IJCSR adheres to the highest standards of research ethics and strongly committed to following the publication guidelines set by the international scientific community. Authors are strongly encouraged to read these guidelines as we take these policies seriously.

1. Plagiarism and Double Submissions

Plagiarism is a very serious academic offense. We have zero tolerance towards plagiarism. Papers will be screened to determine their authenticity. Plagiarized papers will be returned to the authors and will be banned for a duration of two years in submitting in the journal. Furthermore, the authors’ immediate supervisor/dean/research director/university president will be notified of this serious offense. In other words, only ORIGINAL papers are accepted and published in this journal. Also, submissions to the journal imply that the paper is solely submitted to the journal and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors that violate this policy will be banned, and their names and affiliations will be posted on the IJCSR's website and official social media. 

2. Duties and Responsibilities of Editor-in-Chief and Reviewers

The duties and responsibilities of the editorial staff (EIC, Referees, Editorial Assistant) and of the authors are guided by the core values of S.T.E.P., that is, service, trust, excellence, and professionalism. The EIC oversees the overall process and maintains the quality of the journal. He/She has the sole responsibility to decide the final status of the paper depending on the recommendations of the referees.

The referees or reviewers are selected based on their qualifications. The review is voluntary. Referees should maintain high degree of professionalism when reviewing the paper. It is understood that referees have no conflict of interest in reviewing the paper. Reviews should be collegial, constructive, and hepful. 

3. Duties and Responsibilities of the Authors and Authorship

Authors have the sole responsibility on the correctness and authenticity of the content of submitted papers. The authors should ensure that the submitted papers are not under consideration/under review in another journal or conference, and not previously published.  It is understood that the submission is an original work. Whenever there is copyright infringement, IJCSR will not be liable in any copyright dispute between the authors and the third party publisher. 

A. Research Authorship Policy

• Author: An individual who has made substantial contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the research study and the drafting or critical revision of the manuscript. Authors are accountable for the accuracy and integrity of the work.

• Contributor: Individuals who have made substantive contributions to the research project but do not meet the criteria for authorship. Contributors may include individuals who provided technical support, data collection, or intellectual input that significantly influenced the study.

• Corresponding Author: The individual responsible for communication with the journal during manuscript submission, review, and publication process. They ensure that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript and are accountable for the manuscript's content and integrity.

B. Criteria for Authorship

To qualify as an author, individuals must meet all of the following criteria:

• Substantial Contributions: Contribute substantially to the conception or design of the study; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; and
• Drafting or Critical Revision: Participate actively in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
• Final Approval: Approve the final version of the manuscript to be published; and
• Accountability: Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

4.  Open Access Policy

Authors retain the copyright of their works since IJCSR operates under the Creative Commons License (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). Authors can share (i.e., copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (i.e., remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially) their previous works as long as the original work is cited accordingly.

5. Retractions

A retraction can be done when a published article is confirmed to violate publication or research ethics. These unethical scientific behaviors may include, but not limited to, data fabrication, falsification, or recycling, plagiarism, double publication, copyright infringement, non-compliance to ethical data collection, and other unethical research practices. The retracted paper will be deleted in the IJCSR website and a separate page containing the Retraction Statement by the Editor-in-Chief will be provided explaining the retraction. The publisher will not refund the publication charges.

6. Paper Withdrawal

Manuscripts submitted in IJCSR for review can be withdrawn anytime. However, once published, manuscripts cannot be withdrawn and publication charges will not be refunded. 

7. Corrections

All accepted papers will undergo two rounds of typeset proof correction. During these stages, authors have the chances to correct major (e.g., data correction, correctness of equations, etc.) and minor (e.g., spelling errors, table headings, etc.) errors in the paper. Once the paper is published, changes are no longer allowed EXCEPT to those changes that can affect the scientific interpretation of a paper. A correction notice containing the explanation of changes, the link of the original version, and the link to the updated version will be published
in a separate file.

8. Advertising Policy

Committed to its vision, IJCSR accepts advertisements from academic societies or professional organizations for free.

9. Data Sharing Policy

IJCSR is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. Data can be published as a separate article and will also be covered by the aforementioned license.

10. Policies on Conflict of Interest, Human and Animal Rights, and Informed Consent
       Authors must abide by the Declaration of Helsinki for studies involving human subjects. The authors must state whether ethical approval has been secured for conducting the study. The authors must include a Declaration Section in the paper. This section must state the possible conflict of interest, state whether informed consent or assent has been secured, provide institutional ethics approval regarding the participation of human and animal subjects, and declare how human and animal rights are protected in the study.

11. Appeals and Complaints

      We welcome valid appeals and complaints about the editor's decision. However, authors must provide compelling justifications and evidence to justify overturning the decision. The EIC may then invite the reviewers to elaborate on their reasons for rejecting the paper. Depending on the circumstances, the editor may confirm the rejection, invite a revised submission, or seek additional review from other referees. 

12. Use of Generative AI

     Papers containing content generated by generative AI will be rejected without review. Authors must specify the contribution of the generative AI (e.g., grammar checking) in the paper in the cover letter during submission. However, the journal maintains that AI grammar checking tool results must be accompanied by human language editing.