Publication Ethics

GENERAL STATEMENT

Jordan Journal of Modern Languages & Literatures (JJMLL) is an International Peer-Reviewed Research Journal issued quarterly by the Deanship of Research and Graduate Studies, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan. JJMLL is funded by the Scientific Research Support Fund (SRSF), Amman, Jordan.  JJMLL implements the highest standards of publication ethics to meet the required ethical behavior of publishing an article in a peer-reviewed journal. All means of preventing any publication misconduct are practiced. JJMLL makes sure that all parties involved in the publication process: authors, editors, and reviewers agree to seriously act to prevent any unethical behavior.

DUTIES OF EDITOR –IN-CHIEF AND EDITORIAL BOARD

The Editorial Board follows the necessary procedures and policies to ensure the quality of the material published and to maintain the integrity of the published work. The Editorial Board makes the decision of accepting or rejecting an article, based on academic and scientific merits alone. The Editorial Board is solely responsible for deciding without any involvement of the publisher. The Editorial Board selects specialized peer reviewers with sufficient expertise and no conflicts of interest. Extreme care is taken by the editorial staff to prevent any disclosure of any information about the submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, potential reviewers, and the publisher. Reviewers are always reminded not to disclose any information about the manuscript they are reviewing. Extreme care is also taken by the editorial staff to protect reviewers’ identities unless the reviewers wish to disclose their names.

The Editorial Board and Editor-In-Chief exert all efforts needed to ensure that papers are reviewed on purely scholarly grounds and that authors are not pressured to cite specific publications for nonscholarly reasons. When there are undisputed changes in authorship for appropriate reasons, editors should require that all authors (including any, whose names are being removed from an author list) agree to these changes in writing.

AUTHOR'S RESPONSIBILITIES

JJMLL is an open journal with no fees to both authors and readers. Authors interested in publishing in JJMLL should adhere to the following general guidelines:

-        The submitted manuscript must represent the authors' original work.

-        The submitted manuscript must not be submitted, or under consideration for publication in any other journal until a final decision about the submission is issued in a formal letter by the editorial board. In case they want to submit the paper to another journal or want to publish it in another language, they should secure written permission from the editorial board of the journal. 

-        The authors are responsible for the contents of the manuscript which must contain sufficient and accurate new data or findings. They should not fabricate and or falsify data, results, recordings, etc. to make it fit with the desired output. 

-        The submitted manuscript must refer to and cite all relevant publications that have been used in the work.

-        All authors must be contributors to the manuscript, and familiar with its entire content.

-        All authors must read and sign the copyright release form (Copyright Form).

-        The corresponding author should ensure that all those who have made significant contributions to the work are listed as co-authors.

-        The funding source of the research should be declared and published, and the role of this source in the conception, conduct, analysis, and reporting of the research should be stated.

DUTIES OF REVIEWERS

-        Reviewers should contribute to editorial decisions by assessing the manuscript on scientific merits, indicating originality, addition to existing literature, accuracy, adequacy of references, possible future citations, clarity, and organization of the manuscript.

-        Reviewers should address research and publication ethics issues (i.e., whether they think the research was done and reported ethically, or if they have any suspicions of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or redundant publication).

-        Reviewers should declare any conflict of interest, if it existed, at the earliest opportunity to enable the editor-in-chief to decide whether an unbiased review is possible.

-        Reviewers should keep the confidentiality of the material, and inform the Editor-in-chief if they need some help from a colleague in reviewing the manuscript.

-        Potential reviewers who feel unqualified to review the manuscript, or unable to review it promptly should notify the Editor-in-Chief and excuse themselves.

-        Reviewers should write a detailed report on their review to be communicated to the authors who are requested to address all comments in the review report in revising and improving the manuscript.

-        Reviewers should do the reviewing process promptly.

EDITORIAL PROCESSES

When a manuscript submitted for publication is received, an acknowledgment of receipt is conveyed to all authors.  All submitted manuscripts are subject to a preliminary editors' evaluation. The editorial board may reject a paper without peer reviewing when it is deemed unsuitable for the journal’s readers or is of poor quality. The decision not to send a manuscript for peer review is only based on the scientific content of the paper. It is not influenced by prior opinions toward the authors or their host institution. Suppose the manuscript is found suitable for possible publication. In that case, the Editorial Board selects at least two appropriate peer reviewers with sufficient expertise and no potential conflicts of interest, to whom the manuscript is sent for review. The reviewers will be asked to evaluate the submitted manuscript and submit a written report addressing article originality, scholarly relevance, professional relevance, significance, novelty of approach, article organization, and writing clarity, in addition to any ethical issues or misconduct. The reviewers are asked to make clear recommendations to accept or reject the manuscript or require major or minor changes. Based on the reviewers' reports and recommendations, the editorial board decides whether the article is suitable for publication or not. The decision along with the review reports is communicated to the authors.  Editor-in-Chief should ensure that reviews are received promptly.

  PLAGIARISM

JJMLL editorial board does not accept any type of plagiarism. JJMLL holds no responsibility for plagiarism. All authors submitting a manuscript to JJMLL should confirm that their manuscript is of their own creation and has not been copied in whole or in part from other works. The authors should give proper credit to all relevant works used in the article. JJMLL staff screens all submitted articles for plagiarism, duplicate, or redundant publication by using anti-plagiarism software. Furthermore, the reviewers are asked to report any unethical issues or misconduct.  The discovery of any confirmed misconduct will result in an immediate rejection of the article and further future articles from the authors. If serious concerns are raised by readers, reviewers, or others, about the conduct, validity, or reporting of the academic work, the Editor-in-Chief initially contacts all the authors and allows them to respond to the concerns. If their response is unsatisfactory, the Editor-in-Chief takes this issue to the institutional level by contacting the authors' head of the institute. If a published article is found to be a duplicate or redundant publication, a note of retraction will be published, and copies of correspondence will be sent to the authors' head of the institute. Retracted papers should be retained online, and they should be prominently marked as retraction in all online versions for the benefit of future readers.

As transparency is always the best course of action, authors, all authors are expected to have contributed significantly to the study. For this, all authors are requested to sign an agreement that they are accountable for any violations that could affect the integrity of the study or any part of it. In case of multiple authorship, authors should jointly decide on the order of authorship upon submission. New names cannot be added and the order will not be altered afterwards. Individuals who have not contributed significantly to the study (viz, and do not want to be held responsible) should not be listed as authors but could be mentioned as contributors to whom the author(s) express(es) acknowledgment. 

To avoid legal penalties, authors should:

- show permission to use copyrighted material

- credit and acknowledge others' works

- be aware that the severity of misconduct varies depending on how much is taken and the nature of the copied material (i.e. data, ideas, technical words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or full text)

- use quotation marks around the copied text in case of literal copying 

- refer to the source in case of paraphrasing

Any violation is considered a breach of publishing ethics. 

COPYRIGHT

Upon submission, the authors are requested to declare that the manuscript has neither been previously published nor is being considered for publication elsewhere. A statement transferring copyright from the authors to Yarmouk University is required before the manuscript can be considered for publication. The necessary form for such transfer (Copyright Form) is supplied by the Editor-in-Chief before a submission is sent to referees. Reproduction of any part of the contents of a published work is forbidden without written permission from the Editor-in-Chief.

 ORGANIZATION OF MANUSCRIPT

 Manuscripts must be written in English, Arabic, French, or Spanish (All manuscripts submitted should be accompanied by two abstracts and keywords: one in English and the other in Arabic in addition to the abstract in the language of the paper). All articles must be prepared according to the journal style. The sections of the articles should be organized as follows:

- Title (concise and informative)

- Abstract (stand-alone text)

- introduction (adequate and only relevant background information)

- Methods (precise description of procedures and materials)

_ Results (only research-related findings)

- Discussion (significance and implications of the findings

- Conclusion (main ideas and pointers for future research)

- References (relevant and up-to-date works)

- Appendices (Figures, Captions, Tables, etc.)

- Acknowledgments (People, institutions, etc. who have provided financial and logistic support such as advice, space, etc.)

REPRINTS AND PROOFS

The corresponding author will receive the first proofs for making necessary corrections and is requested to return the revised manuscript to the journal in a week. No major changes in the manuscript are accepted at this stage. Authors will receive one copy of the issue in which their work appears. 

PUBLICATION CHARGES

No publication charges are demanded by JJMLL.

DISCLAIMER

Opinions expressed in this journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board, the policy of the publisher, or the Scientific Research Support Fund, Amman, Jordan.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

As the journal acknowledges diversity and is sensitive to differences, the language of the manuscript submitted for possible publication in the journal should be all-inclusive. It must therefore not explicate or implicate the superiority of an individual. group, etc. on the grounds of gender, age, race, culture, ethnicity,  sexual orientation, disability, or health condition. It is the sole responsibility of the author(s) to appropriate the language accordingly.