The Policy of Gadaa Journal (GJ)
1. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST POLICY
Conflicts of interest can be personal, commercial, political, academic or financial. Such interests must be declared by authors, reviewers and editors. In case of uncertainty, rather disclose.
Authors’ conflicts of interest
Authors are asked during the submission process to declare any potential conflicts of interest for the Editor-in-Chief’s consideration. Examples include employment, funding sources, owning of shares and payment for lectures or travel.
Should a potential conflict of interest exist, it must be declared and will be included in the published version if the article is accepted for publication. A potential conflict of interest does not necessarily mean the submission will be rejected.
Reviewers’ conflicts of interest
Reviewers are asked to declare any potential conflicts of interest in the manuscript review form. Examples include submissions by family members or students and discerning the identity of the authors. A conflict of interest does not necessarily invalidate the review report.
Editors’ conflicts of interest
The same policy for authors’ conflicts of interest applies when editors are the authors of editorials, non-reviewed front section articles and manuscripts for peer review.
With regard to assigning reviewers and making a decision on a manuscript, an editor will withdraw as editor for that manuscript if there is a conflict of interest, such as in the case of a submission by a family member or student.
Editorial Advisory Board members
Members of the Editorial Advisory Board are permitted to publish in the Journal. Submissions received from Board members are treated in the same manner as other submissions with respect to blind reviewing and confidentiality.
2. CONFIDENTIALITY AND MEDIA EMBARGOES
Confidentiality
Authors, reviewers and editorial staff should treat all submitted manuscripts and correspondence with the Editorial Office as confidential.
Media embargoes
All manuscripts are considered to be under a media embargo from the time of submission until online publication of the article or rejection of the manuscript. Authors may discuss their articles or findings with the media before publication but must adhere to the media embargo. It is advisable to inform the Editorial Office of any pending media reports so that they can provide assistance, especially with regard to the publication date. The key findings of an article should not be released in the press until online publication of the article, and all media reports emanating from a published article should include the full source or a link to the article online.
3. PEER-REVIEW PROCESS
All manuscript submitted to the journal are subject to peer review. Although the Editor-in-Chief may solicit an external review at his discretion, items published in the front section of the journal are not subject to peer review.
The Journal follows double-blind system for peer-review. The selection of manuscript and the publication process will follow the following 8 steps.
- Upon submission, the managing editor gives code to the manuscript for the sake of keeping the anonymity of the author (s). The codes will be kept secret and can be used if there happens to be queries in the process of publication.
- Upon receiving a manuscript the managing editor will promptly send confirmation of submission to the corresponding author.
- Preliminary assessment will be made by the editor-in-chief and associate editors-in-chief for the suitability of the manuscripts to the scope of the journal. If found not in the scope of the journal or not in line with the guideline set, the manuscript shall be returned to the author(s). All manuscripts deemed potentially suitable then undergo a plagiarism detection process. In the case of suspected plagiarism, the Plagiarism Policy will come into effect.
- Manuscripts that pass the preliminary assessment (found relevant and consistent with guideline of the journal and free of plagiarism) will be sent to two anonymous experts in the area for review, together with Manuscript evaluation form of the Journal.
- Critical and constructive comments of the reviewers are expected to be received by the editor-in-chief in a maximum of four weeks’ time.
- Once the review results of two reviewers is received, the editor-in-chief, the associate editor or the editorial team give the final decision on whether the manuscript should be accepted or rejected based on the evaluations from the two anonymous reviewers.
- The decision of the editorial board will be communicated to authors through e-mail with in six weeks’ time. If the manuscript is accepted, the author(s) is (are) required to revise the manuscript based on the comments given within a maximum of two weeks’ time so that the remaining publication process commences. But if the comment given is a major one, the author will be given two months to incorporate the comments.
- The improved manuscript will undergo language edition, copy-editing, layout and proofing to be published. The published article will be uploaded on the journal’s webpage for free access. The corresponding author shall receive two copies of the printed journal free of charge.
Authors can appeal a decision in writing to the Editor-in-Chief.
Special considerations
In case the editor -in-chief, or associate editor-in-chief of Gadaa Journal /(Barruulee Gadaa) have submitted a manuscript for publication to this journal alone or with any other researchers as co-author (s) the manuscript review process will be managed by delegated editorial members of the journal pertinent to the field of study.
4. PRODUCTION PROCESS AND PUBLICATION
Accepted manuscripts are received by the Editorial Office where they enter the production queue to undergo copy-editing, layout and proofing. Research Articles and Review Articles are produced for publication in date order of acceptance, but can, at the discretion of the editors and for compelling reasons, be assigned to a particular issue.
Manuscripts and supplementary material undergo copy-editing to ensure, inter alia, that the language is clear and suitable for a non-specialist reader, that the text conforms to the house style, that the figures are presentable and that the referencing is correct. Authors are given the opportunity to approve the copy-editing changes made and to address any queries at this stage; however, major text changes are not permitted at this stage.
Edited manuscripts then undergo layout. Supplementary material does not undergo layout.
Proofs are checked first by the Editorial Office and then sent to Authors for correction. Only minor corrections such as typos and corrections to layout can be made at this stage. Figures should be carefully checked as they may have been redrawn or relabelled. Any major changes at proof stage will incur a cost and result in a delay. Final corrected proofs are not returned to authors unless requested. No changes can be made after the proof has been approved for publication..
Authors will be informed as soon as their articles are published online. Articles are openly accessible from the website and may be distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License and so reprints are not provided. Authors are welcome to deposit the final published version in institutional repositories or personal archives.
5. APPEALS AND COMPLAINTS
Appeals
Authors have the right to appeal a decision on their submission if they believe the decision was unfair.
To appeal a decision, please submit a letter detailing the nature of the appeal and indicating why the decision is viewed as unfair.
The letter should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief within 10 days of the decision.The Editor-in-Chief will review all relevant documentation relating to the submission, may consult the relevant Associate Editor or Reviewers and may appoint a new Reviewer to evaluate the submission before making a decision.
The decision of the Editor-in-Chief will be final.
Complaints
For complaints relating to the policies and procedures of the Journal or the conduct of editorial staff, please email the details of the complaint to the Managing Editor or Editor-in-Chief.All complaints directed through the correct channels will be acknowledged and the resolution will be conveyed to the complainant. Complaints will be resolved as quickly as possible.
6. CORRECTIONS POLICY
Corrections to articles published in Gadaa Journal
A published article forms part of the published record and will not be altered or removed A correction will be published if a published article contains a significant error that affects, for example, the accuracy of the article. Minor errors, such as typographical errors, will generally not be corrected. Corrections are published as either Errata or Corrigenda. Both Errata and Corrigenda are published at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. An Erratum or Corrigendum will be linked to the original article online.
Errata
An Erratum is the correction of an error introduced by the Journal during editing or production. The Author will be given an opportunity to approve an Erratum before publication.
Corrigenda
A Corrigendum is the correction of an error made by the author/s.
7. PLAGIARISM POLICY
All cases of suspected or alleged plagiarism will be considered seriously and on an individual basis. Manuscripts submitted for consideration for publication will be scanned for potential plagiarism before undergoing peer review to verify their originality. Similarity reports will be reviewed on an individual basis.
Submitted Manuscripts
- Suspected plagiarism in a submitted manuscript can be brought to the attention of the Editor-in-Chief either through the similarity report of the plagiarism detection scan or through a Reviewer of the manuscript.
- When a similarity report is indicative of a potential offence, the report and manuscript will be examined by the Editor-in-Chief to determine whether or not material has been plagiarized and, if so, the extent of the plagiarism.
- When suspected plagiarism is reported to the Editorial Office, the report will be acknowledged and all relevant documentation/evidence will be retrieved and examined by the Editor-in-Chief, in conjunction with the relevant Associate Editor, to determine whether or not material has been plagiarized and, if so, the extent of the plagiarism.
- If material has been plagiarized, the corresponding author will be informed by the Editor-in-Chief that the manuscript is rejected on these grounds.
- If the extent of the plagiarism is minor and the Editor-in-Chief determines that the author/s did not intend to plagiarize, no further action will be taken. If the plagiarism is extensive or admitted to, the author/s’ institution/s and funding bodies will be informed of the offence (the submitted and plagiarized material will be sent to them) by the Editor-in-Chief.
- The reader or Reviewer reporting the suspected plagiarism will be informed of the outcome of the investigation.
Published articles
- When suspected plagiarism is reported to the Editorial Office, the report will be acknowledged and all relevant documentation/evidence will be retrieved and examined by the Editor-in-Chief, in conjunction with the relevant Associate Editor, to determine whether or not material has been plagiarized and, if so, the extent of the plagiarism.
- If material has been plagiarized, the corresponding author will be informed by the Editor-in-Chief and questioned.
- If the extent of the plagiarism is minor and the Editor-in-Chief determines that the author/s did not intend to plagiarize, a statement indicating the plagiarized material and appropriate reference will be published online and the article online will be linked to the statement and vice versa.
- If the plagiarism is extensive or admitted to, the article will be retracted and a statement published acknowledging the original author/s.
- The author/s’ institution/s and funding bodies will be informed of the offence (submitted and plagiarized material will be sent to them) by the Editor-in-Chief. Authors will be notified by the Editor-in-Chief that the relevant institution/s will be informed and that they will be banned from submitting to Gadaa Journal in the future.
- The original author/s and publisher will also be informed of the offence.
- The reader or Reviewer reporting the suspected plagiarism will be informed of the outcome of the investigation.
8. ARTICLE RETRACTION POLICY
Published articles should remain extant and intact. However, under exceptional circumstances involving plagiarism and redundant publication or data error, articles may need to be retracted, removed or replaced in order to protect the integrity of the literature. The need for a retraction will be determined by the Editor-in-Chief, but may be initiated, in cases of flawed data or conclusions, at the request of the author/s.
To retract an article, a notice of retraction will be published in the next issue. This notice of retraction will:
- include the title and authors of the article, the reason for the retraction and who is retracting the article
- be linked to the article online
9. PREPRINTS, DIGITAL ARCHIVING AND PRESERVATION POLICY
Preprints
Authors may post their manuscripts on a recognized preprint server prior to submission. Authors are required to disclose preprints in their cover letter at submission.
Self-archiving
Authors may not deposit the final version of their manuscript into a subject or institutional repository until the manuscript has been published. Authors may deposit the published version in an institutional repository. Authors may deposit the submitted or accepted version in subject repositories or on personal web pages before publication, but these versions must be replaced by the published version after publication.
Digital archiving and preservation
The digital content of the Journal is extremely valuable and measures are in place to ensure both its current accessibility and long-term preservation.