Community Empowerment and Learning Journal (CELJ) adheres to the ethical standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of integrity in scholarly publishing. All stakeholders — editors, reviewers, authors, and publishers — are expected to conduct themselves ethically and responsibly throughout the publication process.

Duties of Editors

• Decision Making: Editors are responsible for deciding which submitted manuscripts are suitable for publication based on academic quality, originality, relevance, and adherence to ethical principles.
• Fair Review: Editors must evaluate manuscripts impartially, regardless of authors’ race, gender, religion, nationality, or institutional affiliation.
• Confidentiality: Editors must treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential and refrain from disclosing information to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and editorial team members.
• Conflict of Interest: Editors must recuse themselves from processing manuscripts where there is a conflict of interest.

Duties of Reviewers

• Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for peer review must be treated as confidential and not shared or discussed with unauthorized individuals.
• Objectivity: Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts objectively, providing constructive and clear feedback to enhance manuscript quality.
• Promptness: Reviewers should notify the editorial office promptly if they are unable to complete the review within the agreed timeline.
• Disclosure of Conflicts: Reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest that may influence their review and decline to review in such cases.

Duties of Authors

• Originality: Authors must submit original work and properly acknowledge the work of others through citations and references.
• Data Accuracy: Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of all data presented and providing sufficient detail to allow replication of the study.
• Plagiarism: Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable. All manuscripts are checked using plagiarism detection software, and any identified misconduct may result in rejection or retraction.
• Multiple Submissions: Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently.
• Authorship: Only individuals who have made substantial contributions to the research should be listed as authors.
• Disclosure: Authors must disclose any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest that may affect the interpretation of their work.

Duties of the Publisher

• Editorial Independence: The publisher respects editorial independence and will not influence editorial decisions.
• Integrity Promotion: The publisher supports best practices and transparency in publishing, ensuring adherence to ethical standards.
• Handling Misconduct: The publisher will collaborate with editors to take appropriate actions in cases of proven misconduct, such as issuing corrections or retractions in line with COPE guidelines.

Plagiarism and Retraction Policy

All manuscripts submitted to CELJ are screened using trusted plagiarism detection software (e.g., Turnitin). Submissions with more than 25% similarity will be rejected automatically. In cases where unethical practices are discovered after publication, articles may be retracted in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guidelines.

References

This ethical statement is based on the guidelines issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) – https://publicationethics.org/