Publication Ethics

Smart Education and Instruction (SEI) is dedicated to maintaining the highest ethical standards in academic publishing. To ensure the integrity of the scholarly record, all parties involved in the act of publishing—authors, editors, and reviewers—must adhere to the following ethical guidelines based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) core practices.

1. Duties of Authors

  • Reporting Standards: Authors must present an accurate account of the original research performed, followed by an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the manuscript.

  • Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All co-authors must approve the final version of the paper and agree to its submission.

  • Hazards and Human Subjects: If the work involves human participants (common in educational and social science research), authors must ensure the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines, and that informed consent was obtained.

  • Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Authors must explicitly disclose any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.

2. Duties of Editors

  • Fair Play & Independence: Editors evaluate submitted manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic merit, relevance to the journal’s scope, and originality, without regard to the authors' race, gender, institutional affiliation, or citizenship.

  • Confidentiality: The editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and potential reviewers.

  • Publication Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published, guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and the feedback provided during the double-blind peer review.

3. Duties of Reviewers

  • Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and serves to help the author improve the paper through objective, constructive feedback.

  • Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as strictly confidential documents. They must not be shared or discussed with others without authorization from the editor.

  • Objectivity & Conflict of Interest: Reviews should be conducted objectively with clear supporting arguments. Reviewers should not evaluate manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors.