Publication Ethics

The ANDD Paper Series (ANDD PS) and Qatar University Press (QU Press) are committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and academic integrity. The Editorial Team actively monitors, investigates, and addresses ethical violations involving any participant in the publishing process, including authors, reviewers, and editors. Appropriate corrective actions will be taken to prevent, rectify, and manage any breach of ethical standards.

The following practices are considered unethical and unacceptable:

  1. Plagiarism

    All submissions are screened using plagiarism-detection software, including iThenticate. Plagiarism includes the use of another person's ideas, text, data, images, or research findings without proper acknowledgment, permission, or citation. This also includes self-plagiarism, duplicate use of previously published material without disclosure, and the unauthorized translation and use of works published in another language.

  2. Duplicate or Fragmented Publication

    Authors must not submit the same or substantially similar work to multiple publications. Likewise, the division of a single research study into multiple papers solely to increase publication output ("salami publishing") is considered unethical and may misrepresent the significance of the research.

  3. Failure to acknowledge sources

    Authors are required to provide accurate and complete citations for all ideas, findings, data, and statements derived from previously published work. Failure to acknowledge sources, whether intentional or unintentional, constitutes a breach of academic integrity.

  4. Inappropriate Authorship

    Authorship must accurately reflect individual contributions to the research and manuscript preparation. Unethical authorship practices include the omission of eligible contributors, inclusion of individuals who did not contribute to the work, ghost authorship, honorary authorship, gift authorship, coercive authorship, manipulation of authorship order, and the use of pseudonyms intended to conceal an author's identity.

  5. Failure to Obtain Ethical or Institutional Approvalss

    Authors are responsible for obtaining all required ethical, institutional, regulatory, and funding approvals before conducting research. For studies involving human participants, authors must ensure informed consent, confidentiality, privacy protection, and adequate safeguards against physical, psychological, social, intellectual, or reputational harm.

  6. Data Fabrication and Falsification

    The alteration of primary, secondary, or any other form of data through addition, omission, manipulation, or distortion intended to support personal research objectives, deceptively promote or devalue findings, or otherwise mislead readers regarding the validity, significance, or interpretation of research results.

  7. Biases in all its forms

    Explicit bias (arising from conflicts of interest or other causes) or implicit sympathy or antipathy toward a particular school of thought, ideology, individual, or group that results in distortion, misrepresentation, or unfair evaluation of scientific or intellectual work based on ideological, political, personal, or other non-academic considerations.

  8. Offensive language use

    The malicious use of logical fallacies, inflammatory language, or inappropriate rhetoric, including hateful, extremist, defamatory, intimidating, or derogatory language intended to attract attention, undermine the credibility of others, or damage the reputation of individuals, institutions, or scholarly work.

  9. Discrimination

    Preferential or prejudicial treatment of any individual or group based on race, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, gender, age, marital status, parental status, disability, religion, political beliefs, or any other protected characteristic, whether during the conduct, review, or publication of research.

  10. Failure to Report Errors or Disclose Acknowledgments

    Failure to promptly report significant errors, inaccuracies, or omissions discovered before or after publication to the editor and/or publisher. Depending on the nature and severity of the issue, such cases may result in a correction, corrigendum, expression of concern, or retraction. Authors are also expected to properly acknowledge all contributors, funding sources, and relevant support associated with the research.

  11. Non-Disclosure of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use (New)

    Failure to disclose the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the preparation of a manuscript is considered a breach of the journal's transparency requirements. Authors must declare any AI tools used and their purpose at the time of submission. Undisclosed AI use may result in editorial action, including manuscript rejection, correction, or retraction. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all submitted content.