The author, the journal editor(s), the peer reviewer and the publisher) agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior. The International Leadership Journal bases its ethical standards on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Duties of the Editor and Associate Editors

Fair play

Submitted author manuscripts are evaluated solely on for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors. Papers are selected based on their originality, significant contribution to the field, relevance to the scope of the journal, and clarity. Legal requirements, e.g., libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism, are also considered.

Confidentiality

The Editor and any editorial staff will not disclose any information about a manuscript submitted for review manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers, and the publisher.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a manuscript submitted for publication will not be used in an Editor’s own research without the explicit written consent of the author(s).

Publication decisions

The Editor of the journal is responsible for deciding which of the submitted articles should be published. The Editor may be guided by the policies of the Editorial Board of ILJ and constrained by such legal requirements (See above Fair Play). The Editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in this decision-making process.

Duties of associate editors and peer reviewers

Contribution to editorial decisions

Associate editors and peer reviews assist the Editor in the editorial decision-making and may also assist the author in improving the manuscript, through the editorial communication with the author(s).

Promptness

Invited referees who feel unqualified to review the manuscript or who knows that a timely review will be impossible will immediately notify the Editor so that alternative reviewers can be contacted to review the manuscript.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review will be treated as confidential documents. They will not be shown to or discussed with any other person unless authorized by the Editor.

Standards of objectivity

Reviews will be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. Referees should express their views clearly with appropriate supporting arguments without any bias.

Acknowledgement of sources

Reviewers will identify relevant published work that the authors have not been cited in the manuscript. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. Reviewers will also call to the Editor’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published data of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through the peer review process will be kept confidential and will not used for personal advantage. Reviewers will not consider evaluating any manuscript in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the submission.

Duties of authors

Reporting standards

Authors reporting results of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the manuscript. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. Authors may be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the manuscript for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable.

Authors will ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data center), provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.

Originality, plagiarism and acknowledgement of sources

Authors will submit only entirely original works, and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited. Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given.

Multiple, redundant, or concurrent publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Manuscripts which have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. The author(s) retain the rights to published articles.

Authorship of a manuscript

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as coauthors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be named in an Acknowledgement section.

The corresponding author will ensure that only appropriate co-authors have been included in the author list of the manuscript, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or any other substantive conflict of interest that might influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Fundamental errors in published works.

Publisher’s confirmation

In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism the publisher, in close collaboration with the Editor, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question. This includes the prompt publication of an erratum or, in the most severe cases, the complete retraction of the affected work.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, the author will promptly notify the Editor or publisher of ILJ and cooperate with them to either retract the paper or to publish an appropriate erratum.