Audrezara Journal of Communication and Social Research (AJCSR) is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against publication malpractice. Our policies are aligned with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices.
AJCSR is dedicated to maintaining the highest ethical standards in research and publication. All studies involving human participants must adhere to internationally recognized ethical guidelines and institutional regulations. Authors are required to ensure that their research complies with ethical principles regarding human subjects, informed consent, and the protection of vulnerable populations.
All research involving human participants is expected to obtain ethical approval from a recognized Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee prior to data collection. Authors are encouraged to include a statement in the methods section specifying the name of the ethics committee, the approval number, and the date of approval, where applicable. If ethical approval was not required (e.g., for studies using publicly available data), authors are invited to provide a justification for the exemption. Research should comply with institutional, national, and international ethical guidelines, such as the BERA Ethical Guidelines, APA Ethics Code, and GDPR regulations (if applicable).
Authors must obtain informed consent from all participants before data collection. Participants should be provided with detailed information about the study's purpose, procedures, potential risks, benefits, and their right to withdraw at any time without consequences. Consent must be documented (e.g., via signed forms or electronic consent). For studies involving children under the age of 18 or other vulnerable populations (e.g., individuals with cognitive impairments), informed consent must be obtained from both the participant (when possible) and their legal guardian/parent. The consent form should be age-appropriate and culturally sensitive.
Research involving vulnerable populations, such as children, individuals with cognitive impairments, prisoners, refugees, or other at-risk groups, must adhere to additional ethical safeguards. Authors must ensure that:
Authors must ensure that participants' privacy and confidentiality are strictly maintained. Personally identifiable information must be anonymized or pseudonymized unless explicit permission has been obtained from participants. Authors must comply with data protection laws, including GDPR, when applicable.
Any form of research misconduct, including plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, or unethical data collection, will result in rejection or retraction of the manuscript. If ethical concerns arise post-publication, AJCSR reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate action, including issuing a correction, retraction, or notifying relevant institutions.
Authors submitting manuscripts to AJCSR must include an Ethical Statement in their article.
The editors of AJCSR are responsible for deciding which articles to publish, guided by referees' reports and the journal's policies. They may confer with other editors or reviewers and are constrained by legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.
All manuscripts are reviewed based on intellectual content, without regard for age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, country of origin, or political philosophy of the authors.
All manuscripts submitted for peer review are kept strictly confidential. Editors and editorial staff must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, or editorial advisers.
When dealing with unethical behavior, the Editorial Board follows the guidelines provided by COPE.
AJCSR adheres to the COPE Retraction Guidelines. For more details, see our Retraction Policy.
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or editorial board for their own research purposes without the author's explicit written consent. All authors must disclose any financial or substantive conflicts of interest that might influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.
Authors must submit original work and comply with the following ethical standards:
Reviewers play a critical role in maintaining the quality of AJCSR publications and must adhere to the following principles:
The publisher ensures independent editorial decisions, takes precautions against scientific misconduct, and collaborates with editors to address allegations of misconduct, including issuing corrections or retractions when necessary.
Audrezara Journal of Communication and Social Research (AJCSR) has a strict policy against plagiarism in any form, including self-plagiarism. Authors must not present the ideas, data, or words of others as their own, and they must provide proper citation and attribution for all sources. Similarly, authors must not reuse substantial parts of their own previously published work without appropriate referencing.
All submissions are screened for originality using professional plagiarism detection software (Turnitin/iThenticate) before being sent to reviewers. In addition, reviewers are instructed to evaluate any potential overlaps with existing literature.
By submitting to AJCSR, authors confirm that their manuscript is original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere. They also confirm that any potential conflicts of interest, funding sources, and use of generative AI tools (if applicable) are disclosed in accordance with our Publication Ethics Policy.
Audrezara Journal of Communication and Social Research (AJCSR) supports transparency and integrity in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and generative chatbot tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Bard, Gemini, Bing AI) in research and publication.
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of their work. Editors and reviewers must not upload manuscripts or reviews into AI/chatbot systems to protect confidentiality. This policy is aligned with international guidelines from COPE, Elsevier, and WAME on generative AI in scholarly publishing.
Anyone may inform the Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Board at any time of suspected unethical behavior or misconduct by providing credible information or evidence to initiate an investigation.
The Editor-in-Chief decides to initiate an investigation based on the credibility and sufficiency of the provided evidence. During the investigation, all evidence is treated as strictly confidential and only shared with those directly involved in the process. The accused individual will always be given the opportunity to respond to any allegations made against them. If the investigation concludes that misconduct has occurred, it will be classified as either minor or serious.
Minor misconduct refers to actions that do not significantly impact the integrity of the paper or the journal, such as misunderstandings or minor errors in applying publishing standards. Examples include:
Minor misconduct will be addressed directly with the authors and/or reviewers without involving third parties. Possible outcomes include:
Major misconduct refers to serious breaches of ethical standards that undermine the integrity of the research or the journal. Examples include:
In cases of major misconduct, the Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Board may adopt the following measures:
These actions may be taken separately or in combination. If necessary, the Editorial Board may consult relevant expert organizations, bodies, or individuals to resolve the case.
When dealing with unethical behavior, the Editorial Board adheres to the guidelines and recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All investigations and resolutions are conducted in accordance with COPE's best practices to ensure an ethical and impartial process.
Legal limitations of the publisher, copyright holder, or author(s), infringements of professional or ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or any major misconduct require retraction of an article.
Occasionally, a retraction can be used to correct numerous serious errors which cannot be covered by publishing corrections. A retraction may be published by the Editor-in-Chief / Editorial Board, the author(s), or both parties consensually.
The retraction takes the form of a separate item listed in the contents and labeled as "Retraction." The original article is retained unchanged, except for a watermark on the PDF indicating on each page that it is "retracted." AJCSR follows the COPE Retraction Guidelines for all retractions, corrections, and expressions of concern.
Audrezara Journal of Communication and Social Research (AJCSR) is an Open Access Journal. Upon publication of the manuscripts, they are freely accessible for scholars, students, or readers from all over the World. All the open access content of AJCSR journal can be distributed in any medium within non-commercial use as long as the author and the journal are properly credited.
An article processing charge of ₦35,000 applies to accepted manuscripts for Nigerian authors. While foreign authors are to pay $100 as APC. There is no submission fee. APC is the journal's only source of revenue. AJCSR does not accept paid advertisements on its website. Please note that the APC does not include bank charges, VAT, or any other applicable fees.
The Article Processing Charge (APC), which authors pay, is non-refundable and is to take care of the cost of production and overall journal management. Only in exceptional cases will a refund application be considered. Below are some of the conditions:
AJCSR strives for the constant availability of published articles and long-term online accessibility. The journal allows article authors to archive their own articles on the personal website of authors or corporate pages and/or to use the final published version of the article for archiving in an institutional repository after publication.
Articles published in our journal are digitally preserved through the following international preservation networks: PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS)
The author retains unrestricted copyrights and all publishing rights. Authors retain the copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the non-exclusive right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media.
Authors can deposit all versions of their paper in an institutional or subject repository:
The Journal allows Author(s) to deposit all versions of their paper in an institutional repository and non-commercial subject-based repositories, such as PubMed Central, Europe PMC, arXiv, and other repositories, or to publish it on Author's personal website and departmental website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.).
Publisher copyright and source must be acknowledged and a link must be made to the article's DOI.
The content published in Audrezara Journal of Communication and Social Research (AJCSR) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license permits anyone to copy, distribute, and adapt the material in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes, provided that proper credit is given to the original author(s) and source.
Authors retain the copyright of their work. The journal only holds the right of first publication. Users must provide a full bibliographic citation of the original publication (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages, and DOI). In electronic publishing, a link to the original article and to the applied Creative Commons license must also be included.
The views expressed in the published works do not express the views of the Editors and the Editorial Staff. The authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in the articles. Publisher shall have no liability in the event of issuance of any claims for damages. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
