The International Journal of Studies in Sexuality Education (IJSSE) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly communication. The IJSSE follows the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (ALLEA, 2023), and other internationally recognised standards of responsible research and scholarly publishing.
The IJSSE considers publication ethics to be a shared responsibility among authors, editors, reviewers, the editorial board, the publisher, and other parties involved in the publication process. Allegations of research or publication misconduct are taken seriously and may be investigated before or after publication.
- Responsibilities of the editors
Editors of IJSSE are responsible for ensuring that editorial decisions are made fairly, transparently, independently, and consistently.
Editors shall:
- Evaluate manuscripts on the basis of their academic quality, originality, methodological soundness, relevance to the journal's scope, and scholarly contribution, rather than the author's nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, ethnicity, religion, political views, or other personal characteristics,
- Ensure that manuscripts undergo an appropriate and rigorous double-blind peer-review process;
- Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and associated editorial information,
- Ensure that manuscripts are assigned to appropriately qualified reviewers,
- Declare and appropriately manage any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest;
- Not participate in editorial decisions concerning manuscripts in which they have a personal, professional, financial, institutional, or other competing interest,
- Protect the integrity and independence of the editorial decision-making process,
- Investigate credible allegations of research or publication misconduct in accordance with COPE principles,
- Respond appropriately to complaints and appeals concerning editorial decisions or publication processes,
- Take appropriate action when errors, ethical concerns, or misconduct are identified in published articles, including issuing corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions where necessary.
Editorial decisions shall not be influenced by the ability or willingness of authors to pay publication or processing fees. Payment of a publication fee does not guarantee acceptance or publication.
- Responsibilities of authors
Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted and published work meets appropriate standards of research integrity.
2.1 Authorship and contributorship
All individuals who have made a substantive scholarly contribution to the research and manuscript should be appropriately recognised as authors or contributors. Authors must:
- Agree on the authorship list and order before submission,
- Ensure that all listed authors have made a genuine contribution to the work,
- Obtain the consent of all authors before submission,
- Ensure that no eligible contributor is unfairly excluded from authorship,
- Disclose any changes to authorship after submission and obtain agreement from all affected authors and the IJSSE,
- Not engage in guest, honorary, gift, ghost, or fabricated authorship.
Authorship disputes should be resolved, where possible, by the authors and their institutions. The IJSSE may request institutional clarification where necessary.
2.2 Originality and exclusive submission
Manuscripts submitted to IJSSE must be original and must not have been published previously in substantially the same form. Authors must not:
- Submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal,
- Submit substantially overlapping manuscripts without appropriate disclosure,
- Reproduce previously published material without proper acknowledgment and permission where required,
- Engage in duplicate or redundant publication.
Where substantial overlap with a previously published work is identified, the IJSSE may investigate the matter and take appropriate action.
2.3 Plagiarism and text recycling
Authors must appropriately acknowledge all sources, ideas, data, quotations, images, instruments, and other material originating from other sources.
Plagiarism, including substantial unattributed copying, appropriation of ideas, fabricated citations, and inappropriate text recycling, is considered a form of publication misconduct.
IJSSE may use appropriate similarity-detection and editorial tools during manuscript assessment. A similarity score alone does not constitute proof of plagiarism, editorial assessment will consider the nature, extent, and context of the overlap.
2.4 Fabrication, falsification, and manipulation of data
Authors must report research honestly and accurately. The following are prohibited:
- Fabrication of data or results,
- Falsification or manipulation of data,
- Inappropriate image or figure manipulation,
- Selective reporting intended to misrepresent findings,
- Manipulation of statistical analyses to produce misleading conclusions,
- Fabrication or manipulation of references or citations.
Where serious concerns arise, the journal may request relevant supporting information, datasets, ethical approvals, research instruments, or other documentation and may refer concerns to the appropriate institution or research integrity body.
2.5 Research ethics and informed consent
Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical standards and institutional, national, and international requirements. Where applicable, authors must provide information concerning:
- Ethics committee/institutional review board approval,
- Ethics approval or reference number,
- Informed consent,
- Consent for publication,
- Protection of participant privacy and confidentiality,
- Procedures for protecting vulnerable participants.
Research involving children, persons with disabilities, or other potentially vulnerable populations must include appropriate safeguards and demonstrate that participants' rights, dignity, welfare, and privacy were protected.
2.6 Animal research
Research involving animals must comply with relevant institutional, national, and international ethical requirements.
Authors should demonstrate appropriate consideration of animal welfare and, where applicable, the principles of Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement (3Rs).
2.7 Conflicts of interest
Authors must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that could influence the research, interpretation of findings, or publication process. This may include:
- Financial interests,
- Employment or consultancy relationships,
- Personal relationships,
- Institutional relationships,
- funding relationships,
- Intellectual property interests,
- Collaborative relationships,
- Other competing interests.
Where no conflict exists, authors should provide an explicit statement such as: "The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest." (See Conflict of interest policy)
2.8 Funding
Authors must disclose all sources of financial and non-financial support for the research and publication.
Where applicable, authors should identify the role of the funder in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
2.9 Data availability and research materials
IJSSE supports transparency, reproducibility, and responsible data sharing.
Authors are encouraged to provide a data availability statement indicating whether research data, materials, instruments, or analysis resources are available and, where appropriate, explaining how to access them.
Data must not be shared where doing so would compromise participant confidentiality, privacy, legal requirements, ethical restrictions, or other legitimate protections.
2.10 Citation integrity
Authors must cite relevant scholarly work accurately and appropriately.
Citation manipulation, including excessive self-citation, coercive citation, reciprocal citation arrangements, and adding citations solely to increase citation metrics, is unacceptable. References must be verifiable and should accurately represent the work being cited.
- Responsibilities of reviewers
IJSSE uses a double-blind peer-review process. Reviewers are expected to maintain the highest standards of confidentiality, objectivity, and professional conduct. Reviewers must:
- Treat manuscripts and all associated information as confidential;
- Not share, copy, use, or disclose unpublished manuscript content without permission,
- Declare any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest,
- Decline the review where they have a relationship or interest that could compromise impartiality,
- Provide constructive, objective, evidence-based, and academically appropriate comments,
- Avoid personal, discriminatory, offensive, or defamatory comments,
- Identify relevant published work that has not been cited where appropriate,
- Notify the editor of suspected plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, or other ethical concerns;
- Complete reviews within the agreed timeframe or promptly notify the editor if an extension or replacement reviewer is required.
Reviewers must not use AI tools or generative AI systems to analyse, summarise, evaluate, or otherwise process confidential manuscripts unless expressly authorised by the IJSSE.
- Editorial conflicts of interest
Editors, editorial board members, reviewers, and authors must disclose relevant conflicts of interest.
An editor who has a conflict of interest with a submitted manuscript must not participate in its editorial assessment or decision-making.
When an editorial board member submits a manuscript to IJSSE, it must be handled independently by another editor who has no conflict of interest with the authors or the study.
- Complaints and appeals
IJSSE is committed to addressing legitimate complaints concerning editorial decisions, peer review, publication procedures, research integrity, and journal management fairly and transparently.
Authors may appeal an editorial decision where they believe that:
- A significant error occurred during the review process,
- Relevant information was overlooked,
- There was a demonstrable conflict of interest,
- The decision was inconsistent with the journal's editorial policies.
Appeals must provide a clear and substantive explanation. An appeal is not an automatic guarantee that the original decision will be overturned.
Complaints concerning editorial staff, editors, reviewers, or the publisher will, where possible, be investigated by an appropriate independent editorial authority.
The IJSSE will not tolerate retaliation against individuals who raise legitimate concerns about research or publication misconduct.
- Allegations of research and publication misconduct
IJSSE takes allegations of publication misconduct seriously, whether they are raised before or after publication. Potential misconduct includes, but is not limited to:
- Plagiarism,
- Duplicate or redundant publication,
- Fabrication of data,
- Falsification or manipulation of data,
- Manipulated images or figures,
- Fraudulent or fabricated authorship,
- Undisclosed conflicts of interest,
- Unethical research involving human or animal participants,
- Manipulation of the peer-review process,
- Citation manipulation,
- Fraudulent or unverifiable references,
- Inappropriate use or misrepresentation of artificial intelligence,
- Unauthorised use of confidential or copyrighted material.
When an allegation is received, the IJSSE may conduct a preliminary assessment and, where appropriate, request explanations or supporting documentation from the authors.
Where the matter cannot be adequately resolved by the IJSSE, it may refer the matter to the relevant author's institution, ethics committee, research integrity office, funder, or other appropriate authority.
The IJSSE will follow applicable COPE guidance when investigating suspected misconduct. COPE identifies allegations of misconduct, authorship, complaints and appeals, conflicts of interest, data and reproducibility, ethical oversight, peer review, and post-publication corrections as core areas of Publication Ethics
- Ethical oversight
IJSSE expects authors to comply with applicable ethical requirements for research involving:
- Human participants,
- Children and other vulnerable populations,
- Personal or sensitive information,
- Animals,
- Clinical or intervention research,
- Culturally sensitive or community-based research.
Where required, manuscripts should include an appropriate ethics statement identifying the approving institution or ethics committee and approval/reference number.
Authors are responsible for obtaining informed consent where required and for protecting participants' rights, dignity, privacy, safety, and confidentiality.
- Intellectual property, copyright, and permissions
Authors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts do not infringe the intellectual property rights of others.
All third-party material, including tables, figures, photographs, instruments, questionnaires, and substantial quotations, must be appropriately acknowledged and, where necessary, used with permission.
Authors must comply with the journal's copyright, licensing, and publishing agreements.
- Artificial Intelligence and AI-assisted technologies
IJSSE recognises that artificial intelligence and generative AI technologies are increasingly used in research and scholarly communication. The IJSSE, therefore, requires transparency regarding the substantive use of AI.
AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors, because authorship requires human responsibility for the integrity, accuracy, originality, and accountability of the work.
Authors who use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies for substantive purposes in preparing a manuscript must disclose:
- The name of the AI tool or system,
- The purpose for which it was used,
- The extent or nature of its contribution.
AI-generated content must be critically evaluated and verified by the authors. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, citations, and ethical compliance of the submitted manuscript.
Routine use of basic spelling, grammar, punctuation, or language-editing tools does not normally require disclosure. However, substantive generation, rewriting, analysis, interpretation, or transformation of scholarly content using AI should be disclosed.
Reviewers must not upload or otherwise submit confidential manuscripts or manuscript content to generative AI systems or other external AI services. This requirement protects confidentiality, intellectual property, and the integrity of the peer-review process.
- Publication fees and editorial independence
IJSSE maintains a clear separation between editorial decisions and publication fees.
Where a publication fee applies, the fee is payable only in accordance with the IJSSE's published fee policy and does not influence peer review or editorial decisions.
Payment or willingness to pay a publication fee shall never be a condition for acceptance of a manuscript on academic grounds.
Editors and reviewers must not request or receive financial or personal benefits in exchange for favourable editorial decisions or peer-review outcomes.
- Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions
IJSSE recognises its responsibility to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the published scholarly record.
Corrections
A correction may be published when an error is identified that affects the accuracy or clarity of the published article but does not invalidate the overall scholarly contribution.
Expressions of concern
Where substantial concerns arise but an investigation has not yet been completed, the IJSSE may publish an Expression of concern to alert readers while the matter is investigated.
Retractions
An article may be retracted when the IJSSE determines that the publication contains sufficiently serious problems to invalidate the reliability or integrity of the published record. Reasons for retraction may include:
- Fabricated or falsified data,
- Major methodological or analytical errors that invalidate the findings,
- Plagiarism or substantial unattributed duplication,
- Duplicate publication,
- Unethical research,
- Fraudulent authorship or manipulation of the publication process,
- Serious undisclosed conflicts of interest,
- Other circumstances that materially compromise the integrity of the published record.
Retractions will be clearly identified and linked to the original article so that the scholarly record remains transparent.
The IJSSE will distinguish between honest errors and misconduct and will not retract articles solely because authors disagree with subsequent interpretations of their findings.
- Post-publication discussion
IJSSE supports responsible scholarly discussion after publication.
Authors and readers may raise substantive concerns about published articles with the editorial office. Where appropriate, the journal may publish corrections, responses, commentaries, or other post-publication notices.
The IJSSE may investigate credible concerns regarding published articles and take appropriate corrective action.
- Editorial and publication record
IJSSE maintains editorial records relating to manuscript submission, peer review, editorial decisions, revisions, ethical investigations, and post-publication actions for an appropriate period.
Such records are handled confidentially and may be disclosed to relevant institutions, ethics bodies, publishers, or other legitimate authorities, as necessary, to investigate research or publication misconduct.
- Commitment to research integrity
IJSSE is committed to promoting a culture of research integrity, transparency, accountability, fairness, and responsible scholarly communication.
The IJSSE expects all participants in the publication process to act honestly and professionally and to cooperate with reasonable investigations of suspected misconduct.
This policy is informed by the COPE Core Practices and the 2023 Revised European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (ALLEA). The 2023 ALLEA Code explicitly addresses contemporary issues, including open science, data management, research assessment, digital technologies, and artificial intelligence.
IJSSE reserves the right to update this policy when international standards, ethical guidance, research practices, or publishing technologies develop.