Qubahan Political Journal (QPJ) is committed to maintaining the integrity, reliability, transparency, and ethical quality of the scholarly record.

The journal's practices are informed by internationally recognized principles of publication ethics and research integrity, including guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1. Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must submit original work.

Plagiarism, unattributed copying, duplicate publication, inappropriate text recycling, fabrication, falsification, and misleading manipulation of research materials are prohibited.

QPJ may use similarity-detection and other research-integrity screening tools.

A similarity percentage alone is not used as an automatic definition of plagiarism. Similarity reports are evaluated according to source, extent, context, attribution, quotation, legitimate methodological overlap, and other relevant factors.

2. Duplicate and Concurrent Submission

Manuscripts must not be simultaneously under consideration by another journal.

Duplicate and redundant publication are prohibited.

3. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must accurately reflect substantial scholarly contribution.

Guest, gift, honorary, purchased, and ghost authorship are prohibited.

All listed authors must approve the submitted manuscript and final Version of Record.

Contributors who do not qualify for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.

4. Changes in Authorship

Changes to authorship after submission require a written explanation and agreement from all affected authors and are subject to editorial approval.

5. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose financial and non-financial competing interests that could reasonably influence or appear to influence their work or judgment.

Editors and reviewers must recuse themselves where appropriate.

6. Funding

Authors must disclose all financial, institutional, commercial, governmental, or other material support relevant to the research.

Where no external funding was received, authors should state this clearly.

7. Data Integrity

Fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation, deceptive presentation, or intentional misrepresentation of research data is prohibited.

QPJ may request supporting data or documentation where legitimate research-integrity concerns arise.

8. Data Availability

Authors should make supporting data, materials, instruments, and analytical information available where ethically, legally, and practically possible.

Research articles should include an appropriate Data Availability Statement where relevant.

9. Human Participants

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international ethical requirements.

Where ethics approval is required, authors must identify the approving committee or institution and provide the approval or reference number where available.

10. Informed Consent

Informed consent must be obtained where required.

Research involving interviews, surveys, identifiable information, photographs, recordings, or other personal data must respect participant privacy and applicable ethical requirements.

11. Vulnerable Populations

Research involving children, refugees, prisoners, displaced persons, marginalized communities, persons with impaired decision-making capacity, or other vulnerable populations requires appropriate safeguards.

12. Sensitive Political and Social Research

Research involving politically sensitive environments, conflict settings, activists, public officials, vulnerable communities, or potentially identifiable political opinions must give appropriate consideration to participant safety, confidentiality, privacy, informed consent, and data protection.

13. Privacy and Confidentiality

Identifiable or sensitive personal information must not be published without an appropriate ethical and legal basis.

Authors are responsible for anonymization or pseudonymization where appropriate.

14. Images, Figures and Data

Images, figures, tables, recordings, and datasets must not be manipulated in a manner that misrepresents the underlying research.

15. Citation Practices

References must be relevant and genuinely support the statements for which they are cited.

Citation coercion, citation cartels, fabricated citations, excessive irrelevant citations, and citation manipulation intended primarily to influence metrics are prohibited.

16. Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are based on scholarly and ethical considerations and are independent of publisher commercial interests, financial arrangements, political viewpoints, institutional relationships, or author characteristics unrelated to scholarly merit.

17. Allegations of Misconduct

QPJ will evaluate credible allegations of research or publication misconduct.

Actions may include:

• requesting clarification;
• requesting original data or documentation;
• suspending editorial processing;
• rejecting a manuscript;
• issuing a correction;
• issuing an Expression of Concern;
• retracting an article; or
• contacting relevant institutions where appropriate.

18. Post-Publication Concerns

Substantiated concerns raised after publication will be evaluated and may result in clarification, correction, Expression of Concern, retraction, or another appropriate editorial action.

19. Complaints and Appeals

Authors and readers may submit reasoned complaints concerning editorial procedures, ethics, or published content.

Authors may appeal editorial decisions where they believe a significant factual or procedural error affected the decision.

20. Responsibility for the Scholarly Record

QPJ will take reasonable steps to correct the scholarly record when significant errors or integrity concerns are established.