Publication Ethics

The Journal of Data Economy and Governance (JDEG) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and academic integrity. The journal expects authors, editors, reviewers, and all parties involved in the publication process to comply with internationally recognized principles of ethical scholarly publishing. 

1. General Principles

All submissions to JDEG must be original, truthful, and prepared in accordance with accepted academic and professional standards. Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, inappropriate authorship attribution, duplicate submission, and redundant publication are strictly prohibited. The journal also requires editors and reviewers to disclose and avoid conflicts of interest during peer review and editorial decision-making.

2. Research Involving Human Participants

For research involving human participants, personal data, interviews, surveys, questionnaires, experiments, observations, or any other form of direct or indirect human subject involvement, authors must ensure that the study has been conducted in accordance with applicable laws, institutional requirements, and accepted ethical standards.

Where required by the nature of the study or by the author’s institution or country regulations, the manuscript must clearly state:

  • that the research received approval from the appropriate ethics committee, institutional review board (IRB), or equivalent body;
  • the name of the approving body, where appropriate;
  • that informed consent was obtained from participants, where applicable;
  • that participant confidentiality and privacy were protected.

If formal ethics approval was not required, authors should provide a clear statement explaining why ethics approval was not necessary under the relevant institutional or national framework.

If informed consent was not required or was waived, authors should clearly state the reason in the manuscript.

3. Research Involving Vulnerable Groups

Research involving vulnerable populations, including minors or other participants requiring special protection, must be handled with particular care. Authors must ensure that appropriate permissions, approvals, and consent procedures have been obtained in accordance with ethical and legal requirements.

4. Data Protection and Confidentiality

Authors must protect the privacy, dignity, and confidentiality of research participants. Personally identifiable information should not be disclosed unless explicit consent has been obtained and disclosure is ethically justified.

5. Author Responsibilities

Authors are responsible for ensuring that:

  • the manuscript is original and not under review elsewhere;
  • all listed authors have made substantial contributions and approved the submitted version;
  • all sources are properly acknowledged;
  • relevant ethical approvals and consent procedures have been followed and reported;
  • any conflicts of interest are disclosed;
  • all data and findings are presented honestly and accurately.

The journal reserves the right to request supporting ethical documentation from authors at any stage of the editorial or post-publication process.

6. Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, and timely evaluations, maintain confidentiality, and disclose any conflicts of interest. Reviewers should alert the editors to any substantial similarity, ethical concern, or possible misconduct identified in a manuscript.

7. Editorial Responsibilities

Editors evaluate submissions based on scholarly merit, relevance, originality, and ethical compliance. Editors may request clarification, additional documentation, ethics approval information, or consent-related statements when necessary.

8. Corrections, Clarifications, and Retractions

If ethical issues, omissions, or inaccuracies are identified before or after publication, the journal may take appropriate editorial action, including requesting corrections, publishing clarifications or editorial notes, issuing corrigenda, or retracting articles when necessary.

For previously published articles, where ethical compliance was met in practice but not fully reported in the published text, the journal may publish an addendum, corrigendum, or editorial clarification to improve the transparency of the scholarly record.

9. Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication

JDEG does not accept plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate submission, or redundant publication. Suspected misconduct will be investigated in accordance with editorial procedures and may result in rejection, correction, or retraction.

10. Conflicts of Interest

All authors, reviewers, and editors should disclose any financial, institutional, or personal relationships that may influence the objectivity of the research or publication process.

11. Corrections Related to Methodological Reporting

The journal may publish corrigenda, addenda, editorial notes, or other post-publication notices where methodological descriptions in published articles are found to be incomplete, inconsistent, or insufficiently clear, provided that such clarification helps improve the transparency and reliability of the scholarly record.

12. AI-Assisted Content

Authors must disclose the use of AI-assisted tools where such tools have materially contributed to manuscript preparation. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the submitted work.

JDEG is committed to protecting the integrity of the academic record and to promoting ethical, responsible, and transparent scholarly publishing.