Guidelines on Ethical Conduct and Publication

The Journal of Integrated Social Sciences and Wellbeing (JISSAW) adhere to the highest standards of integrity in scholarly publishing. Our policies are strictly aligned with the core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Declaration of Helsinki for research involving human subjects.

1. Authorship and Contributorship

JISSAW follows the ICMJE recommendations for authorship. To be listed as an author, an individual must meet all four of the following criteria:

  1. Substantial Contribution: Significant involvement in the conception, design, data acquisition, or analysis of the study (e.g., designing a sociological survey or analyzing public health statistics).
  2. Intellectual Input: Drafting the work or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
  3. Final Approval: Giving final approval of the version to be published.
  4. Accountability: Agreeing to be accountable for all aspects of the work and resolving any questions related to accuracy or integrity.

Non-Author Contributions: Contributors who do not meet all four criteria (e.g., those providing technical support, funding acquisition, or general supervision) must be listed in the Acknowledgments section.

2. Policy on Artificial Intelligence (AI)

JISSAW maintains a strict transparency policy regarding Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT, LLMs) to ensure human accountability.

  • Prohibited Role: AI tools cannot be listed as authors. They lack the legal standing to take responsibility for the research.
  • Disclosure: Authors must disclose the use of AI in the Methods or Acknowledgments section (e.g., "AI tools were used to refine the grammatical structure of this manuscript" or "Machine learning algorithms were used to code large-scale interview datasets").
  • Originality Limit: AI-generated content must not exceed 19% of the total manuscript. Submissions exceeding this threshold during screening will be returned.

3. Ethical Oversight (Human Subjects)

For all research involving human participants—including surveys, interviews, and behavioral observations—authors must ensure compliance with ethical standards.

  • Institutional Review Board (IRB): Evidence of ethical approval from a relevant institutional committee must be provided.
  • Informed Consent: Authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from all participants. For research involving vulnerable populations (e.g., children, refugees, or patients with mental health conditions), strict protocols for consent and anonymity must be documented.
  • Confidentiality: All personal identifiers must be removed (e.g., using pseudonyms like "Participant A" or "School X") unless explicit written permission is granted by the subject.

4. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

To promote transparency in social science, JISSAW encourages authors to make their research data available.

  • Primary Data: Authors are encouraged to deposit anonymized datasets (e.g., survey responses, transcripts) in public repositories like the Open Science Framework (OSF) or Figshare.
  • Citation: Datasets should be cited in the manuscript with a DOI or persistent link.
  • Exceptions: If data cannot be shared due to privacy or ethical restrictions (e.g., sensitive clinical records), this must be stated clearly in the Data Availability Statement.

5. Allegations of Misconduct

JISSAW takes all allegations of scientific misconduct seriously and handles them according to COPE Flowcharts.

  • Plagiarism: Submissions are screened using Turnitin. Any manuscript found to have significant unoriginal content without attribution will be rejected.
  • Data Fabrication: Manipulation of results (e.g., altering statistical outcomes in a policy study to fit a hypothesis) will result in immediate rejection and notification of the author’s institution.
  • Citation Manipulation: Excessive self-citation or unrelated citations to inflate metrics are grounds for rejection.

6. Complaints and Appeals

  • Editorial Decisions: Authors may appeal a rejection if they can demonstrate a procedural error or bias during peer review. Appeals must be sent to the Editor-in-Chief with a detailed rebuttal.
  • Post-Publication Concerns: Readers may raise concerns about published articles (e.g., errors in data analysis). The editorial team will investigate these concerns and, if necessary, issue a Correction or Retraction in line with COPE guidelines.

7. Intellectual Property and Licensing

All articles in JISSAW are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

  • Author Rights: Authors retain the copyright of their work without restrictions.
  • Usage: The license allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as the original authors are credited. This ensures maximum global impact for your research.