Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice

The Journal of Mathematical Extension (JME) is committed to maintaining high standards of integrity, transparency, and ethical conduct throughout the scholarly publication process. The journal is guided by internationally recognized principles of publication ethics, including the recommendations and best practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

These policies apply to all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, members of the Editorial Board, and the publisher. JME takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously and considers concerns fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with established publication ethics principles.

The journal is committed to protecting the integrity of the scholarly record. Where necessary, appropriate post-publication action may include the publication of corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or other notices required to maintain an accurate and reliable scholarly record.

1. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors submitting manuscripts to JME are expected to follow accepted standards of responsible scholarly conduct. Authors must ensure that the work submitted is original, accurate, appropriately referenced, and has not been submitted simultaneously to another journal.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the results, arguments, mathematical statements, data, references, and other material contained in their manuscripts. Where the work of other researchers is used, the original source must be appropriately acknowledged and cited.

All authors must have made a meaningful contribution to the submitted work and must approve the final version of the manuscript before submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all appropriate co-authors are included and that no individual who does not meet the journal's authorship requirements is listed as an author.

Authors must disclose any financial, personal, institutional, or other relationships that could reasonably be considered to influence their work. Sources of financial support or funding relevant to the research must also be disclosed.

If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in a submitted or published article, the author must promptly inform the journal and cooperate with the editors in correcting the scholarly record.

2. Originality, Plagiarism and Text Recycling

Manuscripts submitted to JME must represent original work. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable. This includes presenting another person's work, ideas, results, mathematical arguments, text, figures, or other material as one's own without appropriate acknowledgement.

Submissions are screened for similarity using iThenticate as part of the journal's editorial procedures. A similarity report is used as an editorial screening tool and is assessed in context; editorial decisions are not based solely on a numerical similarity percentage.

Authors must properly quote, cite, or otherwise acknowledge material taken from previously published sources. Excessive or inappropriate reuse of an author's own previously published material without proper citation or justification may also constitute unacceptable text recycling or redundant publication.

Where plagiarism, inappropriate duplication, fabrication, falsification, or other forms of publication misconduct are suspected, the journal will investigate the matter and may take appropriate action in accordance with its publication ethics procedures.

3. Multiple, Duplicate or Redundant Publication

Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to JME and another journal. A manuscript that has already been published, in substantially the same form, should not normally be submitted for publication in JME.

Authors must disclose any closely related manuscripts that have been published, submitted, or are under consideration elsewhere when such material may overlap substantially with the submission to JME.

Duplicate or redundant publication discovered before or after publication will be investigated and may result in rejection of the manuscript, retraction of a published article, or other appropriate editorial action.

4. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a significant scholarly contribution to the conception, development, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the work.

All listed authors must approve the submitted manuscript and accept responsibility for their contribution to the work. Individuals who have contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should, where appropriate, be acknowledged rather than listed as authors.

Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be explained to the journal and must have the agreement of all affected authors. The editors reserve the right to request supporting information when an authorship change raises concerns about the integrity of the scholarly record.

Authorship disputes should, wherever possible, be resolved by the authors and their institutions. The journal may seek clarification or supporting documentation but will not normally adjudicate disputes concerning contributions that require institutional investigation.

5. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any conflicts of interest that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their judgement or actions.

Conflicts may include financial interests, professional relationships, personal relationships, institutional affiliations, academic competition, or other circumstances that may create, or appear to create, bias.

Authors should disclose relevant conflicts and funding information when submitting a manuscript. Reviewers should notify the editor of any potential conflict before accepting a review assignment. Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where an actual or perceived conflict could compromise the independence of the editorial decision.

6. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Peer reviewers play an important role in maintaining the quality and integrity of the scholarly record. Reviewers of manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Mathematical Extension (JME) are expected to conduct their assessments responsibly, objectively, confidentially, and in a timely manner.

Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists the editors in making informed editorial decisions and may also help authors improve the quality, clarity, and scholarly contribution of their manuscripts. Reviewers should provide clear, constructive, and sufficiently reasoned comments to support their recommendations.

Promptness: An invited reviewer who does not have the appropriate expertise to evaluate a manuscript, has a conflict of interest, or cannot complete the review within a reasonable period should promptly inform the Editorial Office so that another reviewer can be appointed.

Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review are confidential documents. Reviewers must not share, distribute, reproduce, discuss, or disclose information from a submitted manuscript to others without authorization from the editor. Unpublished information, mathematical results, proofs, methods, ideas, or other material obtained through peer review must not be used by reviewers for their own research or personal advantage.

Objectivity and Professional Conduct: Reviews must be conducted objectively and respectfully. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate. Reviewers should evaluate manuscripts on their scholarly merit, originality, mathematical or methodological soundness, clarity, relevance, and contribution to the field.

Acknowledgement of Sources and Potential Misconduct: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately acknowledged where this is important to evaluating the manuscript. Reviewers should alert the editor to substantial similarity or overlap with other work of which they are aware, as well as suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabrication, falsification, citation manipulation, or other potential publication misconduct.

Reviewers must not request citations primarily for the purpose of increasing citations to themselves, their colleagues, the journal, or particular publications. Any recommendation to add references should be based on genuine scholarly relevance.

Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, academic, or other relationship that could reasonably affect, or be perceived to affect, their impartiality. Where a significant conflict exists, the reviewer should decline the review assignment.

7. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for safeguarding the integrity, fairness, confidentiality, and independence of the editorial and peer-review processes.

Editorial Decisions: Decisions concerning the acceptance, revision, or rejection of manuscripts must be based on scholarly merit, originality, validity, relevance to the aims and scope of JME, clarity of presentation, and the results of appropriate peer review. Decisions must not be influenced by the nationality, ethnicity, gender, religious or political beliefs, institutional affiliation, or other irrelevant personal characteristics of authors.

Editorial Independence: Editors must exercise independent academic judgement. Editorial decisions must not be influenced by commercial considerations, institutional interests, personal relationships, or inappropriate pressure from authors, reviewers, Editorial Board members, or other parties.

Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and the peer-review process. Information concerning a manuscript should be disclosed only to individuals who legitimately require access for editorial or publication purposes.

Unpublished information, arguments, mathematical results, proofs, methods, or ideas contained in a submitted manuscript must not be used by editors for personal benefit or in their own research without appropriate permission from the authors.

Conflicts of Interest: Editors must disclose and appropriately manage actual or potential conflicts of interest. An editor should not handle a manuscript where a personal, professional, financial, institutional, collaborative, or competitive relationship could reasonably compromise, or appear to compromise, editorial impartiality. In such cases, responsibility for the manuscript should be transferred to another appropriate editor.

Research and Publication Integrity: Editors should take appropriate action when concerns are raised regarding plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, authorship, conflicts of interest, peer-review manipulation, citation manipulation, copyright infringement, or other forms of research or publication misconduct. Such concerns should be considered fairly and confidentially, regardless of whether they arise before or after publication.

8. Peer Review Integrity and Confidentiality

JME is committed to maintaining a fair, independent, and confidential peer-review process. The journal uses a double-anonymized (double-blind) peer-review process, in which the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from each other during the review process.

Authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to respect the integrity of this process. Reviewers should not attempt to identify or directly contact authors during peer review, and authors should not attempt to identify or improperly influence reviewers.

Reviewer selection and editorial decisions must be based on appropriate scholarly expertise and independent judgement. Any attempt to manipulate the peer-review process is considered a serious breach of publication ethics.

Examples of peer-review manipulation include, but are not limited to:

providing false reviewer identities or contact information;
impersonating another researcher;
creating fabricated reviewer accounts;
attempting to improperly influence the selection or comments of reviewers;
inappropriate coordination between authors and reviewers;
undisclosed conflicts of interest;
coercive or inappropriate citation requests; and
alteration or manipulation of reviewer reports or editorial communications.

Suggested reviewers, where permitted, are considered suggestions only. The editors retain full responsibility for reviewer selection and are not obliged to use reviewers proposed by authors.

Information obtained through peer review must remain confidential and must not be used for personal, academic, financial, competitive, or other advantage.

Where there is reasonable evidence that the peer-review process has been compromised or manipulated, JME may suspend consideration of the manuscript, investigate the matter, reject the submission, or take appropriate post-publication action where the article has already been published.

9. Corrections, Retractions, Expressions of Concern and Post-Publication Issues

JME is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the published scholarly record. Concerns regarding published articles will be considered carefully, and appropriate action will depend on the nature and seriousness of the issue.

Corrections: A correction may be published when an error or omission affects the accuracy, interpretation, or understanding of an article but does not invalidate its main results or conclusions. Corrections should clearly identify the article concerned and explain the nature of the correction.

Expressions of Concern: An Expression of Concern may be issued when serious questions have arisen regarding the integrity or reliability of a published article but the available evidence is inconclusive, an investigation is ongoing, or a definitive outcome cannot yet be reached.

Retractions: Retraction may be considered where there is reliable evidence that the findings or conclusions of an article are seriously unreliable because of major error or misconduct, or where there has been serious plagiarism, redundant publication, fabrication or falsification, unauthorized use of material, a seriously compromised peer-review process, or another substantial ethical or legal violation.

Retraction is intended primarily to correct the scholarly record rather than to punish authors.

A retraction notice should clearly identify the affected article, explain the reason for the retraction as transparently as reasonably possible, and remain publicly accessible and linked to the original article. Except where removal is required for compelling legal, privacy, or safety reasons, the original article should normally remain part of the scholarly record and be clearly identified as retracted.

Where appropriate, JME will follow recognized publication-ethics guidance when considering corrections, Expressions of Concern, and retractions.

Readers, authors, reviewers, and other researchers are encouraged to inform the Editorial Office if they identify a potentially significant error or integrity concern in a published article. Post-publication concerns will be assessed on their scholarly and evidential merits regardless of who raises them.

10. Complaints and Appeals

JME is committed to handling complaints and appeals fairly, impartially, respectfully, and confidentially.

Authors may appeal an editorial decision where they believe that a significant error has occurred in the editorial or peer-review process or that relevant evidence was not adequately considered. An appeal should provide a clear scholarly justification and, where relevant, a point-by-point response to the issues that led to the editorial decision.

Disagreement with an editorial decision alone does not constitute sufficient grounds for an appeal.

Complaints may concern matters including editorial conduct, peer-review procedures, conflicts of interest, publication ethics, inappropriate behaviour, unreasonable procedural delays, or other aspects of the journal's editorial or publication activities.

Complaints and appeals should be submitted in writing to the JME Editorial Office at info@ijmex.com, with sufficient information and supporting documentation to allow the matter to be assessed.

Where reasonably possible, an appeal or complaint should be considered by an editor or senior editorial member who was not directly responsible for the matter in question.

A complaint concerning an Editor-in-Chief or another senior editor should be referred to an appropriate independent senior member of the Editorial Board or, where necessary, to the publisher.

The journal will provide the person or persons concerned with a fair opportunity to provide relevant information before reaching a conclusion where this is appropriate. The confidentiality of complainants and other parties will be protected as far as reasonably possible.

Submitting a complaint or raising an ethical concern in good faith will not disadvantage an author, reviewer, or other individual in their legitimate interactions with the journal.

11. Handling Allegations of Research and Publication Misconduct

JME takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously, whether concerns arise before publication or after an article has been published.

Potential misconduct may include, but is not limited to:

plagiarism or inappropriate text recycling;
fabrication, falsification, or manipulation of research results;
false or fabricated references;
duplicate or redundant publication;
inappropriate authorship or undisclosed contributors;
undisclosed conflicts of interest;
citation manipulation;
manipulation or compromise of the peer-review process;
copyright or intellectual property infringement;
unethical or unauthorized use of data or other research materials;
deliberate misrepresentation of mathematical results, proofs, calculations, or research methods; and
other practices that may undermine the integrity of the scholarly record.

Allegations will be assessed on the available evidence and should not be treated as established misconduct solely because a concern has been raised. Individuals whose work or conduct is questioned should normally be given an appropriate opportunity to respond.

Investigations will be conducted as confidentially and impartially as reasonably possible. Depending on the nature of the concern, the editors may request explanations, original materials, calculations, data, computer code, documentation, or other relevant evidence from the authors or other parties.

Where a manuscript includes data, computational analyses, software, algorithms, numerical experiments, or computer-assisted mathematical results, authors should retain sufficient records to support verification of the reported work and should provide relevant information when reasonably requested as part of an editorial assessment or integrity investigation.

Where appropriate, the journal may seek advice from members of the Editorial Board or independent experts. Where an allegation requires investigation beyond the journal's authority or capability, JME may refer the matter to the authors' institution, research organization, funding body, publisher, or another appropriate authority.

The identity of individuals who raise concerns in good faith will be protected as far as reasonably possible. Anonymous allegations may also be considered where sufficient specific information or evidence is provided to permit meaningful assessment.

Depending on the findings and seriousness of the matter, editorial actions may include requesting clarification or correction, rejecting a manuscript, issuing a correction or Expression of Concern, retracting an article, restricting future involvement in the journal's peer-review or editorial processes, or notifying an appropriate institution or authority where warranted.

JME will seek to distinguish genuine error from deliberate misconduct and will aim to ensure that any action taken is proportionate to the nature and severity of the issue.

12. Publisher Responsibilities

The Journal of Mathematical Extension is published by Islamic Azad University, Shiraz Branch. The publisher supports the journal in maintaining high standards of scholarly integrity, editorial independence, transparency, and responsible academic publishing.

The publisher is committed to respecting the independence of editorial decisions. Decisions regarding the acceptance or rejection of individual manuscripts should be based on scholarly considerations and the journal's editorial policies and should not be determined by commercial, financial, political, or institutional interests.

The publisher supports the editors in implementing the journal's publication ethics policies, addressing credible allegations of misconduct, managing corrections and retractions, and protecting the integrity of the scholarly record.

The publisher also supports the maintenance and accessibility of the journal's published content and associated editorial notices, including corrections, Expressions of Concern, and retractions.

Where serious ethical or publication-integrity concerns arise, the publisher should cooperate appropriately with the Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board, authors, reviewers, academic institutions, and other relevant bodies in seeking a fair and evidence-based resolution.

The publisher and editorial leadership share responsibility for ensuring that the journal's policies are publicly available, applied consistently, and periodically reviewed in light of developments in scholarly publishing and publication ethics.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

JME maintains a rigorous policy on the ethical and responsible use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in research, manuscript preparation, peer review, and editorial activities.

The policy addresses appropriate and inappropriate uses of GenAI, disclosure requirements, authorship, accuracy and verification, confidentiality, intellectual property, and the responsibilities of authors, reviewers, and editors.

For full details, please refer to the journal's separate Generative AI Policy and Responsible Use page.