Publication Ethics and Research Integrity Policy

AL-ĪMĀN Research Journal (IRJ) is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity, publication ethics, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing.

The journal expects all authors, editors, reviewers, and other participants in the publication process to follow accepted principles of research and publication ethics.

This policy applies to all manuscripts submitted to and all scholarly content published by AL-ĪMĀN Research Journal (IRJ).

1. General Principles

All manuscripts submitted to AL-ĪMĀN Research Journal (IRJ) are expected to meet appropriate standards of:

  • Academic integrity

  • Originality

  • Accuracy

  • Transparency

  • Responsible authorship

  • Ethical research conduct

  • Proper citation and acknowledgement

  • Respect for intellectual property

  • Confidentiality

  • Fair and unbiased editorial evaluation

Editorial decisions are based on the scholarly quality, originality, relevance, and academic merit of the manuscript.

Editorial decisions shall not be influenced by the author's nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, institutional affiliation, political beliefs, personal characteristics, or ability to pay publication charges.

2. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the research and manuscript.

An author should have made a meaningful contribution to one or more of the following:

  • Conception or design of the research

  • Development of the research methodology

  • Collection or analysis of data

  • Interpretation of research findings

  • Development of substantial parts of the manuscript

  • Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content

All listed authors must have approved the final version of the manuscript and must agree to its submission and publication.

The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with the journal and confirming that all listed authors have approved the submitted manuscript.

Individuals who have provided general supervision, administrative assistance, technical support, funding, or other assistance that does not meet the criteria for authorship should be appropriately acknowledged rather than listed as authors.

Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. The journal's separate Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automated Tools applies to the use of AI in manuscript preparation and publication.

3. Changes in Authorship

Requests to add, remove, or change the order of authors after submission must be made with the agreement of all authors.

The corresponding author must provide a clear explanation for the requested change.

The journal may require written confirmation from all affected authors before approving a change in authorship.

Authorship changes after publication will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and may require a correction or other appropriate editorial action.

4. Originality and Duplicate Publication

Manuscripts submitted to AL-ĪMĀN Research Journal (IRJ) must be original scholarly work.

A manuscript should not:

  • Have been previously published in its substantially similar form;

  • Be under consideration for publication by another journal at the same time;

  • Reproduce substantial portions of another author's work without appropriate acknowledgement;

  • Constitute duplicate or redundant publication.

Authors must disclose any closely related manuscripts, previous publications, conference papers, theses, or other versions of the work that may create a potential overlap with the submitted manuscript.

Where legitimate reuse of previously published material is necessary, appropriate permission, acknowledgement, and citation must be provided.

5. Plagiarism

Plagiarism is unacceptable.

Plagiarism includes presenting another person's words, ideas, data, structure, findings, or other intellectual work as one's own without appropriate acknowledgement.

AL-ĪMĀN Research Journal (IRJ) may use plagiarism or similarity-detection software as part of its editorial screening and quality-control process.

A similarity report does not by itself establish plagiarism. Editors may examine the nature, source, context, and extent of the identified similarity before making an editorial decision.

Where plagiarism is established, the journal may reject the manuscript or take appropriate post-publication action where necessary.

6. Fabrication and Falsification

Authors must not fabricate, falsify, manipulate, or deliberately misrepresent research data, findings, images, sources, citations, or other scholarly information.

Fabrication

Fabrication means making up data, results, observations, sources, participants, or other research information that does not actually exist.

Falsification

Falsification includes manipulating research materials, data, processes, images, results, or reporting in a way that misrepresents the research.

Such conduct may result in manuscript rejection, correction, retraction, notification of the relevant institution, or other appropriate action.

7. Research Misconduct

Allegations of research misconduct will be taken seriously.

Potential misconduct may include:

  • Plagiarism

  • Fabrication

  • Falsification

  • Duplicate or redundant publication

  • Manipulation of citations

  • Undisclosed conflicts of interest

  • Improper authorship

  • Manipulation of peer review

  • Misuse of confidential information

  • Unethical research practices

  • Deliberate misrepresentation of research findings

When an allegation is received, the journal may conduct an initial assessment and may request an explanation or supporting evidence from the authors.

Where appropriate, the journal may seek information from the author's institution or other relevant authority.

The journal may follow applicable guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when dealing with suspected research or publication misconduct.

8. Citation Manipulation

Authors must not add citations solely to increase citation counts or artificially improve the visibility or impact of an author, journal, editor, or institution.

Citations should be relevant to the scholarly argument and appropriately support the statements for which they are provided.

Editors and reviewers must not require authors to add unnecessary citations to the editor's, reviewer's, or journal's publications as a condition of acceptance.

9. Conflict of Interest

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any financial, professional, personal, institutional, or other relationship that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their judgment.

Potential conflicts may include:

  • Financial relationships

  • Employment or consultancy

  • Personal relationships

  • Institutional relationships

  • Academic competition

  • Funding relationships

  • Intellectual or professional interests

A conflict of interest does not necessarily prevent publication or participation in peer review. However, relevant conflicts should be disclosed so that appropriate safeguards can be applied.

Editors and reviewers should decline involvement where a conflict could compromise the impartiality of the editorial or review process.

10. Funding Disclosure

Authors should disclose the sources of financial or institutional support received for the research.

Where applicable, the manuscript should identify:

  • The funding organization;

  • Grant or project information, where relevant; and

  • The role of the funder in the research, if any.

If no specific funding was received, authors may state that the research received no specific external funding.

11. Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants, personal data, sensitive information, animals, or other ethically sensitive material should comply with applicable ethical standards and institutional or national requirements.

Where ethical approval is required, authors should provide appropriate information regarding the approving institution or ethics committee and approval/reference number, where applicable.

The journal may request evidence of ethical approval where necessary.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that research involving human participants has been conducted with appropriate informed consent and ethical safeguards.

12. Informed Consent and Privacy

Where research involves identifiable individuals, authors must take appropriate measures to protect privacy and confidentiality.

Where required, informed consent should be obtained from participants for their participation and for the publication of identifiable information, images, or other personal material.

Personal information should not be published without an appropriate ethical and legal basis.

13. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

Authors are encouraged to make research data, materials, instruments, code, or other supporting information available where ethically and legally appropriate.

Where data cannot be shared because of privacy, confidentiality, legal, ethical, contractual, or other legitimate restrictions, authors should explain the applicable limitation where appropriate.

Authors must not fabricate, manipulate, or selectively misrepresent research data.

Where research depends on datasets, analytical procedures, software, or other materials necessary to understand or reproduce the research, authors are encouraged to provide sufficient methodological information to facilitate scholarly verification and reproducibility.

14. Intellectual Property and Copyright

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts and accompanying materials do not infringe the intellectual property rights of others.

Any copyrighted material reproduced from another source must be appropriately acknowledged and, where required, used with the necessary permission.

Authors should properly acknowledge the original sources of ideas, quotations, figures, tables, images, datasets, and other materials.

The journal's separate copyright and licensing policy governs the rights associated with published articles.

15. Peer Review Ethics

Reviewers must provide fair, objective, constructive, and confidential assessments.

Reviewers should:

  • Evaluate manuscripts based on scholarly merit;

  • Avoid personal criticism of authors;

  • Identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately cited;

  • Disclose potential conflicts of interest;

  • Maintain confidentiality;

  • Avoid using unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal or professional advantage.

Reviewers must not share, copy, distribute, or use unpublished manuscript content without authorization.

Reviewers must not attempt to influence authors or editors for personal, professional, or citation-related benefit.

The journal's peer-review process and AI policy apply to all reviewers.

16. Editorial Independence

Editors must make decisions based on the scholarly quality, originality, relevance, and integrity of manuscripts.

Editorial decisions must not be influenced by:

  • Publication fees;

  • Author nationality;

  • Religion;

  • Political beliefs;

  • Gender;

  • Institutional affiliation;

  • Personal relationships;

  • Commercial interests; or

  • Other irrelevant personal or external considerations.

Payment of the journal's publication fee occurs only after acceptance and has no influence on editorial evaluation or peer review.

17. Complaints and Appeals

Authors may raise legitimate concerns regarding editorial decisions, peer review, publication procedures, or alleged breaches of journal policy.

Complaints and appeals should be submitted to the editorial office with sufficient information and supporting evidence.

The journal will consider complaints and appeals fairly and confidentially.

Where appropriate, the journal may seek additional information from editors, reviewers, authors, institutions, or other relevant parties.

An appeal does not guarantee reversal of an editorial decision.

18. Corrections

If an error is identified in a published article, AL-ĪMĀN Research Journal (IRJ) will assess the nature and significance of the error.

Where appropriate, the journal may publish a correction notice linked to the original article.

Minor typographical or formatting errors that do not affect the scholarly meaning of the article may be corrected without issuing a formal correction notice.

Substantive errors that affect the interpretation or reliability of the published record will be handled transparently.

19. Retractions

A published article may be considered for retraction where there is clear evidence that:

  • The findings are unreliable because of major error, fabrication, or falsification;

  • Significant plagiarism or duplicate publication has occurred;

  • Serious ethical violations have been identified;

  • There has been substantial research or publication misconduct; or

  • Other circumstances seriously undermine the integrity of the published work.

A retraction will be clearly identified and linked to the original article.

The original article will normally remain accessible with an appropriate retraction notice so that the scholarly record is not obscured.

The journal may follow relevant COPE guidance when determining and implementing retractions.

20. Expressions of Concern

Where there is a serious unresolved concern regarding the reliability, ethics, or integrity of a published article but the available evidence is not yet sufficient to justify retraction or correction, the journal may publish an Expression of Concern.

An Expression of Concern may remain in place until the matter is resolved.

21. Post-Publication Discussion

AL-ĪMĀN Research Journal (IRJ) recognizes legitimate scholarly discussion after publication.

Readers and researchers who identify a significant concern regarding a published article may contact the editorial office with relevant evidence.

The journal may investigate substantive concerns and, where appropriate, publish a correction, clarification, Expression of Concern, retraction, or other editorial notice.

The journal supports constructive scholarly discussion and does not permit personal attacks, defamatory content, or irrelevant criticism.

22. Confidentiality

Editors, reviewers, and journal staff must protect confidential information obtained during the submission, review, and editorial processes.

Unpublished manuscripts and associated information must not be disclosed to unauthorized individuals.

Confidential information must not be used for personal or professional advantage.

23. Use of Artificial Intelligence

The use of artificial intelligence and automated tools in scholarly publishing is governed by the journal's separate Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automated Tools.

Authors, reviewers, and editors are required to comply with that policy.

24. Editorial Action

Where a potential breach of publication ethics is identified, AL-ĪMĀN Research Journal (IRJ) may take one or more appropriate actions, depending on the circumstances:

  • Request an explanation from the relevant author or reviewer;

  • Request supporting documents or evidence;

  • Conduct an internal editorial investigation;

  • Seek clarification from an institution or relevant authority;

  • Reject a submitted manuscript;

  • Publish a correction;

  • Publish an Expression of Concern;

  • Retract a published article;

  • Restrict future submissions where justified; or

  • Take other appropriate action consistent with publication-ethics principles.

The action taken will depend on the nature, seriousness, evidence, and circumstances of the matter.

25. Commitment to Ethical Publishing

AL-ĪMĀN Research Journal (IRJ) is committed to protecting the integrity of the scholarly record and maintaining transparent, fair, responsible, and ethical publishing practices.

The journal may review and update this policy periodically in accordance with developments in scholarly publishing, research ethics, and recognized international publishing standards.

Where appropriate, the journal will consider relevant guidance from recognized organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

All participants in the publication process are expected to uphold the principles of academic integrity, transparency, accountability, confidentiality, and responsible scholarly communication.