Ethical Guidelines for Authors

Authors wishing to publish their papers in The International Journal of  Learning Spaces Studies (IJLSS) must abide by the following:

  • All and only those who qualify for authorship should be included as authors, and their contribution given in the manuscript.
  • Any facts that might be perceived as a possible conflict of interest of the author(s) must be disclosed in the paper prior to submission.
  • Simultaneous submission of manuscripts to more than one journal is not permitted.
  • Original research results must be novel and not previously published, including being previously published in another language.
  • For any content previously published content (including quotations, figures or tables), any necessary permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder.
  • Errors and inaccuracies found after publication must be promptly communicated to the Editorial Office.
  • Those who contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgments.
  • Editors of the IJLSS are permitted to submit to the journal; however, they will not be involved in the editorial process and are not permitted to make final decisions on their own work or those of close colleagues.
  • We have a zero tolerance of plagiarism in the IJLSS. Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from another source, even from your own publications, without giving credit to the original source.
  • Reuse of text that is copied from another source must be between quotation marks and the original source must be cited. If a study's design or the manuscript's structure or language has been inspired by previous studies, these studies must be explicitly cited.
  • The IJLSS editors use the industry standard software Ithenticate, Samim, Hamanandjoo and other systems to check for text duplication.
  • In the IJLSS, copyright is retained by the authors. Anyone may download and read the paper for free. The article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work, while ensuring that the authors receive proper credit. In exceptional circumstances, articles may be licensed differently. If you have specific condition (such as one linked to funding) that does not allow this license, please mention this to the Editorial Office of the journal at submission. Exceptions will be granted at the discretion of the publisher.
  • Authors must identify and declare any personal circumstances or interest that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of the reported research results. If there is no conflict of interest, please state, "The authors declare no conflict of interest".

This list is not exhaustive, and authors should be aware of local regulations and accepted norms within academic publishing.

  

Ethical Guidelines for Reviewers

  • We ask reviewers to inform the journal editor if they hold a conflict of interests that may prejudice the review report, either in a positive or negative way. The Editorial Office will check as far as possible before invitation; however, we appreciate the cooperation of reviewers in this matter. Reviewers who are invited to assess a manuscript they previously reviewed for another journal should not consider this as a conflict of interest in itself.
  • Reviewers must keep the content of the manuscript, including the abstract, confidential. They must inform the Editorial Office if they would like a student or colleague to complete the review on their behalf.
  • The IJLSS operates single or double-blind peer review. Reviewers should be careful not to reveal their identity to the authors, either in their comments or in metadata for reports submitted in Microsoft Word or PDF format.
  • The IJLSS offers authors the possibility to publish review reports with their paper and for reviewers to sign their open review reports but will not reveal reviewer name until publication and only with their explicit agreement.

Ethical Guidelines for Academic Editors

Along with the Editorial Office, Editors-in-Chief, Editorial Board Members, and Guest Editors take responsibility for overseeing the integrity of The International Journal of Learning Spaces Studies (IJKLSS) editorial process. The following provides details on specific ethical aspects of their role:

  • If the academic editor has ethical concerns about a manuscript sent for review or decision, or receives information about a possible ethical breach after publication, they must contact the Editorial Office as soon as possible. Our Editorial Office will then conduct an investigation according to our guidelines.
  • To support academic editors, checks are made by Managing Editors and Assistant Editors. However, editors should still report any concerns on any aspect. Checks include
  1. Ethic approval and permissions for research.
  2. Plagiarism, duplicate publication, and that necessary permission from the copyright holder to include already-published figures or images.
  3. Author background and qualification.
  • When making a final acceptance decision on a manuscript, academic editors should consider the following:
  1. Any facts that might be perceived as a possible conflict of interest of the author(s) must be disclosed in the paper prior to submission.
  2. Authors must accurately present their research findings and include an objective discussion of the significance of their findings.
  3. Data and methods used in the research need to be presented in sufficient detail in the paper, so that other researchers can replicate the work.