CJAS PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENTS

CJAS follows a code of conduct and best practice guidelines that are customary for scholarly publishing and communication.

CJAS Obligations to Authors

We will evaluate submissions based on their content and without prejudice to national origin, institutional affiliation, political and religious views, or any other social and demographic characteristics. 

Editors will not disclose any identifying information related to submissions to anyone.  Article submissions will not be shared with anyone except editors, reviewers, potential reviewers, and editorial board members as needed.

Editors will recuse themselves from deliberations on any manuscript in which they have a potential conflict of interest and will not use any information related to a submitted manuscript for their own research, teaching or other purposes until it has been published. Submissions accepted for consideration will be subject to at least two blind external peer reviews. 

If CJAS finds that we have made an error or errors after publishing an article we will issue a correction. 

CJAS Obligations to Reviewers

CJAS acknowledges the fact that we could not accomplish our mission of disseminating African-centred knowledge without the important work of our reviewers.

We will not disclose the names or any identifying information on reviewers to authors.  

Duties of Authors

Plagiarism

CJAS takes plagiarism, copyright infringements and other ownership breaches very seriously. To ensure that we do not publish any articles that have breached these standards, every paper submitted to us will be thoroughly checked. It is the author/s’ responsibility to check for, and avoid self-plagiarism. If authors need to refer to their own earlier work, they must ensure that this work is properly cited. Authors must properly attribute the ideas, works and contributions of others. Where an author seeks to reproduce photographs or previously published figures or tables, permission must be obtained from the rights holders.

Should the editors and publishers of CJAS confirm that plagiarism or self-plagiarism have occurred, we will request for an explanation from the author(s). Should we find the explanations to be unsatisfactory the paper will be rejected, and we will reserve the right to refuse to accept future submissions from the author(s).

Ethical Clearance

Where applicable, authors should ensure that their studies have cleared the necessary ethics requirements. In rare instances, the CJAS editorial board may request to see proof of clearance before publishing an article.

Authorship

For the avoidance of doubt, an author of any article submitted to CJAS would have: contributed significantly to conception, design, data acquisition or analyses of a study; drafted or critically revised the manuscript; and reviewed the final submission.

GJAS will not tolerate Gift or Ghost authorship.  Allegations of wrongful exclusion or inclusion of authors will be investigated.

Conflict of Interest and Funding

Full disclosure about funding sources and conflicts of interest are required when submitting your paper to CJAS.  Thus, authors should declare any actions, activity, or relationship that could compromise the integrity of their submission. CJAS retains the right not to publish work submitted to us if it should be determined that there was undue influence in the presentation, review or publication of a submission.

CJAS encourages the scholarly community to report any suspected occurrences of academic dishonesty or unethical scholarly practice to us. 

Libel, Defamation and Freedoms of Expression

CJAS will not accept papers that make false assertions about individuals, groups, or organisations, or reports that could unfairly damage the reputations of individuals, groups or organizations.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

CJAS will not publish papers that include fabricated or manipulated data or images.  We reserve the right to refuse to accept future submissions from such authors and to disclose the fact of this offence to the author’s institution, and any other relevant bodies such as funders or professional associations.

Simultaneous Submissions to Multiple Journals

Authors may not submit articles that have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere.  Authors who have submitted their work to CJAS for consideration, and who subsequently wish to submit them elsewhere, must formally withdraw them. Authors may not withdraw papers after reviewers’ comments have been sent to them to revise their work for re-submission. CJAS reserves the right to refuse to accept future submissions from authors who proceed to submit their papers elsewhere after receiving reviewers comments from us.

Retractions, Corrections, and Expressions of Concern

If an author or a third party discovers significant errors or inaccuracies in an author’s published work it is the author’s obligation to cooperate with CJAS to either correct or retract the paper.

Duties of Reviewers

Confidentiality

Reviewers should treat all manuscripts submitted to them as confidential and must not discuss or disclose the contents of any submission they are reviewing with a third party. This also applies to reviewers who decline an invitation to review.

Qualification to Review and Promptness

If a reviewer is unable or feels unqualified (including possible conflict of interest) to review a submission he or she should notify CJAS promptly.  As much as possible, reviewers should complete reviews within a four to six week period. 

Ethical Concerns

Reviewers should notify CJAS in the case of any suspected plagiarism, similarity or substantial overlap with any other published or unpublished works, or other instances of possible academic dishonesty. 

Reviewers should decline to review any manuscript in which they have a potential conflict of interest and will not use any information related to a submitted manuscript for their own research, teaching or other purposes until it has been published.