Publication Ethics Statement

At Primark Consultancy, we are committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and ethical conduct in scholarly publishing. We believe that trustworthy research depends on responsible practices throughout the publication process.

Our journals promote originality, academic honesty, fairness, and accountability. We expect authors, editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and publisher staff to uphold these principles and contribute to a transparent and ethical publishing environment.

Our publication ethics policies are guided by the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and are informed by the guidance and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We support responsible research practices and follow internationally recognized standards for ethical publishing throughout the editorial and publication process.

We regularly reviews and update the editorial policies to reflect evolving best practices and to promote integrity, transparency, and accountability in scholarly communication.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors submitting manuscripts to our journals are expected to:

• Submit original, unpublished work that is not under consideration by another journal.
• Ensure that all submitted information is accurate, complete, and honestly reported.
• Present research findings without fabrication, falsification, selective reporting, or data manipulation.
• Properly acknowledge the work of others and provide accurate, relevant, and complete citations.
• Avoid plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, and redundant publication.
• Ensure that all listed authors have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work and have approved the final version of the manuscript before submission.
• Obtain the consent of all co-authors before submission and notify the journal of any proposed changes to authorship.
• Obtain all required ethical approvals from the appropriate ethics committee or institutional review board before conducting research involving humans, animals, or sensitive data.
• Obtain informed consent from research participants where applicable and protect participant privacy and confidentiality.
• Disclose all sources of funding and clearly state the role of the funding organization, if any.
• Declare any financial, institutional, personal, or other competing interests that could influence the research or its interpretation.
• Include all required declarations, including ethics approval, informed consent, funding, conflicts of interest, author contributions, acknowledgements, and data availability statements, where applicable.
• Retain original research data and supporting records and provide them upon reasonable request during editorial assessment or after publication.
• Ensure that figures, images, tables, and supplementary materials have not been inappropriately manipulated or altered in a way that could misrepresent the research findings.
• Clearly disclose the use of any artificial intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted technologies used in the preparation of the manuscript, including writing assistance, language editing, image generation, data analysis, or code generation.
• Ensure that AI tools are used responsibly and ethically. Authors remain fully accountable for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and authenticity of all submitted content, regardless of any AI assistance.
• Do not list artificial intelligence tools or software applications as authors, as authorship requires accountability that can only be assumed by humans.
• Verify all AI-assisted outputs for accuracy, completeness, appropriate citations, and potential bias before submission.
• Cooperate fully with editors and reviewers throughout the editorial and peer review process by responding to comments promptly and providing requested revisions or supporting information.
• Promptly notify the journal if a significant error, inaccuracy, or ethical concern is discovered in the manuscript before or after publication, and cooperate in issuing corrections, retractions, or other appropriate editorial actions when necessary.
• Comply with all journal policies, editorial requirements, and applicable laws, regulations, and recognized standards of responsible research and publication ethics.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and ethical compliance of all submitted content throughout the publication process.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for safeguarding the quality, integrity, and credibility of the scholarly record. They are expected to manage the editorial process fairly, transparently, independently, and in accordance with the journal’s editorial policies and COPE guidelines of publication ethics.

Editors are expected to:

• Evaluate submitted manuscripts solely on their scholarly merit, originality, scientific quality, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal’s scope, without discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, gender, institutional affiliation, religious beliefs, political views, or other personal characteristics.
• Maintain editorial independence and ensure that editorial decisions are free from commercial, financial, institutional, or personal influence.
• Treat all submitted manuscripts and related communications as confidential and disclose information only to individuals directly involved in the editorial and peer review process.
• Conduct an initial editorial assessment to determine the manuscript’s suitability for peer review, including compliance with the journal’s submission requirements and ethical standards.
• Select suitably qualified, independent, and unbiased reviewers with relevant subject expertise.
• Ensure that the peer review process is conducted fairly, objectively, confidentially, and within reasonable timelines.
• Consider reviewer comments objectively while making independent editorial decisions based on the overall scientific merit of the manuscript.
• Avoid handling manuscripts in which they have a financial, professional, institutional, or personal conflict of interest, and delegate such submissions to another qualified editor when necessary.
• Take appropriate action when concerns arise regarding plagiarism, duplicate publication, image manipulation, fabricated or falsified data, citation manipulation, peer review manipulation, authorship disputes, or other forms of publication misconduct.
• Investigate allegations of research or publication misconduct fairly, confidentially, and without unnecessary delay, following the journal’s established procedures and recognized ethical guidance.
• Request additional information, supporting documentation, ethical approvals, or original research data from authors when necessary to verify the integrity of submitted work.
• Ensure that manuscripts involving human participants, animals, or sensitive data have received appropriate ethical approval and include the required ethics and consent statements.
• Ensure that authors disclose funding sources, competing interests, author contributions, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted technologies where applicable.
• Assess the responsible and transparent use of AI-assisted technologies in submitted manuscripts and ensure compliance with the journal’s AI policy.
• Recommend corrections, errata, corrigenda, expressions of concern, or retractions when significant errors or ethical issues are identified after publication, in order to maintain the accuracy of the scholarly record.
• Respond promptly and fairly to author appeals and complaints, ensuring that all concerns are reviewed objectively and in accordance with the journal’s policies.
• Promote transparency, accountability, diversity, inclusion, and research integrity throughout the editorial and publication process.
• Maintain accurate editorial records and cooperate with the publisher in implementing ethical publishing standards and continuous quality improvement.

Editors should continuously update their knowledge of publication ethics, editorial best practices, and developments in scholarly publishing to ensure consistent and responsible editorial decision-making.

Editorial decisions must always be based on academic merit, ethical compliance, and the journal’s editorial standards, and must never be influenced by commercial, institutional, political, or personal interests.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Peer reviewers play a vital role in maintaining the quality, credibility, and integrity of scholarly publishing. Their independent assessment helps editors make informed editorial decisions and assists authors in improving the quality of their manuscripts.

Reviewers are expected to:

• Accept review invitations only when they have the appropriate subject expertise and can complete the review within the agreed timeframe.
• Promptly decline review invitations if they are unable to provide a timely, objective, or unbiased assessment.
• Treat all manuscripts and associated materials as strictly confidential and not share, discuss, or disclose their contents with anyone unless authorized by the editor.
• Conduct reviews objectively, fairly, and constructively, providing clear, evidence-based, respectful, and professional comments that help improve the manuscript.
• Evaluate manuscripts solely on their academic merit, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, clarity, and relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors’ nationality, ethnicity, gender, institutional affiliation, religious beliefs, political views, or other personal characteristics.
• Respect the integrity of double-blind peer review process by avoiding any actions that could compromise reviewer or author anonymity where applicable.
• Declare any financial, professional, institutional, or personal conflicts of interest before accepting a review assignment and decline the review if such conflicts could affect their impartiality.
• Inform the editor if they suspect plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated or falsified data, image manipulation, citation manipulation, unethical research practices, authorship concerns, or any other potential breach of publication ethics.
• Maintain the confidentiality of unpublished information and never use, reproduce, distribute, or exploit any part of a manuscript for personal, academic, or commercial advantage.
• Base recommendations on the quality and integrity of the research rather than personal opinions, competition, or potential commercial benefit.
• Avoid requesting unnecessary citations to their own work or recommending citations solely to increase citation counts.
• Clearly distinguish between mandatory revisions related to scientific quality and optional suggestions intended to improve clarity or presentation.
• Notify the editor immediately if they discover that they are not suitably qualified to review the manuscript or become aware of a conflict of interest after accepting the review invitation.
• Cooperate with editors by responding promptly to editorial communications and submitting reviews within the agreed review period.
• Refrain from contacting authors directly regarding the manuscript or attempting to influence the editorial decision outside the formal peer review process.
• Uphold the highest standards of integrity, professionalism, fairness, and confidentiality throughout the peer review process.

Reviewers should provide recommendations to assist editorial decision-making; however, the final decision regarding acceptance, revision, or rejection of a manuscript remains the responsibility of the Editor.

Responsibilities of the Publisher

At Primark Consultancy, we remain responsible for providing and maintaining an ethical, transparent, independent, and trustworthy scholarly publishing environment. We are committed to supporting editors, authors, reviewers, and readers in upholding the integrity of the scholarly record.

We are dedicated to:

• Supporting independent editorial decision-making and ensuring that editorial judgments are based solely on scholarly merit, ethical compliance, originality, quality, and relevance to the journal’s scope.
• Maintaining transparent and publicly accessible publication policies, including policies on peer review, authorship, conflicts of interest, copyright, licensing, open access, corrections, retractions, complaints, appeals, and research integrity.
• Following internationally recognized principles of publication ethics and research integrity, including guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.
• Providing clear editorial and publication procedures so that authors, reviewers, editors, and readers understand how manuscripts are assessed, reviewed, accepted, corrected, or retracted.
• Supporting fair, timely, confidential, and unbiased peer review processes.
• Ensuring that allegations of publication misconduct, research misconduct, plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated or falsified data, image manipulation, citation manipulation, authorship disputes, and peer review manipulation are investigated fairly, confidentially, and without unnecessary delay.
• Working with editors, authors, reviewers, institutions, and other relevant parties when investigating ethical concerns.
• Taking appropriate corrective action when necessary, including issuing corrections, errata, corrigenda, expressions of concern, retractions, or other notices to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record.
• Protecting the integrity, accessibility, discoverability, and long-term preservation of published content through appropriate digital archiving and preservation arrangements.
• Maintaining accurate publication metadata, including article identifiers, author information, licensing information, and publication records.
• Promoting transparency regarding article processing charges, publication fees, funding disclosures, competing interests, copyright, licensing, and open access policies.
• Ensuring that published articles remain accessible and that any post-publication updates are clearly identified and linked to the original article where applicable.
• Supporting responsible authorship practices and requiring appropriate disclosures related to author contributions, funding, competing interests, ethics approval, informed consent, data availability, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted technologies.
• Ensuring that AI-assisted technologies are used responsibly and transparently within the publication process, while maintaining human editorial oversight and accountability.
• Protecting the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and editorial communications.
• Providing accessible mechanisms for authors, reviewers, editors, readers, and institutions to raise complaints, appeals, or ethical concerns.
• Responding to complaints and appeals in a fair, impartial, timely, and transparent manner.
• Supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and respectful communication throughout the publishing process.
• Regularly reviewing and updating publication policies and editorial practices to reflect evolving standards in scholarly communication and research integrity.
• Providing guidance, training, and support to editors, editorial board members, reviewers, and publishing staff on ethical publishing practices where appropriate.

We remain committed to upholding the integrity of the scholarly record, promoting ethical research dissemination, and ensuring that all publication activities are conducted in a fair, transparent, accountable, and responsible manner.