Ethical Guidelines for the Reviewers

The peer review process is a cornerstone of academic integrity and quality. Reviewers are expected to adhere to the following ethical standards while evaluating manuscripts.

Section-wise Guidelines

Section Guidelines
1. Confidentiality • Manuscripts under review must be treated as confidential documents.
• Reviewers must not share, discuss, or use the content of manuscripts for personal or professional advantage before publication.
2. Objectivity and Fairness • Reviews should be conducted objectively, providing constructive and unbiased feedback.
• Personal or professional relationships with authors must not influence the review.
3. Promptness • Reviewers should complete evaluations within the agreed timeframe to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process.
4. Competence • Reviewers should accept assignments only in areas of their expertise.
• If insufficient expertise exists, reviewers must decline the assignment and recommend a suitable alternative.
5. Conflict of Interest • Any real or perceived conflicts of interest (e.g., collaboration, competition, financial interests) must be disclosed to the editorial team.
• Reviewers must recuse themselves from manuscripts where conflicts exist.
6. Ethical Responsibility • Identify and report any ethical concerns, such as plagiarism, duplicate publication, or research misconduct.
• Ensure that studies involving human or animal subjects meet ethical standards.
7. Constructive Feedback • Comments should help authors improve their work and be presented respectfully and professionally.
• Avoid derogatory or personal remarks.
8. Recognition and Credit • Reviewers should not use ideas, data, or results from the manuscript under review without explicit permission from the authors.
9. Accountability • Reviewers are accountable for providing high-quality, timely, and ethical evaluations.
• Failure to adhere to these guidelines may result in removal from the reviewer database.

Note: These guidelines align with international best practices in scholarly publishing and support the maintenance of high academic and ethical standards for IJCIC.

If you want, I can also prepare this in a visually attractive table and infographic style, similar to the author and manuscript guidelines, ready for your journal website.