Publication Ethics Statement

The publication of scholarly research carries important responsibilities for authors, editors, reviewers, and publishers. The International Journal of Economic Sciences (IJES) is committed to maintaining the integrity, transparency, quality, and reliability of the scholarly record and to promoting high standards of ethical conduct throughout the submission, peer-review, editorial, and publication processes.

The journal's publication ethics policies are informed by the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Where concerns about research or publication ethics arise, IJES will consider relevant COPE guidance together with the journal's applicable editorial and publication ethics policies.

Authors' Responsibilities

Authors submitting manuscripts to IJES are responsible for ensuring that:

The submitted manuscript represents original scholarly work and appropriately acknowledges and cites the work, ideas, data, methods, and other contributions of others. Requirements concerning plagiarism, inappropriate attribution, and substantial unattributed reuse are provided in the journal's Plagiarism Policy.
The manuscript does not contain fabricated, falsified, intentionally misleading, manipulated, or knowingly inaccurate data, statements, analyses, results, images, references, or other research information.
The research is reported accurately, transparently, and with sufficient methodological information to permit appropriate scholarly evaluation and, where applicable, verification or replication.
All individuals listed as authors have made appropriate scholarly contributions to the work, have approved the submitted version, and agree to be accountable for their contributions.
Individuals who do not satisfy appropriate authorship requirements are not included as authors. Ghost, guest, honorary, purchased, or otherwise inappropriate authorship is not permitted.
The manuscript has not been previously published in substantially the same form and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
Relevant previous dissemination of the work, including conference papers, working papers, preprints, theses, dissertations, reports, or closely related publications, is transparently disclosed and appropriately cited where applicable.
Where a manuscript substantially develops an earlier conference paper or other preliminary publication, the earlier work is disclosed and cited and the submitted manuscript provides a substantial and identifiable additional scholarly contribution.
References are selected on the basis of scholarly relevance. References must not be added, omitted, requested, or manipulated primarily for the purpose of artificially increasing citation counts or influencing citation-based indicators.
All sources of research funding and other relevant forms of support are accurately disclosed. Where a funder or sponsor played a material role in the design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, preparation, or submission of the research, that role should be transparently stated.
All financial and non-financial relationships, activities, or interests that could influence, or could reasonably be perceived to influence, the research are appropriately disclosed in accordance with the journal's Conflict of Interests policy.
The manuscript complies with applicable requirements concerning research ethics, privacy, confidentiality, informed consent, data protection, and the lawful collection and use of research data where relevant.
The manuscript does not unlawfully infringe copyright, intellectual property, privacy, confidentiality, or other rights of third parties. Authors must comply with the journal's Copyright and Licensing policy.
Authors have obtained any permissions necessary to reproduce or adapt copyrighted or otherwise protected third-party material and provide appropriate acknowledgement and attribution.
Research data and supporting materials are described and made available in a manner appropriate to the nature of the research and subject to applicable legal, ethical, contractual, confidentiality, privacy, or data-protection restrictions.
Any use of Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies complies with the journal's Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Tools policy and is transparently disclosed where required. Generative AI systems must not be listed as authors or co-authors.
Authors cooperate with legitimate editorial requests for clarification, supporting information, source materials, corrections, or other documentation reasonably necessary to assess the accuracy or integrity of the submitted or published work.

Authors who identify a significant error, omission, or inaccuracy in their submitted or published work should promptly inform the Editorial Office and cooperate with the journal in determining whether corrective action is necessary. Formal amendments to published articles are governed by the journal's Retraction and Correction Policies.

Editors' Responsibilities

Editors of IJES are responsible for maintaining the fairness, independence, confidentiality, integrity, and scholarly quality of the editorial process.

Editors are expected to:

Evaluate manuscripts fairly and impartially on the basis of their scholarly merit, relevance to the journal's scope, methodological quality, originality, clarity, and contribution to the field.
Ensure that editorial decisions are not improperly influenced by authors' nationality, institutional affiliation, professional status, reputation, personal characteristics, commercial interests, financial considerations, potential publication revenue, citation performance, or other matters unrelated to the scholarly assessment of the manuscript.
Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, peer-review reports, reviewer identities, editorial correspondence, and other confidential information obtained through the editorial process.
Select appropriately qualified and independent reviewers and take reasonable measures to identify and manage relevant conflicts of interest.
Ensure that the journal's double-blind peer-review process is conducted independently, objectively, confidentially, and consistently with the journal's established standards.
Not use unpublished information, data, ideas, methods, analyses, or other confidential material obtained through submitted manuscripts for personal research, professional advantage, commercial benefit, or the benefit of another party.
Disclose relevant conflicts of interest and withdraw from the handling of manuscripts where their independence or impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Such manuscripts should be transferred to an appropriate independent editor in accordance with the journal's Conflict of Interests policy.
Protect editorial independence and ensure that decisions to accept, revise, or reject manuscripts are based on scholarly and editorial considerations rather than inappropriate commercial, institutional, personal, or external influence.
Take credible allegations of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, unethical research, or other publication misconduct seriously. Such concerns will be addressed under the journal's Unethical Behavior policy.
Provide individuals affected by substantive ethical allegations with an appropriate opportunity to respond, subject to applicable confidentiality, procedural, legal, or regulatory considerations.
Take appropriate post-publication action when necessary to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record. Formal Corrections, Expressions of Concern, Retractions, article removal, and related measures are governed by the journal's Retraction and Correction Policies.
Ensure that complaints and appeals are handled fairly and that independent consideration is available where the original decision-maker has a relevant conflict of interest. Detailed procedures are provided in the journal's Procedures for Dealing with Complaints and Appeals.

Guest Editors' Responsibilities

Guest Editors are subject to the same standards of confidentiality, independence, integrity, impartiality, and conflict-of-interest management as other editors of IJES.

Guest Editors are responsible for:

ensuring that manuscripts submitted to a special or thematic issue fall within its approved scholarly scope;
assisting in the selection of appropriately qualified and independent reviewers where applicable;
ensuring that manuscripts are evaluated according to the journal's established peer-review, editorial, and publication ethics standards;
disclosing relevant conflicts of interest and withdrawing from the handling of manuscripts where their independence or impartiality could reasonably be questioned;
maintaining the confidentiality of manuscripts, reviews, and editorial information; and
working within the journal's established editorial procedures and publication ethics policies.

The appointment of a Guest Editor does not alter the journal's established editorial standards. IJES retains appropriate oversight of special and thematic issues in order to protect the independence and integrity of the editorial process.

Reviewers' Responsibilities

Peer reviewers are expected to:

Accept review assignments only when they have sufficient expertise to provide an appropriate scholarly assessment of the manuscript.
Inform the Editor promptly if they are unable to complete the review within the requested period or believe that they are not appropriately qualified to assess the manuscript.
Evaluate manuscripts objectively, independently, constructively, and professionally.
Base their assessments and recommendations on scholarly considerations and provide sufficient reasoning to support substantive criticism.
Avoid personal, hostile, discriminatory, defamatory, derogatory, or otherwise inappropriate comments.
Treat the manuscript, supplementary files, data, review reports, correspondence, and all other information obtained through the peer-review process as confidential.
Not share, reproduce, distribute, upload, or otherwise disclose unpublished manuscript content without authorization from the journal.
Not use unpublished ideas, data, methods, results, analyses, or other information obtained through peer review for personal, academic, professional, financial, commercial, or competitive advantage.
Disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that could affect, or reasonably be perceived to affect, their impartiality and decline the review where appropriate, in accordance with the journal's Conflict of Interests policy.
Inform the Editor confidentially if they identify suspected plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, fabrication or falsification, inappropriate citation practices, ethical concerns, or other potential misconduct.
Recommend additional references only where they are genuinely relevant and necessary to improve the scholarly quality, accuracy, context, or completeness of the manuscript. Reviewers must not use citation recommendations to manipulate citation indicators.
Comply with the journal's Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Tools policy and protect the confidentiality of unpublished manuscript material when using digital technologies.

Publisher's Responsibilities

The Publisher supports the Editor-in-Chief, Editors, Editorial Board, and Editorial Office in maintaining the journal's editorial, technical, production, publication, and preservation infrastructure while respecting the independence of editorial decision-making.

The Publisher is responsible for:

supporting appropriate editorial, peer-review, production, publication, indexing, and archiving processes;
respecting the independence of editorial decisions and not improperly influencing decisions concerning individual manuscripts for commercial, financial, institutional, or other inappropriate reasons;
supporting the protection of copyright, intellectual property, confidentiality, and the integrity of the published scholarly record;
supporting the appropriate assessment and resolution of credible publication ethics concerns in cooperation with the journal's editors and, where necessary, relevant institutions or other competent bodies;
facilitating the publication of Corrections, Expressions of Concern, Retractions, and other post-publication notices where appropriate; and
supporting the maintenance and transparent implementation of the journal's publication ethics policies and standards of scholarly publishing.

Research and Publication Misconduct

IJES does not tolerate research or publication practices that compromise the integrity of the scholarly record. Potential misconduct may include plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data or results, inappropriate image or data manipulation, duplicate or redundant publication, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, misrepresentation of research, breaches of confidentiality, inappropriate use of Generative AI, or other serious breaches of research or publication ethics.

Detailed procedures for assessing and responding to suspected misconduct are provided in the journal's Unethical Behavior policy. Specific requirements concerning plagiarism and unattributed reuse are provided in the Plagiarism Policy.

Credible concerns may be assessed before or after publication. Where appropriate, the journal may request explanations or supporting documentation from the parties concerned and may seek information or assistance from relevant institutions, employers, funding bodies, research integrity offices, regulatory authorities, or other competent organizations.

Where a concern affects an article that has already been published, formal action affecting the scholarly record will be taken in accordance with the journal's Retraction and Correction Policies.

Scholarly discussion, criticism, questions, or concerns arising after publication may be addressed through the journal's Post-publication Discussions and Corrections policy.

Complaints concerning editorial procedures or appeals against editorial decisions are handled separately under the journal's Procedures for Dealing with Complaints and Appeals.