Publication Policies

OPEN ACCESS POLICY 

IJMSCS is published Open Access under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license. Authors retain full copyright, with the first publication right granted to the journal.

PLAGIARISM POLICY

IJMSCS is committed to ensuring the high quality of the articles. The manuscripts' editors, reviewers, and authors are expected to comply with the publishing ethics outlined in the COPE code of practice (www.publicationethics.org). Authors' rights are protected by journals. CrossRef is used to check submitted articles for duplicate content. It is the Editorial Team's responsibility to take action if plagiarism is detected, which can include but is not limited to discontinuing the publication process for the paper immediately, publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction), retracting the article, notifying the dean and/or relevant academic organizations or societies of the plagiarism issue. All submissions are checked for originality by Turnitin.

PRIVACY POLICY

During the registration process for this journal, names and email addresses will be used exclusively for the purposes of this journal. Any other use or disclosure of them will not be permitted. It is standard practice for peer-reviewed journals to collect data from registered and non-registered users. As part of the editing process for this journal, we strive to comply with industry standards pertaining to data privacy, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which establishes "data subject rights" such as (a) breach notification; (b) access; (c) the right to be forgotten; (d) data portability; and (e) privacy by design. Furthermore, the GDPR recognizes the "public interest in the availability of the data," which is especially pertinent to those who maintain the public record of scholarly publications with the maximum integrity.

ARCHIVING

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

AUTHOR SELF-ARCHIVING

Any manuscript version of an author may be posted to personal or institutional websites, in repositories, and similar before and after publication (with the publication bibliography provided).

CORRECTION AND RETRACTION POLICIES

The conditions for publication with permanent identifiers such as DOI include that the published object is final and does not change without the reader being clearly informed.

Articles published in the journal can thus not be changed without an erratum or a change notice being published and linked to the original article.

If a factual error in an article is discovered, this should be reported to the Editor-in-Chief, who decides on further action and any corrections.

COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS POLICY

In the case of formal complaints, disputes, or appeals, authors should contact the Editor-in-chief, who is responsible for ensuring that a fair, deliberative, and thorough investigation is conducted.

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE

The journal follows the ethical guidelines and best practices set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All cases of ethical misconduct will be dealt with in accordance with COPE's recommendations and guidelines.

Responsibilities of the Editor

  1. The editor's role is pivotal in upholding ethical standards and ensuring the high scientific quality of the papers admitted for publication in the journal. This responsibility carries significant weight and should be approached with utmost diligence. 
  2. The editor evaluates the manuscripts before sending them to reviewers. At this stage, papers that do not correspond to the journal's aims and scope are already rejected. Papers that need substantial changes in language and formatting may also be rejected.
  3. According to the feedback gathered from single-blind peer reviews, the editor, along with the members of the editorial board, determines the ultimate decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of a paper. 
  4. The editor guarantees that the reviewers are chosen based on their areas of expertise.
  5. If informed about research misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification, or fabrication), the editor or the publisher will deal with it according to the COPE’s guidelines in dealing with allegations. The editor and the publisher will ensure that corrections or apologies are published when needed.

Responsibilities of the Reviewer

  1. The reviewer assists the editor in deciding whether to include the article in the journal and may also assist the authors in improving the article.
  2. The reviewer should treat a manuscript as confidential, proprietary information and not use it in any way or disclose it to any third party except for the editors.
  3. The reviewer is asked to evaluate the originality of the manuscript and its international significance, the selection and analysis of the theories and the appropriate citing of the sources, the choice and application of research methods, the analysis of the results and relevant conclusions, and the language use and formatting of the paper.
  4. The reviewer provides the author with constructive feedback, which allows them to improve their manuscript.
  5. The reviewer must identify potential plagiarism and inform the editor about such cases.
  6. The reviewer provides an objective analysis of the paper and formulates recommendations to the author(s) on improving the paper's quality.
  7. The reviewer should notify the editor about any delay in the review process.
  8. The reviewer should inform the editor about the conflict of interest before reviewing.

Responsibilities of Authors

  1. Authors should ensure that the manuscript does not contain any material published previously (except for an abstract or thesis) or is under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  2. Authors bear the responsibility of ensuring the high quality of their manuscripts, meeting the standards of scholarly research. This role is significant and should be approached with a sense of duty and accuracy.
  3. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the co-authors have contributed significantly to the manuscript's preparation. No uninvolved individual shall be listed among the co-authors of the manuscript.
  4. Before submission of the article, the corresponding author ensures it is well-structured, easily readable, proofread, and formatted according to the manuscript guidelines. Language and formatting editors might provide recommendations on how to improve only minor shortcomings. In case of the need for substantial changes in language and formatting, the referees may reject the manuscript. Although the editors prefer those papers to be written in British English, they could be written in US English, not a mixture of different variants of English.
  5. Authors ensure that there is no evidence of plagiarism in the submitted manuscript, for example, plagiarism based on uncredited translation, uncredited references to someone else unpublished work, or ideas borrowed from others. Authors should also acknowledge anyone who has contributed to the article. Authors have credited their advisors and other authors and documented their data with verifiable source references. To prevent malpractice, all submissions are screened by the Turnitin™ software.
  6. Authors should consider the inclusion in the article of any image (figure, table, etc.) that is protected by copyright. Authors must clear all necessary permissions to reproduce any third-party material (figures, tables, texts, etc.) treated as a separate copyright item. Copies of each consent should be provided to the editor. If authors make substantial changes to it, it might not need any permission.
  7. Authors should avoid web links to images or other material that might break down over time or direct readers to a site that is breaching copyright.
  8. All sources of financial support should be disclosed in the Acknowledgements section.
  9. Authors are expected to report any errors that reviewers and/or editors could not have verified to the editor. The corresponding author is responsible for providing corrections of mistakes in case of detection.
  10. The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors approve the final manuscript and agree to its submission for publication in an open-access journal.

PUBLICATION FEES

There are no publication fees associated with this journal.