About the Journal

            Journal Policies

Part I: Open Access Policy

1. Open Access Model: The Journal of Citizenship and Morality (JCM) is a fully open-access journal adhering to the Gold Open Access model. In accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), all content is freely available to the public. Users are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles for any lawful purpose without seeking prior permission.

2. fees (APC Policy): JCM enforces a strict no-fee policy to support equitable open science.

  • Article Processing Charges (APCs): Zero (0) publication or processing fees.
  • Submission Charges: No submission fees.
  • Subscription/Access Fees: All editorial and hosting costs are subsidized by the College of Social Sciences at Mekelle University. No paywalls exist.

3. Licensing Terms: All research is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

  • Permissions: Users may share (copy/redistribute) and adapt (remix/transform/build upon) the material for any purpose, including commercially.
  • Conditions: Users must provide appropriate credit, a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. This must not suggest that the licensor endorses the user or their use.

4. Copyright Ownership and Retention

  • Author Rights: Authors retain full, unrestricted copyright and publishing rights.
  • Journal Rights: Authors grant JCM a non-exclusive license to format, publish, archive, and index the work.
  • Repurposing: Authors do not require permission from JCM to reuse their work in future textbooks, repositories, or course packs, provided a formal citation link to the original JCM publication is included.

5. Self-Archiving Policy (Green Open Access) Authors are encouraged to deposit their work in institutional or subject-specific repositories:

  • Preprint: May be archived at any time. This does not invalidate eligibility for submission, provided double-anonymous peer-review guidelines are maintained.
  • Postprint: The peer-reviewed, accepted version may be archived immediately upon formal acceptance.
  • Publisher’s Version: The final PDF may be deposited immediately upon its release on the JCM platform.

6. Archiving & Digital Preservation: JCM ensures permanent accessibility through:

  • OAI-PMH Harvesting: Metadata is exposed via OAI-PMH for global indexing.
  • PKP Preservation Network (PN): Utilizes LOCKSS architecture to distribute digital copies across global nodes, ensuring preservation against data loss.

Part II: Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

JCM maintains the highest standards of integrity in accordance with the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Compliance is mandatory for all authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher (Mekelle University).

1. Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

  • Publication Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor hold sole responsibility for manuscript acceptance based on editorial policy and legal constraints (libel, copyright, plagiarism).
  • Fair Play and Objectivity: Manuscripts are evaluated solely on intellectual and empirical content, regardless of the author's personal characteristics.
  • Confidentiality: Editorial staff must not disclose information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the author, reviewers, and appropriate editorial advisers.
  • Conflicts of Interest: Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where conflicts of interest exist. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submission must not be used in an editor’s own research without the author’s written consent.

2. Duties and Responsibilities of Authors

  • Reporting Standards: Research must be presented accurately with an objective discussion of significance.
  • Data Management: Authors must comply with JCM’s Research Data Management policy and include a Data Availability Statement (DAS). Raw data may be requested for editorial review.
  • Originality and Plagiarism: Works must be entirely original. JCM utilizes screening software; any manuscript with uncredited text recycling or excessive overlap will be rejected.
  • Concurrent Publication: Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals is strictly prohibited.
  • Acknowledgment: Proper citation of influential work is mandatory.
  • Authorship: Limited to those who have made significant contributions. The corresponding author must ensure all co-authors have approved the final version.
  • AI Tools: Generative AI cannot be listed as an author. Its use in drafting or analysis must be transparently disclosed in the methodology or acknowledgments.
  • Fundamental Errors: If an author discovers a significant error, they must notify the editor immediately to retract or correct the paper.

3. Dealing with Unethical Behavior: JCM enforces strict protocols for managing misconduct:

  • Identification: Anyone may report misconduct, provided sufficient evidence is supplied.
  • Investigation: The editorial team and legal advisors will conduct a fair, objective investigation, allowing the accused to respond.
  • Sanctions (Severity-Based):
    1. Education regarding scholarly standards.
    2. Formal warning letter.
    3. Publication of an Editorial Erratum or Correction.
    4. Formal Retraction of the paper (with clear watermarking and notice).
    5. Formal notification to the author's institution or funding body.
    6. Formal embargo on future submissions (1–3 years).