Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Outlined below are the ethical behavior expected from Editors, Reviewers, Authors, and Publisher of Journals under TIIKM publishing, published by The International Institute of Knowledge Management (TIIKM).

All papers are subject to a double-blind peer-review process based on an initial screening by the editor criteria for evaluation include a significant contribution to the field, conceptual quality, appropriate methodology and, clarity of exposition.

The publication of an article in a “double-blind peer-reviewed” journal is essential in the development of a consistent and respected network of knowledge.

Ethical norms are very important to ensure the quality of scientific articles, the probity and credibility of the research results and, the credit that the authors receive for the published articles.

The International Journal of Interactive Media Studies, identified by ISSN: 2630-7405, subscribes to principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (hyperlink to https://publicationethics.org/) on how to deal with acts of misconduct thereby committing to investigate allegations of misconduct to ensure the integrity of research.

Submitting a manuscript to the International Journal of Interactive Media Studies means that all of the authors have read and agreed to the content of the manuscript and confirmed its compliance with the journal’s policies.

International Journal of Interactive Media Studies follows the Committee on Publication Ethics' (COPE’s) “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”. This standard also applies to papers authored or co-authored by members of the International Journal of Interactive Media Studies editorial board. Peer reviewers will be asked to abide by the Committee on Publication Ethics' (COPE’s) “Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers”.

The ethical guidelines here are prepared based on the COPE https://publicationethics.org/ (Committee on Publication Ethics)

Please go through the Ethical guidelines before making your submission.

Ethical Guidelines

Copyright and License terms

The International Journal of Interactive Media Studies is entirely Open Access which means access to the electronic format of the journal is free and unrestricted. This is equivalent to a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-4.0).

So, referring to the journal’s content Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Authors who publish with journal agree to the following terms:

(1) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licensethat allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

(2) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

(3) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

Responsibilities of the editor/editorial board

International Journal of Interactive Media Studies and its Publisher, TIIKM Publishing follows the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers.

(1) Editors must secure a correct and unbiased, but also competent review by making sure of the double blindness of the review process, assigning submission to reviewers based on matching the research areas, and providing solutions to potential conflicts during the reviewers and authors while keeping each other’s identity undisclosed to its counterpart.

(2) The main responsibility is to ensure an unbiased evaluation of the ethnic or geographic origin, gender, sexual orientation, and ethical or political beliefs.

(3) Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article and they should have no conflict of interest to the articles they reject/accept.

(4) Editor in chief in consultation with the editorial board will be making the final decision on the manuscripts and will consider legal aspects such as libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism in making the decision.

(5) Upon rejection, editors should convey to the authors as to why the rejection decision was made.

(6) The editor must ensure that information regarding manuscripts submitted by the authors is kept confidential.

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

(8) Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript will not be used by the editor or the members of the editorial board for their research purposes without the author's explicit written consent. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

(9) The editors promote the publication of correction or retraction when errors are found in the paper. Nevertheless, they should preserve the anonymity of the reviewers.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

The peer-reviewing process assists the editor and the editorial board in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.

All of the International Journal of Interactive Media Studies’s content is subjected to peer-review. Peer-review is defined as obtaining advice on individual manuscripts from experts in the field. Peer-review is clearly described on the International Journal of Interactive Media Studies’s Web site.

(1) Reviewers should inform the editors if the manuscript cannot be reviewed within the timeframe allotted for the review.

(2) Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process for that manuscript, so that the manuscript can be sent to another reviewer.

(3) Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

(4) Reviews of submitted manuscripts should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate and the reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

(5) The reviewers should be objective and should not have any conflict of interest concerning the research, the authors, and/or the research funders.

(6) Reviewers should remain unbiased by considerations related to the nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender or other characteristics of the authors, origins of a manuscript or by commercial considerations.

(7) Reviewers should point out relevant published work that is not yet cited.

(8) Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer's research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

(9) Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

(10) Reviewers are required to inform the Editor-in-Chief if they cannot assess an article if it falls beyond their competence, is similar to an article published elsewhere, or determines a conflict of interests. Otherwise, they should complete the review process in due time by submitting a complete Review Form.

(11) A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

(12) The reviewers’ professional, objective, and thorough review process will contribute to the quality of work and enhance the quality of published research.

Responsibilities of Authors

(1) The authors are obliged to participate in the peer-review process and apply the requirements made by the reviewers to have their article published in the International Journal of Interactive Media Studies.

(2) Also, the authors have to state that all data in the article are real and authentic and should provide retractions or corrections of mistakes each time they consider it necessary.

(3) All authors have significantly contributed to the research. All authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.

(4) All authors should have articles with a list of references and indicate (if necessary) the financial support for the research. It is forbidden to publish the same manuscript in more than one journal.

(5) Authors will submit only entirely original works, and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited.

(6) The authors must refrain from plagiarism. Plagiarism consists of below different types and all are unethical and unacceptable.

* Pretending another author’s paper is one’s own paper
* Copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper without proper acknowledgment
* Claiming results from research conducted by others as one’s own results

In general, manuscripts describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable. Manuscripts that have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted.

(7) Authors should acknowledge all sources of data used in the research and cite publications that have been influential in research work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.

(8) Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

(9) The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included on the paper, all of them have had an opportunity to review the final copy and agreed to the submission for publication.

(10) The authors should consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscripts. Any change in the authorship list is not acceptable unless a clear reason is communicated to the editor. If you need to make a change to the authorship (any addition, deletion, or rearrangement), please write to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal: (a) a clear reason for the change and (b) written confirmation (a signed letter) of all authors that they agree with the change. The author being added or removed should also send a written confirmation to the journal. Please note that a change is only possible before the manuscript has received a notification of acceptance and only if the change request has been approved by the journal editor. No changes can be made after the publication of the article.

(11) When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in the submitted manuscript, the author should promptly notify the journal editor and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

(12) If the editor learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, the author should promptly retract or correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper.

Plagiarism and copyright infringement

Plagiarism, data fabrication, and image manipulation are not tolerated. Plagiarism is not acceptable in the International Journal of Interactive Media Studies submissions. Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from another source, even from your own publications, without giving any credit to the source.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their works are unique and that they fully acknowledge the source of any content which is not entirely the authors’ own. The journal will check articles for plagiarism (i.e. reproducing any content without attribution and permission) and considers the inclusion of plagiarized content to be misconduct by the authors.

If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed. If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, articles will be withdrawn from the journal.

Authors and readers are encouraged to inform the publisher and Editor-in-Chief if they notice anything that should be corrected.

Reported errors will be investigated by the publisher and Editor-in-Chief, and discussed with the authors.

The appropriate correction will be made after this consultation. Articles will be retracted if there is evidence of unethical research, unreliable data, misconduct or plagiarism, or if there are sufficient mistakes to invalidate the article.

Publication Ethics