Publication Ethics

The Electronic Journal of Business and Management (EJBM) is a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal published by the Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU), Malaysia, through its Strategic Research Institute (SRI). EJBM is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and takes appropriate steps to prevent publication misconduct at all stages of submission, peer review, editorial decision-making, publication and post-publication handling.

Authors submitting manuscripts to EJBM must ensure that their work is original, properly referenced, ethically conducted and not under consideration by another journal. The journal’s publication ethics are informed by recognised principles of scholarly publishing, including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices, the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, and relevant ethical guidelines for research involving human participants, including the Declaration of Helsinki and the Belmont Report.

EJBM provides immediate open access to published articles. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), unless otherwise stated. Authors retain copyright of their work and grant EJBM the right of first publication.

Ethical Guidelines for Journal Publication

Ethical guidelines for publication in peer-reviewed journals are essential to establishing a credible and respected body of scholarly knowledge. The publication of an article in EJBM reflects the quality of the authors’ work, the integrity of the peer-review process, and the academic standards of the journal. EJBM expects all parties involved in publication, including authors, editors, reviewers and publishing staff, to observe ethical standards. The journal takes its responsibility seriously in ensuring fairness, confidentiality, transparency, academic integrity and responsible open access publishing.

The Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are expected to adhere to ethical guidelines throughout the research and publication process.

Standards for Reporting: Authors must provide an accurate, objective and well-referenced account of their research. The manuscript should contain sufficient detail, evidence and references to allow readers and other researchers to understand, evaluate and, where applicable, verify the work. Fraudulent, misleading or intentionally inaccurate statements are unethical and unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention: Authors are expected to retain the original data related to their manuscript for a reasonable period following publication. Where appropriate, authors should be prepared to provide data for editorial review or make data available through suitable repositories, subject to legal, ethical, privacy or confidentiality restrictions.

Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must submit only original work. Any use of the words, ideas, data, images, tables, arguments or findings of others must be properly cited, quoted or acknowledged. Plagiarism in any form, including unattributed copying, inappropriate paraphrasing, self-plagiarism or representing another person’s work as one’s own, constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is not acceptable. EJBM may use similarity detection tools such as iThenticate to assess submitted manuscripts.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication: Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Authors must not publish manuscripts that describe substantially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication unless there is clear justification, transparency and proper citation of the earlier work.

Acknowledgement of Sources: Authors must properly acknowledge the work of others. Publications, datasets, theories, methods and ideas that have significantly influenced the research should be cited appropriately.

Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation or writing of the submitted work. All co-authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all appropriate co-authors are listed and that no inappropriate authors are included.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal or other relationships that could influence, or appear to influence, the results, interpretation or publication of the manuscript. All sources of financial support, sponsorship, grants or other assistance related to the research must be declared.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works: If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in a published article, the author must promptly notify the editor and cooperate with EJBM to correct, retract or update the published record where necessary.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools: Authors must comply with EJBM’s AI Policy. AI tools must not be listed as authors. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, references, data, analysis and conclusions of their manuscript. Any use of AI tools beyond basic language editing should be disclosed where appropriate.

The Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for maintaining the quality, fairness and integrity of the editorial process.

Fair Play: Editors must evaluate manuscripts based on scholarly merit, originality, relevance to EJBM’s aims and scope, methodological quality, ethical compliance and contribution to knowledge. Editorial decisions must not be influenced by the authors’ nationality, gender, institutional affiliation, religion, ethnicity, political views or other irrelevant personal characteristics.

Confidentiality: Editors and editorial board members must treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents. Information about a submitted manuscript should not be disclosed to anyone except the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers or publishing staff involved in the editorial process.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Editors must not handle manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest. Where a manuscript is submitted by an editor, editorial board member, colleague, collaborator or any person with a potential conflict of interest, the manuscript should be handled by an independent editor.

Publication Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief and assigned editors are responsible for deciding which manuscripts are accepted, revised or rejected. Decisions must be based on the manuscript’s scholarly value, peer-review reports, ethical compliance, relevance to readers and alignment with the journal’s policies.

Review of Manuscripts: Editors must ensure that submitted manuscripts are handled through a fair and appropriate peer-review process. Suitable manuscripts should be reviewed by qualified reviewers with relevant expertise and no known conflict of interest.

Corrections and Retractions: Editors must take appropriate action when ethical concerns, errors, inaccuracies or misconduct are identified. This may include issuing corrections, expressions of concern, retractions or other post-publication notices where necessary.

The Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers assist editors in making publication decisions and help authors improve the quality of their manuscripts.

Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Reviewers should provide objective, constructive and evidence-based assessments of manuscripts. Their comments should help the editor evaluate the manuscript and assist authors in improving the clarity, quality and scholarly contribution of the work.

Promptness: Reviewers who are unable to review a manuscript within the required time or who feel unqualified to assess the manuscript should inform the editor promptly and withdraw from the review process.

Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively and respectfully. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate. Reviewers should clearly explain their comments and support their recommendations with sound arguments.

Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review are confidential documents. Reviewers must not share, discuss or disclose the manuscript or its content to unauthorised persons.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers must decline a review invitation if they have a conflict of interest arising from competitive, collaborative, institutional, financial, personal or other relationships with the authors, organisations or institutions connected to the manuscript.

Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors where appropriate. Reviewers should also alert the editor to any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and other published or submitted work of which they are aware.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools: Reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, review reports or unpublished materials to public AI tools or third-party systems that may compromise confidentiality. Any use of digital tools must not replace the reviewer’s own expert judgement.

Ethics on Post-Publication

EJBM is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. Amendments to published works may be issued where necessary. Such amendments may include an erratum, corrigendum, retraction, expression of concern or addendum.

Erratum: An erratum refers to a formal notice of a significant error introduced during the production or publication process that may affect the integrity, clarity or accuracy of the published article.

Corrigendum: A corrigendum refers to a formal notice of a significant error made by the author(s) that may affect the accuracy, interpretation or integrity of the published article.

Retraction: A retraction is a formal notice that withdraws a published article from the scholarly record where the findings are unreliable due to misconduct, major error, plagiarism, duplicate publication, unethical research or other serious concerns.

Expression of Concern: An expression of concern may be issued when serious questions arise about a published article but the investigation has not yet been completed.

Addendum: An addendum is an official notice that provides additional information, clarification or explanation related to a previously published article.

Readers, authors, reviewers or editors who identify a serious concern in a published article should notify the Editor-in-Chief or editorial office. EJBM will review the concern and take appropriate action where necessary.

Penalties and Sanctions

EJBM takes publication misconduct seriously. Misconduct may include plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate submission, redundant publication, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, unethical authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, misuse of confidential information or misrepresentation of research ethics approval.

Where misconduct is suspected, EJBM will investigate the matter carefully and confidentially. Authors may be asked to provide explanations, original data, ethics approval documents or other supporting evidence. If misconduct is confirmed, EJBM may take one or more of the following actions:

• reject the manuscript;

• request correction or clarification from the author;

• withdraw the manuscript from editorial consideration;

• publish a correction, expression of concern or retraction;

• notify the authors’ institution, funder or relevant authority where appropriate;

• restrict future submissions from the author for a specified period;

• remove an editor or reviewer from journal duties where misconduct or serious conflict of interest is established.

All allegations will be handled fairly, confidentially and with due process.

Consequences

To Authors: If plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, substantial omission or other serious misconduct is found in a manuscript or published article, the matter will be reported to the Editor-in-Chief for appropriate action. Depending on the severity of the case, consequences may include rejection of the manuscript, retraction of the published article, publication of a notice on the journal website, restriction of future submissions, or notification to the author’s institution or relevant authority.

To Members of the Editorial Board: Members of the editorial board are expected to uphold the integrity and reputation of EJBM. Complaints of misconduct involving an editorial board member should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief. If misconduct is confirmed, the member may be removed from editorial duties and may be subject to further action in accordance with the seriousness of the case.

To Reviewers: Reviewers who breach confidentiality, fail to disclose conflicts of interest, misuse unpublished material or act unethically may be removed from the journal’s reviewer database and may not be invited to review future manuscripts.

Ethical Guidelines for Human Subjects Research

Research involving human participants, personal data, interviews, surveys, organisations, communities or sensitive information must be conducted in accordance with recognised ethical principles, including the Declaration of Helsinki and the Belmont Report, where applicable.

Authors conducting studies involving human participants are expected to meet the following conditions:

• obtain prior approval from an institutional review board, ethics committee or equivalent body where required;

• submit evidence of ethics approval where requested by the journal, with any identifying participant information removed where necessary;

• confirm compliance with ethical procedures during manuscript submission;

• explain how informed consent was obtained, or provide a clear rationale where consent was not required;

• protect the privacy, confidentiality, dignity and rights of research participants;

• ensure that risks to participants are minimised and ethically justified;

• obtain written consent for the use of identifiable personal information, images, quotations, case details or other identifying material.

Privacy and Informed Consent for Publication

EJBM respects the right of individuals to privacy, dignity and confidentiality. Authors must not disclose identifying information about participants, organisations or individuals unless such information is essential to the scholarly contribution and appropriate written consent has been obtained. Where identifying information, images, quotations, personal data, case details or participant-specific material are included in a manuscript, authors must confirm that written consent for publication has been obtained from the relevant individual or authorised representative.

EJBM may review submissions for potentially identifying information and may request documentation of consent for publication. If identifying information is included without proper consent, the journal may return the manuscript, request removal of the identifying material, reject the submission or take post-publication action where necessary. If identifying information is discovered after publication without proper consent, EJBM may temporarily withdraw access to the article or remove the identifying content while the matter is reviewed.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision if they believe there has been a procedural error, misunderstanding or conflict of interest. Appeals must be submitted in writing to the editorial office with clear reasons and supporting evidence. Complaints about editorial handling, peer review, publication ethics or post-publication matters will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or an appropriate independent editorial representative. EJBM aims to handle complaints and appeals fairly, respectfully and in a timely manner.

Special Issues

Special issue submissions are subject to the same editorial, peer-review, ethical and open access standards as regular submissions. Guest editors or special issue editors must follow EJBM’s publication ethics, peer-review procedures and conflict-of-interest requirements. Final editorial responsibility remains with the journal’s Editor-in-Chief or authorised editorial leadership.

Policy Review

This Publication Ethics statement is reviewed periodically to ensure that EJBM’s ethical standards remain clear, transparent and aligned with recognised principles of responsible open access scholarly publishing.