Publication Ethics & Publication Malpractice Statement
The Asian Journal of Information Science and Technology (AJIST) is committed to integrity, transparency, fairness, accountability, and editorial independence in scholarly publishing. Authors, reviewers, editors, Editorial Board members, and the publisher are expected to follow recognised standards of responsible research and publication practice. Ethical concerns are considered fairly and proportionately, with reference where appropriate to guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
This is AJIST's principal publication-ethics and publication-malpractice statement. It operates together with the journal's Author Guidelines, Peer Review Process, Copyright & Licensing Policy, Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy, and Post-Publication and Accountability Policy.
1. Authorship and Contributorship
Authorship is limited to people who made substantial intellectual contributions, took part in drafting or critically revising the work, approved the final version, and accept accountability for the work. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.
AJIST supports the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) for transparent contribution statements. Guest, gift, honorary, purchased, ghost, or otherwise misleading authorship is unacceptable. Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors should normally be made before acceptance, include a clear reason, and have written agreement from all affected authors. Changes after acceptance are considered only in exceptional circumstances and may require a formal correction.
2. Duplicate, Redundant, and Concurrent Publication
Submissions to AJIST must be original and must not be under simultaneous consideration by another journal. Authors should disclose relevant prior publications, preprints, conference abstracts, datasets, and closely related manuscripts when they may affect an originality or overlap assessment.
Duplicate publication, inappropriate redundant publication, salami publication that fragments one study improperly, and concurrent submission to more than one journal are prohibited. Legitimate secondary publication may be considered only when ethically justified, transparently disclosed, properly cited, and permitted by the relevant editors and rights holders.
3. Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism
AJIST does not permit plagiarism, including unattributed use of another person's words, ideas, data, figures, tables, methods, or other intellectual work. Substantial reuse of an author's own published material without suitable citation or disclosure may be treated as self-plagiarism or redundant publication.
The journal uses TURNITIN similarity-detection software together with editorial checks before or during peer review. Editors interpret similarity reports in context rather than applying an automatic acceptance or rejection threshold. Suspected plagiarism is considered under AJIST research-misconduct procedures.
4. Fabrication, Falsification, and Data Integrity
Fabricated data or results, falsified or selectively altered research records, misrepresentation of methods or findings, and manipulation that creates a misleading scholarly record are prohibited. Authors are responsible for accurate and transparent reporting of methods, data, results, limitations, and conclusions.
Images, figures, and other visual research outputs must represent the underlying data accurately. Adjustments for clarity are acceptable only when they do not misleadingly enhance, hide, remove, move, or introduce information. Editors may request original data, image files, analysis records, or other documentation when integrity questions arise.
5. Citation Manipulation
Citations should be relevant to the scholarly content, acknowledge sources, support claims, and place the work in context. Authors, reviewers, and editors must not request or insert citations mainly to increase citation counts, journal or personal metrics, or the standing of a particular author, journal, institution, or group.
Coercive citation, citation cartels, fabricated references, irrelevant citation padding, and other deliberate forms of citation manipulation are treated as publication malpractice.
6. Peer-Review Manipulation and Reviewer Integrity
AJIST uses double-blind peer review for research manuscripts that pass initial editorial screening. Author identities are withheld from reviewers and reviewer identities are withheld from authors. Manuscripts that proceed to external review are normally assessed by at least two independent external reviewers with relevant expertise.
Peer-review manipulation is prohibited, including fabricated reviewer identities, false contact information, impersonation, undisclosed relationships, coordinated review rings, inappropriate interference with reviewer selection, coercion, or other attempts to influence the process improperly.
Reviewers are required to preserve confidentiality, disclose conflicts, provide objective and evidence-based assessments, and avoid using unpublished manuscript information for personal or professional advantage. Editors may investigate suspicious review activity and seek additional independent review where necessary.
7. Conflicts of Interest and Funding
Authors, reviewers, editors, and Editorial Board members must disclose financial, professional, personal, institutional, academic, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived to influence research, review, or editorial judgement.
Authors must disclose funding sources and, where relevant, explain the funder's role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit. Reviewers and editors must decline or recuse themselves when a conflict could compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, impartiality.
8. Data Sharing and Reproducibility
Authors should provide enough methodological detail to support critical evaluation and, where reasonably possible, reproducibility. Manuscripts should include a Data Availability Statement indicating whether supporting data are openly available, available on reasonable request, restricted for ethical, legal, commercial, or privacy reasons, or not applicable.
The editorial office may request underlying data, methods, analysis files, or other supporting records when needed to evaluate validity, reproducibility, or integrity. Authors should retain research records for an appropriate period consistent with disciplinary, institutional, funder, and legal requirements.
9. Ethical Oversight
Research involving human participants, personal or sensitive data, vulnerable groups, animals, or other activities that require ethical oversight must comply with applicable institutional, national, legal, and disciplinary requirements.
When formal ethics or institutional approval is required, the manuscript should identify the approving body and provide an approval or reference number where available. Where informed consent is required, authors should confirm that it was obtained and that privacy, confidentiality, and participant rights were protected. Where prospective registration is required, the registry and registration identifier should be reported.
10. Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Permissions
Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted material does not infringe copyright, database rights, trademarks, privacy rights, confidentiality duties, or other intellectual-property rights. Third-party material must be cited correctly and accompanied by written permission where permission is required.
After acceptance, copyright and licensing are governed by AJIST's Copyright & Licensing Policy and Author Declaration and Copyright Transfer Agreement. The published Version of Record is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), subject to AJIST's stated copyright arrangements and reuse rights.
11. Complaints and Appeals
Authors, reviewers, readers, and other stakeholders may submit a complaint or appeal in writing to the editorial office. The submission should identify the relevant manuscript or article, explain the issue and grounds, and provide supporting information.
Complaints and appeals are considered fairly, confidentially, and without unnecessary delay. An editorial appeal should identify a material error in the review or decision process; an appeal does not guarantee reconsideration or acceptance. A complaint involving the Editor-in-Chief or another editor directly involved in the matter should be assigned to an independent senior editor or publisher representative who was not responsible for the original decision.
12. Corrections
AJIST may issue a correction when an error affects the accuracy, interpretation, attribution, or integrity of the scholarly record but does not invalidate the article as a whole. The correction notice should be linked to the article and explain the change clearly.
Minor typographical or formatting errors that do not affect meaning may be corrected without a formal notice where appropriate. Corrections must not be used to hide significant errors or misconduct.
13. Expressions of Concern
AJIST may publish an Expression of Concern when substantial questions about the integrity or reliability of an article remain unresolved and an investigation is incomplete, inconclusive, delayed, or dependent on information from another institution or responsible body. The notice should be linked to the article and updated when the matter is resolved.
14. Retractions
An article may be retracted when findings are unreliable because of major error or misconduct, or where plagiarism, redundant publication, fabricated or falsified data, serious ethical non-compliance, manipulated peer review, or another issue materially undermines the article's integrity.
A retraction notice should explain the reason and, where appropriate, identify who initiated it. The original article will normally remain in the scholarly record and be clearly marked as retracted. Silent removal is avoided except where compelling legal, privacy, or safety reasons require removal.
15. Research Misconduct Allegations and Investigation
AJIST takes reasonable steps to identify, prevent, and address research and publication misconduct. Allegations may concern plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, fabricated or falsified data, image or citation manipulation, unethical authorship, undisclosed conflicts, peer-review manipulation, misuse of confidential information, or other serious breaches of publication ethics.
Concerns are assessed objectively, fairly, and as confidentially as reasonably possible. Depending on the allegation, AJIST may request explanations or records, seek independent expert advice, review peer-review and editorial records, consult relevant COPE guidance, or contact an institution, employer, funder, ethics body, or other responsible organisation where appropriate.
Where possible, AJIST distinguishes honest error from deliberate misconduct. If a concern is substantiated, proportionate action may include manuscript rejection, correction, Expression of Concern, retraction, withdrawal where appropriate, removal of a compromised reviewer, notification of relevant institutions or responsible bodies, or another action needed to protect the scholarly record. Decisions are documented and conflicts are managed.
16. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-Assisted Tools
AJIST requires transparency, human accountability, confidentiality, and research integrity when generative AI or AI-assisted tools are used. AI systems cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because authorship requires human accountability.
Authors may use AI-assisted tools for limited support such as language refinement, text organisation, coding assistance, data-visualisation support, or other research-support tasks, provided that the tools do not replace scholarly judgement, verification, interpretation, or responsibility. Substantive use must be disclosed; routine spelling or grammar checking that does not create substantive content need not be disclosed unless the submission system requires it.
AI must not be used to fabricate or falsify data, images, references, quotations, or evidence. AI-generated references and factual claims must be checked against reliable original sources. Authors remain accountable for accuracy, originality, citations, permissions, analysis, interpretation, bias, confidentiality, and conclusions.
Peer-review and editorial decisions remain human responsibilities. Reviewers and editors must not upload unpublished manuscripts, reviewer reports, or confidential editorial information to publicly accessible AI services where terms could compromise confidentiality.
17. Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions are made independently by the Editor-in-Chief and authorised editors on scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and relevance to AJIST's Aims and Scope. Decisions must not be influenced by Article Processing Charges, an author's ability to pay, advertising, sponsorship, ownership interests, institutional relationships, marketing activity, commercial considerations, or external pressure.
Editors must protect manuscript confidentiality, disclose and manage conflicts, recuse themselves where impartiality could reasonably be questioned, and avoid using unpublished material for personal advantage. The publisher supports editorial independence and does not override editorial decisions for financial or promotional reasons.
18. Responsibilities of the Publisher
The Centre for Research and Innovation (CRI), as publisher of AJIST, supports the integrity and independence of the editorial process. The publisher maintains accurate public policies, ownership and contact information, access conditions, fees, copyright and licensing information, and preservation arrangements.
The publisher supports investigations into publication misconduct and the publication of corrections, Expressions of Concern, retractions, and other notices where necessary. Revenue, advertising, marketing, and administrative considerations are kept separate from editorial decision-making.
19. Reporting an Ethical Concern
Concerns about a submitted manuscript, published article, peer review, authorship, editorial conduct, or another matter covered by this statement should be sent in writing to the AJIST editorial office with enough information and supporting evidence for an appropriate assessment.
Editorial Office: Centre for Research and Innovation (CRI), 9/865, Maruthi Nagar, Rakkipalayam Post, Coimbatore - 641031, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: editorial@crijournals.org.
