Double-Blind Peer Review System
To protect scholarly objectivity and prevent conscious or unconscious bias, IJMAP enforces a strictly double-blind peer review procedure for all research and conceptual submissions. Reviewers do not know the identities or institutional affiliations of the authors, and authors remain blind to the identities of the reviewers.
Peer Review Life Cycle Stages
Manuscripts submitted via OJS are screened by the Editor-in-Chief for scope fit, compliance with APA 7th formatting, word count, and preliminary similarity check using iThenticate. Submissions failing fundamental requirements are returned promptly without external review.
Submissions passing initial triage are assigned to a minimum of two independent domain experts matching the manuscript's disciplinary focus. Reviewers must confirm absence of conflicts of interest.
Referees evaluate theoretical contribution, methodological validity, analytical rigor, clarity, and ethical compliance. Reviewers provide detailed qualitative comments and recommend: Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject.
The Associate Editor synthesizes referee reports and issues a decision notice to the corresponding author. Revised manuscripts must include a comprehensive point-by-point response table.
Upon final formal acceptance, the manuscript undergoes professional copyediting, XML/PDF typesetting, DOI assignment, and immediate open-access publication on the OJS portal.
COPE Compliance & Research Integrity
IJMAP strictly complies with the Core Practices and Guidelines defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Our editors, peer reviewers, and authors are required to maintain uncompromising ethical standards across all phases of research and publication.
Authorship Criteria & ICMJE Standards
Authorship must be restricted to individuals who made substantial intellectual contributions to the conception, design, execution, or data interpretation of the study, and participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript. Ghost, guest, or gift authorship is strictly prohibited.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures
Authors must explicitly declare any financial, commercial, institutional, or personal associations that could inappropriately influence or bias their research. If no conflict exists, authors must include: "The authors declare no competing financial or non-financial interests."
Human Subjects & IRB Clearance
All empirical studies involving human participants (including surveys, interviews, and organizational behavioral experiments) must include confirmation of institutional ethics board (IRB) approval and documentation of informed consent obtained from all subjects.
Data Transparency & Reproducibility
Authors are expected to preserve raw data for a minimum of five years post-publication. Where legally and ethically feasible, authors are strongly encouraged to deposit anonymized data matrices and analysis scripts in open scientific repositories.
Plagiarism & Academic Misconduct Policy
Plagiarism in any guise—including direct copying without quotation, paraphrasing without adequate citation, data falsification, image manipulation, and duplicate publication/self-plagiarism—constitutes a grave breach of academic integrity.
Every incoming manuscript is automatically screened using plagiarism detection software (iThenticate / Turnitin). IJMAP enforces a maximum allowable overall similarity index of 15% (excluding bibliography and standard terminology). Submissions with single-source similarity exceeding 3% will be flagged for editorial review.
If plagiarism, duplicate submission, or data fabrication is identified at any stage prior to publication, the manuscript is rejected immediately, and the author's affiliated institution may be formally notified. If misconduct is detected post-publication, formal retractions will be executed in accordance with COPE Retraction Guidelines.
Corrections, Retractions & Expressions of Concern
IJMAP recognizes its responsibility to maintain the permanent integrity of the scholarly literature. Honest errors (e.g., miscalculations or typological errors that do not compromise the study's conclusions) will be rectified via a formally published Corrigendum or Erratum linked bi-directionally to the original article. In cases of pervasive scientific misconduct or irreproducible conclusions, the article will be retracted following standard COPE flowcharts.
Copyright & Open Access License (CC BY 4.0)
All articles published by IJMAP are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
- Authors retain unencumbered copyright of their published work.
- Authors grant the journal first publication rights under CC BY 4.0.
- Anyone is free to read, download, print, search, link, distribute, remix, and build upon the work, even commercially, provided original attribution to the authors and IJMAP is credited.
Ethical Inquiries & Whistleblowing
If you suspect scientific misconduct, undisclosed conflict of interest, or unauthorized plagiarism in any published or in-review paper, please reach out directly in confidence to our editorial office:
editor@ijmapglobal.com