NIJEC is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal and believes in the development of a coherent network of knowledge by publishing quality articles. Consequently, it is important for publishers, editors, authors, and reviewers to consider the ethics of publishing and behave ethically and professionally by following the standards and ethical guidelines.

It is the first and foremost responsibility of the publisher to ensure that the publication system works smoothly and that ethical guidelines are applied to assist the editor, author, and reviewer in performing their ethical duties.

Editor Responsibilities:

The editor should acknowledge receipt of submitted manuscripts within the stipulated time to ensure an efficient, rational, and timely review process. The editor should certify the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, and that no content of the manuscripts will be disclosed to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and the publisher, as appropriate. The editor should not disclose the names and other details of the reviewers to a third party without the permission of the reviewers.

The editor has the right to make the final decision on whether to accept or reject a manuscript with reference to the significance, originality, and clarity of the manuscript and its relevance to the journal.

The editor should respond promptly and take reasonable measures when an ethical complaint occurs concerning a submitted manuscript or a published paper, and the editor should immediately contact and consult with the author.

Author Responsibilities:

The author should not submit concurrent manuscripts (or manuscripts essentially describing the same subject matter) to multiple journals. Likewise, an author should not submit any paper previously published anywhere to the journals for consideration.

The author should honestly gather and interpret his or her research data. Publishers, editors, reviewers, and readers are entitled to request the author to provide the raw data for his or her research for the convenience of editorial review and public access. If practicable, the author should retain such data for any possible use after publication.

The author should guarantee that the works he or she has submitted are original. If the author has used work and/or words by others, appropriate citations are required. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

The author should indicate explicitly all sources that have supported the research and also declare any conflict(s) of interest.

The author should give due acknowledgment to all of those who have made contributions to the research. Those who have contributed significantly to the research should be listed as co-authors. The author should ensure that all co-authors have affirmed the final version of the paper and have agreed on its final publication.

Reviewer Responsibilities:

The reviewer who feels unqualified to review the assigned manuscript or affirms that he or she cannot meet the deadline for completion of the review should immediately notify the editor and excuse himself or herself from the process of reviewing this manuscript.

The reviewer should treat the manuscript in a confidential manner. The manuscript should not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

The reviewer should approach the peer-review job objectively. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable.

NIJEC is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution.

Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access.