Publication Ethics and Research Integrity
The Ideology and Politics Journal (IPJ) is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics, research integrity, editorial independence, and scholarly transparency. The journal follows the principles of ethical publishing developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and WAME.
IPJ publishes research articles only after successful double-anonymous peer review by at least two independent reviewers, in accordance with the journal’s Peer Review Policy. All participants in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, guest editors, and editorial staff, are expected to act with integrity, impartiality, confidentiality, and respect for scholarly standards.
1. Editorial responsibilities
The Editor-in-Chief and responsible editors are accountable for editorial decisions and for the academic integrity of the journal. Editorial decisions are based on the manuscript’s scholarly quality, originality, relevance to the journal’s aims and scope, methodological and conceptual rigor, ethical compliance, and the recommendations of independent reviewers.
Editors evaluate submissions without regard to the authors’ race, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, gender, sexual orientation, religion, political views, institutional affiliation, or personal circumstances.
Editors and editorial staff must treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents. They must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers, guest editors where applicable, and other editorial staff involved in the review process.
Unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts must not be used by editors or editorial staff in their own research without the author’s explicit written permission.
Editors must avoid conflicts of interest. If an editor has a personal, professional, institutional, financial, political, or other conflict of interest in relation to a manuscript, the editor must recuse themselves from the review and decision-making process. The manuscript must then be handled by another responsible editor.
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the academic integrity of regular issues and special issues. Guest editors may assist with thematic coordination and scholarly evaluation, but all special-issue manuscripts are subject to the same peer review and ethical standards as regular submissions.
2. Peer-review ethics
Peer review assists the editors in making publication decisions and helps authors improve their manuscripts. IPJ uses double-anonymous peer review: reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors, and author identities are not disclosed to reviewers.
Reviewers are selected on the basis of scholarly expertise, independence, and absence of conflicts of interest. Reviewers should decline an invitation if they feel unqualified to review the manuscript, cannot review it in a timely manner, or have a conflict of interest.
Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents. They must not share, discuss, copy, cite, circulate, or use the manuscript or any unpublished material from it without authorization from the editors.
Reviews should be objective, fair, constructive, and supported by clear arguments. Personal criticism of authors is unacceptable. Reviewers should identify relevant uncited work where appropriate and should alert the editors to any substantial similarity, overlap, plagiarism, duplicate submission, or suspected research misconduct.
Information or ideas obtained through peer review must not be used for personal, professional, institutional, political, or financial advantage.
Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, review reports, or any confidential review material to external artificial intelligence tools or other third-party platforms unless this has been explicitly authorized by the journal and is compatible with confidentiality and data-protection requirements.
3. Author responsibilities
Authors must submit original, accurate, and properly documented scholarly work. Manuscripts must present the research honestly and must not include fabricated, falsified, manipulated, plagiarized, or misleading material.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that all sources, data, quotations, concepts, and ideas taken from other works are properly cited. Authors must not present the words, ideas, arguments, data, or findings of others as their own.
Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Authors must not publish substantially the same research in more than one publication unless this is clearly justified, transparently disclosed, and approved by the editors in accordance with accepted standards for secondary publication.
Authors must disclose all sources of financial or institutional support for the research. They must also disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest that could be perceived as influencing the research, interpretation, or presentation of the manuscript.
Authors must cooperate with the editors during peer review and revision. If errors are discovered before or after publication, authors must promptly inform the editors and cooperate in issuing corrections, clarifications, retractions, or other post-publication notices where necessary.
4. Authorship and contributorship
Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the conception, design, research, analysis, interpretation, drafting, or revision of the manuscript and who accept responsibility for the final version of the work.
All listed authors must approve the submitted version and the final version accepted for publication. All persons who made substantial contributions should be appropriately credited. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria may be acknowledged, with their permission.
The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and for ensuring that all co-authors have approved the manuscript and agreed to its submission.
Changes to authorship after submission, including addition, removal, or reordering of authors, must be explained to the editors and approved by all affected authors.
5. Plagiarism, citation integrity, and duplicate publication
IPJ does not tolerate plagiarism, self-plagiarism, citation manipulation, fabricated references, duplicate publication, or redundant publication.
Authors must verify the accuracy of all references and citations. References must correspond to real, accessible, and relevant sources. Deliberate inclusion of fabricated, misleading, irrelevant, or manipulated references constitutes a breach of publication ethics.
The editors may use plagiarism-detection tools or other appropriate methods to assess originality and citation integrity. If plagiarism, duplicate publication, or substantial unattributed overlap is detected, the manuscript may be rejected. If the problem is discovered after publication, IPJ may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, depending on the seriousness of the case.
6. Research integrity, evidence, and ethical oversight
Authors must present evidence, data, sources, and methods honestly and transparently. Any manipulation of data, images, quotations, translations, interview material, archival evidence, or empirical findings that could mislead readers is unacceptable.
Where research involves human participants, interviews, surveys, personal data, sensitive information, or vulnerable groups, authors must ensure that the research was conducted ethically and, where appropriate, in accordance with institutional review procedures, informed consent, confidentiality, and applicable data-protection requirements.
Authors must protect the dignity, privacy, and safety of research participants. They must avoid exposing participants, interviewees, or identifiable groups to unnecessary risk.
7. Use of AI and AI-assisted technologies
IPJ permits responsible use of artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies when such use is transparent, limited, critically controlled by the authors, and compatible with scholarly integrity.
AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. Authorship requires human responsibility, accountability, intellectual contribution, approval of the final text, the ability to disclose conflicts of interest, and the ability to manage copyright and licensing obligations.
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, argumentation, citations, translations, data, evidence, and conclusions of their manuscript, including any part of the work prepared with the assistance of AI tools.
Authors must disclose the use of AI or AI-assisted technologies when these tools have materially contributed to the preparation of the manuscript. This includes, but is not limited to, text generation, text revision, translation, summarization, coding, data analysis, image generation, table or figure preparation, literature mapping, reference suggestions, and conceptual development.
Routine use of spelling, grammar, formatting, or reference-management tools (e.g., Grammarly or DeepL) does not normally require disclosure unless such tools substantially alter the content, argument, analysis, or interpretation of the manuscript.
AI-generated or AI-assisted content must be carefully checked by the authors. Authors must verify all factual claims, quotations, references, page numbers, translations, and bibliographic details. The use of AI tools does not excuse plagiarism, fabricated references, factual errors, copyright infringement, biased representation, or misleading argumentation.
Authors must not use AI tools to generate fake data, fabricate sources, invent citations, manipulate evidence, create misleading images, obscure authorship, or evade plagiarism detection.
If AI tools are used, authors must include a disclosure statement in the manuscript, normally before the reference list, explaining which tool was used, for what purpose, and how the authors reviewed and verified the output.
Suggested disclosure format:
“During the preparation of this manuscript, the author(s) used [name and version of AI tool, where available] for [specific purpose]. The author(s) reviewed, edited, and verified the output and take full responsibility for the content of the submitted manuscript.”
If no AI or AI-assisted technologies were used in a way requiring disclosure, authors may state:
“The author(s) declare that no AI or AI-assisted technologies were used in a way that materially contributed to the research, analysis, argument, or writing of this manuscript.”
8. Corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern
IPJ is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. If a significant error, ethical problem, or case of misconduct is identified after publication, the editors will assess the matter and take appropriate action.
Depending on the nature and seriousness of the issue, IPJ may publish a correction, a clarification, an expression of concern, or a retraction. Retractions may be issued in cases of plagiarism, fabricated data, serious ethical breaches, duplicate publication, unreliable findings, or other forms of major publication misconduct.
The editors will handle post-publication concerns in accordance with accepted publication-ethics standards and will seek to ensure that the published record remains accurate and transparent.
9. Complaints and appeals
Authors may appeal editorial decisions if they believe that a significant error occurred in the review or decision-making process. Appeals must be submitted in writing and must provide a clear scholarly justification. The Editor-in-Chief will review the appeal and may consult additional reviewers or editorial board members where appropriate.
Readers, authors, reviewers, or other concerned parties may submit complaints about suspected misconduct, conflicts of interest, plagiarism, errors, or ethical breaches. Complaints will be treated seriously, confidentially, and fairly. The journal will seek to respond in a timely and proportionate manner.
10. Special issues and guest editors
Special issues are subject to the same ethical standards, peer-review procedures, and editorial oversight as regular issues. Guest editors may lead or assist in developing the call for papers, identifying potential contributors, and coordinating scholarly discussion, but they do not override the journal’s peer-review and ethics policies.
If a guest editor submits a manuscript to a special issue, they are fully recused from the review and decision-making process for that manuscript. Such submissions are handled by an independent responsible editor.
11. Copyright, licensing, and third-party material
Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts do not infringe copyright or other rights of third parties. If the manuscript includes copyrighted material, images, figures, tables, long quotations, translations, or other third-party content requiring permission, authors must obtain permission before publication.
Articles in IPJ are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License, CC BY. Authors retain copyright and are responsible for ensuring that their work complies with the journal’s licensing and ethical requirements.