Framework upholds the highest ethical standards on journal publication. It is through ethical publication that we are able to maintain the integrity of our processes, people, and output. At FRAMEwork, stakeholders including authors, reviewers, and editors observe ethical practices as follows.
Authors:
As a matter of academic integrity:
- Only originally written manuscripts are submitted for review.
- The submitted manuscripts are not published in any platform whether online or print.
- Plagiarized work is not condoned. All statements borrowed from another author must be properly cited using the APA style guide. When found guilty of plagiarism, the paper is automatically rejected, or retracted when detected after publication.
- Data fabrication is not condoned. Falsification of data and results, reporting of results that did not go through the data collection process, and reporting of unfounded data gathering procedures among other data fabrication mechanisms that provide inaccurate information and deliberately mislead the readers automatically mean rejection of the paper.
Editors:
- As a matter of fairness, all submissions must be evaluated on the basis of merit and without prejudice against race, religion, color, political affiliation, sexual orientation, and nationality.
- As a matter of confidentiality, editors must protect the identity of authors and reviewers at all costs.
- As a matter of integrity, editors must not use any part of the pre-published manuscript for purposes other than publication in FRAMEwork.
Reviewers:
- As a matter of integrity, reviewers must refuse the assignment when it doesn’t align with their expertise or has a conflict of interest (e.g. the identity of the author is known to the reviewer).
- As a matter of professionalism, reviewers should stick to the three-week review period. Extension of deadline or reviewer replacement may be requested from the editor in case the deadline cannot be met.
- As a matter of confidentiality, reviewers must not discuss the manuscript with anyone prior to publication.