Publication Ethics

The Asia Pacific Journal of Educators and Education adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) standards on publication ethics. Submission of an article implies that:

• The work described has not been published previously except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis.
• That it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
• That its submission and publication in the journal is known and approved by all Authors.
• The work is the Author’s own and there is no falsification or fabrication of data, plagiarism including duplicate publication of the authors’ own work without proper citation and misappropriation of .

Any cases of ethical misconduct are treated very seriously and will be dealt with using the guidelines issued by the COPE. For further details please visit:

• Code of Conduct for Journal Editors
• Core Practices

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License

All articles published in Asia Pacific Journal of Educators and Education are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which under the following terms:

• Attribution— You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• No additional restrictions— You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

You are free to:

• Share— copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt— remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

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Copyright Policy

This Journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. All articles in the Journal are published open access under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0). Authors transfer the copyright to Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia. This copyright transfer enables the Journal to protect the copyrighted material for the authors but does not relinquish the authors’ proprietary rights. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilm or any other reproductions of similar nature and translations. Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce any materials for which copyright exists.

The works are released under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0), which provides unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles in this Journal and to use them for any other lawful purpose.

Open Access Policy

Asia Pacific Journal of Educators and Education published by Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia is an open access journal. All articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). All articles are freely available to read, share and download. In accordance with publication ethics and best practices of scholarly publishing, authors and journals must be properly credited. All articles are accessible via the Journal's website and selected indexing and abstracting databases.

AI Policy

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies should only be used in the writing process for enhanced readability and language clarity. 

Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. 

Fabricated references or unverifiable claims generated by AI are considered unethical and can result in desk rejection or retraction.

AI-assisted writing must still comply with originality requirements. Self-plagiarism or uncredited AI use may be treated as academic misconduct.

AI and AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author, under any circumstances. Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Authors shall bear full responsibility and accountability for the contents of the work.

We do not permit the use of Generative AI or AI-assisted tools to create or alter images in submitted manuscripts. This may include enhancing, obscuring, moving, removing, or introducing a specific feature within an image or figure. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or colour balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Image forensics tools or specialised software might be applied to submitted manuscripts to identify suspected image irregularities.

Disclosure instructions

Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the main manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled 'Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process'

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

 Language Policy

The journal accepts manuscripts written in English and Bahasa Malaysia. Manuscripts in Bahasa Malaysia must also submit title, abstract, keywords and reference in English.

For reviewers to accurately assess the work presented in the manuscript, please be assured that the English language is of sufficient quality to be understood. If you need help with writing in English, you should consider getting professional proofreading at your own expenses. If our reviewers or editors recommended professional editing, we will only accept work from the following: Scribendi, Scribbr, Enago, PaperTrue, Manuscriptedit, Editage, and American Journal Experts and/or other trusted professional bodies. The editing and/or proofreading certificate must be submitted to the journal along with the manuscript during submission. Please note that the use of a language editing service is not a requirement for publication in the journal and does not imply that the article will be selected for peer review or accepted. However, manuscripts which fail to meet a satisfactory standard of English will be rejected.

 Plagiarism Policy

Any allegations of plagiarism or self-plagiarism/text-recycling made to the Journal will be investigated by the Journal’s Editor, following COPE guidelines. If the allegations appear to be founded, the corresponding author of the manuscript will be asked to provide an explanation of the overlapping material. The Editorial Board members and the author’s institution may be requested to assist in the further evaluation of the manuscript and the allegations.

All the manuscripts submitted to the Journal are subject to plagiarism check using the plagiarism checker software and the similarity index should not exceed 20%. In the event it does, manuscripts may be returned to the authors with a request that they address the issues through appropriate citation, use of quote marks to identify direct quotes, or re-writing. If the similarity is too extensive for revision, the manuscript may be rejected.

 Refund Policy

The corresponding author assumes the responsibility for the APC payment. Penerbit USM will refund an APC if an error on our part has resulted in a failure to publish the accepted manuscript. APCs will not be refunded when articles are withdrawn by the author(s) or retracted as a result of author error or misconduct.

Waiver Policy

There is no discount or waiver on the APC for accepted papers.

Peer Review

All submissions will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review evaluation process before the final decision is made. At all stages of the review process, until the decision to accept has been taken, authors' and reviewers' identities are concealed from each other.

The Editorial Board may exercise their prerogative to reject a manuscript without peer review if that manuscript is judged to be outside the scope of the Journal, poorly written or formatted or lacking significance.

Reviewers are matched to the manuscript according to their expertise. They are selected from the Journal’s reviewers’ data bank. If a manuscript is found to be of suitable quality and meets the aims and scope of the Journal, it will then be sent to at least two reviewers. The reviewers selected by the Editor may, of course, not necessarily be from the data bank. The Journal also welcomes suggestions for reviewers from authors, though these recommendations may or may not be used.

After receiving a request for peer review, reviewers must respond in a timely fashion, particularly if they cannot do the review, to avoid unnecessarily delaying the process.

Reviewers are tasked to evaluate a manuscript for its originality and significance of contribution, subject relevancy, appropriate coverage of existing literature, the presentation of methodology, results and interpretation, and manuscript organisation. Reviewers are also required to provide anonymous comments to the author and confidential comments to the Editor.

The Journal aims to provide the first decision within 12 weeks upon submission. Typically, the review process will take 8–10 weeks. Should there be any delay, the Journal will promptly alert the reviewers. For any contradicting reports, the Journal will seek further expert opinion. A revised manuscript may be returned to the initial reviewers. Where manuscript revision is required, authors are urged to ensure that the necessary corrections are made before the manuscript can be accepted for production. Authors will be notified of the decision made by the Editor.

Reviewing process

Each manuscript undergoes a double-blind peer review process starting with initial review by the Editorial Board members. If found to be of a suitable quality and meets the aims and scope of the journal, it will then be sent to at usually two reviewers. The reviewing process takes up to 4 months from the date of receipt of the article. The detailed processes are:

1) 2-4 weeks for desk review (determining plagiarism and other technical checks)
2) 2-4 weeks for an internal review by an Editorial Board member and;
3) 1-2 months for external review (this 3rd stage is usually beyond our control, but we do send reminders and follow-up emails to the reviewers.)

Hence, it is only fair that you contact us at least 3 months after the date of submission if you need any update or status of your submission. Where manuscript revision is required, authors are urged to ensure that the necessary corrections are made before the manuscript can be accepted for production.

Human and Animal Rights

All research must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. Articles conducting any animal or clinical studies should contain a statement in accordance with the animal and human ethics committee.

The Journal should ensure that research material they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines.

The Journal should seek assurances that all research has been approved by an appropriate body (e.g. Research Ethics Committee, Institutional Review Board).

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ADDITIONAL POLICIES

Complaints

Complaints should be directly emailed to apjee.ses@usm.my (cc to apjee.eic@gmail.com) and will be dealt with confidentially. All complaints will be formally acknowledged within 7–14 working days. If possible, a full response will be made within 2–3 weeks. If this is not possible, an interim response will be given within 3–4 weeks. Further interim responses will be provided until the complaint is resolved.

 Contributorship

Contributors who have contributed materially to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship should be described clearly in the acknowledgement section; for example, “served as technical or statistical advisors,” “critically reviewed the study proposal,” or “collected data.” All individuals named must give permission to be included, as readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions of the paper. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that permission is obtained and to be able to provide evidence of this if required.

 Correction and Retraction

Should there be any corrections to the published article, author must immediately notify the Journal and clearly specify the corrections. Corrections may be made to a published article with the authorisation of the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief will determine the impact of the change and decide on the appropriate course of action. Minor corrections are made directly to the original article. In cases of major corrections, the original article will remain unchanged while the corrected version will be published as well. An erratum or corrigendum will also be published, indicating the reason for changes to the article. When necessary, retraction of article will be done according to COPE retraction guidelines.

Authorship

Authorship provides credit for researcher’s contribution to the work. Each author is expected to have made substantial and significance contribution to the conception and design of the work. All authors are accountable to their own contribution to the work and mutually agree to submit the work to the selected journal. The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the Journal and between co-authors. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all authors that contributed to the work are fairly acknowledged and that the published author list accurately reflects individual contributions.

Any changes to the author list after submission must be accompanied by a letter signed by every author approving those changes. The Journal and Editor should be informed on such changes in authorship. Request should be dealt with fairly and in accordance with the relevant COPE guidelines. Changes in authorship will only be permitted where valid reasons are provided, and all authors are in agreement with the change.

In the event of dispute among authors, the Journal will follow the recommendations set by COPE guidelines.

Corresponding Author Roles and Responsibilities

The corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the Journal during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication process. The corresponding author typically ensures that all the Journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, disclosures of relationships and activities, and gathering conflict of interest forms and statements are properly completed and reported. A corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all contributing authors have fulfilled their responsibilities. The corresponding author accepts responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the work and for the Journal’s policies and ethical standards being adhered to. This person will also sign the publishing agreement on behalf of all the authors. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all the authors’ contact details are correct and agree on the order that their names will appear in the article. The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer-review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely way, and should be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the Journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication.

Editor Roles and Responsibilities

The role of the Editor is to produce the best journal possible for readers in the field of Asian management. At the time of appointment, the Editor is supplied by the Publisher with a written agreement that clearly states the rights and duties, authority, the general terms of appointment, and mechanisms for resolving conflict. The Editor is supported by an independent editorial board who assist the Editor on editorial policy and content as well as help the editor establish and maintain editorial policy.

• The Editor has editorial freedom, i.e., full authority over all editorial content and the timing of publication of the Journal. The Publisher does not interfere in the evaluation, selection, scheduling, or editing of individual articles either directly or by creating an environment that strongly influences decisions.
• The Editor will not share information about manuscripts, including whether they have been received and are under review, their content and status in the review process, criticism by reviewers, and their ultimate fate, to anyone other than the authors and reviewers. The Editor will also not discuss the content publicly prior to acceptance and publication.
• The Editor will ensure that reviewer comments are properly assessed and interpreted in the context of their declared conflicts of interest. Besides, the Editor will work to ensure timely processing of manuscripts. If the Journal has no intention of proceeding with a manuscript, the Editor will endeavour to reject the manuscript as soon as possible to allow authors to submit to a different journal.
• The Editor will ensure that all editorial decisions are based on the relevance of a manuscript to the Journal and on the manuscript’s originality, quality, and contribution to evidence and not be influenced by commercial interests or conflicts of interest.

Funding

Please fully cite any relevant funding information in your manuscript, including specific grant numbers. Funding acknowledgements should be written in the following form, for example: “This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme [grant number xxx].”

If the research was not funded by any specific project grant, please include the statement: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.” An Acknowledgement section may be used to specify this.

Conflict of Interest

A Declaration of Conflicting Interests policy refers to a formal policy a journal may have to require a conflict of interest statement or conflict of interest disclosure from a submitting or publishing author. Conflicts of interest arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgements on what is published. They have been described as those which, when revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived.

1. Reviewers

To ensure that the review process is free of conflicts:

• Editors should ensure that reviewers are free of conflict of interest with respect to an author.
• Reviewers are required to disclose any potential conflict of interest when refereeing an article.
• Minor conflicts do not disqualify a reviewer from reporting on an article but will be taken into account when considering the referees’ recommendations.

2. Authors

All authors and co-authors are required to disclose any potential conflict of interest when submitting their article.

3. Editors

Editors should not make any editorial decisions or get involved in the editorial process if they have any conflict of interest (financial or otherwise) for a submitted manuscript. When editors submit their own work to their journal, a colleague in the editorial office should manage the manuscript and the editor/author should recuse himself or herself from discussion and decisions about it.

Informed Consent

The authors involved in research and experiments involving human subjects must confirm that informed consent was obtained from all participants and/or their legal guardians.

For manuscripts containing pictures of identifiable patients, the Patient Consent Form must be submitted as well.