Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Gulf Journal of Mathematics (GJoM) is committed to ensuring publication ethics throughout the entire editorial process from submission to the final publication. GJoM takes instances of ethics violations very seriously and proceeds in such cases with a zero tolerance policy. The editors of GJoM enforce a rigorous peer-review process to maintain the academic integrity of the publications. To verify compliance, articles may be checked by Crossref Similarity Check.

Editors, reviewers, and authors are required to adhere to the following GJoM policies regarding publication ethics. The journal guidelines are based on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as well as Elsevier ethics guidelines.

 

Editors

• Publication Decisions. The final publication decision is made by the managing editor based on the recommendation of the handling editor and the reviewers' reports.
• Peer Review. The editor must ensure that the peer review process is fair, unbiased, and timely. If the submission passes the initial evaluation by the managing/handling editor for quality and appropriateness, it is forwarded for single-blind peer review by a qualified specialist in the field. Research articles should be reviewed by at least one independent reviewer, and where necessary the editor should seek additional opinions. Following the peer review a recommendation is made by the handling editor to accept, reject, or modify the manuscript.
• Fair Play. The editor must evaluate a manuscript based exclusively on its intellectual merit without regard to race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors. The editorial process should be transparent and complete.
• Confidentiality. The editor must protect the confidentiality of all the materials submitted to the journal including the original manuscript, communications, and referee reports.
• Competing Interests. The handling editor should disclose any potential conflict of  interest to the managing editor and recuse himself from handling the submission in which case the manuscript is assigned to a different editor. While editors are welcome to submit their research for consideration in GJoM, their submission will be handled by an independent and impartial member of the editorial board.

 

Reviewers

• Peer Review. Peer review is an essential part of editorial decision making. Reviewers should be experts in the field of the submitted manuscript. Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and decline to participate in the review process. Reviewers are asked to treat submissions with respect as they would their own work.
• Objectivity and Competing Interests. Review of submitted manuscripts must be done objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. Reviewers should consult the editor in cases there are potential conflicts of interest. Reviewers are discouraged from suggesting citations of the reviewers' work unless there is a genuine scientific reason.
• Confidentiality. Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not share the review or information about the paper with anyone or contact the authors directly without permission from the editor.

 

Authors

• Reporting Standards. Authors of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to ascertain the work. The manuscript should be prepared according to the journal style guidelines.
• Originality.  Authors must ensure that their work is entirely original. While it is appropriate to use the work of  others, it should be properly cited. Plagiarism can take many forms including copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others.  
• Acknowledgement of Sources.  Authors should acknowledge all sources of data used in the research and cite publications that have been influential in the research work.
• Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publications. Authors should not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently. Similarly, an author should not submit for consideration in another journal a paper that has been published previously, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint.
• Authorship of the Paper. Authorship should be limited only to those who made a substantial contribution to the paper including conceptualization, methodology, data collection, analysis, and writing. Everyone who made a significant contribution should be listed as a co-author. Others who made marginal contribution such as helpful discussion and light editing should be mentioned in the acknowledgement section. Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. The final version of the paper should be seen and approved by all the co-authors before submission.
• Competing Interests. Authors should disclose in writing to the managing editor any potential conflict of interest that may influence the editorial process or the academic integrity of the research.