• Publisher:

1. The publisher is committed to provide financial support for the journal from available funding sources to help the production of the journal.
2. The publisher financially supports the production team* and pays all applicable fees (journal domain maintenance annual fees and DOI payment, for instance).
3. The journal has strict policies which hinder biased and unfair decisions which might be due to financial support from the public/ private agencies. In this regard, the supporting agencies or individual(s) have no role in article selection/ rejection.
4. The publisher keeps the information/ data supplied to the Journal of Higher Education Policy And Leadership Studies (JHEPALS) by the authors only for manuscript submission, double-blinded review procedure, as well as production step. The publisher will not use it for marketing, advertising, and fund raising purposes.
5. The publisher will not tolerate any kind of academic publishing malpractices as plagiarism and data fabrication.
6. *Production Team has no role in decision-making concerning article selection/ acceptance/ rejection. The production team just receives the final draft of the accepted manuscripts after rigorous double-blinded review procedure for preparation to appear online.

• Editors-in-Chief:

1. The editors-in-chief try to observe the scientific enrichment and research rigor of the journal.
2. The editors-in-chief initially review the submitted manuscripts to the journal for an immediate editorial decision.
3. The editors-in-chief remain unbiased to the submitted manuscripts to the journal in terms of author(s), research context, research methodology, and researchers’ affiliation to the universities and regions.
4. The editors-in-chief confirm the proposed Higher Education researchers and leaders by the Managing Editor for the Interview section of the JHEPALS.
5. The editors-in-chief consult with the Managing Editor and the members of Editorial Board (based on their availability) to confirm the interview questions.
6. The editors-in-chief make the final decision for the book reviews submitted to the journal.
7. The editors-in-chief will not tolerate any kind of academic publishing malpractices as plagiarism and data fabrication.

• Managing Editor:

1. The managing editor closely collaborates with the editors-in-chief to observe academic standards of scientific publishing.
2. The managing editor provides insightful and illuminating hints and suggestions to the editors-in-chief and other members of the editorial team.
3. The managing editor identifies potential reviewers for the manuscripts submitted to the journal.
4. The managing editor initially checks the book reviews submitted to the JHEPALS to see if they fall within the Aims and Scope of the journal. If yes, they are submitted to the editors- in-chief for final approval.

• English Language Editor:

1. The English language editor proof-reads the manuscripts accepted for publication in the JHEPALS prior to its online publication in terms of its use of English as the language of the journal.

• Honorary Board:

1. The member of honorary board provides insightful ideas to the editors-in-chief in terms of the novel research trends based on the main core of the journal.

• Editorial Board:

1. The editorial team work closely with the editors-in-chief to initially review the manuscripts submitted to the journal.
2. The editorial team remain unbiased towards the manuscripts submitted to the journal in terms of the researchers’ affiliation, gender, and region.
3. The editorial team do not have the right and permission to share the manuscripts submitted to the journal with their colleagues, friends, and students; or use the submitted manuscripts to the journal in their speeches, presentations and research.
4. The editorial team must provide constructive feedback to the editors-in-chief:

1. as soon as manuscripts are submitted to the journal; and
2. when the revised version of the articles is received for final editorial decision.

5. Editorial Team & Editors-in-Chief Competing Interest(s): If the editors-in-chief and the assigned members of editorial team to a submitted manuscript declare a competing interest; they will be excluded from the review process but the double-blined review procedure continues and will be the same like other manuscripts.
6. Members of editorial team at the JHEPALS undergo revision every 2 or 3 years as new members join the board of the journal, some step down from further collaboration with the journal, and some might continue their contribution for another term of service.

• Reviewers:

1. Confidentiality: The reviewers are obliged to treat the manuscripts as an confidential document. In this regard, they should avoid using the research in their own research or share it for other purposes.
2. Commitment: The reviewers do not have the permission to share the research with their colleagues, friends, and students if their time schedule does not permit them to review the manuscripts.
3. Review Request Withdrawal: The reviewers must inform the editors-in-chief if:
   1. They have no background knowledge of the field; and/ or
   2. They have conflict of interest with the research context and methodology
4. Fairness: The reviewers should provide objective unbiased feedback. It means there should be no personal assessment of the topic, research findings, or adopted research methodology.
5. The reviewers are highly advised to identify any similarity or overlap between the research and other available published materials.
6. The reviewers should provide constructive feedback to the authors with an aim to enrich the scientific merit of the research and the journal.
7. The reviewers should be aware that the grammatical points are not considered as reviewers’ feedback as research articles will be proof-read by the English Language Editor prior to its online publication.

• Authors:

1. Research Rigor: The manuscripts submitted to the journal must adhere to the academic publishing merits in terms of rigorous research methodology, novel research query, innovation in research findings, and work as a bridge to fill the available gap in the literature.
2. Compliance with Rules and Regulations: The authors are obliged to consider the rules, regulations, and policies of their funding agencies, affiliated universities and research centers, as well as countries to share the research data.
3. Referencing and Permission: All in-text citations must match with the references available in the list of references. The authors are highly advised to use the correct referencing style based on their use of others’ materials. It must also be noted that necessary permissions must be obtained if third-party materials are used in the research.
4. Authorship: All authors’ details must be provided as a separate document during the submission process. Further, there should be no difference between the number and order of authors during initial and revised versions submission. If a change must occur in the number and order of authors, the corresponding author must inform the editors-in-chief through an officially signed letter by all the authors.
5. Funding Sources: The authors are highly advised to provide details of the available funding sources.
6. Acknowledgment: All those who contributed to the enrichment of the research articles must be acknowledged in the research.
7. Conflict of Interest: To keep the transparency of review procedure and publication of the research, the authors are highly advised to add any kind of conflict of interest which might affect the review procedure and readers’ judgements of the research findings and contributions to the research literature. Interests might be financial, ethical, affiliation with an organization or funding agencies, etc.
8. Using Human Participants: If a research study involves human participants, the researchers are obliged to confirm that the research has its approval from the corresponding institutional and/or other research ethics committees. The JHEPALS asks the authors to provide the ethical guidelines in alignment with the Declaration of Helsinki (1964) and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Authors can access the full-text of the Declaration of Helsinki here.
9. Informed Consent: Authors must inform the research participants about the confidentiality of their identifying information, the audio- and video-recorded interviews, photos from the participants or research context, and any further sensitive data which might have negative effects for the participants. Informed consent must be obtained from the participants and other right owners if the participants are under legal age or cannot make proper decisions in this regard (obtaining informed consent will be context specific -- it means the authors are obliged to observe the rules and regulations where the research is administered and participants are recruited for research purposes and also in alignment with "informed consent" as described in the Declaration of Helsinki). Such statements must appear in the initial version of the manuscripts as endnotes; however, further details need to be discussed within the methodology section of the research. The authors also must inform the participants about the details (how anonymity will be observed, for instance) which appear in the publication/ dissemination of results. So, the participants have the right to accept or reject participation in the research prior to the commencement of data collection.
10. Author Form: Complete and sign the author form and submit it with the main manuscript (It is available here).

1. Data Fabrication: The authors must adhere to the merits and criteria of research practice; in this regard, they should avoid fabrication of data which lead to unreal fabricated results, findings, and contributions to the knowledge.
2. Data Manipulation/ Destruction: The authors are highly obliged to avoid manipulation or destruction of the data (graphs, tables, figures, numbers, and etc.) which conceals any kind of research malpractices. As an unfair practice in research, it is not tolerated at all.
3. Plagiarism: The authors are highly advised to avoid using others’ works, research materials, theories, and data without proper citation to the original works.
4. Self-plagiarism: The authors are highly advised to avoid submitting their previously published research as a new article. If the research is an extended version of an earlier draft as a conference proceeding, teaching material, conference presentation, or a research in a language than English; you should consult with the editors-in-chief (through email) prior to submission to the journal.

• • • Each manuscript goes through initial screening to avoid plagiarism. The Publisher and the Editors-in-Chief do not tolerate any kind of plagiarism. If JHEPALS receive notes (from authors of the published contents with all clarifying documents) to inform plagiarism within their published contents; it will be discussed with the publisher and the editors-in-chief. In case of vagueness, the contents will be re-submitted for plagiarism checks. If the publisher and the editors-in-chief are assured that plagiarism is occurred; the author(s) will be asked to provide necessary explanations accordingly.
    • The contents are checked against plagiarism as soon as they are submitted to the journal; however, if plagiarism is identified and confirmed; a Retraction Note will be published with reference to both the article and the original source in the earliest new issue of the JHEPALS.
    • However, in other cases, a Correction Note will be published with the corrected manuscript in the earliest new issue of the JHEPALS. The correction note (clarifying the reasons for such correction) will also appear in the first page of the article.

Important Note: --- Authors' Request to Withdraw Manuscript from Review Procedure:

The review procedure usually takes 3-6 months based on the reviewers' availability; however, it might even take longer due to the reviewers' withdrawal from reviewing the manuscript, or the JHEPALS editorial team's failure to locate potential reviewers based on the theme of the research/ manuscripts as well as the reviewers' rejection to join the review procedure.

Generative AI/ AI-assisted Technologies in Research for JHEPALS

For Authors

• In alignment with the Ethical Guidelines of the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Leadership Studies; you should not use Generative AI or AI-assisted Technologies to write your research (Abstract/ Key Words/ Introduction/ Literature Review/ Research Methodology/ Results/ Conclusion & Discussion). This also applies to tables, figures, images, and paraphrasing others’ works and direct quotations.
• Research is an exclusive human-centred practice; however, technologies are available to support authors in clear and ethical dissemination of their works. In this regard, the authors are highly advised to have control over the use of clichéd technologies (QUAN & QUAL software); and newly introduced Generative AI or AI-assisted Technologies.
• In some cases, (though still not advised) authors (non-native speakers of English) might use Generative AI or AI-assisted Technologies to check English grammar and improve the language of the manuscript. Even in this case, authors should have control over the use of these technologies. Non-native Speakers of English are highly advised to ask a Native Speaker of English to proof-read the whole text in terms of appropriate use of English.
• In alignment with the above-mentioned policies; Generative AI or AI-assisted Technologies cannot be cited as the author or co-author of the research submitted to the JHEPALS.
• In alignment with the decision by the JHEPALS editorial team (October 18, 2024); the authors need to add the corresponding “Use of Generative AI/ AI-assisted Technologies Statement” at the end of the article. It will appear with other JHEPALS Ethical Statements in online publication.

• The author(s) claimed that there is “No Use of Generative AI/ AI-assisted Technologies” in preparing this research.

• The author(s) claimed that [Name of Generative AI/ AI-assisted Technologies] is used in this research just for the purpose of improving the language of the manuscript. No further use of these technologies are also confirmed by the author(s) to write different parts of the research. One native speaker of English is also invited to proof-read the text prior to its online publication.

• The review procedure is a double-blind practice where authors’ works and identification information must be kept anonymous. In this regard, if the reviewers accept the JHEPALS Review Invitation; they should avoid using “Generative AI/ AI-assisted Technologies” to review the assigned manuscript.

• In accordance with the decisions by the Editorial Team (October 18, 2024); use of Generative AI/ AI-assisted Technologies by the Editors-in-Chief and the Members of Editorial Team at the JHEPALS in editorial screening procedures is totally prohibited.