Ethical Approval Policy

Publication Ethics – IJITES follows COPE Core Practices

https://publicationethics.org/core-practices

All parties involved in the publication process (authors, editors, reviewers, and publisher) must adhere to the highest ethical standards based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1.     Ethical Approval Policy

·        All research involving human participants, human data, or human tissue must have prior ethical approval from a recognized IRB/Ethics Committee and comply with the Declaration of Helsinki (WMA, 2024 version:

https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/

Informed consent must be obtained. For animal studies, compliance with institutional and national guidelines for care and use of laboratory animals is required.

·        Ethical Approval Declaration to be included in manuscript: "All procedures involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards and the principles of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its amendments. Ethical approval was secured before data collection."

2.     Author Responsibilities

·        Reporting standards: Accurate account of work, objective discussion, sufficient details for replication. Fraudulent statements are unacceptable.

·        Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure originality. The journal employs iThenticate /Turnitin to screen all submissions. Acceptable similarity index must not exceed 15%. Multiple, redundant, or concurrent publication and parallel submission are prohibited.

·        Acknowledgement of sources: Proper citation of influential works.

·        Authorship: Limited to those with significant contribution to conception, design, execution, or interpretation. All co-authors must approve final version. Others to be acknowledged.

·        Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationships that could influence research must be disclosed. All funding sources must be stated.

·        Fundamental errors: Authors must promptly notify the editor if a significant error is discovered after publication to cooperate for retraction or erratum.

3.     Editor Responsibilities

·        The editor decides publication based on scholarly merit, editorial board policies, and legal requirements, guided by COPE flowcharts.

·        Editors evaluate manuscripts without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.

·        Editors maintain confidentiality, ensure integrity of the record, preclude business needs from compromising standards, and are willing to publish corrections, retractions, and apologies when needed.

·        Editors and editorial team members are excluded from decisions on manuscripts they authored or contributed to.

4.     Reviewer Responsibilities

Peer review assists editorial decisions via double-blind review.

·        Contribution: Objective evaluation to improve manuscript.

·        Promptness: Unqualified reviewers or those unable to review timely must notify editor.

·        Confidentiality: Manuscripts are confidential documents, not to be shown to others except as authorized by editor.

·        Objectivity: Reviews must be objective, without personal criticism, supported by arguments.

·        Acknowledgement of sources: Reviewers must identify un-cited relevant work and report substantial overlap with other publications.

·        Conflict of interest: Privileged information must not be used for personal advantage. Reviewers must not evaluate manuscripts with competitive, collaborative, or other conflicts.

5.     Publisher Responsibilities

·        Publisher: Digital Design and Publishing Research Unit (DDPRU), Faculty of Education, Tanta University, Egypt.

·        Publisher ensures editorial independence, collects and shares all complaints and appeals with editors, handles misconduct cases following COPE, publishes corrections/retractions when needed, and informs COPE in case of violation.

6.     Conflicts of Interest and Disclosure Policy

·        Unpublished materials must not be used in editor's own research without consent. Advertising or commercial revenue has no impact on editorial decisions.

·        Editors must recuse themselves from manuscripts where they have conflicts of interest.

·        All contributors must disclose competing interests, and corrections will be published if conflicts are revealed after publication.

7.     Complaints and Appeals Policy

·        The journal has a clear procedure for handling complaints against journal, staff, editorial board, or publisher.

·        Complaints may relate to editorial process, citation manipulation, unfair editor/reviewer, peer-review manipulation, etc.

·        The report should include: (i) specific information (who, what, when, where, why), (ii) details of relevant texts/articles for plagiarism cases.

·        Complaints are processed according to COPE guidelines and documented.

8.     Retraction, Correction, and Expression of Concern Policy

·        IJITES follows COPE Guidelines for Retracting Articles.Retraction will be issued for: data fabrication/falsification, plagiarism/redundant publication, unethical research, undisclosed major conflict of interest, peer-review manipulation.

·        Correction (Erratum) will be issued for honest errors not invalidating findings.

·        Expression of Concern will be issued if evidence is inconclusive or investigation is ongoing.Retracted articles remain online marked as "RETRACTED" with a linked Retraction Note explaining reasons, and databases are notified.

9.     Self-Citation and Citation Manipulation Policy

IJITES follows COPE guidelines on citation manipulation.

·        Limit: Self-citation rate should not exceed 20% of total references.

·        Prohibition: Coercive citation, irrelevant citation to increase counts, or citation stacking is unethical and leads to rejection/retraction per COPE flowcharts.

·        Relevance: All citations must be directly relevant to scientific content.

·        Monitoring: Editors/reviewers monitor self-citation; authors may be asked to justify or remove irrelevant self-citations.

10.                        Advertising Policy

All advertisements require Managing Director approval, must be clear, not misleading, not indecent/offensive. Prohibited categories: alcohol, tobacco, weapons, fireworks, gambling, pornography, political/religious ads, miracle cures, ads directed at children. Ads must be distinguishable from editorial content. Contact: ijiteseditors@gmail.com  - ijites@edu.tanta.edu.eg – mohamedturky@edu.tanta.edu.eg

11.                        Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy – For Authors, Reviewers, and Editors

IJITES follows COPE position on AI and authorship (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/cope-position/authorship-and-ai-tools(

A) For Authors:AI cannot be listed as an author.

Authorship requires accountability, responsibility, and ability to approve final version – AI tools cannot meet this.

·        Disclosure is mandatory: Authors who used AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grammarly AI, translation tools) for writing, data analysis, image generation, or language improvement must disclose this in the manuscript.

·        How to disclose: Add a statement in Acknowledgements or Methods section titled "Declaration of AI Use" e.g.: "During preparation of this work, the author(s) used [Tool Name, Version] for [Purpose: e.g., language editing, literature search]. The author(s) reviewed and edited the content and take full responsibility for the final publication

·        Responsibility: Authors are fully responsible for originality, accuracy, and integrity of AI-assisted content. AI-generated text must not contain plagiarism, fabricated citations, or false data. The similarity check includes AI-generated content.

·        Prohibited: Generating or manipulating data, images, figures, references with AI without disclosure; submitting AI-generated manuscript without human oversight.

B) For Reviewers:

·        Reviewers must not upload the manuscript or any part of it to any AI tool (generative AI) as this violates confidentiality and data privacy.

·        Reviewers may use AI tools to improve language of their review report, but must disclose it to the editor and must not rely on AI for scientific judgment.

·        Reviewers remain fully responsible for the content of their review.

C) For Editors:

·        Editors must not upload submitted manuscripts to AI tools that do not guarantee confidentiality.

·        Editors may use AI tools only for language editing or administrative tasks (e.g., finding reviewers), not for making editorial decisions.

·        Any AI use in editorial process must be declared.

·        Editors ensure that all AI use declarations from authors are published with the final article.

Correction, Retraction and Editorial Expression of Concern Policy

International Journal of Instructional Technology and Educational Studies (IJITES) is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Guidelines.

All corrections and retractions are handled according to the COPE

 Flowcharts: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts1.

Corrigendum (Correction by Authors)

A Corrigendum is published when an error is introduced by the author(s) that does not affect the overall validity and scientific conclusions of the article.

This includes but is not limited to:

·        Omission of funding information or Acknowledgements

·        Errors in authors' names, affiliations, or order

·        Minor errors in data, tables, or figures that do not alter the interpretation of results

·        Replacement of an unclear figure or image

The Corrigendum will be published as a separate, peer-reviewed document with its own DOI, linked bidirectional to the original article on the EKB website, Crossref, Scopus and Web of Science. The original article will remain unchanged, with a prominent notice indicating the correction.

2. Erratum (Correction by Publisher) An Erratum is published when an error is introduced by the journal during editing, typesetting, or production. In such cases, the journal will correct the error and publish an apology.

3. Retraction

A Retraction will be issued in accordance with COPE Retraction Guidelines ( https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines ) when:

·        There is clear evidence of unreliable findings due to misconduct or honest error

·        The findings have been previously published elsewhere without proper attribution

·        There is evidence of plagiarism or unethical research

A Retraction Notice will be published with a DOI, linked to the original article. The original article will be retained online with a "RETRACTED" watermark to maintain the scholarly record.

4. Expression of Concern

An Expression of Concern may be issued if an investigation is inconclusive or ongoing.

How to Request a Correction:

Authors should contact the Editor-in-Chief at [ijites@edu.tanta.edu.eg] with a detailed description of the error and the corrected version.  All requests will be reviewed by the editorial board.

This policy is fully owned and operated by IJITES and has been adapted from COPE best practices.

Non-compliance will be treated as publication misconduct and handled according to COPE flowcharts.