Publication ethics and malpractice statement

Our ethic statements are based on LEAD Journal’s editorial policies and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Publication decision

The editor of LEAD journal is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

1. Fair Play

An editor will at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

 

2. Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

 

3. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author.

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Editors should excuse themselves (namely should ask a co-editor, associate editor or other member of the editorial board instead to review and consider) from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers.

Editors should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. If needed, other appropriate action should be taken, such as the publication of a retraction or expression of concern.

Note: A conflict of interest is construed as a personal involvement in a case or other matter being reported; a meaningful financial interest in the matter, or a connection with an author, including personal relationships or direct academic competition, that might raise the question of bias in reviewing and judging work submitted for publication.

Duties of reviewers

1. Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. Peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication and lies at the heart of the scientific method.

 

2. Promptness

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that they will not be able to offer a prompt review should notify the editor and excuse herself/himself from the review process.

 

3. Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

 

4. Standards of Objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

 

5. Acknowledgement of Sources

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

 

6. Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts 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 papers.

 

7. Grievance Redressal and Co-operation in Investigation

An editor should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper, in conjunction with the publisher. Such measures will generally include contacting the author of the manuscript or paper and giving due consideration of the respective complaint or claims made but may also include further communications to the relevant institutions and research bodies, and if the complaint is upheld, the publication of a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other note, as may be relevant. Every reported act of unethical publishing behaviour must be looked into, even if it is discovered years after publication.

Duties of authors

1. Reporting Standards

Authors of reports 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 paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

 

2. Data Access and Retention

Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review and should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

 

3. Originality and Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

 

4. 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. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

 

5. Acknowledgement of Sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.

 

6. Authorship of the Paper

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 co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

 

7. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Examples of potential conflicts of interest, which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest stage possible.

 

8. Fundamental Errors in Published Works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. If the editor learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, it is the obligation of the author to promptly retract or correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper.

Privacy policy

This privacy policy will explain how LEAD Journal uses the personal data we collect from you when you use our website.

What data do we collect?

LEAD Journal collects personal identification information (Name, email address, phone number, etc.) when you register for one of our services (newsletter for instance).

How do we collect your data?

You directly provide LEAD Journal with most of the data we collect. We collect data and process data when you:

  • Register online or place an order for any of our products or services.
  • Voluntarily complete a customer survey or provide feedback on any of our message boards or via email.
  • Use or view our website via your browser’s cookies.
  • Make a submission for publication, whether trough this website, by email or any other communication method. 
  • LEAD Journal may also receive your data indirectly from sources like Google, Facebook, etc.
How will we use your data?

LEAD Journal collects your data so that we can:

  • Process your requests and manage your experience within our online presence.
  • Email you with publication updates and other activities we think you might like.

If you agree, LEAD Journal will share your data with our partners so that they may inform you about their own activities and publications.

  • SOAS
  • IELRC

When LEAD Journal processes your order request, it may send your data to, and also use the resulting information from, credit reference agencies to prevent fraudulent purchases.

How do we store your data?

LEAD Journal securely stores your data at on our hosted server in the UK.

LEAD Journal will keep your data until you opt out of the service for which we have collected the data in the first place, or until you make a request for deletion.

Marketing

LEAD Journal would like to send you information about publications and activities of ours that we think you might like, as well as those of our partner companies.

  • SOAS
  • IELRC

If you have agreed to receive marketing, you may always opt out at a later date.

You have the right at any time to stop LEAD Journal from contacting you for marketing purposes or giving your data to other members of the LEAD Journal community.

What are your data protection rights?

LEAD Journal would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

The right to access – You have the right to request LEAD Journal for copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.

The right to rectification – You have the right to request that LEAD Journal correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request LEAD Journal to complete the information you believe is incomplete.

The right to erasure – You have the right to request that LEAD Journal erase your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that LEAD Journal restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to LEAD Journal’s processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to data portability – You have the right to request that LEAD Journal transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us.

Cookies

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard Internet log information and visitor behaviour information. When you visit our websites, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies or similar technology

For further information, visit allaboutcookies.org.

How do we use cookies?

LEAD Journal uses cookies in a range of ways to improve your experience on our website, including:

  • Keeping you signed in
  • Understanding how you use our website
 
What types of cookies do we use?

There are a number of different types of cookies, however, our website uses:

  • Functionality – LEAD Journal uses these cookies so that we recognize you on our website and remember your previously selected preferences. These could include what language you prefer and location you are in. A mix of first-party and third-party cookies are used.
  • Advertising – LEAD Journal uses these cookies to collect information about your visit to our website, the content you viewed, the links you followed and information about your browser, device, and your IP address. LEAD Journal sometimes shares some limited aspects of this data with third parties for advertising purposes. We may also share online data collected through cookies with our advertising partners. This means that when you visit another website, you may be shown advertising based on your browsing patterns on our website.
 
How to manage cookies

You can set your browser not to accept cookies, and the above website tells you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases, some of our website features may not function as a result.

 
Privacy policies of other websites

LEAD Journal website contains links to other websites. Our privacy policy applies only to our website, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.

 
Changes to our privacy policy

LEAD Journal keeps its privacy policy under regular review and places any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 1 March 2022.

 
How to contact us

If you have any questions about LEAD Journal’s privacy policy, the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us.