Editorial Policies

The following policies apply to the Journal of Central and Eastern European African Studies (JCEEAS). Please read these policies in full before submitting your article, to ensure you have correctly followed all the requirements.

Affiliations

You and your co-authors must list all relevant affiliations to attribute where the research or academic work was approved and/or supported and/or conducted.

For book reviews, you must list your current institutional affiliation.

If you have moved to a different institution before the article has been published, you should list the affiliation where the work was conducted, and include a note to state your current affiliation.

If you do not have a current relevant institutional affiliation you should state your independent status.

Appeals and complaints

JCEEAS follow Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on appeals to journal editor decisions and complaints about a journal’s editorial management of the peer review process.

We welcome genuine appeals to editor decisions. However, you will need to provide strong evidence or new data/information in response to the editor’s and reviewers’ comments.

Where you, as an author, wish to comment on aspects of the journal’s editorial management please contact as.

Authorship 

Listing authors’ names on an article is an important mechanism to give credit to those who have significantly contributed to the work. It also ensures transparency for those who are responsible for the integrity of the content.

Authors listed on an article must meet all of the following criteria:

  • Made a significant contribution to the work submitted, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas.
  • Have drafted or written, or substantially revised or critically reviewed the article.
  • Have agreed on the journal to which the article will be submitted.
  • Reviewed and agreed on all versions of the article before submission, during revision, the final version accepted for publication, and any significant changes introduced at the proofing stage.
  • Agree to take responsibility and be accountable for the contents of the article and to share responsibility to resolve any questions raised about the accuracy or integrity of the published work.

Citations

Research articles and book reviews must cite relevant, timely, and verified literature (peer-reviewed, where appropriate) to support any claims made in the article.

You must avoid excessive and inappropriate self-citation or prearrangements among author groups to inappropriately cite each other’s work, as this can be considered a form of misconduct called citation manipulation. For more information, please see COPE guidance on citation manipulation.

If you are the author of a book review you should ensure the references you cite are relevant and provide a fair and balanced overview of the current state of research or academic work on the topic. Your references should not be unfairly biased towards a particular research group, organization or journal.

Competing interests

You and all of your co-authors must declare any competing interests relevant to, or which can be perceived to be relevant to the article.

A competing interest can occur where you (or your employer, sponsor or family/friends) have a financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with other organizations, or with the people working with them which could influence the research or interpretation of the results.

Competing interests can be financial or non-financial in nature. To ensure transparency, you must also declare any associations which can be perceived by others as a competing interest.

Corrections

Sometimes after an article has been published it may be necessary to make a change to the Version of Record (VoR). The purpose of this mechanism of making changes which are permanent and transparent is to ensure the integrity of the academic record.

This will be done after careful consideration by the editor to ensure any necessary changes are done in accordance with guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Editor Code of Conduct

The editor of a journal plays a vital role in advancing knowledge within fields of research. They do this by:

  • Maintaining and improving the quality of work the journal publishes and the integrity of its peer review process,
  • Supporting the journal’s authors and reviewers,
  • Maintaining and improving the journal’s reputation.

Harassment

JCEEAS will not tolerate any kind of harassment of our authors, editors and reviewers. We expect to work in an environment of mutual respect.

Images and figures

You should only use images and figures in your article if they are relevant and valuable to the work submitted. Please refrain from adding content of this type which is purely illustrative and does not add value to the academic work.

Using third party material

You must obtain the necessary written permission to include material in your article that is owned and held in copyright by a third party, including, but not limited to, any proprietary text, illustration, table, or other material, including data, audio, video, film stills, screenshots, musical notation, and any supplemental material.

Misconduct

JCEEAS takes all forms of misconduct seriously and will take all necessary action, in accordance with COPE guidelines, to protect the integrity of the academic record.

Examples of misconduct include, but are not limited to:

  • Affiliation misrepresentation
  • Breaches in copyright/use of third-party material without appropriate permissions
  • Citation manipulation
  • Duplicate submission/publication
  • “Ethics dumping”
  • Image or data manipulation/fabrication
  • Peer review manipulation
  • Plagiarism
  • Text-recycling/self-plagiarism
  • Undisclosed competing interests
  • Unethical research

Confidentiality of peer review

It is a requirement to maintain confidentiality and integrity of the peer review and editorial decision-making process at all stages, complying with data protection regulations. The invited reviewer should declare any competing interest before submitting their report to the journal. If they wish to involve a colleague as a co-reviewer for an article, they should ask the journal editorial board before sharing the manuscript and include their names, affiliation and any relevant competing interests in the comments for editors when they return their report.

In the process of investigating an ethical query, the submitted manuscript, author, reviewer, and any other person involved will be treated in confidence. During an investigation it may be necessary for the editor to share information with third parties.

Plagiarism

Trust and integrity are among what readers value the most, and for that reason JCEEAS takes the issue of plagiarism very seriously.

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) defines plagiarism as:

“When somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were his/her own and without proper acknowledgment.”

For JCEEAS, this applies to data, images, words or ideas taken from any materials in electronic or print formats without sufficient attribution. The use of any such material either directly or indirectly should be properly acknowledged in all instances. You should always cite your source.

Research ethics and consent

All research published in JCEEAS must have been conducted according to international and local guidelines ensuring ethically conducted research.