Publication Ethics

Al-Turath Journal of Media Studies (ATJMS) and its editorial team are fully committed to following the principles and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Editors’ Duties and Responsibilities

The Editorial Board is responsible for deciding which manuscripts submitted to ATJMS are suitable for publication.
The Editorial Board is responsible for safeguarding the integrity and quality of the journal’s published content.
Editors evaluate manuscripts exclusively on their academic merit, originality, methodological soundness, relevance to the journal’s scope, and contribution to media and communication studies.
The Editor-in-Chief and members of the Editorial Board must keep all information concerning submitted manuscripts and the peer-review process confidential.
The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board members must disclose and avoid any conflicts of interest that could affect editorial decisions.
Editors must not encourage unnecessary self-citation, journal citation, or any other form of citation manipulation.
The Editorial Board must advise reviewers to identify and report suspected research misconduct or ethical concerns in submitted manuscripts.
Reviewers should notify the Editorial Board of suspected plagiarism, duplicate submission, redundant publication, data manipulation, or other ethical violations.
All relevant reviewers’ comments should be communicated to the authors, except comments containing offensive, discriminatory, defamatory, or inappropriate language.
The Editorial Board must take appropriate measures to ensure that all manuscripts meet the journal’s academic, ethical, and editorial standards, while recognizing the different purposes and methodological traditions of various areas of media and communication research.
The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board have the final authority to accept or reject submitted manuscripts.

Reviewers’ Duties and Responsibilities

Reviewers assist the Editorial Board in evaluating submitted manuscripts and making informed editorial decisions.
Reviews must be conducted objectively and constructively. Comments and recommendations should be supported by clear academic reasoning, while personal criticism of authors is unacceptable.
Reviewers who are unable to evaluate a manuscript within the required period or outside their area of expertise should promptly inform the Editorial Office and may recommend suitably qualified alternative reviewers.
Reviewers must treat submitted manuscripts and all related information as confidential documents.
Reviewers must provide impartial and unbiased assessments without discrimination based on the authors’ nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, religion, political beliefs, or other personal characteristics.
Reviewers should inform the Editorial Board when a manuscript does not comply with the journal’s academic, ethical, or submission requirements.
Reviewers must notify the Editorial Board of any suspected unethical conduct associated with a submitted manuscript.
Reviewers must not use unpublished information, arguments, data, research ideas, or methods obtained through peer review for personal or professional advantage.
Reviewers must disclose any potential conflict of interest that could prevent them from providing an impartial evaluation.
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited and notify the Editorial Board of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript and other published or submitted work known to them.

Authors’ Duties and Responsibilities

Authors must submit original work and appropriately acknowledge, cite, or quote the ideas, data, images, and words of others. Publications that have significantly influenced the submitted work must also be properly cited.
Manuscripts may be submitted in English or Arabic and must be written in clear, academically appropriate language using accurate terminology relevant to media and communication studies.
Manuscripts must not have been previously published and must not be under consideration by another journal or publisher at the time of submission.
The corresponding author must ensure that all individuals who made substantial contributions are included as co-authors, that no individuals who did not contribute are listed, and that all co-authors have approved the final manuscript and agreed to its submission.
Authors are responsible for obtaining any institutional authorization required before submitting their manuscripts.
By submitting a manuscript, authors agree that the journal may undertake necessary language editing, copyediting, and formatting without altering the scholarly meaning of the work.
Authors must identify all sources of financial support and briefly describe the role of the funder or sponsor in the design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or reporting of the research.
All authors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, or personal conflicts of interest that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the results or interpretation of the manuscript.
All authors must authorize the corresponding author to communicate with the Editorial Office throughout the submission, peer-review, revision, editing, and proofreading processes.
All manuscripts submitted to or published by ATJMS may be screened using plagiarism-detection software. Plagiarism constitutes a serious violation of publication ethics.
Authors of original research must present an accurate account of the work conducted and provide an objective discussion of its significance.
Research data and findings must be presented accurately. Manuscripts should contain sufficient methodological detail and references to permit evaluation and, where applicable, replication. Fabricated, falsified, manipulated, or knowingly inaccurate statements are unacceptable.
Authors must obtain appropriate permissions for copyrighted photographs, audiovisual material, screenshots, advertisements, social-media content, or other media materials reproduced in their manuscripts.
Authors must respect privacy, confidentiality, and informed-consent requirements when research involves interviewees, media users, online communities, or identifiable individuals.
Authors retain copyright in their published work and grant permission for its distribution and reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Authors may be asked to provide the raw data, coding framework, questionnaire, interview protocol, media sample, or other supporting materials for editorial examination and should make such materials publicly available whenever ethically, legally, and practically possible.
If authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their submitted or published work, they must promptly notify the Editor or publisher and cooperate in correcting or retracting the article.
In cases of authorship disputes, the journal will normally require the authors and their institutions to resolve the matter. If the dispute cannot be resolved, the journal reserves the right to suspend evaluation or withdraw the manuscript.
Authors are encouraged to contribute to the sustainability of scholarly publishing by participating in the peer-review process when invited and suitably qualified.
The journal reserves the right to reject or withdraw a manuscript after acceptance if serious problems involving its content, validity, originality, or compliance with journal policies are discovered.
Authors may request withdrawal of a manuscript before acceptance by providing a clear justification. After acceptance or publication, withdrawal or retraction will be considered only in accordance with the journal’s withdrawal and retraction policies.
Manuscripts may be withdrawn or retracted when they involve serious ethical violations, including multiple submission, plagiarism, fraudulent data, unauthorized use of material, or duplicate publication.
For studies involving human participants, authors must obtain informed consent whenever required and protect participants’ privacy and confidentiality.
Ethical approval must be obtained before conducting research involving human participants or animals whenever such approval is required by applicable institutional or national regulations.
All authors must review and comply with the journal’s final submission checklist before submitting a manuscript to ATJMS.

Publisher’s Duties and Responsibilities

The publisher respects the authority of the Editorial Board and safeguards the independence of editorial decisions concerning submitted manuscripts.
The publisher ensures that editorial decisions are independent of financial or commercial interests and are based solely on academic and ethical considerations.
The publisher supports the integrity and preservation of the scholarly record.
The publisher promotes ethical conduct among authors, reviewers, editors, and all other participants in the publication process.
The publisher maintains zero tolerance for plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, and other forms of research misconduct.
The publisher supports the publication of corrections, expressions of concern, editorial notices, withdrawals, and retractions whenever necessary to maintain an accurate and transparent scholarly record.

Violations of Publication Ethics

Plagiarism: Presenting another person’s words, ideas, data, images, or other intellectual work without appropriate acknowledgment or citation constitutes plagiarism. All submissions may be checked using plagiarism-detection software.

Data Fabrication and Falsification: Inventing, altering, omitting, or manipulating research data, survey responses, interview records, media samples, images, or findings constitutes serious misconduct.

Simultaneous Submission: Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time is prohibited.

Duplicate or Redundant Publication: Publishing substantially similar content without proper disclosure, justification, or reference to the original work is unethical.

Improper Authorship: All listed authors must have made substantial contributions to the work. Gift, guest, and ghost authorship are prohibited.

Citation Manipulation: Adding excessive, irrelevant, or unnecessary citations for the purpose of artificially increasing citation metrics constitutes misconduct.

Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest: Failure to disclose relevant financial, professional, institutional, or personal interests that could influence the research or its interpretation may constitute an ethical violation.

Sanctions: Suspected and confirmed violations will be investigated and addressed in accordance with COPE guidelines and the journal’s established policies.

Handling Cases of Misconduct

The Section Editor or handling editor will inform the Editor-in-Chief of suspected misconduct and provide the available evidence.
The author or other concerned party will normally be given an opportunity to provide an explanation and supporting documentation.
If the explanation is unsatisfactory or the allegation is serious, the matter may be referred to the Editorial Board and, where appropriate, the relevant institution or authority.
Minor or unintentional violations may result in a warning, a request for correction, or another proportionate editorial action.
Serious or repeated violations may result in manuscript rejection, article retraction, restrictions on future submissions, and notification of the authors’ institutions or other relevant bodies.
Corrections, expressions of concern, and retraction notices will be clearly identified, dated, publicly accessible, and electronically linked to the affected article.
All allegations will be handled fairly, confidentially, and consistently, regardless of when the manuscript was submitted or published.