Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Introduction

The Asian Interdisciplinary and Sustainability Review (AISR), published by the Association of Legal & Political Studies (ALPS), is steadfastly committed to cultivating a rigorous and transparent academic environment. To reflect our dedication to scholarly integrity as a leading regional journal in Asia, we have developed these in-house ethical guidelines. Our policies are strictly anchored in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, as well as COPE’s Core Practices.

Furthermore, AISR's editorial operations and ethical assessments strictly comply with the Announcement of the Thai Journal Citation Index (TCI) Centre regarding Ethical Assessment for Thai Academic Journals 2023. We also proactively implement the guidelines and tools provided by Elsevier's Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK) for Editors to systematically manage, investigate, and resolve any publication ethics issues.

 

Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

The Editorial Board maintains absolute autonomy and accountability in determining which manuscripts warrant publication, free from commercial or political interference.

  • Fair Play and Impartiality: Editors evaluate all submissions exclusively on their academic merit, original contribution, and relevance to the journal’s scope, regardless of the authors' demographic background or institutional affiliation.
  • Managing Open Peer Review: AISR champions an Open Peer Review model. Editors are responsible for facilitating transparent, constructive, and highly professional dialogue between authors and reviewers through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform.
  • Integrity of the Published Record: Editors are obligated to safeguard academic integrity. Should suspected misconduct or fundamental errors arise, the editorial team will take swift action, ranging from publishing errata and clarifications to issuing formal retractions, in strict accordance with the COPE Code of Conduct.
  • Journal’s Policies on Corrections and Retractions: Expanding on this commitment, corrections will be published promptly for scientifically relevant errors. Retractions will be formally issued in cases of severe misconduct, fundamentally flawed research, or major ethical breaches, to ensure the scholarly record remains accurate.
  • How the Journal Will Handle Allegations of Research Misconduct: We take all allegations of misconduct seriously, whether raised pre-publication or post-publication. The editorial team utilizes Elsevier's PERK decision trees and COPE flowcharts to thoroughly, fairly, and confidentially investigate any claims.
  • How the Journal Will Handle Complaints and Appeals: AISR provides a transparent mechanism for handling complaints against the journal, its staff, the editorial board, or the publisher. Authors also reserve the right to appeal editorial decisions. All appeals and complaints are reviewed independently by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated senior editorial board member.
  • Journal’s Policies for Ensuring the Integrity of the Scholarly Literature: We proactively enforce policies and procedures to protect the scientific record. We rigorously screen for and handle issues when they arise, including plagiarism, citation manipulation (such as coercive self-citation), and data falsification/fabrication. Strict penalties are outlined and enforced for any such integrity violations.

 

Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers 

Peer reviewers are essential to maintaining AISR’s high academic standards. By participating in our Open Peer Review process, reviewers agree to engage in a transparent, constructive manner.

  • Objectivity and Constructive Feedback: Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts objectively, providing robust, well-reasoned critiques designed to elevate the quality of the research. Personal criticism is strictly prohibited.
  • Promptness and Competence: If a selected reviewer feels unqualified to assess the specific subject matter or is unable to complete the review within the stipulated timeframe, they must notify the editor immediately so alternative arrangements can be made.
  • Conflict of Interest: Despite the transparency of the open review system, reviewers must not evaluate manuscripts where they possess competitive, collaborative, or financial conflicts of interest with the authors or the research presented.
  • Journal’s Policies on Conflicts of Interest: Expanding on this principle, all participants in the publication process—including authors, reviewers, and editors—must explicitly declare any potential conflicts of interest. Editors are required to recuse themselves from handling submissions where any conflict exists to ensure impartial evaluation.
  • Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant uncited literature and alert the editor to any substantial similarities between the manuscript under review and previously published works.

 

Duties and Responsibilities of Authors 

Authors submitting to AISR are expected to uphold the highest ethical standards in the execution and reporting of their research.

  • Originality, Plagiarism, and Authorship: Authors must guarantee that their submitted work is entirely original. Plagiarism in any form, as well as concurrent submissions to multiple journals, is unequivocally unacceptable. Authorship must be limited exclusively to individuals who have made substantial scientific contributions to the study.
  • Journal’s Policies on Authorship and Contributorship: All listed authors must agree to be mutually accountable for all aspects of the published work. Individuals who participated in the research but do not meet the strict criteria for formal authorship should be listed in an "Acknowledgments" section as contributors, with their specific contributions noted.
  • Mandatory Self-Certification: To formalize their adherence to these ethics, the corresponding author is required to sign and upload the "Author Self-Certification Form for Revised Manuscript Submission" as a supplementary file via OJS during the revision stage. This document legally certifies compliance with journal formatting, scholarly ethical standards, and our specific policies regarding generative technologies.

 

Ethical Oversight and Guidelines for the Protection of Human and Animal Research Subjects 

  • Journal’s Policy on Ethical Oversight: AISR exercises strict ethical oversight over all published content to ensure absolute adherence to global ethical standards regarding research conduct.
  • AISR places paramount importance on the ethical treatment of research subjects.
  • Human Subjects: Any research involving human participants must rigorously comply with the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki. Authors are required to explicitly state the acquisition of informed consent and provide the approval number from the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) or local ethics committee within the manuscript.
  • Animal Subjects: Research utilizing animal subjects must be conducted humanely and ethically, strictly adhering to the ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines. Explicit approval from the ethics committee must be documented in the manuscript.
  • Clinical Trials: In pursuit of clinical transparency, clinical trials must be formally registered in a recognized public registry (e.g., the WHO Registry Network or ClinicalTrials.gov) prior to patient enrollment and reported in accordance with CONSORT guidelines.

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative Technologies Policy 

To address contemporary technological advancements, AISR enforces a strict policy on the use of Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), fully aligned with the position statements of COPE and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

  • Authorship Ineligibility: AI tools and LLMs cannot be listed or credited as authors under any circumstances. As non-legal entities, they are incapable of taking public responsibility for the work, asserting the absence of conflicts of interest, or managing copyright agreements.
  • Prohibited Applications: The generation of substantive manuscript content—including but not limited to abstracts, literature reviews, reporting of results, in-text statistics, and the creation of scientific images or graphical figures—using AI tools is strictly prohibited.
  • Permissible Use and Mandatory Transparency: Authors may utilize AI tools exclusively for copy-editing (to improve the language and readability of author-created content) or to assist in data analysis. If AI tools are employed for these permitted purposes, authors must transparently disclose the specific tools used and the nature of their application within the Research Methodology section.
  • Ultimate Accountability: The human authors remain fully accountable for the accuracy, integrity, and validity of their entire manuscript. Authors bear complete liability for any ethical breaches, factual inaccuracies, or plagiarism resulting from the use of AI tools.

 

Journal Policies on Data, Intellectual Property, and Scholarly Dialogue

  • Journal’s Policies on Data Sharing and Reproducibility: To foster scientific advancement and transparency, AISR strongly encourages authors to share the raw data, code, and materials supporting their research. Authors are requested to include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscript indicating where and how the supporting data can be accessed.
  • Journal’s Policy on Intellectual Property: Authors must respect all intellectual property laws. Authors must secure all necessary permissions to reproduce any copyrighted materials, figures, or instruments used in their manuscript prior to publication. AISR clearly outlines copyright and licensing agreements (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)) prior to publication.
  • Journal’s Options for Post-Publication Discussions: We strongly support vibrant academic discourse. AISR provides formal mechanisms for post-publication discussion, inviting readers to submit scholarly commentaries or Letters to the Editor on published articles, thereby allowing the original authors the opportunity to respond.

 

References and Guiding Frameworks 

To ensure the highest level of transparency and adherence to global publishing standards, the ethical policies of AISR are founded upon the frameworks, guidelines, and declarations established by the following authoritative organizations: