Ethics Statement

The Journal of Multidisciplinary Digital Letters (JDML) is dedicated to upholding exemplary publication ethics across all stages of the editorial process. To safeguard academic integrity, clarity, and research rigor, we adhere to the guidance provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We require all contributing authors, peer reviewers, and editorial board members to abide strictly by these guidelines.

1. Responsibilities of Authors

• Originality and Prevention of Plagiarism: All submitted manuscripts must represent genuine, original scholarly work. Ideas, text, or figures derived from existing publications must be credited through accurate citations and references. Direct copying or improper reuse of one's own prior publications (self-plagiarism) without appropriate acknowledgment is prohibited. Such practices will lead to immediate manuscript rejection or formal retraction. JDML screens all submissions using text-matching detection tools.

• Data Integrity and Precision: Authors are accountable for the validity and precision of their findings. Fabricating, alterating, or selectively manipulating study data constitutes scientific misconduct. When requested during peer review, authors should be ready to share their raw research data and, where practical, grant broader access in accordance with recognized open data principles (such as the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases).

• Criteria for Authorship: Credit as an author should be granted only to individuals who contributed substantially to the study's conceptual design, data collection, analytical framework, or draft composition. All significant contributors must be named as co-authors, while minor or supportive contributions should be recognized in an Acknowledgments section. The corresponding author bears responsibility for ensuring that all listed co-authors have reviewed, approved, and consented to the final manuscript submission.

• Declaration of Conflicts: Authors must explicitly report any financial interests, personal connections, or professional ties that could be perceived as biasing their research or interpretations. Every source of project funding must also be clearly stated within the manuscript.

• Exclusive Submission: Papers submitted to JDML must be unpublished and not under concurrent consideration by any other venue. Simultaneous submission of identical or substantially overlapping manuscripts to multiple publications is considered unethical behavior.

• Appropriate Citation Practice: Authors are required to cite pertinent, foundational literature accurately. Artificial inflation of citation counts through unmerited self-citation or unrelated citations is strongly discouraged.

• Ethical Oversight for Living Subjects: Research involving human subjects, animal testing, or biological specimens must conform to applicable regulatory guidelines and institutional standards. Corresponding formal approval from a relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) or local ethics panel must be explicitly noted in the text, alongside confirmation of informed consent where human participants are involved.

2. Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

• Maintaining Confidentiality: Reviewers must handle all assigned manuscripts as confidential intellectual property. No portion of a submission may be shared, discussed, or distributed without explicit authorization from the Editor-in-Chief.

• Impartial Evaluation: Evaluations must remain objective, constructive, and evidence-based. Personal comments or criticisms aimed at authors are unacceptable. Reviewers should articulate their assessment clearly and support their conclusions with sound reasoning.

• Prompt Reviewing: Invited reviewers should respond in a timely fashion. If an assigned reviewer cannot complete an evaluation within the specified timeframe, they must promptly inform the editorial office.

• Conflict Resolution: Reviewers must decline invitations to evaluate manuscripts if they share financial, collaborative, or competitive affiliations with any author or institution connected to the work.

• Alertness to Irregularities: Reviewers should alert the editorial team to any suspected ethical violations, including potential plagiarism, data tampering, or undisclosed duplicate publication.

3. Responsibilities of Editors

• Equitable Assessment: Editors judge submitted works purely on their scholarly merit, scientific rigor, and alignment with the journal's scope, without regard to the authors' race, background, political views, gender, religion, or institutional affiliation.

• Information Security: Editors and editorial staff are forbidden from disclosing details about a manuscript to anyone outside the designated corresponding author, reviewers, editorial advisers, and publisher staff.

• Editorial Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief and associated editors hold final authority over publication decisions. These decisions depend on the paper's scientific merit, originality, clarity, reviewer input, and adherence to journal policies.

• Recusal from Conflicts: Editors must abstain from handling manuscripts in which they possess a direct or indirect conflict of interest arising from personal, financial, or institutional ties.

• Misconduct Allegations: Editors will act decisively upon receiving reports of research or publishing misconduct. If fraudulent findings or serious breaches of ethics are established, the Editor-in-Chief, alongside the publisher, will publish appropriate corrections, formal statements, or complete retractions as warranted.

4. Appeals Process

Authors have the right to request a formal re-evaluation of editorial decisions. An appeal must be submitted in writing to the Editor-in-Chief, detailing clear justifications and supplying supporting evidence. Appeals are examined independently following COPE recommendations.

JDML remains committed to cultivating a fair, trustworthy, and transparent publishing environment for the global scholarly community.