This journal is free and Open Access and follows the standards and guidelines provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), especially regarding misconduct, fraud, plagiarism, and how to act in front of such a case: https://publicationethics.org
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This license lets others including authors distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation
Reported unethical issues including plagiarism of any kind, double submissions, copyright infringements, conflicts of interest, false, manipulated and fabricated data, statistical analysis, and false figures will be investigated by the editors and publisher
Copyright
The authors retain the copyright. The publisher lets authors download, use and distribute the articles' content electronically as well as in physical form (for example through Email and or teaching or printing) and research data without restrictions in both academic, non-commercial and commercial sources
Authors can re-use their own content in new publications without permission or payment (with full acknowledgment of the original article and publication source) If they mention the source of publication. The journal is open access so it does not have any subscription for all kinds of users. Institutions such as universities, and classes can use articles in courses freely
The published articles can be used in translated sources provided that the acknowledgment of original source is considered. Authors must submit the original works which were/are not under consideration or publication and they must sign the copyright form
Author's Criteria
Authors must be committed to publication ethics in the area of production and publishing. The publication ethics have been defined and If authors violated the publication ethics, the publisher can take national and international legal actions against violation of rules. Submitting articles in this journal means that authors are aware of publication rules and follow them. All people who are involved in the publication including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher production team, have to come into an agreement with publication ethics rules
Scopes of a submitted manuscript must be based on the journal’s scopes
Manuscripts shall not be submitted under reviewed, accepted, or published in other sources (both national and international) at the same time. This action is considered a violation of publication ethics
Decision-making about the submitted manuscript (accept, reject, and revision) is part of the journal editors’ responsibility
Any edition or revision or proofreading of manuscripts content is done with the authors’ consent and agreement
Articles that are rejected and withdrawn will be archived in journal history and will be removed from the peer-reviewing process
The Journal staff and editors preserve the confidentiality of submitted manuscript and authors’ information and reviewers’ information until the end of the publication process and thereafter
The journal follows CC BY attribution. This license lets others including authors distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation
ََAuthors and readers can download, use and distribute the articles if they mention the source of publication
A decision is unbiasedly made regardless of the authors’ ethnicity, religion, region, race, gender, and sexual orientation
The authors’ responsibility
All authors and co-authors must contribute to composing the manuscript or research
All authors and co-authors must sign the copyright form and declare the conflict of interest. In the copyright form, authors clearly guarantee their manuscript is original and is not under consideration in other sources such as journals and conferences. Conditions explained in the copyright form can help both authors and the publisher to widely publicize the content of the article
A corresponding author is a person who contributes to article preparation and submission. They shall enlist all other co-authors and avoid listing people who have no role in composing the research paper. In addition, the authors must reach an agreement on the content of the manuscript
Authors are responsible for the accuracy and reliability of manuscripts content and the journal does not advocate contents
The scientific manuscripts must be based on the journal's standards and format. The methodology must be conducted carefully and precisely and data must be reported in a reliable way
Authors are obliged to mention all sources applied in the manuscript both in citations and references
Authors must adhere to the precise way of citations and references and all applied sources must be cited in both body of the manuscript and reference list. Authors must consider other source copyright. Citation and references must follow APA format and must include all sources applied in the manuscripts including articles, books, internet sources, etc
Authors must avoid any fabricated and manipulated data, false information and duplication (for an instant, translating from other sources without citations)
The journal might ask authors to present their raw data (including questionnaires, interviews and other instruments) if necessary to examine the accuracy of results. Based on ALPSP-STM statement on data and databases, providing public access to this raw information can improve the understanding of papers
Research involving human or animal subjects must preserve the subjects’ safety and health. Research conduction which harmed (or will harm) subjects or participants or put them at risk must completely be elaborated in the manuscript
If authors benefit from financial support, they must mention the sponsorship information and also the conflict of interest
If authors notice any errors or mistakes in the results of the article during the publication process and after that, they must inform the journal editors and correct scientific mistakes or withdraw the paper
Submission of articles in this journal means that authors have not published those articles in other sources (Except Thesis or dissertation) and authors agree with submission and order of authors; Additionally, the article’s sponsorship and funder must be aware of submission. During the peer-reviewing or publication process, authors are not allowed to submit the same article to other journals or conferences in case of violation of these rules, the journal can take legal actions against authors
Note: This Journal shall NOT publish more than two papers submitted by its editors in a year. If one of the editors such as editor in chief, managing editor, etc. tends to submit a paper in the journal, his/ her paper will be managed or peer-reviewed without the authors’ interference and unbiasedly by reviewers assigned by other editors
Reviewers’ Criteria
Reviewers shall maintain the confidentiality of the research papers, they have no right to share and publish the contents of manuscripts
Reviewers must report any unethical cases in manuscripts including double submission or plagiarism to editors
If the manuscript is against the reviewers’ interest, they are morally obliged to decline the peer-reviewing process
If the reviewers discover the authors ‘name and affiliation accident, it is appropriate to inform editors to avoid any biased comments
Reviewers must send their comments during the deadlines after accepting editors’ invitations; if they are not able to meet the deadlines due to any reason, they shall contact editors as soon as possible
Reviewers are expected to review the papers unbiasedly and respect the journal policies
Publisher’s Criteria
The publisher is committed to keeping all content and history of manuscripts confidential. The publisher is obliged to answer users’ queries regarding the technical problems of the site
The publisher shall back up and store the data archive of all manuscripts
The publisher must publish articles after proofreading and authors’ approval
The publisher must provide articles with appropriate proofreading and layout
The publisher shall solve any possible technical and non-technical problems regarding the journal management system
The publisher must manage the problematic issues and misconduct on the basis of ethical rules issued by COPE and the publisher
The publisher has to observe the journals’ activities and feedbacks to assure that journals adhere to the ethical rules
Any person or third party can contact the journal’s mail in the ‘’Contact Section’’ or the mail of Research@khuisf.ac.ir (publisher’s research center) regarding any report or allegation of misconduct or incorrect actions by PUBLISHER
Publisher’ editors and employees may publish their papers providing that a third editor from another university or institute has provided unbiased peer review
Archiving
Content of website and article process is preserved by every-day backup which owner of the server (Islamic Azad University) is committed to providing with us every day
Part of important files is stored on a Hard disk and the publication articles are preserved by the National Library of Iran and other databases such as Academia and Islamic World Science Citation Center