Publication Ethics

JCL is under the commitment to uphold the integrity of the academic record. JCL does support the normally expected standards of ethical behavior for all parties involved in the publication process adopted in the journal: the author, the editorial board, the peer reviewer and the publisher. JCL's publication ethics and publication malpractice statement  are mainly drawn upon the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, (COPE)

Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

Decisions on Publication

Members of JCL editorial board are responsible for issuing the approval of the scientific research submitted to JCL. The decision on publishing a paper will always be evaluated in conformity with  the statement of terms and conditions  publically announced to researchers. Publication decisions should be made  irrespective of  race-, ethnicity-, nationality-backgrounds,  sex, religious belief, or political considerations, and are constrained by ethical and legal standards governing copyright violation and plagiarism . Emphasis is placed on the academic value of research, its integrity, its language of expression, and citation strength. The editorial board in JCL adheres to ethical standards in order to serve the academic community and readership of our journal in a transparent way.

Confidentiality
The editorial board should never make any disclosure of any information related to the content of a submitted manuscript to any other party, except for the author(s), (potential) referees, other editorial advisers, and the publisher.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Unpublished contents revealed in a manuscript submitted to our journal must not be made use of by the editors in researches of their own without a prior written statement of consent by the author(s). Information and/or ideas seen as a privilege to the author(s) and made known via the process of peer-review should always remain confidential and never be used for personal interest. To achieve the highest standards of ethical behaviour, members of editorial board should abstain from considering materials in manuscripts in which there is a conflict of interest resulting from states of competition, collaboration, or any other type of relation with the author(s), or other institutional parties related to the paper. The requirement should be made by the editorial board that all contributing parties should make public any sort of competing interests or conflicts; otherwise, modifications and corrections should be published if such similar interests or conflicts were known post to publication. 

 Responsibilities of Peer-reviewers 

Contributions to editorial decisions

The process of peer-review helps in taking the editorial decision as to the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript,  and via  communications between the editorial board and the author(s), it may  as well help the author(s) in making improvements to the paper.  The peer-review is one necessary phase of academically oriented and directed communications, and is regarded as central within the whole academic methodology. As well as the specifically below-stated ethical duties, referees are required to consider authors and their work in the same way they themselves would like to be considered,  and to adhere to well-established academic etiquette.

Promptness

Nominated referees feeling unable or unqualified to make a review of reported research in a manuscript, or not able to meet the promptness condition should send a notification to the editor so as to excuse themselves from taking a part in the peer-review process.

Confidentiality

Peer-reviewers are ethically required to treat the contents of the manuscript with a high level of confidentiality. Information and/or ideas seen as a privilege to the author(s) and  made known via the process of peer-review, should always remain confidential and never be used for personal interest. Disclosure and/or discussion of submitted manuscripts may never be made to other parties, only with an authorization made by the editor of the journal.

Standards of objectivity

Peer-reviews should be prepared with a close eye on objectivity.  Peer-reviewers should always take great care of prejudiced decisions when preparing their review accounts. Criticisms directed to the author(s) are academically inappropriate. Referees' opinions should be stated clearly and supported by objective arguments.

Acknowledgement of sources

Peer-reviewers have to make an identification of any related publication that has been given no citation by the author(s). A notification should be made by the peer-reviewers to the members of the editorial board of the author(s)'  non-conformity of the journal standards of  publication; as well, peer-reviewers have to ascertain the suitability pf the references with the , and of the fact that the sources  are matching those stated in bibliography. Further, they should make the editors aware of any significant resemblance or connection noticed between the paper under review and any other related published work about which they have personal familiarity.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

Information and/or ideas seen as a privilege to the author(s) and made known via the process of peer-review should always remain confidential and never be used for personal interest. Peer-reviewers should abstain from reviewing manuscripts in which there is a conflict of interest resulting from states of competition, collaboration, or any other type of relation with the author(s), or other institutional parties related to the paper.

Responsibilities of Authors

Reviewing  Standards

Accuracy in review accounts should be predominant in the process of reviewing any manuscript, and a discussion of its significance, based upon objective standards, should     be presented. This is accompanied by an accurate underlying representation of the data. The manuscript has to give appropriate details and references so as make others able to make a replication of its content. Acts of fraudulency and of familiar inaccuracies make a non-ethical behaviour of publication, and thus they are deemed intolerable

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication

An already published manuscript in another journal should not be submitted for publication elsewhere, unless being in the form of an abstract, or as one part of a publishable lecture or academic thesis or dissertation.  Making a concurrent submission of a paper to different journals at the same time makes an act void of ethics, and is judged intolerable.  

Authorship of the Paper

Authors of a paper will be only those who have contributed significantly to the whole process of its preparation, such as formulating its concepts, design, and implementation o analytical tool, and interpretation of the results thereof. These all should be named as co-authors. Any others who have taken a part in certain phases of the preparation process should be given due acknowledgment or considered as co-authors also. Thus, co-authors should be named appropriately and listed on the paper by the corresponding author, and no reference should be made ever of any other. Also, it should be clear that the approval of the final form of the paper along with its submission for publication has been granted by all co-authors.  

Disclosure and interest-conflicts

A clear statement of disclosure in the manuscript should be made by all authors of any type of interest of conflict, be it financial or else, that may be a construal affecting the conclusive results in the paper. All types of funds made use of in carrying out the research and for writing the paper should be made clearly in a disclosure statement, along with the identification of the roles of sponsor(s) in all the steps of preparation, designing of the study, the collection of the data, analysis and discussion of the data, in the writing  of the final form, and in the final phase of paper submission for publication. When there exists no direct connection to the funding sources, this should be indicated.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

Whenever a significant error or any sort of inaccuracy is identified by authors in their  work, an indication should be made of the relevant information, and cooperation in due respect with the editor or the publisher is entailed so as make the necessary modification or correction in the published form. When editors or published know of such inaccuracies in published papers from, the author will be under the obligation to make the due cooperation with the editor, and to provide the necessary evidence whenever being requested.

Acknowledging  Sources

Authors are under the obligation that they should have made an appropriate acknowledgment of others' published works, along with making reference to publications that were substantially important in knowing the nature of referenced work.