Bilad Alrafidain Journal of Humanities and Social Science (BAJHSS)aims to achieve the highest standards in Publication Ethics. Therefore, it is pertinent to remind all members of the publication process, including Authors, Reviewers and Editors of their responsibility to abide by all the principles of publication ethics, and to illustrate some important points below.

Publisher’s Responsibilities

We follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)’s Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers ( PDF ). The publisher is dedicated to supporting the vast efforts of the editors, the academic contributions of authors, and the respected volunteer work undertaken by reviewers. The publisher is also responsible for ensuring that the publication system works smoothly, and that ethical guidelines are applied to assist the editor, author, and reviewer in performing their ethical duties.

Editor-in-Chief and Editors’ Responsibilities

1. The Editor-in-Chief has the responsibility and authority to approve or reject the submitted manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief may delegate this responsibility to the Associate Editor.
2. The Editor-in-Chief and Editors are required to check all submitted manuscripts.
3. The Editor-in-Chief and Editors appoint reviewers based on their competence, scientific and professional experience, as well as ethical commitment.
4. The Editor-in-Chief and Editors should take care to avoid any conflict of interests in the reviewing process to exclude any personal, business, academic and financial relations which may bias the decision about the publication of the submitted manuscript.
5. The Editor-in-Chief accepts or rejects a manuscript after evaluating the revised manuscript based on reviewers' reports and decisions.
6. The Editor-in-Chief uses his/her judgment as to whether to accept or reject a manuscript with the Editorial Board members or Editors.
7. The Editor-in-Chief and Editors should keep all the information in the manuscript confidential and are not allowed to disclose its content to others. Before publication of the manuscript, the Editor-in-Chief and Editors are not allowed to use their own ideas for or against his own or other studies, or to criticize the author.
8. The Editor-in-Chief should seriously treat any allegations of Research and Publication Misconduct concerning a manuscript submitted to the journal at any stage of the review process or one that has already been published in the journal. The allegations should be initially assessed and the accused authors should be provided a chance to respond.
9. If Research and Publication Misconduct is found to be well documented the Editor-in-Chief should act to immediately stop the publication process or if the manuscript has already been published to remove it from open space, inform the readers and the data bases where the paper is indexed. The Editor-in-Chief is expected to start the legal procedure against author(s) who perpetrated the misconduct.
10. The Editors are responsible for checking if a submitted manuscript is prepared according to the Instructions for Authors.
11. The Editors are required to make sound editorial decisions within a reasonable period of time and communicate them in a clear and constructive manner.

Reviewers' Responsibilities

1. Reviewer should not review a manuscript with which he/she has principal disagreement that may affect the fairness of his/her decision.
2. A Reviewer should not accept reviewing manuscript(s) whenever there is a conflict of interests between the Reviewer and Author or institutions they represent or have personal relations.
3. A Reviewer should not accept reviewing manuscript(s) to which he/she contributed either in writing, giving ideas, acquiring experimental evidence, analysis etc.
4. Reviews of the manuscript should be based on scientific argumentation, free from emotions and personal, racial, religious or other preferences. Reviewer is to point out strong and weak point(s) of the manuscript and suggest solutions for revision of the manuscript.
5. A Reviewer should keep all the information in the manuscript confidential and must not disclose its content to others. Before publication of the manuscript, the reviewer must not use its ideas for or against his own or other studies, or to criticize the author. After publication, the reviewer must not reveal his/her dispute with the author beyond what is presented in the journal.
6. Any case of Research and Publication Misconduct detected by a Reviewer should be immediately reported to the Editor-in-Chief and supported by sending the related documents.
7. A Reviewer is not allowed to commission his/her task to anyone such as his/her assistant or graduate student without written permission from the Editor-in-Chief. Anyone assisting in reviewing the article should be mentioned in the review report and the journal documents.
8. A Reviewer is not permitted to contact the author(s) of the reviewed paper unless it is made through the Editorial Office.