Publication Ethics

KafaEdu: Journal of Education and Pedagogy is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics throughout the scholarly publishing process. This policy applies to editors, authors, and reviewers and is intended to uphold the integrity, transparency, and quality of academic publications.

Duties of Editors

Publication Decisions

Editors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts considered for publication undergo peer review by at least two qualified reviewers with relevant expertise. The final decision regarding publication rests with the Editor and is based on the manuscript's academic quality and contribution, peer-review reports, relevance to the journal's focus and scope, and applicable legal and ethical requirements, including copyright and plagiarism. Editors may consult with members of the editorial board and reviewers when making publication decisions.

Fair Play and Objectivity

Editors evaluate manuscripts solely on the basis of academic merit, including clarity, significance, originality, validity, methodology, and relevance to the journal's scope. Editorial decisions shall not be influenced by the authors' ethnicity, race, gender, nationality, institutional affiliation, religious beliefs, political views, or other personal characteristics. Editorial decisions and the timing of publication remain under the authority of the journal's editorial team.

Confidentiality

Editors and editorial staff must maintain the confidentiality of all information concerning submitted manuscripts. Information about a manuscript may only be disclosed to authors, reviewers, potential reviewers, publishers, and other editorial advisers involved in the editorial process, as appropriate.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Editors must not use or disclose unpublished information contained in a submitted manuscript for personal advantage without the author's written permission. An editor who has a conflict of interest arising from a collaborative, competitive, institutional, or other relationship with an author or the institution associated with a manuscript must withdraw from the editorial process and assign the manuscript to another editor.

Management of Unethical Behavior

Editors and publishers are responsible for taking appropriate action when ethical concerns or allegations of misconduct arise in relation to submitted or published articles. Allegations of unethical behavior will be investigated seriously, including cases identified after publication. Where appropriate, the journal may issue corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or take other actions consistent with the nature and severity of the misconduct.

Duties of Authors

Reporting Standards

Authors must present their research findings accurately, objectively, and transparently. Manuscripts should contain sufficient information and references to enable readers and researchers to understand and, where possible, replicate the study. Review articles should be comprehensive and accurate, while perspective and editorial articles should be clearly identified as such. Fabricated, falsified, misleading, or otherwise inaccurate statements constitute unethical publication behavior.

Data Access and Retention

Authors should provide relevant research data when reasonably requested for editorial or scientific verification. Authors are also encouraged to retain research data for a reasonable period after publication and, where ethically and legally appropriate, make such data accessible to support the verification and reproducibility of the research.

Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts are original works. All ideas, data, words, or materials derived from other sources must be appropriately cited and acknowledged. Plagiarism in any form, including copying, unattributed paraphrasing, or presenting another person's work as one's own, is unacceptable.

Submitted manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism-detection software, such as Turnitin, to support the assessment of originality and academic integrity. Authors remain fully responsible for the originality and integrity of their manuscripts.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication

Authors must not publish substantially the same research in more than one journal. A manuscript that has already been published or is simultaneously under review by another journal must not be submitted to KafaEdu.

Acknowledgment of Sources

Authors must properly acknowledge and cite all sources that have contributed to the research. Privately obtained information through correspondence, discussion, conversation, or other non-public sources must not be used or reported without explicit permission from the source.

Authorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, or interpretation of the research. All individuals who meet the criteria for authorship should be listed as authors, while individuals who have contributed to the research but do not meet authorship criteria may be acknowledged appropriately.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all listed authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to its submission and publication.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in a published article, the author must promptly notify the Editor or publisher. The journal will determine the appropriate action, which may include issuing a correction, clarification, or retraction when necessary.

Declaration of Competing Interests

Authors must disclose any financial, personal, professional, or institutional relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research or publication. All sources of research funding and the role of funders in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and decision to publish must be disclosed transparently.

A competing-interest statement must be included in the manuscript according to the journal's requirements.

Image Integrity

Authors must maintain the integrity of images, photographs, illustrations, and other visual materials. Manipulation that removes, conceals, or alters scientifically relevant information is not permitted. Adjustments to brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable when they do not obscure or eliminate information contained in the original image. Any image processing must be conducted transparently and must not mislead readers.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer review assists editors in making publication decisions and helps authors improve the quality of their manuscripts. Reviewers are expected to provide constructive, objective, and academically relevant evaluations.

Promptness

Reviewers who do not have the appropriate expertise to evaluate a manuscript or who are unable to complete the review within the required timeframe should promptly notify the Editor and decline or withdraw from the review process.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not share, reproduce, use, or discuss the contents of a manuscript with any third party without permission from the Editor.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews must be conducted objectively and based on academic considerations. Reviewers should provide clear, constructive, and evidence-based comments and must avoid personal criticism of the authors.

Acknowledgment of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors when such work is directly relevant to the manuscript. Reviewers should also notify the Editor if they identify substantial similarities between the manuscript under review and another publication of which they are aware.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Information, ideas, or data obtained through the peer-review process must remain confidential and must not be used for personal advantage. Reviewers should decline to review manuscripts when they have a conflict of interest arising from collaborative, competitive, institutional, personal, or other relationships with the authors or organizations associated with the manuscript.

Artificial Intelligence Generated Content

KafaEdu: Journal of Education and Pedagogy recognizes that generative artificial intelligence tools, including ChatGPT and other technologies based on Large Language Models (LLMs), may be used as tools to assist authors during the writing process. However, such tools cannot be considered authors because they cannot take responsibility for the content, research design, scientific integrity, or publication decisions of an article.

AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors of a manuscript. If authors use generative AI to generate or substantially develop any part of a manuscript, its use must be transparently disclosed and described in the Methods, Acknowledgements, or another appropriate section in accordance with the journal's requirements.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and validity of the entire manuscript, including content generated or assisted by AI tools. Authors are also responsible for verifying all references, citations, facts, and information produced by AI tools.

The use of AI tools solely for spelling, grammar, readability, or general language editing does not constitute the generation of substantive content. Nevertheless, authors remain fully responsible for the final version of the manuscript.