Publication Ethics
The Journal of Multidimensional Management (JoMM) is committed to maintaining the integrity, transparency, and reliability of the scholarly record. The journal follows the principles and best practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and expects authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher to uphold the highest standards of responsible scholarly publishing.
1. Principles and Standards
Honesty and Accuracy: Research methods, data, analyses, findings, and conclusions must be reported truthfully and accurately. Fabrication, falsification, deceptive manipulation, and misrepresentation are prohibited.
Objectivity and Fairness: Editorial and peer-review decisions are based on scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance to the journal's Focus and Scope, and contribution to knowledge, without discrimination based on personal characteristics, institutional affiliation, nationality, or other irrelevant factors.
Transparency: Authors must disclose relevant information concerning authorship, funding, conflicts of interest, ethical approval, informed consent, data availability, and the use of artificial intelligence where applicable.
Accountability: Authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher share responsibility for protecting the integrity and reliability of the scholarly record.
2. Authorship and Contributions
Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work, participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript, approved the final version, and agreed to be accountable for their contributions. For multi-author manuscripts, JoMM requires an Author Contributions statement, preferably using the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy.
All authors must approve the order and composition of the author list before submission. Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission require a clear justification, written agreement from all affected authors, and approval from the Editor. Adding authors after acceptance without a clear and legitimate justification is not permitted. Individuals who contributed to the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.
3. Duties of Authors
Originality and Prior Publication: Authors must submit original work that has not been published previously and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal. Sources and previously published materials must be properly acknowledged and cited. Duplicate publication, redundant publication, inappropriate text recycling, and salami publication are prohibited.
Research Ethics: Research involving human or animal participants must comply with applicable ethical standards. Where formal approval is required, authors must provide the name of the approving ethics committee or institution and the relevant approval number or identifier.
Informed Consent: Authors must report informed consent where applicable and ensure appropriate protection of participant privacy and confidentiality.
Data and Materials: Authors should provide a Data Availability Statement describing whether and under what conditions data, instruments, code, or other research materials supporting the findings are available. Legitimate ethical, legal, privacy, or confidentiality restrictions should be explained.
Funding: All sources of financial support must be disclosed.
Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research or its interpretation.
Artificial Intelligence: Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors. Where such tools have been used in preparing a manuscript, authors must disclose their use in accordance with JoMM's Artificial Intelligence Policy. Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, confidentiality, references, analyses, interpretations, and final content of their manuscript.
Plagiarism and Similarity: Submitted manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism-detection or textual-similarity software. Similarity reports are assessed qualitatively by the editorial team. A similarity percentage alone does not determine whether plagiarism has occurred.
Errors After Publication: Authors who discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work must promptly inform the journal and cooperate in issuing a correction, retraction, or other appropriate post-publication action.
4. Duties of Reviewers
Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review are confidential documents. Reviewers must not disclose manuscript content or use unpublished information for personal or professional advantage.
Objectivity and Constructive Review: Reviews should be impartial, substantive, respectful, and constructive. Reviewers should assess the manuscript's scholarly contribution, theoretical grounding, methodology, analysis, interpretation, and presentation rather than limiting comments to language or formatting.
Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers must decline an invitation when a personal, professional, institutional, academic, or financial conflict could compromise or reasonably appear to compromise their objectivity.
Timeliness: Reviewers should accept assignments only when they possess the relevant expertise and are able to complete the review within the agreed period.
Use of Artificial Intelligence: Reviewers must not use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in the peer-review process. This prohibition includes using AI to analyse or evaluate a manuscript, generate or draft review comments, or uploading the manuscript or any part of it to an AI system. Reviewers remain personally responsible for the content and integrity of their reviews.
JoMM requires genuine and substantive reviewer involvement. The latest accreditation guidelines explicitly require active reviewer participation to be demonstrable and review comments to address substantive article quality, rather than merely grammar or layout.
5. Duties of Editors
Editorial Independence and Fairness: Editors make decisions based on the manuscript's relevance, originality, methodological quality, scholarly contribution, and validity. Commercial, institutional, personal, or other inappropriate influences must not determine editorial decisions.
Confidentiality: Editors must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, author information where applicable under double-blind review, reviewer identities, and confidential editorial correspondence.
Conflict of Interest Management: Editors must disclose and appropriately manage conflicts of interest. An editor who has a conflict concerning a manuscript must recuse themselves and assign the manuscript to an independent editor.
Reviewer Selection: Editors should appoint reviewers with appropriate subject expertise and should consider reviewer independence, diversity, qualifications, and potential conflicts of interest.
Editorial Decision-Making: Editors are responsible for evaluating reviewer recommendations and making independent editorial decisions. Reviewer recommendations do not automatically determine acceptance or rejection.
Artificial Intelligence: Editors must not use AI as a substitute for scholarly judgement or editorial decision-making. Any permitted AI-assisted use must comply with JoMM's Artificial Intelligence Policy, protect manuscript confidentiality, and remain subject to full human responsibility.
6. Research and Publication Misconduct
Research and publication misconduct may include, but is not limited to:
- fabrication or falsification of data;
- plagiarism or inappropriate text reuse;
- duplicate or redundant publication;
- unjustified authorship or authorship manipulation;
- citation manipulation;
- inappropriate manipulation of images, figures, or data;
- undisclosed conflicts of interest;
- unethical research involving human or animal participants;
- manipulation of the peer-review or editorial process; and
- deliberate misrepresentation of research methods, findings, or ethical information.
Where figures or images are used, adjustments must not alter, obscure, remove, or misrepresent information relevant to interpretation of the results.
7. Handling Allegations of Misconduct
JoMM takes allegations of research or publication misconduct seriously and handles them fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with applicable COPE guidance and flowcharts. When concerns arise, the editorial team may request explanations, original data, research instruments, ethics documentation, correspondence, or other relevant evidence from the authors or other involved parties. Where appropriate, the journal may contact institutions, research ethics committees, funders, or other relevant organisations.
Depending on the nature and severity of the case, outcomes may include rejection of a manuscript, correction, expression of concern, retraction, restrictions on future submissions, or notification of the relevant institution or authority. All allegations are assessed on the basis of available evidence and due process; a similarity score or allegation alone does not constitute proof of misconduct.
8. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern
JoMM is committed to maintaining an accurate scholarly record.
Corrections: A correction may be issued when an honest error affects part of a published article but does not invalidate its overall findings or conclusions.
Retractions: An article may be retracted where findings are unreliable because of serious error or misconduct, where plagiarism or duplicate publication is established, where research was conducted unethically, or where other serious integrity concerns invalidate the publication.
A retracted article will remain part of the scholarly record and will be clearly identified as retracted. The retraction notice will explain the reason for the action and will be linked to the original article.
Expressions of Concern: An Expression of Concern may be issued when credible concerns have arisen but an investigation remains incomplete or evidence is not yet sufficient for a final editorial action.
Post-publication actions will be implemented transparently and, where applicable, relevant metadata and DOI records will be updated.
9. Conflicts of Interest
Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, the research, peer-review process, or editorial decision-making. Conflicts may be financial or non-financial and may include employment, consultancy, funding, intellectual property interests, institutional relationships, close professional or personal relationships, recent collaborations, or academic competition. Editors are responsible for ensuring that disclosed conflicts are appropriately assessed and managed throughout the editorial process.
10. Complaints and Appeals
Authors, reviewers, readers, or other parties may submit complaints concerning editorial processes, publication ethics, or journal conduct to the JoMM editorial office. Authors may also appeal an editorial decision where they believe a material error has occurred in the assessment or decision-making process. Appeals must provide a clear and evidence-based justification rather than merely expressing disagreement with the editorial outcome.
Where feasible, complaints and appeals will be considered by an editor who was not directly responsible for the original decision. Submission of an appeal does not guarantee reconsideration, reversal of the editorial decision, or acceptance of the manuscript.
11. Post-Publication Discussion
JoMM supports responsible scholarly discussion after publication. Readers may contact the editorial office to raise substantive concerns, request clarification, or provide scholarly comments regarding published articles. Where such discussion identifies a material issue affecting the accuracy, integrity, or interpretation of an article, the journal will evaluate the matter and take appropriate editorial action where necessary, including correction, expression of concern, or retraction where warranted.
12. Transparency Statements
Published articles should include the following declarations where applicable:
- Author Contributions
- Funding
- Data Availability
- Ethical Approval
- Informed Consent
- Conflict of Interest
- Artificial Intelligence Use Statement
- Acknowledgements
Authors remain responsible for ensuring that all declarations are complete, accurate, and consistent with the information provided during submission.
