Editorial Policy

Primary Responsibilities:

• Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept a submitted manuscript
• Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication
• Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record
• Editors should have a clear picture of the research's funding sources

Decision Criteria:

• Decisions based solely on papers' importance, originality, clarity and relevance to publication scope
• No reversal of decisions without serious reason
• Preservation of reviewers' anonymity

Ethical Oversight:

• Ensure all published research conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines
• Act promptly upon suspicion of misconduct
• Make all reasonable attempts to resolve problems
• Prevent conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers and board members

Research Project Information:

If manuscript results from research project or was previously presented at conference:

• Provide detailed project information
• Include conference presentation details
• Document in Acknowledgements section

Legal Responsibility:

• Authors affirm no unfounded or unlawful statements
• No violation of third-party rights
• Publisher not liable for compensation claims

Reproducibility Requirements:

• Include sufficient detail for others to reproduce work
• Provide complete methodological details including time frames
• Include all necessary references

Data Responsibility:

• Authors exclusively responsible for content
• Must have permission from all involved parties
• Ensure data protection regulations are respected
• Comply with ethical standards and copyright laws

Authorship Criteria:

• Only significant contributors listed as authors
• All significant contributors must be listed
• Additional contributions acknowledged in footnotes or Acknowledgements

Authorship Changes:

• Addition/removal during editorial process requires justification
• Must be approved by editorial team and publisher
• 'Ghost', 'gift', or 'honorary' authorship treated as misconduct

Definition of Plagiarism:

Assuming another's ideas, words, or creative expression as one's own - violation of scientific ethics and copyright law.

• Word-for-word or paraphrased copying without clear indication
• Copying equations, figures, tables without proper citation/permission

Detection & Consequences:

• All submissions checked with iThenticate plagiarism software
• Manuscripts with obvious plagiarism automatically rejected
• Published papers with plagiarism will be retracted

Disclosure Requirements:

• Disclose any financial or substantive conflicts of interest
• Declare influences on results or interpretation
• Standard statement if no conflicts: 'No competing interests were disclosed'

Reporting Process:

• Anyone may report suspected unethical behavior
• Provide necessary information/evidence to start investigation
• Contact editors or editorial staff directly

Grounds for Retraction:

• Infringement of legal limitations or copyright
• Violation of professional ethical codes
• Research misconduct (plagiarism, data fabrication)
• Undisclosed use of AI/large language models
• Honest errors reported by authors
• Unethical research practices

Restricted Data Requirements:

For data with ethical or security restrictions, manuscripts must include:

• Description of data restrictions
• IRB/equivalent board statements on data sharing
• Information for applying data access
• Conditions for granting access

Author Rights:

• Authors retain copyright of published papers
• Grant publisher non-exclusive right to publish
• Publisher cited as original publisher in case of reuse
• Publisher distributes in all forms and media

Additional Distribution:

• Authors may enter separate distribution agreements
• Can post to institutional repositories
• May publish in books with acknowledgment
• Must acknowledge initial publication in KEJAANS