Publication Ethics

The International Journal of Multidisciplinary Academia (IJMA) is committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards of publication and taking all possible measures against any publication malpractices. This statement is based on the guidelines and standards developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1. Duties of Authors

• Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that they have written entirely original works. If authors have used the work and/or words of others, this must be appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is strictly unacceptable.

• Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: An author should not generally publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior.

• Authorship of the Paper: 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. The corresponding author ensures that all contributing co-authors are included in the author list and that they have approved the final version of the paper for publication.

• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All authors must disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.

• Fundamental Errors in Published Works: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

2. Duties of Editors

• Publication Decisions: The editor of IJMA is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor is guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.

• Fair Play: The editor evaluates manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

• Confidentiality: 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.

• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.

3. Duties of Reviewers

• Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.

• Promptness: 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 excuse themselves from the review process.

• Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

• Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

• Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge must be reported to the editor.

4. Plagiarism Policy International Journal of Multidisciplinary Academia (IJMA) strictly opposes any form of plagiarism. All submitted manuscripts will be checked for similarity using plagiarism detection software (e.g., Turnitin/iThenticate) before undergoing the peer-review process. Manuscripts with a high similarity index will be immediately rejected or returned to the authors for revision.