Ethics and Disclosures

This journal is committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethical conduct in scholarly publishing. All authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to comply with transparent, responsible, and internationally recognized ethical practices. This section outlines the journal’s expectations regarding ethics, disclosures, and responsible authorship.

  1. Research Ethics
    1.1 Ethical Approval

All studies involving human participants, sensitive data, or institutional cooperation must include a formal statement of ethical approval from an accredited ethics review board. Manuscripts without appropriate clearance may be rejected.

1.2 Informed Consent

For research involving individuals, authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from all participants. When minors are involved, parental or guardian consent is required.

1.3 Confidentiality and Data Protection

Authors must ensure that participant identities are protected. No identifying data should be included unless explicit written permission has been obtained.

  1. Authorship Ethics
    2.1 Authorship Criteria

Authorship should reflect significant contributions to the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or manuscript preparation. Honorary, ghost, or gift authorship is prohibited.

2.2 Author Responsibilities

Authors must:

  • Ensure the accuracy and integrity of the manuscript
  • Approve the final version before submission
  • Confirm that the work has not been published or submitted elsewhere
  • Cooperate with editors during revisions and review
  1. Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

Authors must openly declare any financial, institutional, or personal interests that may influence the research. This includes:

  • Funding sources
  • Employment or consultancy relationships
  • Institutional affiliations
  • Personal or professional relationships impacting objectivity
  • A conflict of interest statement must be included in the manuscript.
  1. Disclosure of Funding

Authors must disclose all sources of financial support or sponsorship. This includes grants, institutional funding, or project-based sponsorship. If no funding was received, authors must state:
“This research received no specific grant from any funding agency.”

  1. Data Transparency and Availability

Authors should be prepared to provide raw data for editorial inspection if requested. When possible and ethically appropriate, datasets may be shared as supplementary files. Fabrication, manipulation, or misrepresentation of data is considered serious misconduct.

  1. Ethical Use of AI Tools

If artificial intelligence (AI) tools were used in generating any part of the manuscript (e.g., writing assistance, data analysis, coding, statistical modeling), authors must disclose:

  • Which tools were used
  • For what purpose
  • How outputs were verified for accuracy
  • AI tools must not be credited as authors.
  1. Editorial and Reviewer Ethics
    7.1 Editorial Independence

Editors make decisions based solely on the manuscript’s scholarly merit.

7.2 Reviewer Conduct

Reviewers must:

  • Maintain confidentiality
  • Disclose any conflicts of interest
  • Provide objective, constructive, and timely evaluations
  • Decline reviews when unqualified or conflicted
  1. Misconduct and Corrections

IJECE handles misconduct according to COPE guidelines. Actions may include:

  • Rejection of the manuscript
  • Retraction of published articles
  • Publication of corrections or clarifications
  • Notification to the authors’ institutions, when necessary
  1. Transparency Statement

By submitting to IJECE, authors affirm that:

  • All ethical standards were followed
  • All necessary disclosures have been provided
  • All listed authors meet authorship criteria
  • No part of the manuscript violates ethical or legal standards