Policies

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Policy

Responsibilities and procedures for maintaining integrity — aligned with COPE guidelines.

Official policy. Adopted text confirmed by the journal editor.

Purpose and scope

This policy covers authorship, originality, data integrity, human-subject ethics, responsible citation and conflicts of interest across JHSS and JERS. It extends the summary on Publication Ethics.

Authors

Submit original work; cite all sources and obtain permissions where needed.
Ensure every listed author approved the manuscript and contributed meaningfully.
Disclose funding sources and conflicts of interest.
Do not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at a time.
Obtain ethical approval where required (studies involving human participants).

Reviewers and editors

Editors decide solely on scholarly merit, free from personal or institutional bias.
Reviewers keep manuscripts confidential and declare conflicts of interest.
Ethical concerns are investigated following COPE-aligned procedures.

Suspected malpractice

Suspected fabrication, falsification, unethical authorship, undisclosed conflicts or other malpractice is examined under COPE-aligned procedures. Outcomes may include rejection, correction or retraction — see the Corrections, Retractions and Complaints Policy. This policy specifies no internal workflow beyond COPE alignment.

JHSS and JERS

Both journals uphold the same ethics standards. Eligibility differs: JHSS requires at least one established-scholar author; JERS serves emerging scholars (undergraduate through early-career, with corresponding-author rules on the For Authors page). JERS is in its formative stage; formal registration and ISSN allocation are planned.

Policy status

Status: Official policy. Reviewed and authorised for publication by the journal editor. No approval date, registration status, ISSN or accreditation is claimed beyond what is stated here.