Publication Ethics

The "Journal of Human Rights,Gender Studies & Social Justice" is committed to maintaining high standards of integrity, transparency, fairness, and accountability in scholarly publishing. The journal’s editorial policies and procedures are guided by internationally recognised principles of publication ethics, including the recommendations and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK) developed by Elsevier.

These principles apply to editors, Editorial Board members, reviewers, authors, and other individuals involved in the publication process.

 

Key ethical principles

The journal follows the principles of:

  • Editorial independence: editorial decisions are based on the scholarly merit, originality, relevance, methodological quality, and suitability of a manuscript for the journal, without improper influence from commercial, financial, institutional, or personal interests.
  • Fairness and non-discrimination: manuscripts are assessed without discrimination on the basis of the authors’ race, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, institutional affiliation, or other personal characteristics unrelated to the scholarly quality of the work.
  • Confidentiality: submitted manuscripts, peer-review reports, correspondence, and other unpublished materials are treated as confidential throughout the editorial process.
  • Research integrity: the journal does not tolerate plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, inappropriate manipulation of research materials, duplicate or redundant publication, improper authorship practices, or other forms of research or publication misconduct.
  • Transparency: authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to disclose relevant conflict of interest and provide accurate information concerning funding, authorship, research ethics, and the availability of research data where applicable.
  • Accountability: concerns regarding published or submitted work are investigated appropriately, irrespective of when they are raised or who raises them.

 

Data sharing and availability policy

The "Journal of Human Rights,Gender Studies & Social Justice" supports the principles of research transparency, reproducibility, and responsible data sharing.

Authors are encouraged, where legally, ethically, and practically possible, to make the data underlying their published findings available through a recognised data repository, institutional repository, supplementary materials, or another appropriate mechanism.

Where applicable, manuscripts should include a Data Availability Statement indicating:

  • where and how the supporting data can be accessed;
  • whether the data are available upon reasonable request;
  • whether access is subject to specific conditions; or
  • why the data cannot be made publicly available.

Restrictions on data sharing may be justified where disclosure would conflict with applicable data-protection legislation, confidentiality obligations, informed-consent conditions, intellectual property rights, contractual restrictions, national security requirements, or other legitimate ethical or legal considerations.

Where data cannot be made publicly available, authors should provide an appropriate explanation in the Data Availability Statement. The journal does not require authors to disclose confidential, personally identifiable, legally protected, or ethically restricted information.

Requests for access to data that are available only upon reasonable request should normally be addressed to the corresponding author or other data custodian identified in the published article. The editorial office may facilitate communication where appropriate but does not assume ownership or control of authors’ research data.

 

Editorial decision-making and confidentiality

Editorial decisions are based on the academic quality, originality, relevance, methodological soundness, ethical acceptability, and alignment of the manuscript with the journal’s aims and scope.

The Editor-in-Chief, handling editors, and Editorial Board members must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and must not disclose information about a submission to individuals who are not directly involved in its assessment, peer review, or publication, except where disclosure is necessary for the investigation of suspected misconduct or is otherwise required by law.

Unpublished information, data, arguments, interpretations, or other materials obtained through the editorial or peer-review process must not be used for personal research, professional advantage, financial benefit, or any other purpose without the author’s explicit permission.

The journal takes reasonable measures to identify plagiarism, inappropriate text reuse, copyright infringement, and other potential breaches of publication ethics. Where concerns are identified, they are investigated in accordance with the journal’s policies and relevant COPE guidance.

 

Conflict of interest

Authors, reviewers, editors, and Editorial Board members must disclose any financial, personal, professional, institutional, academic, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their judgement or actions.

Editors and reviewers must not participate in the consideration of a manuscript where an actual or potential conflict of interest could compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, their impartiality.

Potential conflict may include, but is not limited to:

  • recent or ongoing research collaboration with an author;
  • employment at the same institution or organisational unit where this may affect impartiality;
  • close personal or family relationships;
  • direct academic rivalry;
  • financial interests related to the subject of the manuscript;
  • supervisory or dependent professional relationships; or
  • any other circumstances that could reasonably affect independent judgement.

Where an editor has a conflict of interest, responsibility for the manuscript is transferred to another qualified editor who has no such conflict. Reviewers who identify a conflict of interest must decline the invitation or inform the editorial office immediately.

Authors must include a Conflict of Interest Statement in their manuscript. Where no competing interests exist, this should be stated explicitly.

 

Research and publication misconduct

The journal takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously. Such concerns may include plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, image or data manipulation, duplicate publication, undisclosed conflict of interest, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, or other practices that could compromise the integrity of the scholarly record.

Allegations are assessed confidentially and impartially. Where necessary, the journal may request clarification, original data, ethics documentation, or other relevant evidence from the authors.

Where the matter falls within the responsibility of an author’s institution, research organisation, funding body, or other competent authority, the journal may refer the concern to that organisation for investigation.

Editorial action may include rejection of a submitted manuscript or, in relation to published material, publication of a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other appropriate notice.

 

Post-publication discussions and concerns

The journal welcomes responsible scholarly discussion and constructive criticism of published research.

Readers may communicate concerns directly to the editorial office or use recognised post-publication discussion platforms such as PubPeer. The channel through which a concern is raised does not determine whether it will be considered.

All articles are assigned a DOI where applicable, enabling published research to be identified and discussed accurately.

Comments and criticisms should be professional, evidence-based, and focused on the scholarly content of the publication rather than on the personal characteristics of its authors.

Substantive concerns regarding the reliability, integrity, originality, ethics, or validity of published material will be assessed by the journal. Where appropriate, the authors will be given an opportunity to respond.

 

Ethical requirements for research involving human participants

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable legal requirements, institutional regulations, and recognised ethical standards.

Where required, research must have received prior approval from an appropriate independent ethics committee, Institutional Review Board (IRB), or equivalent body. Authors must identify the approving body and, where available, provide the approval or reference number in the manuscript.

Where formal ethical approval was not required, authors should state this explicitly and provide the legal, institutional, or ethical basis for the exemption where appropriate.

Participants must receive appropriate information about the purpose and nature of the research, the intended use of their data, relevant risks and benefits, confidentiality or anonymity arrangements, and their rights as research participants.

Informed consent must be obtained where required by applicable ethical standards and legislation. Consent may be documented in written, electronic, or another appropriate form depending on the nature of the research and the requirements of the relevant ethics body.

Where an ethics committee has formally approved a waiver of informed consent, this should be stated and justified in the manuscript.

Consent to participate in research should be distinguished from consent for publication. Specific consent for publication must be obtained where a publication contains identifiable personal information, images, quotations, case details, or other material from which an individual could reasonably be identified, unless another lawful and ethically appropriate basis applies.

Research involving vulnerable individuals or groups requires particular attention to informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, risk minimisation, and protection from harm.

Depending on the disciplinary context, authors should follow applicable recognised standards, including the American Sociological Association Code of Ethics, the ICC/ESOMAR International Code on Market, Opinion and Social Research and Data Analytics, and relevant European Commission guidance on research ethics and integrity.

 

Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

The Editorial Board undertakes to:

  • ensure the independence and integrity of editorial decision-making;
  • protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and peer-review materials;
  • arrange fair, competent, and independent peer review;
  • take reasonable measures to identify and address suspected research or publication misconduct;
  • ensure that conflict of interest is appropriately disclosed and managed;
  • avoid making substantive changes to an accepted manuscript without consulting the authors;
  • consider ethical concerns and complaints in a fair and timely manner;
  • issue corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or other notices where necessary to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.

 

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers undertake to:

  • assess manuscripts objectively, impartially, and constructively;
  • complete reviews within the agreed time frame or inform the editorial office if this is not possible;
  • treat manuscripts and associated materials as confidential;
  • disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest;
  • decline a review where they lack sufficient expertise to provide a competent assessment;
  • refrain from using unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal or professional advantage;
  • identify relevant published work that may not have been appropriately acknowledged where reasonably possible;
  • notify the editorial office of suspected plagiarism, data manipulation, duplicate publication, unethical research, or other potential misconduct.

 

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors undertake to:

  • submit original work that has not been published previously and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal;
  • present research methods, data, results, and conclusions accurately and transparently;
  • refrain from fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, inappropriate text recycling, duplicate publication, and other forms of research or publication misconduct;
  • cite and acknowledge relevant sources appropriately;
  • disclose all relevant sources of financial support and conflict of interest;
  • comply with applicable research-ethics, informed-consent, privacy, and data-protection requirements;
  • retain and, where appropriate and legally permissible, provide access to supporting research materials necessary to verify the reported findings;
  • ensure that all individuals listed as authors meet the journal’s authorship criteria;
  • acknowledge individuals who contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship;
  • inform the editorial office promptly if a significant error or inaccuracy is identified in a submitted or published work and cooperate in correcting the scholarly record.

 

Authorship and contributorship

Authorship should accurately reflect responsibility for and substantial contribution to the work.

All listed authors must have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the study, participated sufficiently in the preparation or critical revision of the manuscript, approved the version submitted for publication, and agreed to be accountable for their respective contributions and for the integrity of the published work.

Individuals who contributed to the research but do not meet the journal’s authorship criteria should not be listed as authors. Their contributions may be recognised in the Acknowledgements section, subject to their consent where appropriate.

Guest, gift, honorary, and ghost authorship are not acceptable.

Any request to add, remove, or change the order of authors after submission must be explained to the editorial office and normally requires the agreement of all affected authors. Authorship disputes that cannot be resolved by the authors themselves may be referred to the relevant institution or other competent body, as journals are not normally in a position to adjudicate disputes concerning the relative contributions of researchers.

 

Statement of authorship and submission

By submitting a manuscript to the "Journal of Human Rights,Gender Studies & Social Justice", the corresponding author confirms on behalf of all authors that:

  • the manuscript is original and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal;
  • all individuals listed as authors satisfy the journal’s authorship criteria;
  • all authors have reviewed and approved the submitted version of the manuscript;
  • all authors agree to its submission to the journal;
  • all relevant sources of funding and potential conflict of interest have been disclosed;
  • all necessary ethical approvals and informed consents have been obtained or appropriate exemptions have been disclosed;
  • contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship have been appropriately acknowledged;
  • the manuscript does not knowingly infringe copyright, privacy, confidentiality, or other third-party rights.

 

Advertising and editorial independence

The "Journal of Human Rights,Gender Studies & Social Justice" does not accept advertising.

Editorial decisions are independent of commercial considerations, sources of journal financing, institutional interests, and other external influence.

Funding Disclosure

Authors must disclose all sources of financial and material support relevant to the research and/or preparation of the manuscript, including grants, institutional funding, contracts, fellowships, or other forms of support.

Where applicable, authors should provide the name of the funding organisation and the grant or award number.

Where no external or specific financial support was received, authors should include the following statement:

“The research received no external funding.”

Funding sources must not influence the presentation or interpretation of research results, and any role played by a funder in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, preparation of the manuscript, or decision to submit the work for publication must be disclosed.