic and ethical grounds.

Publishing Infrastructure: The publisher supports manuscript processing systems, web hosting, article production, digital publication, maintenance, discoverability, and long-term online availability.

Ethical Support: The publisher assists editors in addressing plagiarism, duplicate publication, authorship disputes, copyright concerns, complaints, corrections, retractions, and other ethical matters.

Scholarly Accessibility: The publisher supports the dissemination and accessibility of published research so that scholarly work can reach researchers, institutions, professionals, and readers worldwide.

Protection of the Scholarly Record: The publisher works with the Editorial Board to preserve the reliability, integrity, continuity, and accessibility of published content.

Corrections, Retractions and Preservation of the Scholarly Record

IERJ - International Education and Research Journal considers the scholarly record to be a permanent and important record of research communication. Published articles should remain accessible and unaltered as far as reasonably possible. However, corrective action may be necessary when significant errors, misconduct, legal concerns, or risks to readers are identified.

The appropriate action will depend on the nature, seriousness, reliability, and impact of the concern. The journal may issue a correction, clarification, expression of concern, withdrawal, retraction, removal, or replacement notice.

Article Correction

A correction may be issued when a published article contains an error that affects part of the publication but does not invalidate the main findings or conclusions. Corrections may address author details, affiliations, numerical errors, mislabeled figures, missing acknowledgements, citation errors, or other significant inaccuracies.

Article Withdrawal

Withdrawal may apply to an accepted manuscript or an article made available before final publication. An article may be withdrawn when it contains serious errors, duplicate submission, fraudulent authorship, plagiarism, unauthorized content, legal concerns, or other substantial violations identified before final publication.

Withdrawal decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief after examining the circumstances and available evidence. A withdrawal notice may remain available to preserve transparency and the integrity of the publication record.

Article Retraction

An article may be retracted when its findings are unreliable due to misconduct or major error; when plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated data, falsified data, manipulated images, unethical research, fraudulent authorship, or serious undeclared conflicts are confirmed; or when continued publication would significantly mislead readers.

A retraction notice should identify the retracted article, explain the reason for retraction as clearly as reasonably possible, and remain permanently linked to the article record. Retraction is intended to correct the scholarly record and protect readers rather than merely punish authors.

Expression of Concern

An expression of concern may be issued when serious questions have been raised but the available evidence is inconclusive, an investigation is incomplete, an institution has not provided necessary information, or a final determination cannot yet be made.

Article Removal

Complete removal of published content is considered only in exceptional circumstances, such as a serious legal violation, court order, unlawful content, violation of participant privacy, or content that poses an immediate and substantial risk to health or safety.

Where removal is necessary, the bibliographic record may be retained with a notice explaining why the article is no longer available, subject to applicable legal and confidentiality requirements.

Article Replacement

Replacement may be considered when an article contains seriously inaccurate or harmful information but a corrected version is necessary to protect readers or preserve the usefulness of the research. The original record and replacement notice should remain transparently linked.

Research Misconduct and Ethical Complaints

Allegations of plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, unethical research, authorship manipulation, citation manipulation, duplicate publication, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or other misconduct will be assessed carefully and fairly.

The journal may contact the corresponding author, co-authors, reviewers, institutions, ethics committees, publishers, or other relevant parties when additional information is required. Authors are expected to cooperate with legitimate investigations.

Editorial action may include requesting clarification, seeking original data, suspending review, rejecting the manuscript, correcting the published article, issuing an expression of concern, retracting the article, or informing an appropriate institution where justified.

Encouraging Academic and Research Integrity

Require appropriate ethical approval for research involving humans, animals, identifiable information, biological samples, or clinical interventions.

Require informed consent and consent for publication when identifiable participant information is included.

Encourage clinical trial registration and transparent reporting of research methods and outcomes.

Require disclosure of funding sources, competing interests, institutional support, and relevant relationships.

Encourage accurate data reporting, responsible image preparation, appropriate statistical analysis, and preservation of research records.

Promote responsible authorship, contributor acknowledgement, appropriate citation, and transparent corrections.

Take appropriate action when credible evidence of publication misconduct is presented.

Ensuring the Integrity of the Academic Record

Take reasonable steps to detect and prevent redundant publication, duplicate submission, plagiarism, and manipulated research.

Ensure that published material remains securely accessible through the journal's digital platform and preservation arrangements.

Maintain clear links between original articles and subsequent corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or replacement notices.

Preserve editorial and publication records for legitimate administrative, ethical, legal, and archival purposes.

Provide authors with an opportunity to respond to substantial allegations before final editorial action, except where immediate action is legally or ethically necessary.

Editorial Independence and Commercial Integrity

Editorial decisions at IERJ - International Education and Research Journal are made independently and are not influenced by publication charges, advertising, sponsorship, commercial relationships, personal interests, or the financial position of authors.

Manuscripts are accepted or rejected on the basis of academic merit, originality, ethical compliance, methodological quality, relevance, clarity, and contribution to the field. Payment of publication charges does not guarantee acceptance.

Errors, inaccurate statements, misleading findings, ethical violations, and significant omissions must be corrected promptly and transparently. The journal may refer to recognized publication ethics principles and applicable legal requirements when addressing complex cases.

Publication Ethics Process

Manuscript Submission

Initial Editorial and Ethical Screening

Double-Blind Peer Review

Author Revision and Response

Editorial Evaluation and Final Decision

Publication and Preservation of the Scholarly Record

Correction, Retraction, or Other Post-Publication Action When Required

For questions, complaints, appeals, or concerns related to publication ethics, research integrity, authorship, peer review, corrections, or retractions, please contact the Editorial Office at [email protected].