Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Our Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement is based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE (COPE Council. 2022, December. Ethics toolkit for a successful editorial office: A COPE guide. https://doi.org/10.24318/AkFpEBd1)

The journal editorial board uses a Creative Commons licensing system: https://creativecommons.org/

Ethical & behavioral standards, based on the COPE Guidelines, for International Journal of Multilingual Education (IJME) commits editors, reviewers, authors and a publisher to the highest ethical standards in furtherance of journal's mission of advancing knowledge of theory, research and practice in the field of multilingual and multicultural education as well as in language acquisition.

Editorial Guidelines

Editorial Independence

The International Journal of Multilingual Education is published by the Center for Civil Integration and Inter-Ethnic Relations. The journal is overseen by an independent editorial board responsible for maintaining editorial quality, transparency, and ethical standards. The editorial team operates independently and makes publication decisions without influence from the journal's publisher, sponsors, or external organizations.

Peer-review process

Submitted articles are subject to a double-blind peer review. The decision of the editorial board to accept or reject a paper is based on two written reviews as well as on the publication ethics and editorial guidelines.

Confidentiality

The editorial staff of IJME treats all unpublished manuscripts and personal information of authors with strict confidentiality. These materials are not shared with anyone outside the editorial team. Reviewers are granted access to full manuscripts only after they have formally agreed to review them.

Editorial board members do not use unpublished material for their own research purposes under any circumstances. In cases where a conflict of interest arises, editorial board members recuse themselves from the review and publication process.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

The journal strictly prohibits the fabrication, falsification, or selective reporting of data. If evidence of misconduct is found:

The manuscript will be rejected or retracted.
Institutions or funders may be notified.
The author(s) may be barred from future submissions.

We may use plagiarism detection software and verify data integrity during the editorial process.

Intellectual Property and Plagiarism

All submissions must be original work. The journal uses plagiarism detection tools to check manuscripts. Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or misappropriation of another’s work will result in rejection or retraction.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reuse copyrighted material and for providing accurate citations. Suspected plagiarism will be handled using COPE guidelines.

Ethics approval (where required)

Informed consent (where required)

The International Journal of Multilingual Education (IJME) requires that all research involving human participants adhere to internationally recognized ethical standards.

Ethics Approval: Authors must confirm that ethical approval was obtained from an appropriate institutional or national research ethics committee before the research was conducted. A statement including the name of the ethics committee, the approval number/reference (if available), and a confirmation of adherence to relevant guidelines (e.g., the Declaration of Helsinki).
Informed Consent: For all studies involving human participants, authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from all participants. In cases involving minors or vulnerable groups, consent must be obtained from legal guardians in accordance with local regulations.
Consent for Publication: If a manuscript includes personal data (e.g., photographs, quotations, or case details) that could identify individuals, explicit written consent for publication must be obtained and made available upon request.
Manuscript Declarations: These ethical considerations must be clearly indicated in the sepecially dedicated section of submission system.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that ethical practices have been followed throughout the research and publication process. IJME reserves the right to request documentation or investigate concerns in line with COPE guidelines.

For Editors:

The editorial Board of the journal evaluates submitted manuscripts on the basis of their academic merit (importance, originality, study’s validity, clarity) and its relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy.

Editors will not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Editorial board members will not use unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research purposes without the authors’ explicit written consent.

Privileged information or ideas obtained by editors as a result of handling the manuscript will be kept confidential and not used for their personal advantage. Editors will recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships/connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the papers; instead, they will ask another member of the editorial board to handle the manuscript.

The editors ensure that all submitted manuscripts being considered for publication undergo peer-review by at least two randomly selected reviewers who are expert in the field.

Editors (in conjunction with the publisher and/or society) will take responsive measures when ethical concerns are raised with regard to a submitted manuscript or published paper.

For Reviewers:

Any manuscripts received for review are confidential documents and must be treated as such; they must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editorial board members.

Reviews should be conducted objectively and observations formulated clearly with supporting arguments so that authors can use them for improving the manuscript. Personal criticism of the authors is inappropriate.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that is an observation, derivation or argument that has been reported in previous publications should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also notify the editors of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other manuscript (published or unpublished) of which they have personal knowledge.

Any invited referee who has conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors or institutions connected to the manuscript and the work described therein should immediately notify the editors to declare their conflicts of interest and decline the invitation to review so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.

Unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the authors. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for the reviewer’s personal advantage.

For Authors:

All persons who made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (such as technical help, writing and editing assistance, general support) but who do not meet the criteria for authorship must not be listed as an author, but should be listed as co-authors and should be acknowledged in the "Acknowledgments" section. The corresponding author should ensure that all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved persons are included in the author list and also verify that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.

Authors of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. The manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Authors should submit only entirely original works, and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Information obtained privately (from conversation, correspondence or discussion with third parties) or in the course of providing confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source.

All new submissions to the journal are automatically screened using Turninit Software for Similarity Check by an editor.

The articles should be submitted in English and they will be published in English.

Papers describing the same research should not be published in multiple journals. Manuscripts that have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. Submission of a manuscript concurrently to more than one journal is unethical publishing behavior and unacceptable.

Authors should, at the earliest stage possible, disclose any conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript. Examples of potential conflicts of interest that should be disclosed include financial ones such as honoraria, educational grants or other funding, membership, employment, consultancies etc. as well as non-financial ones such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. All sources of financial support for the work should be disclosed.

Authors are obliged to cooperate fully by responding promptly to editors’ requests for clarifications and proof of ethics approval and copyright permissions. In the case of a first decision of "revisions necessary", authors should respond to the reviewers’ comments systematically, point by point, and in a timely manner, revising and re-submitting their manuscript to the journal by the deadline given.

When authors discover significant errors or inaccuracies in their own published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify the journal’s editors or publisher and cooperate with them to retract or correct the paper in form of an erratum.

For Publisher:

In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question.

The publisher is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and ensures accessibility by partnering with journal indexing agencies/membership organizations and maintaining journal content.

References:

COPE Council. (2022, December). Ethics toolkit for a successful editorial office: A COPE guide. https://doi.org/10.24318/AkFpEBd1

Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/

Direct Complaints

Complaints regarding editorial conduct, peer review, or publication ethics may be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief at kakha.gabunia@tsu.ge. All complaints are handled confidentially and according to COPE guidelines.