Publication Ethics

Mandarras: Journal of Islamic Educational Thought Studies is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against any publication malpractices. All authors submitting their works to the journal for publication as original articles attest that the submitted works represent their authors' contributions and have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other works. The following ethical guidelines are enforced for all parties involved in the publication process.

Authors' Responsibilities

• Authors must ensure that their work is original and properly cite or quote the work and/or words of others.
• Authors should not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently.
• Authors must properly acknowledge the work of others, including citing publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
• All authors listed on the manuscript should have made significant contributions to the research. The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication.
• Authors should disclose any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.
• If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate to retract or correct the paper.

Reviewers' Responsibilities

• Reviewers must treat the manuscript as confidential. They must not disclose or discuss its content with others except as authorized by the editor.
• Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
• Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation.
• Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Editors' Responsibilities

• The editors are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The decision should be based on the paper’s importance, originality, and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the journal’s scope.
• The editors must evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
• The editors and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
• Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author.

Publisher's Responsibilities

• The publisher should ensure that editorial decisions are based solely on the quality of the work and its relevance to the journal’s scope, free from any commercial or political influence.
• The publisher is committed to supporting the extensive ethical standards outlined above, ensuring that advertising, reprint, or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions.

Plagiarism, Data Fabrication, and Image Manipulation

• All forms of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, are unacceptable. Authors must ensure their work is original and properly cited.
• Authors must not fabricate or falsify data in their manuscripts. All data should be accurately reported.
• Manipulation of images to mislead readers or misrepresent data is unethical and unacceptable. Authors should ensure images are accurately represented and any modifications are disclosed.

Potential Conflicts of Interest

• Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.
• Conflicts of interest may include financial support, personal relationships, academic competition, or intellectual beliefs that could affect objectivity.
• Full transparency in disclosing potential conflicts of interest ensures the integrity of the research and publication process.

Authorship and the Use of AI or AI-Assisted Technologies

When it comes to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technology in manuscript preparation, MANDARRAS JOURNAL adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) position statement. ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) do not meet authorship criteria and thus are not permitted to be listed as authors on manuscripts.

In cases where AI or AI-assisted tools were used in the preparation of a manuscript, this must be declared appropriately and with sufficient details at the time of submission via the cover letter. Furthermore, authors must be transparent about the use of these tools, disclosing details of how the AI tool was used in the "Materials and Methods" section, as well as providing product details for the AI tool in the "Acknowledgments" section.

Authors are fully responsible for the originality, validity, and integrity of their manuscript's content and must ensure that it complies with all of MANDARRAS JOURNAL's publication ethics policies. The MANDARRAS JOURNAL reserves the right to request additional information, and editorial decisions will be made in accordance with the MANDARRAS JOURNAL Editorial Process and our Terms and Conditions.

Deceased Authors

If a manuscript is submitted with the authorship of a deceased author, or if an author dies during peer review, the corresponding author or co-authors must notify the editorial office. If the deceased author was a corresponding author, the authorship group should appoint a co-author to fill this position. The corresponding author should confirm the deceased author's contribution and any potential conflicts of interest. When the article is published, a note will be added under the author list.

Changes to Authorship

Before submitting a manuscript, authors are expected to carefully consider their authorship. Any changes to the author list should be made during the editorial process, prior to manuscript acceptance. Authorship changes, including the addition, removal, or rearrangement of author names, will require the approval of all authors, including those who will be removed. To request a change in authorship, the journal must receive a completed authorship change form that includes the signatures of all authors and a reason for the change. Any changes to authorship requested after manuscript acceptance will result in a delay in publication. If the manuscript has already been published, requests for changes in authorship will be considered and will necessitate the publication of a Correction. We reserve the right to request proof of authorship, and changes to authorship after acceptance will be made at the discretion of MANDARRAS JOURNAL.

Authorship Disputes

When it comes to resolving authorship disputes that may arise during or after publication, MANDARRAS JOURNAL adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Here, COPE guidelines clearly state that Journals are not in a position to adjudicate on appropriate authorship contributions (https://publicationethics.org/resources/discussion-documents/authorship) and that disputed authorship is not usually grounds for retraction when “there is no reason to doubt the validity of the findings” (https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines).

When disputes cannot be resolved by the affected parties, Journals will refer the matter to an appropriate Institution or Governing Body for final decision. The MANDARRAS JOURNAL reserves the right to change authorship lists in accordance with recommendations from the Institution or Governing Body.

Borders and Territories

Potential border and territory issues should be respected by authors when describing their study or in author or editor correspondence addresses. Content decisions are made by the editorial team, and if there is a possible or perceived conflict or complaint, the editorial staff will work to find a solution that meets the needs of all parties involved.

Regarding jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations, MANDARRAS JOURNAL remains neutral.

Intellectual Property i.a. Copyright, Patent and Licensing

The authors maintain copyright for all publications published in MANDARRAS JOURNAL journals. Articles are released under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 open access license, which means that anybody can download and read the paper for free. Furthermore, the article may be reproduced and quoted as long as the original published version is cited. These terms provide for maximal use and exposure of the work while also guaranteeing that the creators are properly credited.

Articles may be licensed differently in extraordinary circumstances. If you have a specific constraint (such as one related to funding) that prevents you from using this license, please notify the journal's Editorial Office at the time of submission. Exceptions will be granted at the publisher's discretion.

Prior to submission, authors must get permission to reprint any previously published material (figures, tables, text, etc.) that does not fall into the public domain or for which they do not control the copyright.

Permission is required for:

• Your own work published by other publishers and for which you did not retain copyright.
• Substantial extracts from the work of anyone's works or a series of work.
• Use of tables, graphs, charts, schemes and artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified.
• Photographs for which you do not hold copyright.

Permission is not required for:

• Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please note that in this case, you must cite the source of the data in the form of either "Data from..." or "Adapted from...".
• Very short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission.
• Graphs, charts, schemes and artwork that is completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission. However, you may need to check the copyright permissions of any underlying data.

Once you have gained permission, the copyright owners may provide you with instructions on the appropriate type of acknowledgement to use. Alternatively, use the following format: "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year]".

Translations

MANDARRAS JOURNAL journals may consider high-quality content that has been previously published in a different language for publication, provided that the original study is appropriately referenced in the Acknowledgments section.

• All authors from the original publication must appear on the submitted manuscript;
• Appropriate permission must be sought and granted from the publisher, copyright holders, and/or authors of the original article prior to manuscript submission;
• Authors should clearly declare that their paper is a translated version in the cover letter at submission;
• Relevant documentation relating to these permissions must be uploaded in the Supplementary Materials section during submission;
• The journal editor must be informed about the publishing history of the previously published content;
• The original article must be referenced in the Acknowledgments section.

"This is a translation/reprint of (insert title here) by (insert publisher) (insert journal name, year, issue/volume number, page numbers)." This translation was completed by (insert name) with assistance from (insert name of funding source, if applicable). (Insert publisher, copyright holder, and/or author's name) gave permission."

Any translated articles that do not adhere to the aforementioned rules are unsuitable. Those that pass the pre-check will be peer-reviewed using the MANDARRAS JOURNAL editing process.

Citation Policies

Where information is borrowed from other sources (including their own published writing), authors should ensure that the source is clearly cited and that appropriate permission is acquired.

Authors should avoid excessive self-citation of their work.

If the author has not read the cited work, he or she should not replicate references from other works.

Authors should not preferentially cite their own or the writings of their friends, peers, or institutions.

Advertisements or advertorial material should not be cited by authors.

We anticipate that "original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations" in accordance with COPE recommendations. This requirement applies to an author's own work as well. COPE has created a discussion sheet on citation manipulation that includes best practice advice.

MANDARRAS JOURNAL Research Data Policies

MANDARRAS JOURNAL is dedicated to promoting open scientific collaboration and assisting our authors in achieving best practices in data sharing and preservation. We invite all authors of MANDARRAS JOURNAL articles to share their research data. Individual journal guidelines can be found on the 'Instructions for Authors' page of the journal. Data sharing policies are concerned with the bare minimum of data that supports the main findings of a published study. Data generated should be made public and cited in accordance with publication requirements. MANDARRAS JOURNAL data policies are informed by TOP Guidelines.

Data should not be disclosed where there are ethical, legal, or privacy concerns. When submitting the Data Availability Statement, the authors should make any limits known. Authors should ensure that the information disclosed is in conformity with the agreement given by participants for the use of confidential data.

Data Availability Statements describe where to find data that supports published results, including links to publicly archived datasets evaluated or generated during the study.

Below are suggested Data Availability Statements:

• 3rd Party Data
  Restrictions apply to the availability of these data. Data was obtained from [third party] and are available [from the authors/at URL] with the permission of [third party].
• Data available in a publicly accessible repository
  The data presented in this study are openly available in [repository name e.g., FigShare] at [doi], reference number [reference number].
• Data available in a publicly accessible repository that does not issue DOIs
  Publicly available datasets were analyzed in this study. This data can be found here: [link/accession number].
• Data available on request due to restrictions eg privacy or ethical
  The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to [insert reason here].
• Data is contained within the article or supplementary material
  The data presented in this study are available in [insert article or supplementary material here].
• Data sharing not applicable
  No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

Data citation:

[dataset] Authors. Year. Dataset title; Data repository or archive; Version (if any); Persistent identifier (e.g., DOI).

Confidentiality and Anonymity

Reviewers and editors must keep the manuscript's content, including the abstract, secret. Reviewers must notify the Editorial Office if they want a student or colleague to perform the review on their behalf.

MANDARRAS JOURNAL journals use either single-blind or double-blind peer review. Reviewers should take care not to betray their name to the authors, either in their comments or in metadata for reports provided in Microsoft Word or PDF format.

MANDARRAS JOURNAL publications allow authors to publish review reports with their papers and allow reviewers to sign their open review reports; however, MANDARRAS JOURNAL will not reveal reviewer names until publication and only with their explicit approval.

More information can be found in Open Peer-Review Option.

 

Comments and Complaints

Before contacting the Editorial Office, readers who have concerns or complaints regarding published papers should first contact the associated author to try to resolve the issue directly.

If it is not suitable to approach the authors, if the authors are not responding, or if the concerns have not been handled, the Editorial Office may be informed. The Editorial Office will work with the complainant, author/s, and Editors-in-Chief or members of the Editorial Board to investigate, remedy, or resolve any concerns or complaints.

Complaints, criticisms, or update requests regarding the scholarly legitimacy, ethical, or legal elements of the work or its review process will be reviewed further as needed. The Editorial Office investigates all complaints, comments, or update requests relating to published papers, with the cooperation of the Editorial Board and final approval of the Editor-in-Chief. Final decisions on ethical issues are taken by the Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Board members, who are supported by the Editorial Office in order to promote adherence to the COPE's key principles of publication ethics. Other people and institutions, such as university officials or specialists in the topic, will be consulted as needed. If the complaint has legal ramifications, legal counsel should be obtained.

Personal remarks or critiques will not be tolerated. All concerns, even anonymous complaints, are investigated. Complainants may request that the Editorial Office address their complaint in a secret manner, and the Editorial Office, any Editors-in-Chief, or other Editorial Board members will make every effort to do so as appropriate and in accordance with our internal protocols.

Corrections, Comments and Replies, Expressions of Concern, or Retractions made as a result of an investigation are made by Editors-in-Chief, Section Editors-in-Chief, or Editorial Board members and reported to authors. All updates are required to follow our policy on Updating Published Papers.

If a complaint is deemed unsubstantiated, further communication will be addressed only if further information proving concerns is provided.

Complainants may not be updated on the status of an investigation until a final decision is made, but they will be contacted if an update is published. The Editorial Office and Editorial Board members are under no duty to provide more information. Communication will be terminated if it is not pleasant or respectful. Readers who have complaints or concerns should be aware that investigations can take time.

When contacting the Editorial Office, please use the Contact Form or the contact information provided below, and include details about the complaint, its scholarly, scientific, or academic validity, a summary of the main points and any other issues, details of any previous correspondence with the authors, and a statement clarifying any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest.

Updating Published Papers

MANDARRAS JOURNAL acknowledges our obligation to remedy scientifically relevant errors or ethical issues that have been brought to our attention. To ensure openness for our authors and readers, we have implemented the following standardized criteria for updates to any of our published articles.

Minor errors
Minor errors that do not impair readability or meaning (e.g., spelling, grammar, or spacing issues) do not qualify for an update, regardless of when or who introduced the error.

Metadata errors
Requests to amend inaccuracies in a paper's metadata (e.g., title, author name, abstract) can be fulfilled if judged reasonable by the Editorial Office. The material will be amended and re-published on our website after it has been accepted. Following that, all relevant indexing databases will be alerted to ensure that database versions have been updated as well.

Corrections

Correction requests in the following instances can be fulfilled, but must also include the publication of a Correction notice:

• Errors that could affect the scientific interpretation. For example:
• error in a misleading section of an otherwise reliable publication
• error in data or interpretation (that does not affect final conclusions)
• Scientifically relevant formatting changes. For example:
• missing or unclear figures/tables
• Addition or removal of an author from authorship list (including addition or removal of entire affiliations)
• Addition or removal of an entire reference
• Addition or removal of a significant amount of text within the back matter. For example:
• funding, author contributions, acknowledgements

Following approval of the update request, the document will be amended and re-published on our website, along with the publication of a Correction. This notification is a distinct publication that links to the corrected manuscript, yet it is published in the journal's most recent issue. The goal of the Correction is to tell all readers that there has been a significant change to the work and that the new version is now available on the internet. Following these modifications, all relevant indexing databases will be alerted to ensure that their database versions have been updated as well.

Author Name Change Policy
Following publishing, some authors may want to change their name. In such circumstances, MANDARRAS JOURNAL will update and republish the article, as well as re-deliver the new information to the appropriate indexing databases (please keep in mind that all updates are subject to the database's policies). Name changes can be sensitive and/or private for a variety of reasons, including gender identity, marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. As a result, a Correction will not be published, and co-authors will not be contacted. To request a name change, authors can contact the Editorial Office.

Retractions
A paper may need to be removed from the body of research literature at times. This could be due to unintentional errors produced during the study process, serious ethical violations, data fabrication, substantial volumes of plagiarism, or other factors. Such articles endanger the scientific record's integrity and must be retracted.

MANDARRAS JOURNAL follows the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for retraction.

If a Retraction is published, the original publication is marked with a "RETRACTED" watermark but remains on the journal's website for future reference. Retracted publications, on the other hand, should not be quoted or used for further research because they cannot be trusted. Retractions are published with the same authorship and affiliation as the publication being retracted, so that readers may find both the notification and the original retracted paper in indexing databases. The retraction notice will likewise be published in the journal's current issue. In circumstances where the results are just partially incorrect, partial retractions may be released.

A paper will be completely deleted from the MANDARRAS JOURNAL website and associated indexing databases only in extreme cases where leaving it online would be illegal or would cause considerable harm.

Expression of Concern
An Expression of Concern may be released in cases that are difficult, inconclusive, or lengthy. If investigations into claimed or suspected research misconduct are still ongoing or remain inconclusive, an editor or journal may decide to publish an Expression of Concern outlining the areas of concern and what actions, if any, are being taken.

Comments and Replies
If a reader has reservations about the stated results or techniques employed in a given work, they should contact the journal's Editorial Office, and a Comment may be filed for prospective publication if judged justified. Comments are short letters to the editors written by readers who want to openly question a certain article.

Once a Comment has been approved for further peer review, the Editorial Office will contact the authors of the relevant work and invite them to prepare a Reply to this Comment. The Reply function allows the authors to openly respond to the reader's concerns. If the reader's complaints are validated and the authors are unable to effectively respond, a Correction to the original work may be issued, or the paper may be retracted outright. If authors do not answer by the deadline or choose not to react, the Comment may be published alongside a notice explaining the absence of the Reply.

Both Comments and Replies will be reviewed to ensure that:

• the Comment addresses significant aspects of the original paper without becoming essentially a new paper;
• the Reply responds directly to any concerns, without becoming evasive;
• the tone of both publications is appropriate for a scientific journal.

While comments may be critical of the work, they should not be critical of the creators. Comments should not restate already stated disagreements. There will be no more than one round of Comment and Reply where the conversation is from the same reader/s. Comments on MANDARRAS JOURNAL-published works are exclusively accepted for publication in MANDARRAS JOURNAL publications.

 Contact

MANDARRAS JOURNAL collaborates closely with authorss and editors to promote adherence to the Committee on publishing Ethics' (COPE) key principles of publishing ethics. We promote the use of COPE resources, which can be found on their website. All manuscripts should adhere to ethical behavior norms. When we become aware of ethical issues, we commit to examining them and taking the appropriate steps to ensure the integrity of the literature. If you have any issues regarding a published manuscript, please email us with as much detail as possible. A member of our staff will then contact you. You can reach us at info@Mandarras Journaljournal.com.