Publication Ethics

Journal of Geography and Agrarian Innovations is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and academic integrity in all stages of the editorial and publishing process. The journal expects authors, reviewers, editors, and all parties involved in publication to comply with internationally accepted ethical principles. These principles are intended to ensure the originality, reliability, transparency, and scholarly value of all published content.

The journal is published twice a year and applies ethical standards equally to all submitted manuscripts, regardless of their subject area, authorship, institutional affiliation, or geographic origin.

1. General Ethical Principles

All manuscripts submitted to the journal must be based on honest research practice and must reflect original scientific work. Ethical publishing requires accuracy in the presentation of data, transparency in authorship, proper acknowledgment of sources, and respect for the editorial and peer review process.

The journal does not tolerate:

• plagiarism in any form;
• data fabrication or falsification;
• duplicate submission or duplicate publication;
• improper authorship practices;
• citation manipulation;
• undisclosed conflicts of interest;
• deliberate misrepresentation of research findings.

2. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the submitted manuscript is original, scientifically valid, and prepared in accordance with ethical and technical requirements of the journal.

By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that:

• the work is original and has not been published previously;
• the manuscript is not under consideration by another journal at the same time;
• all data presented are accurate and have not been manipulated;
• all sources used in the manuscript have been properly cited;
• all listed authors have made a genuine scientific contribution to the study;
• all co-authors have approved the final version of the manuscript;
• all necessary permissions have been obtained for copyrighted material, data, maps, tables, figures, or reproduced content where applicable;
• all funding sources and institutional support have been disclosed where relevant;
• any actual or potential conflict of interest has been clearly declared.

Authors must be prepared to provide clarifications, source files, raw data, methodological details, or documentary evidence if requested by the editorial office during the review or ethical screening process.

3. Authorship and Contribution

Authorship must reflect actual scientific contribution. Individuals who have not made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, execution, analysis, or interpretation of the study must not be listed as authors. Likewise, all individuals who have made a substantial scholarly contribution should be appropriately recognized.

• guest, honorary, or symbolic authorship is unacceptable;
• ghost authorship is unacceptable;
• the corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and for ensuring the integrity of authorship information;
• changes in authorship after submission require a justified written request and editorial approval.

4. Originality and Plagiarism

The journal requires that all submitted manuscripts be original. Text, data, figures, ideas, or results derived from other works must be properly cited and acknowledged. Plagiarism includes direct copying, close paraphrasing without attribution, appropriation of ideas, and reuse of previously published material without appropriate citation.

Manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism detection tools or editorial checks. If plagiarism or unattributed borrowing is identified, the manuscript may be rejected immediately. In serious cases, the journal reserves the right to notify the author’s institution or other relevant bodies where necessary.

5. Data Integrity and Research Accuracy

Authors must present their research results accurately and honestly. Fabrication, falsification, selective omission of significant data, misleading representation of methods, or manipulation of results is considered a serious ethical violation.

Where relevant, authors may be asked to provide original data, methodological explanations, image files, map layers, statistical outputs, or other supporting materials in order to verify the reliability of the reported findings.

6. Duplicate Submission and Redundant Publication

A manuscript submitted to the journal must not be simultaneously submitted to another journal, publisher, or editorial platform. Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals at the same time is unethical.

Redundant publication, including the publication of substantially similar articles based on the same research without proper disclosure, is also unacceptable. If the manuscript is related to previous conference papers, preprints, reports, theses, or earlier versions of the work, this should be disclosed clearly to the editorial office.

7. Citation Ethics

Citations must be relevant, accurate, and academically justified. Authors should cite sources that have made a genuine contribution to the study. Citation practices intended only to inflate citation counts, favor particular authors or journals without scholarly necessity, or distort the scientific basis of the study are considered unethical.

• all cited sources must be relevant to the manuscript;
• self-citation must remain limited and scientifically justified;
• the reference list must not contain sources that are not cited in the text;
• all in-text citations must appear in the reference list.

8. Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, personal, or professional relationships that could influence the interpretation of the results or the presentation of the manuscript. If there is no conflict of interest, this should also be explicitly stated.

Reviewers and editors must likewise avoid handling manuscripts in cases where there is a conflict of interest that may compromise impartiality.

9. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers play a key role in maintaining the scientific quality and ethical standards of the journal. Reviewers are expected to assess manuscripts objectively, confidentially, and within the scope of their expertise.

• reviewers must treat all manuscripts as confidential documents;
• reviewers must provide objective, constructive, and academically grounded comments;
• reviewers must identify relevant published work not cited by the authors when appropriate;
• reviewers must not use unpublished manuscript content for personal benefit;
• reviewers must decline review if they identify a conflict of interest or lack of expertise.

10. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for making fair, transparent, and academically justified editorial decisions. Editorial decisions must be based on the scholarly merit of the manuscript, the relevance of the manuscript to the journal’s scope, the quality of peer review reports, and compliance with ethical standards.

• editors must evaluate manuscripts without discrimination;
• editors must preserve reviewer and author confidentiality within the double-blind review process;
• editors must not use unpublished material from submitted manuscripts for their own research;
• editors must act when ethical concerns arise before or after publication;
• editors may reject manuscripts that fail to meet ethical, scientific, or technical standards.

11. Peer Review Integrity

The journal applies a double-blind peer review process. Authors and reviewers remain anonymous to one another throughout the review process. Manuscripts that pass initial editorial screening are normally evaluated by at least two independent reviewers.

The editorial office expects all participants in the review process to maintain confidentiality, professionalism, and integrity. Attempts to influence reviewer selection or interfere improperly with the peer review process are not acceptable.

12. Use of Figures, Tables, Maps, and Other Materials

Authors must ensure that all visual, tabular, cartographic, and illustrative materials used in the manuscript are either original or used with proper attribution and permission where necessary. Sources for all reproduced or adapted materials must be clearly indicated.

If a figure, table, map, image, or graph has been compiled by the author, this should be stated accordingly. Misrepresentation of authorship or source ownership in visual materials is considered an ethical violation.

13. Corrections, Retractions, and Editorial Action

If significant errors, ethical concerns, or integrity problems are identified before or after publication, the journal may take appropriate editorial action. Depending on the nature and seriousness of the issue, such action may include:

• requesting clarification from the author;
• requesting correction or revision;
• rejecting the manuscript before publication;
• publishing a correction after publication where appropriate;
• retracting a published article in serious cases of misconduct or unreliability.

14. Complaints and Ethical Concerns

Allegations of misconduct, ethical concerns, authorship disputes, or complaints related to editorial handling may be submitted to the editorial office. The journal will examine such matters carefully, fairly, and confidentially. Where necessary, additional information may be requested from the parties involved.

The journal reserves the right to seek clarification from authors, reviewers, editors, or relevant institutions when serious ethical issues arise.

15. Final Provision

Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that the author(s) have read, understood, and accepted these publication ethics principles. Compliance with these standards is essential for maintaining the scholarly quality, credibility, and international integrity of the journal.