Publication ethics

AJRI upholds the highest standards of publication ethics, guided by the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). These standards bind authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher alike.

Standards

Standards we uphold

Research integrity

Findings must be reported honestly, completely, and without fabrication, falsification, or misleading selective reporting.

Plagiarism prevention

All submissions are screened for plagiarism. Text, data, and ideas of others must always be properly attributed — including authors' own prior work.

Authorship transparency

All listed authors must have made substantial contributions and approved the final manuscript. Gift, guest, and ghost authorship are prohibited.

Conflict disclosure

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose all financial and non-financial interests that could influence the work or its assessment.

Ethical conduct

Research involving human subjects requires ethics approval or exemption and informed consent. Animal research must follow applicable welfare standards.

Corrections & retractions

Honest errors are corrected promptly and transparently. Work found to be unreliable or unethical is retracted with a clear public notice.

Responsibilities

Who is responsible for what

Authors
  • Submit only original, unpublished work not under consideration elsewhere.

  • Cite sources accurately and obtain permission for copyrighted material.

  • Disclose funding sources and conflicts of interest.

  • Retain and share underlying data when reasonably requested.

  • Notify the editor promptly of significant errors discovered post-publication.

Reviewers
  • Treat manuscripts as strictly confidential documents.

  • Review objectively, with specific and constructive comments.

  • Declare conflicts of interest and decline when impartiality is compromised.

  • Alert the editor to suspected misconduct or substantial overlap with other work.

Editors
  • Decide solely on scholarly merit, free from commercial or personal influence.

  • Protect the confidentiality of submissions and reviewer identities.

  • Investigate allegations of misconduct following COPE guidance.

  • Publish corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions when warranted.

Handling of misconduct

Allegations of research or publication misconduct — including plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, duplicate submission, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts, or unethical research conduct — are taken seriously at any stage, before or after publication.

  • All allegations are reviewed confidentially by the editorial leadership.
  • Authors are always given the opportunity to respond to concerns raised.
  • Where misconduct is confirmed, actions may include rejection, retraction, notification of the authors' institutions, and refusal of future submissions.
  • Suspected misconduct may be reported confidentially to submissions@ajri.org.

Use of AI tools

Generative AI tools may not be listed as authors. Any substantive use of AI in the preparation of a manuscript (e.g., drafting or editing text, generating analysis code) must be transparently disclosed in the manuscript. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy and integrity of all content.

Questions about our ethics policies?

The editorial office is happy to advise authors and reviewers on any ethical question before or during submission.