Ethical Principles and Publication Policy
Editorial Responsibilities
Editorial operations related to content and peer review are independent and free from the influence of any third-party agencies.
Editors are responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the Religious Education Journal (REJ) will be published. The editors are guided by the Editorial Policy and constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.
Editors reserve the right to decide not to publish submitted manuscripts in case it is found that they do not meet relevant standards concerning the content and formal aspects. Editors will inform the authors whether the manuscript is accepted for publication within one month from the date of the manuscript submission.
Editors must hold no conflict of interest with regard to the articles they consider for publication. If an editor feels that there is likely to be a perception of a conflict of interest in relation to their handling of a submission, they shall withdraw from the selection of reviewers and all decisions related to the manuscript.
Editors shall evaluate manuscripts for their scientific content free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias.
Editors and the Editorial Staff must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.
Editors and the Editorial Staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure.
Authors' Responsibilities
Authors warrant that their manuscript is their original work, that it has not been published before and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to another journal constitutes misconduct and eliminates the manuscript from consideration by the Religious Education Journal (REJ).
If a manuscript has previously been submitted elsewhere, authors should provide information about the previous reviewing process and its outcome. This provides an opportunity for authors to detail how subsequent revisions have taken into account previous reviews, and why certain reviewer comments were not taken into account. Information about the author's previous reviewing experience is to the author's advantage: it often helps the editors select more appropriate reviewers.
In case a submitted manuscript is a result of a research project, or its previous version has been presented at a conference in the form of an oral presentation (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the project, the conference, etc. shall be provided in Acknowledgements.
It is the responsibility of each author to ensure that manuscripts submitted to the Religious Education Journal (REJ) are written with ethical standards in mind.
Authors affirm that the manuscript contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of third parties. The Journal will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
Reporting standards
The Religious Education Journal (REJ) is committed to serving the research community by ensuring that all articles include enough information to allow others to reproduce the work. A submitted manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit reviewers and, subsequently, readers to verify the claims presented in it - e.g. provide complete details of the methods used, including time frames, etc.
The deliberate presentation of false claims is a violation of ethical standards.
Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions and must make sure that they have permission from all involved parties to make the content public.
Authors are also exclusively responsible for the contents of their data/supplementary files. Authors affirm that data protection regulations, ethical standards, third party copyright and other rights have been respected in the process of collecting, processing and sharing data.
Authors wishing to include figures, tables or other materials that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s). Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
Inclusive Language
The Religious Education Journal (REJ) promotes accessible, and inclusive language to ensure that scientific research is widely understood and respectful of all individuals.
Authorship
Authors must make sure that only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors. If persons other than authors were involved in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in Acknowledgements
Each author’s contribution must be detailed using the CRediT taxonomy.
The addition or removal of authors during the editorial process will only be permitted only if a justifiable explanation is provided to the editorial team and publisher. Attempts to introduce 'ghost', 'gift' or ‘honorary’ authorship will be treated as cases of misconduct.
Acknowledgment of Sources
Authors are required to properly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript. Information received in a private conversation or correspondence with third parties, in reviewing project applications, manuscripts and similar materials, must not be used without the express written consent of the information source.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism, where someone assumes another's ideas, words, or other creative expression as one's own, is a clear violation of scientific ethics. Plagiarism may also involve a violation of copyright law, punishable by legal action.
Plagiarism includes the following:
- Word for word, or almost word for word copying, or purposely paraphrasing portions of another author's work without clearly indicating the source or marking the copied
fragment (for example, using quotation marks);
- Copying equations, figures or tables from someone else's paper without properly citing the source and/or without permission from the original author or the copyright holder.
Authors are responsible for ensuring the originality of their submitted manuscripts. All sources, including the authors’ own previously published work, must be appropriately cited and, where applicable, quoted accurately.
Please note that all submissions are thoroughly checked for plagiarism. To support the maintenance of academic standards, the Religious Education Journal (REJ) employs plagiarism detection software, such as iThenticate, as part of its manuscript screening process.
In instances where the originality assessment raises concerns, editors reserve the right to request clarifications, appropriate acknowledgements, or substantive revisions prior to advancing the manuscript in the editorial review process. Failure to comply with these requests will result in rejection of the manuscript.
In case plagiarism is discovered in a paper that has already been published by the journal, it will be retracted in accordance with the procedure described under Retraction Policy.
Conflict of Interest
Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation. If there is no conflict of interest to declare, the following standard statement should be added: "No conflict of interest was disclosed".
Conflict of interest may be of non-financial or financial nature. Examples of the conflict of interest include (but are not limited to):
- individuals receiving funding, salary or other forms of payment from an organization, or holding stocks or shares from a company, that might benefit (or lose) financially from the publication of the findings;
- official affiliations and memberships with interest groups relating to the content of the publication;
- political, religious, or ideological competing interests.
Publications in the journal must not contain content advertising any commercial products.
Fundamental Errors in Published Works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
By submitting a manuscript the authors agree to abide by the Religious Education Journal (REJ)'s Editorial Policies.
ORCID
The journal asks that all authors submitting a paper register an account with Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID). ORCID numbers for all authors and co-authors should be added to the author data upon submission and will be published alongside the submitted paper, should it be accepted.
ORCID registration provides a unique and persistent digital identifier for the account that enables accurate attribution and improves the discoverability of published papers, ensuring that the correct author receives the correct credit for their work.
Funding information
If a paper is a result of the funded project, authors are required to specify funding sources according to their contracts with the funder.
Reviewers’ Responsibilities
Reviewers are required to provide written, competent and unbiased feedback in a timely manner on the scholarly merits and the scientific value of the manuscript.
The reviewers assess manuscript for the compliance with the profile of the journal, the relevance of the investigated topic and applied methods, the originality and scientific relevance of information presented in the manuscript, the presentation style and scholarly apparatus.
Reviewers should alert the Editor to any well-founded suspicions or the knowledge of possible violations of ethical standards by the authors. Reviewers should recognize relevant published works that have not been cited by the authors and alert the Editor to substantial similarities between a reviewed manuscript and any manuscript published or under consideration for publication elsewhere, in the event they are aware of such. Reviewers should also alert the Editor to a parallel submission of the same manuscript to another journal, in the event they are aware of such.
Reviewers must not have conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the funding sources for the research. If such conflicts exist, the reviewers must report them to the Editor without delay.
Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the Editor without delay.
Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.
