Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences (EJES)

Editorial Policies

Overview: Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences (EJES) is a journal hosted by Jimma University.

Accordingly, it abides to the Research Policy of the university in handling manuscripts submitted for publication. Submission of a manuscript to EJES implies that all authors have read and agreed to its contents and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies. All manuscripts undergo thorough peer review. This usually involves review by two independent peer reviewers. The review operates in closed system (double blind review).

Ethical Clearance and Consent from participants:

As the journals scope permit all sorts of research and publication in wider areas of science and Education, research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee (such as Research and Ethical Review Board of College of Natural Sciences for manuscripts submitted by researchers and postgraduate students of the college). A statement detailing this, including the chairperson of the ethics committee and the reference number (ethical clearance paper) must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research. Further information and documentation to support this should be made available to the Editor on request. Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. When necessary, the journal Editor may contact the ethics committee for further information. Furthermore, for all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript.

 

Research involving animals and plants

All experimental researches involving vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The Basel Declaration that outlines fundamental principles to be adhered need be followed when conducting research in animals in addition to considering the guidelines of International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS). If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption). The Editor will take account of animal welfare issues and reserves the right to reject a manuscript, especially if the research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of animal research. When necessary, the Editor may contact the ethics committee for further information. Furthermore, field studies and other non-experimental research on animals must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing compliance with relevant guidelines and/or appropriate permissions or licenses must be included in the manuscript.

Experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild), including the collection of plant material, must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines. Voucher specimens must be deposited in a public herbarium or other public collection providing access to deposited material. Information on the voucher specimen and who identified it must be included in the manuscript.

 

Consent for publication.

For manuscripts that include details, images, or videos relating to an individual person, written informed consent for the publication of these details must be obtained from that person (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 18). The consent must be for publication of their details under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (such that they will be freely available on the internet). If the person has died, consent for publication must be obtained from their next of kin. The manuscript must include a statement that written informed consent for publication was obtained.  In cases where images are entirely unidentifiable and there are no details on individuals reported within the manuscript, consent for publication of images may not be required. The final decision on whether consent to publish is required lies with the Editor.

Statistical methods

Authors should include full information on the statistical methods and measures used in their research, including justification of the appropriateness of the statistical test used. Reviewers will be asked to check the statistical methods, and the manuscript may be sent for specialist statistical review if considered necessary.

Competing interests

Authors need to declare all competing interests in relation to their work. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘competing interests’ section at the end of the manuscript listing all competing interests (financial and non-financial). Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests”. Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.

Authorship

Authorship provides credit for a researcher’s contributions to a study and carries accountability. Authors are expected to fulfil the criteria given below:

Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception OR design of the work; OR the acquisition, analysis, OR interpretation of data; OR the creation of new software used in the work; OR have drafted the work or substantively revised it ; AND to have approved the submitted version (and any substantially modified version that involves the author's contribution to the study); AND to have agreed both to be personally accountable for the author's own contributions and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and the resolution documented in the literature.

Corresponding authors

Corresponding authors are responsible for ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors, and that all authors receive the submission and all substantive correspondence with editors, as well as the full reviews, verifying that all data, figures, materials (including reagents), and code, even those developed or provided by other authors, comply with the transparency and reproducibility standards of both the field and journal. This responsibility includes but is not limited to: (i) ensuring that original data/original figures/materials/code upon which the submission is based are preserved following best practices in the field so that they are retrievable for reanalysis; (ii) confirming that data/figures/materials/code presentation accurately reflects the original; and (iii) foreseeing and minimizing obstacles to the sharing of data/materials/code described in the work. The corresponding author should ensure that all authors (or group/laboratory leaders in large collaborations) have certified the author list and contribution description: that all authors who deserve to be credited on the manuscript are indeed identified, that no authors are listed who do not deserve authorship credit, and that author contributions, where they are provided, are expressed accurately.

Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an ‘Acknowledgements’ section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help or writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Duplicate publication

Manuscripts submitted to EJES must be original and the manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal. In any case where there is the potential for overlap or duplication, we require that authors are transparent. Authors should declare any potentially overlapping publications on submission. Any overlapping publications should be cited. Authors should be aware that replication of text from their own previous publications is text recycling (also referred to as self-plagiarism), and in some cases is considered unacceptable. Where overlap of text with authors’ own previous publications is necessary or unavoidable, duplication must always be reported transparently and be properly attributed and compliant with copyright requirements.

Confidentiality

Editors will treat all manuscripts submitted to EJES in confidence. Reviewers are therefore required to respect the confidentiality of the peer review process and not reveal any details of a manuscript or its review, during or after the peer-review process, beyond the information released by the journal. If reviewers wish to involve a colleague in the review process, they should first obtain permission from the journal. The Editor should be informed of the names of any individuals who assisted in the review process when the report is returned.

Misconduct

EJES take serious action against all allegations of potential misconduct. In cases of suspected research or publication misconduct, it may be necessary for the Editor to contact and share manuscripts with third parties, for example, author(s)’ institution(s) and ethics committee(s). A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Plagiarism

EJES will check manuscripts for plagiarism. If plagiarism is identified, the right measure will be taken as per the university research policy.

Corrections and retractions

Rarely, it may be necessary to publish corrections to, or retractions of, articles published by the journals to maintain the integrity of the academic record. Corrections to, or retractions of, published articles will be made by publishing a Correction or a Retraction note linked to the original article. Any alterations to the original article will be described in the note. The original article remains in the public domain and the subsequent Correction or Retraction will be widely indexed. In serious cases, an article may be removed from our site and archive sites. Authors, readers or organizations who become aware of errors or ethics issues in a published article are encouraged to contact the Editors.