Editorial Policy
What ethical policy are we aligning IJPAI to? The IJPAI ethical policy aligns with the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and is informed by the standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Whilst making submissions Authors must bear the following in mind: confirmation that they will comply with the journal’s editorial guidelines and Must be sincere in presenting their research findings.
Contributions and Authorship
To be listed as an author, each person must have contributed substantially to the research, endorse the manuscript’s claims, and agree to authorship. All who made significant scientific contributions must be named. The corresponding author must have permission from all authors to submit the manuscript and to make any authorship changes. Co-authors with limited contributions are responsible for their own work but may also be held accountable for other results. Even if co-authors are not experts in every part of the study, the team should have procedures in place to verify the accuracy of all findings.
Corresponding Authors
Submission of Manuscript is the responsibility of the corresponding author and, is also accountable for all details concerning it. They also communicate with the editorial office as required. More than one corresponding author may be designated after acceptance, provided they are named on the manuscript’s title page. All corresponding authors must proofread the galley proof and address any comments or questions about the published work.
Competing Interest
Failure to declare a competing financial interest before submission may result in sanctions for an author. Authors must disclose any affiliations that could be seen as a conflict of interest and must acknowledge all funding sources. Authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose conflicts of interest when assessing a manuscript.
IJPAI Competing Interest Policy
The IJPAI policy aims to manage conflicts of interest rather than remove them entirely. Its key principle is that authors, reviewers, and editors must declare any affiliations that could pose a conflict of interest with the manuscript. Disclosing a conflict rarely affects the validity of results or the views of editors and referees. The disclosure is provided so readers can evaluate the work for themselves. When a competing interest is disclosed, the published article will include a footnote explaining it. IJPAI may issue an Erratum to disclose conflicts of interest for previously published articles. Disciplinary action, including exclusion from publishing, may be taken against authors, reviewers, or editors of past papers. This policy covers all IJPAI publications.
1. Financial Competing Interest: Any financial interest in an organization whose products or services relate to the subject of the article must be disclosed as a competing interest.
2. Personal Competing Interest: Conflicts of interest can arise from personal relationships with family, friends, rivals, colleagues, or competitors. An editor or reviewer may find it difficult to provide an impartial assessment of a manuscript written by a colleague. Similarly, reviewing work from a competing researcher can be challenging. Strong personal ties may also compromise objectivity when evaluating a competitor’s work. If such a conflict exists, the individual cannot serve as editor or reviewer for the manuscript.
3. Authors’ Responsibilities: Authors must acknowledge all funding sources and declare any competing interests.
4. Responsibilities of Editors and Reviewers
When invited to evaluate a manuscript for publication, editors and reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest. If a competing interest prevents them from making an unbiased judgment, they will be asked to withdraw from the evaluation process.
Research of Concern
IJPAI must be informed by authors and reviewers when a manuscript may involve dual-use research. In such cases, IJPAI may assess the manuscript and, where appropriate, seek input from extra/alternate reviewers.
Errata
If a published article requires correction, authors should notify IJPAI via journal@paidef.org.ng. IJPAI can correct published errors that do not significantly affect the findings. Minor typos that might change meaning can be fixed online. IJPAI issues citable corrections for scientific mistakes that do not impact the main results or conclusions. Correction requests are reviewed by the editor to determine if they are justified. Editors or authors may retract articles due to pervasive errors or unsupported evidence. Retractions can occur because of honest mistakes or misconduct. Name changes do not receive a formal correction unless the author requests one.
Change of Name
IJPAI acknowledges that people change their names for many reasons. To update your name on a published article, notify the editorial office. Each request is reviewed carefully to ensure timely, accurate, confidential, and practical updates. The change will be applied to all versions of the paper, including HTML and PDF, using the updated initials and given/family names. No notice of the correction will be issued unless requested. While IJPAI will provide Crossref with the revised details, it cannot manage updates made by other repositories.
Image Integrity
Images may be technically manipulated for clarity. These distortions are limited to changes in contrast, brightness, or colour balance. Authors must disclose any such manipulations to the Journal Editor in a cover note. Manipulating an image to hide, enhance, delete, or introduce elements is considered improper. If there are concerns about the accuracy of figures, the Editor may ask the author to provide the original data.
License Available to Publish
By completing the online submission form, authors grant IJPAI a license to publish the manuscript. The license is void if the manuscript is rejected.
Materials and Data Access Policy
Our goal is to ensure that research data is preserved, accessible, and easy to find, thereby promoting transparency and efficiency in research. This encompasses data from observations or experiments that support research outcomes, along with software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods, and other pertinent materials.
Authors must make their research data and related protocols available, either as supplementary information with the manuscript or by depositing them in a suitable repository. The article should include a citation and link to the dataset. If sharing the data is not possible, authors must submit a clear statement explaining the reason, such as confidentiality or sensitive patient information.
This data availability statement is submitted with the manuscript and will be published with the article. “Protocol” means the methodologies, experimental procedures, or workflows used in the study. Protocols must be detailed enough for others to reproduce the work, including instructions for accessing any custom code or algorithms. For clarity, the Methods section should include a “Code availability” subsection that tells readers how to obtain the relevant software or algorithms.
Any customized code or algorithms should be provided in their latest versions, either as supplementary material or deposited in a reliable repository with version control.
This policy reflects our commitment to transparency and reproducibility. Connecting publications to the underlying data promotes openness, increases visibility, and may facilitate new collaborations.
Citations Guidelines for the International Journal of Practical Artificial Intelligence
To ensure consistency, accuracy, and proper source acknowledgment, authors submitting to the International Journal of Practical Artificial Intelligence must follow these citation guidelines:
i.Reference List: Each reference must include complete information: author(s), year of publication, title, journal or book title, volume/issue where applicable, page numbers, and DOI if available.
ii.Electronic Sources: All digital or electronic entries should include author(s), publication year, title, journal/book title, volume/issue if relevant, page numbers, and DOI when available.
iii.Self-Citation: Self-citations should be minimal and limited to previous work directly relevant to the current research.
iv.Unpublished Work: Citing unpublished work, including manuscripts still in research or under review, should be avoided. When necessary, cite such work as "unpublished data" or "personal communication" with the author's permission.
v.Plagiarism and Attribution: It is the responsibility of authors to ensure that every citation appropriately acknowledges the original source. Any form of plagiarism, including the improper use of referenced materials, is strictly prohibited. Compliance with these guidelines supports the academic integrity and clarity of the International Journal of Practical Artificial Intelligence.
Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.
Ethics guidelines are established to ensure scientific publications maintain high quality, earn public trust in research findings, and give authors proper credit for their work. The following practices should be avoided:
Falsification and Fabrication of Data
Data fabrication means the researcher did not actually perform the study but instead invented the data. Data falsification occurs when the researcher conducted the experiment but altered the data. Authors of manuscripts or published papers found to have fabricated or falsified results, including image manipulation, may face penalties and their work may be retracted.
Plagiarism
It is dishonest and unethical to use the work or ideas of other scientists without proper attribution. Plagiarism includes copying even one word from a manuscript or from previously published material without appropriate citation. Manuscripts identified as plagiarized will be rejected. For published work, retraction or correction of the article may be required.
Multiple Submission
Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously is unacceptable. It wastes the time of peer reviewers and editors and can harm the credibility of both authors and journals. Authors found to have submitted articles to more than one journal at the same time may face sanctions.
Redundant Publications
This occurs when multiple similar papers are published based on the same research idea. Your findings are more suitable for IJPAI if you consolidate them into a single comprehensive research paper. Redundant publication in IJPAI may result in sanctions.
Inaccurate Author Contributions or Author Attributions
All listed authors must have made a substantial scientific contribution to the research and must approve the work. All who contributed significantly should be added, including students and laboratory technicians. Do not grant “gift” authorship to individuals who did not contribute to the paper. If violations are found, your institution may be notified and your paper may be rejected. Submissions made by anyone other than the authors will not be considered.
Modification of Citation
Authors may face sanctions if their work includes references added solely to boost citation counts for specific authors or journals. Editors and reviewers must not ask authors to add citations to their own work, an associate’s work, or a journal they are affiliated with just to increase citations.
Editors and Reviewers
Editors and reviewers should recuse themselves from submissions when they have a recent publication, a pending submission, or any relationship with any of the authors. In addition, they are required to disclose if they have previously discussed the manuscript with the authors.
Sanctions
For violations of our ethics guidelines, IJPAI may:
Ø Reject the manuscript and all other submissions from the author(s).
Ø Ban the author(s) from submitting for 2 years.
Ø Prohibit the author(s) from serving as an editor or reviewer.
Additional sanctions may apply for serious violations.
Investigations
Suspected violations of our publication ethics policies, whether before or after publication, and concerns regarding research ethics, should be reported to the Editor-in-Chief (journal@paidef.org.ng) or the President of the Practical Artificial Intelligence Foundation (journal@paidef.org.ng).
Corrections and Retractions
For errors in published articles, the publisher will review the issue with the editors and the author’s institution. Authors can correct their own mistakes by amending the manuscript; publisher mistakes can be fixed with an Erratum. If misconduct is confirmed, the article may be retracted following COPE Retraction Guidelines.
GENERATIVE AI POLICY
The International Journal of Practical Artificial Intelligence prohibits the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) for writing, generating, paraphrasing, or substantively revising any portion of a manuscript submitted to the journal. This prohibition extends to the title, abstract, main text, discussion, conclusion, references, cover letter, and replies to reviewers. Manuscripts must constitute the original intellectual and written contribution of the authors. Any use of AI-assisted tools must be declared upon submission. Nevertheless, the use of GenAI for manuscript composition is deemed unacceptable and may lead to rejection, withdrawal, or retraction where appropriate. GenAI tools shall not be listed as authors, as they are incapable of assuming responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, or ethical compliance of the work. Reviewers and editors are prohibited from uploading manuscripts or confidential journal materials to public or unsecured AI platforms. To safeguard scholarly originality, transparency, and research integrity, the International Journal of Practical Artificial Intelligence maintains a zero-tolerance stance on AI-authored manuscripts.
