Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement of the Prestige Journal of Counselling Psychology (PJCP)
Prestige Journal of Counselling Psychology (PJCP) is published by the Association for the Promotion of Innovation in Education (APIE). The PJCP is a peer-reviewed journal which is published twice in a year; it is multi-disciplinary but particularly restricted to the field of education. Both the journal and its publisher are committed to ensuring high standard/quality and adhering to international best practices. The publisher, in consonance with the journal, therefore stipulates some guidelines to regulate all the stakeholders in the publishing process, including the publisher, editors, reviewers/consulting editors, and the authors. The following code is therefore set forth for the specified purposes:
- The Publisher
The responsibilities of the publisher shall include the following:
- Providing the necessary support to the Editorial Board to carry out their assigned roles and responsibilities.
- Restraining itself from interfering in the day to day management of the journal.
- Ensuring that the Editorial Board is independent and autonomous in the management of the journal.
- Acting as the ombudsman and checking on the activities of the Editorial Board from time to time, particularly with respect to ensuring quality.
- Ensuring that the Editorial Board adheres to the policy of no discrimination whatsoever against any person or group of persons on the basis of religion, race, colour, political affiliation, ethnicity, gender, disability or any other such condition, in its publishing relationship with the stakeholders.
- Ensuring that the Editorial Board protects the intellectual property, copyright and ethics of publication; and where there is any complaint on these, ensuring that the Editorial Board takes the necessary steps to resolve the complaint.
- Liaising with the Editorial Board to ensure robust online presence for the journal, including being indexed in academic databases.
- The Editorial Board
It shall be the responsibility of the Editorial Board to:
- Oversee the day to day running of the journal, including setting timelines and stipulating the peer review process.
- Maintain and sustain editorial independence, autonomy and fairness in its decision making process.
- Provide guidelines to the reviewers/consulting editors on the peer review process.
- Conduct a preliminary review on a submitted article to adjudge whether it meets with the scope of the journal, thus being suitable to be sent for review/vetting.
- Select the relevant reviewers/consulting editors and send a submitted article out for review.
- Ensure that there is no discrimination and bias in the publishing process, but that submitted articles are treated strictly on the basis of their contents.
- Take the final decision on any article, but considering the recommendations of the reviewers/consulting editors, with respect to accepting, rejecting or requesting for modification of an article.
- Protect intellectual property and copyright in whatever way possible.
- Ensure timely resolution of any complaint on ethical misconduct, plagiarism, etc.
- Maintain confidentiality of information/manuscripts submitted to the journal.
- Refrain members of the Board from using unpublished materials in a submitted article for their own research without a written consent from the author of the article.
- Ensure an imposing and robust online presence for the journal, including being indexed in academic databases.
- The reviewers/consulting editors
The reviewers/consulting editors shall be chosen by the Editorial Board. Their responsibilities, subject to modification from time to time by the Editorial Board, shall include:
- Assisting the Editorial Board to decide on a submitted article by thoroughly and fairly reviewing a submitted manuscript and making recommendations.
- Giving a timely and expeditious attention to manuscripts referred to him for review, and meeting the deadline for review as directed by the Editorial Board.
- Being detailed in his review process, and specifically and unambiguously pointing out areas that need improvement in a submitted article, thus helping the authors to improve the manuscript or other manuscripts.
- Being fair and objective in the review process; and ensuring that articles for review are treated strictly on the basis of the richness of their contents and without any form of discrimination and bias whatsoever.
- Promptly drawing the attention of the Editorial Board to any issue of copyright infringement or plagiarism that he has discovered or he is aware of.
- Treating every manuscript referred to him for review as a confidential document that should not be shared or discussed with any other person, except authorized by the Editorial Board.
- Abstaining from using ideas or information from articles referred to him for review for his own research or any other personal advantage.
- The authors
The authors are critical stakeholders in the journal publishing process. They shall have the following responsibilities:
- Abide and adhere to the instructions/guidelines for authors as stipulated by the journal in its call for papers.
- Exhibit honesty, transparency and integrity in accurately reporting their research works, and showing objectivity in the discussion of their findings.
- Ensure that their submitted manuscripts are their original works and free from any copyright infringement and/or plagiarism.
- Give due acknowledgement for any idea or information borrowed from someone’s intellectual property by duly citing the author(s) of such work intext and crediting same in the reference list.
- Ensure that the submitted manuscripts have not been published before, or concurrently submitted somewhere else for review.
- Liaise with the Editorial Board to effect prompt modification of articles, as recommended, and ensure that publication timelines are met by playing the roles expected of them expeditiously.
- Cooperate, timely, with the Editorial Board and ensure peaceful resolution of any complaint (ethical misconduct, plagiarism, or otherwise) that bothers on the work submitted to the journal by the author(s).
- Refrain from adding people that did not play any significant role in the process as co-authors; this implies desisting from “add my name” syndrome.
- Inform the Editorial Board of any significant error or inaccuracy he has discovered in his published work, and cooperate with the Editorial Board to retract or correct such error.
- Agree with the open access policy of the journal which gives unrestricted and free access to the users/readers.