Publication Ethics at the Journal of Umm Al-Qura University for Social Sciences

First: Responsibility of the Researcher

1. The researcher should adhere to the standards, guidelines and publishing rules specified by the Journal of Umm Al-Qura University for Social Sciences (JUQUSS) and to the principles and standards of research ethics and scientific publishing.
2. The researcher is obliged to observe the requirements of scientific integrity and respect for intellectual property rights by pledging the integrity of the research from the extraction of previous works and research, and from plagiarizing the literature and research of others.
3. In the case of joint publishing, the researcher is obliged to obtain the approval of all co-researchers and to acknowledge the effort of everyone who participated with the researcher in conducting the research and preparing the research paper.
4. The researcher is not permitted to submit a research paper that has been published in whole or in part in any form or language. They also undertake not to submit the research paper to any other party when it is under review by the journal. If it is accepted for publication, the researcher is not permitted to publish it again without obtaining the prior written consent of the journal.
5. The researcher is obliged to disclose any conflict of interest that may arise from the research, and they must disclose the source of all financial support for their research.
6. If the researcher finds a major error in the published work, they must inform the editor-in-chief to enable them to delete or correct the error.
7. Research published in the journal expresses the opinions of the researchers and does not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board or university. The researcher is fully responsible for the content of the research.

Originality and Plagiarism

The authors must ensure that the work submitted is original, and if the authors have adopted the work or words of others must be duly cited or quoted. JUQUSS does not tolerate plagiarism, data, or figure manipulation. We use iThenticate – an efficacious plagiarism detection software, to verify the originality of the manuscript. A similarity score between 1-10%  is acceptable in a manuscript. Similarities above 10% - will not be recognised for publication. 

Second: Responsibility of the Peer-Reviewer

1. The peer reviewer is obliged to respond to the initial peer review acceptance letter within three days from the date of receipt of the peer review letter. Upon acceptance to peer review the research, they shall be committed to completing the peer review within a maximum period of two weeks from the date of their acceptance to do the task.
2. The peer reviewer shall adhere to scientific integrity in peer-reviewing the research without bias for any considerations.
3. The peer reviewer shall not accept peer review research that is outside the scope of their specialty or if they do not have sufficient experience of it.
4. The peer reviewer must treat the research received for peer reviewing as confidential documents. They must not disclose it or discuss it with others except as authorized by the editor-in-chief.
5. The peer reviewers may not use the research under peer review in any way to achieve an unwarranted personal benefit to themselves or to others.
6. The peer reviewer shall make detailed remarks on the research, according to the approved peer review form. They should not restrict themselves to overall examination and peer review; their remarks should be directed to the research, and not to the person of the researcher.
7. In the event that the peer reviewer refers to extraction or plagiarism in the scientific material that they peer review, they are obliged to refer to the clauses in which fraud or plagiarism occurred and attach proof of that.

Third: Responsibility of the Editorial Board

1. The editorial board is committed to verifying the quality of scientific research submitted for publication, and referring it to peer reviewers with scientific expertise and specialization in the subject matter of the research.
2. The journal editorial board is committed to the geographical diversity of peer reviewers; they should not all belong to one scientific institution.
3. The editorial board is obliged to respond to the researcher's request to initially exclude any peer reviewer before appointing the peer reviewers, whenever they are satisfied with the reasons and justifications presented. The editorial board should also ask all peer reviewers to disclose any conflict of interest they have before agreeing to accept the task of peer reviewing and starting its procedures.
4. The editorial board must exercise its powers honestly, objectively, and fairly; it should not discriminate between researchers based on illegal considerations.
5. The editorial board is committed to giving researchers a reasonable opportunity to respond to the peer reviewers’ remarks on their research.
6. The editorial board is committed to confidentiality and preserving information about research and researchers, as long as it is in the peer-reviewing stage.
7. The editor-in-chief is obligated to inform the owner of the approved scientific material of the license to publish it and the number specified for its publication.