Publication Ethics

This statement outlines the ethical responsibilities of all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher. SJESE - STEAM Journal for Elementary School Education is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and strictly adheres to the principles set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

The journal is dedicated to ensuring the integrity of the scholarly record through a fair, transparent, objective, and ethical publication process.

Duties of Authors

Reporting Standards

Authors should present an accurate, original, and objective account of the research conducted in elementary STEAM education. The manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to enable others to replicate the work where appropriate. Fabrication, falsification, selective reporting, or inappropriate manipulation of data constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.

Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts are entirely original work. Any use of the work, ideas, data, or words of others must be properly cited. Plagiarism in any form—including text recycling, self-plagiarism, and verbatim copying without appropriate citation—is strictly unacceptable.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication

Authors should not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal, nor should they publish substantially similar research in multiple journals unless transparent and approved by all editors involved.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be strictly limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to:

  • Conception or design of the study;

  • Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;

  • Drafting or critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content;

  • Approval of the final version to be published; and

  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

All authors must approve the submitted manuscript and agree to its submission. Individuals who contributed to the work (e.g., technical help, writing assistance, general supervision) but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately in the Acknowledgements section. Any request to add, remove, or rearrange author names after submission must receive written approval from all listed authors and the Editor-in-Chief.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Authors must appropriately acknowledge the work of others and cite all publications that influenced the reported research.

Data Availability and Research Transparency

Authors are encouraged to retain original research data and make them available where appropriate and ethically feasible. Manuscripts should include a Data Availability Statement whenever possible to support reproducibility.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, personal, or professional conflicts of interest that could influence or be perceived to influence the interpretation of their work. All sources of funding for the research must be explicitly disclosed.

Ethical Oversight & Research Involving Participants

Since research in elementary education frequently involves children, teachers, and school environments, authors must ensure full compliance with institutional, national, and international ethical standards:

  • Research involving human participants (e.g., elementary students, teachers) must have received prior approval from an appropriate ethics committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB) where applicable.

  • Informed Consent (and parental/guardian assent for minors) must be obtained for all research participants.

  • Authors must protect the privacy and anonymity of young participants and school institutions.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

Authors who use artificial intelligence (AI) or generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, LLMs) to assist in writing, language editing, data analysis, or content generation must transparently disclose such use within the manuscript. AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume legal responsibility or accountability for the work. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and validity of all submitted content.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

If authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published manuscript, they must promptly notify the Editor and cooperate in correcting (via Erratum/Corrigendum) or retracting the article.

Duties of Editors

Publication Decisions

Editors are responsible for deciding which submitted manuscripts should be published based solely on scholarly merit, originality, pedagogical significance, clarity, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal's focus and scope.

Fair Play & Non-Discrimination

Editors evaluate manuscripts without discrimination based on race, gender, religion, citizenship, ethnicity, political beliefs, institutional affiliation, or other non-academic factors.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made independently without influence from the publisher, host institution, sponsors, advertisers, or commercial interests.

Confidentiality

Editors and editorial staff must treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents and must not disclose information to anyone other than those directly involved in the editorial and peer-review process.

Peer Review Management

Editors ensure that all submissions undergo a fair, objective, and confidential double-blind peer-review process conducted by qualified external reviewers with relevant expertise in elementary STEAM education.

Conflicts of Interest

Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have competing financial, institutional, collaborative, personal, or academic conflicts of interest. Editorial responsibility will be transferred to another unbiased editorial board member.

Handling Misconduct

Editors will respond appropriately to allegations or suspected instances of plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated data, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, paper mills, or other forms of publication misconduct, strictly following COPE guidelines and flowcharts.

Duties of Reviewers

Confidentiality

Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents and must not disclose, share, or discuss them with others without prior explicit authorization from the Editor.

Objectivity and Constructiveness

Reviews should be objective, constructive, evidence-based, and respectful. Personal criticism of authors is strictly inappropriate and unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of Sources & Misconduct

Reviewers should identify relevant published work not cited by the authors and inform the Editor of any suspected plagiarism, duplicate submission, data manipulation, or ethical concerns.

Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers should decline to review manuscripts in which they have financial, institutional, collaborative, personal, or academic conflicts of interest with any of the authors or institutions connected to the paper.

Promptness

Reviewers should complete reviews within the agreed time frame. If a reviewer feels unqualified to review a paper or foresees delays, they should promptly notify the Editor so that alternative reviewers can be invited.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy for Reviewers

Reviewers must not upload submitted manuscripts, abstracts, or confidential information into publicly available AI systems or third-party generative tools, as this violates confidentiality protocols.

Duties of Publisher

The publisher supports the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board in maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. The publisher is committed to:

  • Safeguarding full editorial independence;

  • Supporting ethical publication practices and continuous editorial training;

  • Preserving the long-term digital integrity and archiving of published articles;

  • Facilitating transparent post-publication updates, corrections, and retractions;

  • Ensuring commercial or institutional interests do not influence editorial decisions.

Research Misconduct Policy

SJESE takes all allegations of research and publication misconduct with the utmost seriousness. Examples of misconduct include, but are not limited to:

  • Plagiarism and text recycling;

  • Duplicate, redundant, or concurrent publication;

  • Data fabrication and falsification;

  • Citation manipulation;

  • Inappropriate or ghost/guest authorship;

  • Undisclosed conflicts of interest;

  • Peer-review manipulation;

  • Engagement with paper mills.

All allegations will be investigated fairly, confidentially, and systematically in accordance with COPE Core Practices and guidelines.

Post-Publication Policies: Corrections, Retractions, and Appeals

Corrections and Retractions

When necessary, SJESE will issue post-publication notices to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record:

  • Corrections (Errata/Corrigenda): Published if a minor error is identified that does not invalidate the study's conclusions.

  • Retractions: Issued if severe ethical breaches, plagiarism, uninterpretable/fabricated data, or major scientific flaws occur.

  • Expressions of Concern: Issued if an investigation into potential misconduct is ongoing or inconclusive.

Appeals and Complaints

Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions or submit formal complaints regarding the peer-review process or publication ethics. Appeals and complaints must be submitted in writing to the editorial office at [email protected] and will be handled objectively, confidentially, and in accordance with COPE principles.

Open Access and Copyright Notice

  • Open Access: SJESE operates under a full Open Access model. All published articles are freely available to the public under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

  • Copyright Retention: Authors retain the copyright to their work while granting the journal the first right to publish and distribute the manuscript.

For any ethical concerns, violations, or inquiries regarding these policies, please contact the Editorial Office at [email protected].