Editorial Policy

Peer Review

EJOSSAH follows a double-blind peer review process. All submissions must pass through a preliminary review by the editors of the Journal before they are sent for a further review. Manuscripts that do not fall into the scope and the minimum requirements of the Journal will be rejected immediately. Manuscripts that pass into the second stage will be sent to at least two reviewers for further in-depth review. Up-on returning the review, reviewers are expected to make a recommendation (Acceptance/Minor Modification/Major Modification/Rejection) of the manuscript for publication. The suggestions and feedbacks provided by reviewers are communicated to the corresponding author as soon as they are received. Authors whose manuscripts have been recommended for publication are required to offer a point by point feedback and resubmit the modified version of the manuscript. This process can be repeated until every comment has been amended. Afterwards, authors are asked to verify their manuscript before publication.

Open Access Policy

Ethiopian Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities (EJOSSAH) employs the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License. The license allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article provided that the author is attributed, the material is used for non-commercial purposes and is not modified. EJOSSAH retains copyright of the Article with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) License. However, the editorial board will consider request for republishing.

Publication Scheduling

The Journal is published bi-annually every June and December.

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

The journal required all contributors, authors, reviewers, editors, and associate editors to adhere to its best-practice standards for moral conduct. This is a list of essential points.

Duties of editors

Fair play and editorial independence

Without considering the author's background, including gender, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion, political philosophy, or institutional affiliation, editors evaluate submitted manuscripts solely based on academic merit and relevance to the journal's scope. Government policies or those of any other external organizations have no bearing on the decisions to edit and publish. The whole editorial content of the journal, as well as the date of its publication, are completely under the control of the Editor-in-Chief and Deputy-Editor-in-Chief.

Confidentiality

Other than the corresponding author, potential reviewers, reviewers, associate editors, and the publisher, editors and associate editors will not reveal any information about a submitted article to anyone else.

Discloser and conflict of interest

Without the authors' written approval, editors and associate editors will not use unpublished information revealed in a submitted manuscript for their own research. Editors will maintain the confidentiality of any privileged information or ideas they acquire while working on the manuscript, and they will not exploit them for their own benefit. Editors will ask associate editors to handle manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest stemming from collaborative, competitive, or other relationships/connections with any of the authors, businesses, or institutions associated with the papers.

Publication decision

All submitted manuscripts that are being considered for publication go through peer review by at least two subject-matter experts. Based on the validity of the work, its significance to researchers and readers, the reviewers' comments, and any current legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism, the Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editor-in-Chief determine which of the manuscripts submitted to the journal will be published. While making this choice, the Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editor-in-Chief may consult with associate editors.

Involvement and cooperation in the investigation

When ethical issues with a submitted manuscript or published paper are brought up, editors (together with associate editors) will take appropriate action. Even if an act of unethical publishing behavior is found years after publication, it will still be investigated. If further inquiry reveals that the ethical concern is valid, the journal will publish a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other remarks that may be pertinent.

Duties of reviewers

Contribution to editorial decisions

Peer review helps editors make editorial decisions and may help authors improve their submissions through editorial interactions with editors. The core of scientific endeavour is peer review, which is a crucial element of formal scholarly communication. All academics who want to contribute to the scientific method must undertake a reasonable amount of revision.

Promptness

If the selected and invited potential reviewer feels unqualified to review the research presented in a manuscript or realizes that it will be impossible to complete the review promptly should notify the editors right away and decline the invitation; hence, substitute reviewers can be recruited.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts submitted for review are confidential and must be kept as such; they cannot be shared with or shown to anyone unless the Editor-in-Chief and/or Deputy Editor-in-Chief has given permission (only in specific circumstances). This is true for invited reviewers who choose not to participate in the review.

Standards of objectivity

Reviews should be undertaken impartially, remarks made with clarity and justification, and then used by the writers to enhance their articles. It is wrong to criticize the authors personally.

Acknowledgment of sources

Reviewers should point out pertinent published works that the authors have not cited. Any claim based on an observation, deduction, or argument already recorded in another publication needs to be supported by the appropriate citation. A reviewer should also let the editors know if they have any personal knowledge of any significant similarities or overlaps between the article being considered and any other material (published or unpublished).

Disclosure and conflict of interest

Any invited referee who has relationships or connections with any of the authors, businesses, or institutions related to the manuscript and the work described therein that could be construed as competitive, cooperative, or other relationships or connections should immediately notify the editors to declare their relationships or connections and decline to review so that substitute reviewers can be contacted.

Peer reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of any confidential information or ideas they receive and must not exploit it for their own personal gain. A reviewer may not conduct their own research using unpublished material disclosed in a submitted publication without the authors' express written agreement. This holds true for invited reviewers who also turn down the review invitation.

Duties of authors

Reporting standards

Original research writers should give a truthful account of the work done and the outcomes, followed by a dispassionate appraisal of the study's relevance. The manuscript should include enough specifics and citations to allow other authors to duplicate the work. In contrast to editorial "opinion" or perspective, review articles should be truthful, impartial, and complete. It is inappropriate and unethical to submit inaccurate statements deliberately.

Originality and plagiarism

Writers must ensure that all works they write and submit are wholly original, and if they borrow someone else's ideas or words, they must properly credit them. Moreover, publications that significantly impacted the description of the work reported in the manuscript should be referenced. Plagiarism can take many different forms, such as "passing off" another author's paper as the author's own, copying or paraphrasing significant portions of another paper without giving due credit, or claiming the findings of other people's studies. All forms of plagiarism are forbidden and represent unethical publishing behavior.

Multiple, duplicate, redundant, or concurrent submission/publication

It is not advisable to publish papers reporting essentially the same study in more than one journal or principal publication. As a result, authors shouldn't submit work that has previously been accepted by or published in another publication. The simultaneous submission of a paper to multiple journals is unethical publishing practice and is not accepted.

If certain requirements are met, publishing some papers (such as clinical guidelines and translations) in more than one journal may be justified. Secondary publishing, which must represent the same information and interpretation of the source document, requires the approval of the authors and editors of the relevant journals. The secondary publication must include a citation to the initial reference.

Authorship of the manuscript

Only those people who are able to accept responsibility for the content publicly and who meet the following authorship criteria should be recognized as authors in the manuscript: (i) made substantial contributions to the idea, planning, carrying out, data collection, analysis, or interpretation of the study; (ii) wrote the manuscript or contributed in critical revision to assure its intellectual content; and (iii) had a chance to review and approve the final version of the paper before agreeing to submit it for publication. All people who contributed significantly to the work described in the article but did not meet the requirements for authorship (e.g., technical support, writing, editing aid, general support) should be acknowledged in the "Acknowledgements" section after receiving their written consent. The corresponding author is responsible for making sure that the author list includes all appropriate coauthors (as defined above) and excludes any ineligible ones. They should also confirm that all coauthors have viewed the final draft of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

At the earliest opportunity, authors should disclose any conflicts of interest that could be interpreted as influencing the results or their interpretation of the manuscript. Typically, this is done when the author has statements in their manuscript and submits a disclosure form during submission. Authors are expected to disclose financial issues, including funding, grant, consultancy, honoraria, membership, employment, stock ownership or other equity interests and paid expert testimony or patent-licensing agreements, as well as non-financial ones like ties to other people or organizations, affiliations, knowledge of the subject matter or materials, or beliefs in them. Authors are expected to disclose all funding sources (that include grant numbers or other reference numbers, if any).

Acknowledgment of sources

Writers must get the specific written consent of the author(s) of the workers engaged in these services before using any information they learn while performing confidential services, such as reviewing grant applications or manuscripts. Writers must make sure that they have appropriately recognized the work of others and must list any sources that had a significant impact on how the reported work was defined. Without the source's express, written consent, information collected informally (via conversation, correspondence, or discussions with third parties) cannot be utilized or reported.

Hazards and human or animal subjects

The authors must make it explicit in the manuscript whether the work uses any techniques, chemicals, or tools that have any special risks inherent in their usage. The article should contain a statement to the effect that all procedures were carried out following applicable laws and institutional rules and that the appropriate IRB has approved them if the work involves the use of animals or human volunteers. For experiments involving human subjects, authors must also declare in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained. Human participants' private rights must always be respected.

Peer review

Authors must actively engage in the peer review process and quickly respond to editors' requests for further information, raw data, clarifications, and documentation of ethics approval, patient consent, and copyright clearances. If a first decision of "revisions necessary" is made, authors should promptly, methodically, and point-by-point responses to the reviewers' remarks before editing and resubmitting their work to the journal within the specified deadline.

Fundamental errors in published works

The authors are responsible for swiftly telling the journal's editors or publisher of any material errors or inaccuracies in their own published work and working with them to either withdraw the manuscript or correct it in an erratum. The authors must promptly fix or retract the manuscript or offer proof to the journal editors that it is accurate if a third party informs the editors or publisher that the manuscript contains a serious error or inaccuracy.

Publishers’ duties

Handling of unethical publishing behavior

In order to find and prevent the publication of articles that contain research misconduct, the editors and associate editors must collaborate. The publisher and editors will take all necessary steps to clarify the situation and amend the article in cases of suspected or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism. This encompasses the prompt publication of a correction, an update, or, in the worst case, the retraction of the defective work. This wrongdoing must not ever be supported or knowingly allowed to happen.

Access to journal content

This is an open-access journal where all the published journal articles are freely accessible to readers. The journal digital archive guarantees accessibility. Authors are not expected to pay any fee in the entire process of the journal publication.

Open access policy

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this Journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE:

The College of the Social Sciences of Addis Ababa University owns the copyright of the articles.

The content is free to read and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND).