Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Policy

 

1. Purpose and Ethical Principles

Language Teaching Research Quarterly (LTRQ) is committed to maintaining high standards of research integrity, editorial independence, transparency, fairness, and responsible scholarly communication. This policy applies to the publisher, editors, editorial board members, reviewers, authors, guest editors, and all others involved in the publication process.

 

LTRQ follows the principles and good practices promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, https://publicationethics.org/). Ethical responsibility applies throughout the complete publication cycle, from manuscript submission and peer review to publication, correction, retraction, and post-publication discussion.

 

LTRQ does not tolerate fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, inappropriate authorship, manipulation of peer review, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, unethical research, or any other practice that compromises the integrity of the scholarly record.

 

2. Duties and Responsibilities of the Publisher

The publisher, EUROKD, provides the organizational and technical conditions necessary for LTRQ to operate as an independent scholarly journal.

The publisher shall:

1.     Protect the editorial independence of the Editor-in-Chief and editorial team and shall not interfere with decisions concerning individual manuscripts for commercial, institutional, political, personal, or other inappropriate reasons.

2.     Provide appropriate systems for manuscript submission, peer review, editorial communication, publication, archiving, and preservation of the journal's scholarly record.

3.     Support the journal in implementing clear procedures for handling ethical concerns, complaints, appeals, corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions.

4.     Cooperate with editors in investigating suspected publication misconduct and, where necessary, communicate with relevant institutions or authorities.

5.     Ensure that publication charges, copyright arrangements, licensing conditions, and other relevant publishing information are communicated clearly to authors and readers.

6.     Maintain accurate journal metadata, publication records, and publicly available information.

7.     Protect confidential editorial and peer-review information and personal information obtained during the publication process.

8.     Support appropriate training and guidance for editors, editorial board members, reviewers, and publishing staff.

9.     Preserve access to the published record and ensure that necessary corrections or retractions remain permanently linked to the affected publication.

10.Avoid business practices that could compromise the academic independence or credibility of LTRQ.

 

3. Duties and Responsibilities of Editors and Editorial Board Members

The Editor-in-Chief and editorial team are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are evaluated fairly, rigorously, efficiently, and ethically. Editorial decisions shall be based on the manuscript's scholarly quality, originality, relevance, methodological soundness, and contribution to the field.

Editors shall:

1.     Treat authors fairly and without discrimination based on nationality, gender, institutional affiliation, academic status, personal beliefs, or other irrelevant characteristics.

2.     conduct an initial editorial assessment to determine whether a manuscript is suitable for the journal before external review.

3.     Select reviewers with appropriate expertise and, as far as reasonably possible, without relevant conflicts of interest.

4.     Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and related editorial information.

5.     Ensure that peer-review decisions are not influenced by commercial, personal, political, or institutional interests.

6.     Make independent and evidence-based editorial decisions and communicate decisions professionally.

7.     Provide authors with substantive and sufficiently clear reasons for editorial decisions where appropriate.

8.     Manage conflicts of interest involving authors, reviewers, editors, guest editors, or editorial board members.

9.     Ensure that manuscripts submitted by an editor or editorial board member are handled independently and without preferential treatment.

10.Investigate credible allegations of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, authorship problems, peer-review manipulation, or other ethical concerns.

11.Give authors and, where appropriate, reviewers an opportunity to respond to substantive allegations before reaching a final decision.

12.Cooperate with institutions when an investigation requires information that the journal cannot independently verify.

13.Consider corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions when the published record may be unreliable.

14.Avoid using unpublished information from submitted manuscripts for personal research or advantage.

15.Maintain appropriate records of editorial and ethical decisions.

16.Ensure that editorial board members have meaningful academic roles and understand their responsibilities.

17.Ensure that guest editors and special-issue editors follow the same ethical and peer-review standards as the regular editorial team.

 

Editors should not reject a manuscript solely because its findings are unexpected, negative, controversial, or contrary to prevailing views, provided that the work is methodologically and ethically sound.

 

4. Duties and Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

Peer reviewers contribute to the quality and reliability of LTRQ by providing independent, knowledgeable, constructive, and timely assessments.

Reviewers shall:

1.     Accept an assignment only when they have sufficient expertise and can complete the review within the requested period.

2.     Decline the invitation if they have a conflict of interest or another circumstance that could compromise impartiality.

3.     Treat manuscripts, data, supplementary materials, and editorial correspondence as confidential.

4.     Not share, copy, use, cite, disseminate, or exploit unpublished manuscript material without authorization.

5.     Evaluate manuscripts objectively and constructively, focusing on scholarly quality rather than the identity, nationality, affiliation, or personal characteristics of the authors.

6.     Assess, where relevant, the research question, theoretical foundation, methodology, analysis, interpretation, originality, reporting, and contribution.

7.     Alert the editor to suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated or manipulated data, unethical research, undisclosed conflicts, or other serious concerns.

8.     Avoid demanding citations merely to increase their own citations, those of colleagues, or the journal.

9.     Not attempt to contact authors directly about the manuscript unless authorized by the journal.

10.Obtain the journal's permission before involving another person in reviewing a manuscript.

11.Declare any relationship, competition, collaboration, financial interest, or other circumstance that may affect impartiality.

12.Submit reviews within the agreed timeframe or promptly request an extension.

 

5. Duties and Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical acceptability of their submissions.

Authors shall:

1.     Submit original work that has not been published elsewhere in substantially the same form.

2.     Not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to another journal.

3.     Ensure that all reported data, analyses, results, quotations, references, and other information are accurate and honestly presented.

4.     Never fabricate, falsify, manipulate, or selectively misrepresent data or research procedures.

5.     Properly acknowledge the work and ideas of others and avoid plagiarism, inappropriate text recycling, and redundant publication.

6.     Ensure that authorship reflects genuine and substantial scholarly contribution. All listed authors must approve the final manuscript and agree to its submission and publication.

7.     Obtain the agreement of all authors for any proposed change in authorship after submission; substantial authorship disputes may be referred to the relevant institution.

8.     Disclose relevant financial, professional, personal, or institutional conflicts of interest.

9.     Disclose sources of financial or other support where applicable.

10.Obtain required ethical approval and informed consent for research involving human participants or other ethically regulated research.

11.Protect participants' privacy and confidentiality and obtain permission where identifiable information is to be published.

12.Obtain permission for copyrighted material when required.

13.Make data, materials, instruments, or analytical information available when appropriate and when ethically and legally permissible.

14.Disclose substantial overlap with previous publications, conference papers, preprints, theses, reports, or other publicly available material.

15.Cooperate reasonably with the journal when questions arise concerning the research or publication.

16.Notify the journal promptly if a significant error is discovered after publication and cooperate in correcting the record.

17.Ensure that all statements concerning the use of artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technologies comply with the journal's AI policy.

 

6. Peer Review, Conflicts of Interest, and Research Ethics

LTRQ uses independent peer review by appropriately qualified experts. The journal's stated peer-review procedure shall be applied consistently and may include editorial screening followed by external review.

A conflict of interest exists when a personal, professional, financial, institutional, academic, or other relationship could reasonably affect—or appear to affect—an individual's impartial judgment.

Authors, editors, reviewers, and editorial board members must disclose relevant conflicts. When a conflict is substantial, the individual shall be removed from the relevant decision-making or review process.

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical requirements. Where appropriate, manuscripts should identify the responsible ethics committee or institutional approval and explain informed consent procedures. Special care is required when research involves students, children, dependent participants, vulnerable groups, or relationships involving unequal power.

 

7. Research and Publication Misconduct

LTRQ considers the following serious forms of misconduct:

• plagiarism and unattributed appropriation of ideas or text;
• fabrication or falsification of data, results, images, instruments, or research procedures;
• duplicate, redundant, or substantially overlapping publication;
• inappropriate text recycling;
• manipulated or fraudulent authorship;
• submission of a manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously;
• manipulation or fabrication of peer review;
• inappropriate or coercive citation practices;
• undisclosed conflicts of interest;
• unauthorized use or disclosure of confidential information;
• unethical research or absence of required consent/approval;
• deliberate misrepresentation of sources, methods, findings, or contributions.

Concerns may arise before or after publication. LTRQ will assess credible allegations carefully and confidentially. The journal may request explanations, supporting documentation, original data, ethics documentation, authorship information, or other relevant evidence. Where the matter falls within an institution's responsibility, LTRQ may refer or report the concern to the appropriate institution.

The journal will not treat an allegation as proof of misconduct. Decisions will be based on available evidence and fair consideration of the parties involved.

 

8. Complaints, Appeals, Manuscript Withdrawal, Corrections, and Retractions

LTRQ welcomes legitimate complaints concerning editorial decisions, publication procedures, ethical conduct, or journal operations. Complaints shall be handled respectfully, confidentially, and without retaliation. Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they can identify a substantive factual error, procedural problem, relevant conflict of interest, or significant misunderstanding of the manuscript. An appeal should provide specific reasons and supporting information. An appeal does not automatically guarantee reconsideration or acceptance.

 

Manuscript withdrawal: Authors may request withdrawal of a manuscript before publication by contacting the journal and providing a reasonable explanation. Once a manuscript has entered advanced production or has been formally published, withdrawal or removal is considered only in exceptional circumstances.

 

Correction: When a published article contains a material error that does not invalidate the overall work, LTRQ may publish a correction linked to the original article.

 

Expression of Concern: When substantial concerns exist but available evidence is insufficient for a final conclusion, LTRQ may publish an expression of concern while further investigation is undertaken.

 

Retraction: An article may be retracted when its findings or substantial content can no longer be considered reliable, including cases involving major errors, serious research or publication misconduct, unreliable data, duplicate publication, unethical research, compromised peer review, or other circumstances that materially undermine the integrity of the published record. Retraction is primarily a mechanism for correcting the scholarly record, not a form of punishment.

Retraction and correction notices shall clearly identify the affected publication, explain the reason for the action, and remain linked to the original article.

 

9. Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

LTRQ recognizes that authors, reviewers, and editors may use AI-assisted technologies in scholarly work. Such technologies must not replace human responsibility for research integrity or editorial judgment.

AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the work, disclose conflicts, approve the final manuscript, or respond to ethical concerns.

Authors who use generative AI or other AI-assisted technologies in ways that materially contribute to manuscript preparation, analysis, translation, coding, image generation, or other aspects of the research or publication process should disclose the nature and extent of such use where relevant. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and appropriate attribution of the submitted work.

Based on the journal’s updated policies, generative AI use should be declared precisely by authors based on APA journals policy on generative AI (November 2023), available at Policy on Generative AI Use and Disclosure Section.

 

Authors need to disclose completely any generative AI use in their manuscript when they submit their research to LTRQ based on the below framework, in addition to the general exploratory statement on their cover letter based on the journal’s updated template for publication

 

Reviewers and editors must not upload confidential manuscripts, unpublished data, reviewer reports, or other protected material into external AI systems when doing so could compromise confidentiality or intellectual property. AI-generated content must not substitute for the reviewer's or editor's independent scholarly judgment.

 

10. Post-Publication Integrity and Scholarly Record

LTRQ considers publication to be part of an ongoing scholarly process. Readers and researchers may raise legitimate concerns about published articles, and the journal may investigate such concerns after publication. The journal may publish corrections, clarifications, expressions of concern, or retractions when warranted. Authors are expected to cooperate with reasonable post-publication inquiries.

LTRQ supports responsible post-publication scholarly discussion. Criticism of published work is not itself misconduct and should be assessed on the basis of evidence and scholarly argument. The journal maintains the integrity of its published record by ensuring that significant post-publication actions are transparent, appropriately documented, and linked to the affected article.

 

11. Commitment to Ethical Publishing

LTRQ expects every participant in the publication process to act with honesty, fairness, transparency, confidentiality, accountability, and respect for the scholarly community. Where a situation is not explicitly addressed in this policy, LTRQ will apply the principles of responsible scholarly publishing and seek appropriate ethical guidance, including relevant COPE guidance, to determine a fair and proportionate course of action. This policy is reviewed periodically and may be updated when developments in scholarly publishing, research ethics, peer review, technology, or publication practice require clarification or revision.