Ethical Guidelines

Publication Ethics and Ethical Guidelines

Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies (JSRI) is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity, editorial independence, transparency, and responsible scholarly communication. The journal’s editorial practices are guided by internationally recognized principles of publication ethics, including the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Originality and academic integrity

Manuscripts submitted to JSRI must represent original scholarly work. Submissions must not have been published previously and must not be under consideration by another journal at the same time. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their arguments, quotations, references, data, and other materials included in their manuscripts.

Plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, citation manipulation, redundant or duplicate publication, undisclosed appropriation of ideas, and other forms of research or publication misconduct are not acceptable. When concerns regarding academic integrity arise, the editors may request clarification, supporting documentation, or additional information from the authors and may take appropriate editorial action.

Authorship and contributorship

Authorship should be limited to persons who have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the conception, research, analysis, interpretation, or writing of the submitted work and who accept responsibility for its content. All persons who qualify as authors should be identified as such, and contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be appropriately acknowledged.

Authors are responsible for resolving questions concerning authorship and the order of authors before submission. Any change in authorship after submission must be justified and approved by all authors concerned.

Peer review

Manuscripts considered suitable for JSRI following an initial editorial assessment are evaluated by two independent reviewers with relevant expertise. Reviewers are expected to provide independent, constructive, respectful, and academically justified assessments.

Submitted manuscripts and peer-review reports are treated as confidential documents. Reviewers and editors must not use unpublished ideas, arguments, data, or interpretations obtained through the review process for their own benefit or disclose them to third parties.

Editorial decisions are based on scholarly quality, originality, relevance to the journal’s profile, methodological and argumentative rigor, and the assessments provided by reviewers. The final responsibility for publication decisions rests with the editorial team.

Conflicts of interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other relationship that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their judgment.

Editors and reviewers should withdraw from the evaluation of manuscripts where a significant conflict of interest exists. The editorial team will take reasonable measures to ensure that editorial decisions are not affected by inappropriate interests or relationships.

Research involving human participants and sensitive information

Authors are responsible for ensuring that research involving human participants, personal data, interviews, confidential information, or vulnerable persons has been conducted in accordance with applicable ethical and legal requirements. Where relevant, authors should indicate that appropriate consent or institutional ethical approval has been obtained.

Personally identifiable or confidential information should not be published unless its inclusion is academically justified and appropriate consent has been obtained.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and scholarly quality of all submitted material, including material prepared with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence or other automated tools.

AI systems cannot assume authorship, co-authorship, or responsibility for scholarly work. Authors must verify all AI-generated or AI-assisted information, quotations, references, factual claims, interpretations, and other scholarly content before submission.

The substantive use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in research, analysis, translation, manuscript preparation, data or textual analysis, coding, or the generation of tables, figures, or other scholarly materials must be transparently disclosed whenever such use may be relevant to the evaluation or interpretation of the work.

Routine spelling correction, reference formatting, and basic grammar checking do not require a detailed disclosure. However, the use of generative AI for drafting or rewriting text, substantive language editing, translation, literature exploration, analysis, interpretation, or other significant scholarly tasks must be reported.

Where generative AI or AI-assisted technologies have been used, authors should include an AI Usage Statement in the manuscript. The statement should identify, where possible, the tool, provider, model or version, and the purpose for which it was used. For example:

AI Usage Statement: The author(s) used [tool name, provider, model/version if available] for [specific purpose, e.g. language editing, readability improvement, translation, literature exploration, textual analysis]. All AI-generated or AI-assisted output was critically reviewed, verified, and, where necessary, manually revised by the author(s) prior to submission. The author(s) assume full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, appropriate attribution of sources, and integrity of the final manuscript.

When AI tools have been used as part of the research method, analytical process, or interpretation of data or texts, authors should provide sufficient additional information in the relevant methodological section to allow editors, reviewers, and readers to understand how the tool was used.

Authors who have not used generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in the preparation or analysis of their manuscript may include the following statement:

AI Usage Statement: No generative AI or AI-assisted technology was used in the preparation or analysis of this manuscript.

Editors and reviewers must preserve the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and peer-review materials. They should not upload confidential manuscript content, unpublished data, reviewer reports, or editorial correspondence to publicly accessible generative AI systems where doing so could compromise confidentiality, intellectual property, personal data, or the integrity of the peer-review process.

Corrections, retractions, and post-publication concerns

JSRI is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. Significant errors identified after publication may be addressed through corrections, editorial notices, or, where necessary, retraction.

Allegations of research or publication misconduct concerning published articles will be examined carefully and fairly. The journal will seek clarification from the parties concerned and will take appropriate action in accordance with recognized principles of publication ethics.

Editorial independence

Editorial decisions are made on academic grounds and are independent of commercial, political, institutional, religious, or personal pressure. The journal welcomes a diversity of scholarly perspectives and does not discriminate against authors on the basis of nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, religion, political position, or other irrelevant personal characteristics.

Intellectual property and open access

JSRI is an open-access journal. Authors and readers should consult the journal’s copyright and licensing information for the conditions governing publication, distribution, reuse, and archiving of published material.

Publication fees

JSRI does not charge submission, processing, or publication fees.