Ethics / Malpractice

International Journal of Librarianship (IJoL) and its editors are fully committed to ensuring all works published in our journal are of high quality and ethically sound. We take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism, or other publication malpractice very seriously. Submissions will be checked with duplication-checking software. Where publication malpractice is found in an article, we reserve the right to: publish corrections, retract or remove the article, or take appropriate legal action. 

To protect the journal and the authors against publication malpractice, we expect editors, reviewers, and authors follow the publication ethics guidelines:

Editors must:

  • Take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred.
  • Report possible conflict of interest.

Authors must:

  • Ensure the research has been conducted ethically.
  • Certify that they have conducted the research and have written the manuscript in its entirety and that it contains only original and accurate information based on their own research.
  • Certify the manuscript has not been published previously in any languages, nor has been submitted elsewhere while it is under review by IJoL. 
  • Ensure all permissions have been obtained for any third-party materials included, and the proof of consent has been obtained. 
  • Credit sources in proper format according to the journal’s submission guidelines.
  • All authors should make substantial contributions to the paper and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the paper.
  • Acknowledge and report possible conflict of interest by declaring anything that may have influenced your research or could influence the review process or the publication of your paper (example: disclose the financial support or study sponsor, disclose of the relationship with editors). 
  • Failing to meet the requirements will result in your published article be removed or retracted after it is published. 

Reviewers must:

  • Disclose any possible conflict of interest in the review of a submission.
  • Recuse themselves if they are certain of the identities of the author(s) in order to maintain the integrity of the blind review process.
  • Review manuscripts in an objective, impartial, unbiased, and timely manner.
  • Advise the editor if there are any concerns regarding the originality of the submission.
  • Ensure confidentiality during the peer reviewing process.