Publication Ethics

CODE OF ETHICS 

The International Journal in Information Technology in Governance, Education and Business upholds the research ethical standards of honesty and integrity, intellectual property protection, respect for autonomy, and informed consent. IJITGEB aims to promote welfare and provide the benefits of the stakeholders to enable a meaningful and productive engagement in all forms of research activities, undertakings, and collaborations.
The International Journal in Information Technology in Governance, Education and Business (IJITGEB) is committed to upholding the highest standards of research integrity, publication ethics, and scholarly excellence. These guidelines are developed in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) principles and international best practices in scholarly publishing.

Publication Ethics

Manuscripts must be original, unpublished work with proper attribution for all sources and prior work, while avoiding self-plagiarism and duplicate submissions. The journal maintains publication integrity through a double-blind peer review process that preserves reviewer confidentiality, manages conflicts of interest appropriately, and ensures constructive and timely feedback to authors.

RESEARCH ETHICS AND INTEGRITY

Human Subjects Research

All research involving human participants must obtain Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval with documented approval numbers and institutional names included as supplementary materials. Studies exempt from IRB review require exemption documentation. Written or digital informed consent is mandatory for all participants, covering data collection, analysis, and publication, with special provisions for vulnerable populations. Researchers must remove all personal identifiers from published data, ensure participant anonymity throughout manuscripts, comply with applicable data protection regulations (GDPR, etc.), and provide clear data management and retention policies.

Research Integrity Standards

Authors must maintain accurate and complete research records, ensure data integrity and authenticity, and provide access to raw data upon reasonable request while following institutional data management policies. All authors must meet authorship criteria by making substantial contributions to conception, design, or analysis; participating in drafting or critical revision of manuscripts; providing final approval of submitted versions; and accepting accountability for all aspects of the work. Comprehensive conflict of interest disclosure is required, including financial relationships with relevant organizations, personal relationships that might influence judgment, professional or institutional affiliations, and intellectual property interests.

Peer Review and Editorial Ethics

Reviewers must maintain manuscript confidentiality, provide objective and timely reviews, disclose conflicts of interest, and base recommendations on scientific merit. Editorial decisions must be based solely on scientific merit, free from external influence, with transparent processes and protection of reviewer confidentiality. Corrections address minor errors without affecting conclusions, while retractions are mandatory for research misconduct, serious errors invalidating conclusions, or ethical violations.

To ensure the highest possible ethical standards of publication practice, the authors/contributors, reviewers, and editors should adhere to the following guidelines:

For Authors:

  1. Any relevant conflict of interest, such as funding sources and similar, should be fully disclosed.
  2. Authors should present honest and clear results and must not fabricate, falsify, duplicate, manipulate and plagiarize data, results, or written output.
  3. Authors should exert and make great efforts to clearly and unambiguously state their methods so that their findings can be confirmed by others.
  4. Collective accountability is imposed on all authors for submitted and published work.
  5. The author’s individual contribution should truthfully reflect the work and writing.
  6. The manuscript submitted must be original and have been conducted in a responsible and ethical manner that complies with the relevant body of laws.
  7. Authors must disclose any use of artificial intelligence-assisted technologies in their submission and within the appropriate manuscript section (read AI Policy below).

For Reviewers:

  1. Reviewers should strictly maintain the confidentiality of information throughout the review conduct and review process.
  2. Reviewers should provide prompt and timely feedback and updates to the Editors regarding the contributor’s manuscript.
  3. Reviewers must refrain from any possible or actual conflict of interest in relation to the manuscript and its contributor and must withdraw from the process.
  4. Reviewers should inform the Editors of possible plagiarism, fabrication and duplication of work in publications, including their own.
  5. Give timely, feedback to authors who do not personally criticize them and provides clear supportive statements to back up their review decisions.
  6. Alert the Editors when presented with a manuscript for which they do not have the expertise to review.

For Editors:

  1. Editors should take responsibility and accountability for all manuscripts they publish.
  2. Editors should make fair and unbiased decisions and provides maximum transparency and complete and honest reporting.
  3. Editors should issue corrections and retractions when needed.
  4. Editors should pursue suspected or alleged research and publication misconduct to protect the integrity of the journal.
  5. Editors should critically assess the ethical conduct of studies in animals and humans.
  6. Editors should clearly inform peer reviewers and authors what is expected of them.
  7. Editors should have appropriate policies in place for handling editorial conflicts of interest.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DISCLOSURE AND USE 

Mandatory Disclosure

Authors must disclose any use of artificial intelligence-assisted technologies (including large language models, chatbots, or image creators) in their submission cover letter and within the appropriate manuscript section. This disclosure requirement applies to all AI use in research design, data collection, analysis, writing assistance, or content generation.

Documentation Requirements

Authors must describe specifically how AI was utilized in their work. Writing assistance should be acknowledged in the acknowledgments section, while AI use for data collection, analysis, or figure generation must be detailed in the methodology section. The description should include the specific AI tool used, its purpose, and the extent of human oversight applied.

Authorship Restrictions

AI systems and AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors since they cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work. All authorship responsibility lies with human contributors, who must ensure the reliability and authenticity of content that includes AI assistance.

Human Accountability

Authors are fully responsible for all submitted material that includes AI-assisted technologies. This includes careful review and editing of AI-generated content, as AI can produce authoritative-sounding output that may be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors must verify all AI-generated information and ensure appropriate attribution of all quoted material with complete citations.

Academic Integrity

Authors must ensure their submission contains no plagiarism, including in text and images produced by AI. Proper attribution and full citations are required for all quoted material. AI cannot be cited as an author in references, and authors must be able to assert the originality and integrity of their work regardless of AI assistance.

Compliance

Failure to disclose AI use or violation of these guidelines may result in manuscript rejection or retraction. Authors are expected to maintain transparency and uphold the highest standards of academic integrity when incorporating AI technologies into their research and writing processes.

Compliance and Monitoring

 The journal ensures ongoing education for editorial boards, regular policy reviews, audit of editorial processes, and continuous improvement of ethics policies. Ethics inquiries are handled through editor@ijitgeb.org with 5-10 business day response times, while misconduct reporting includes confidential portals with whistleblower