Publication Ethics & Malpractice Statement

1. Core Commitment & COPE International Standards

AFRIK Academic Press (“AFRIK”, “the Press”) is founded on the conviction that high-impact scientific knowledge requires uncompromised ethical rigor, transparency, and academic accountability. All specialized journals, editorial board members, peer reviewers, and contributing scholars operate in strict conformity with the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the ethical principles of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

Ethical compliance is an absolute condition of submission and publication. Any attempt to compromise peer review impartiality, fabricate empirical data, recycle unpublished ideas, or manipulate scientific findings will be prosecuted through formal institutional notification, permanent blacklisting, and public retraction.

2. Editorial Independence & Duties of Editors

Editors-in-Chief and handling editors are the primary guardians of scholarly integrity across AFRIK journals:

• Absolute Editorial Independence: Editorial decisions are driven exclusively by scientific validity, intellectual significance, methodological soundness, and disciplinary scope. Neither the AFRIK Research Foundation, founding consortium partners (FIRAT, CAA, GNTI), commercial sponsors, nor governmental agencies may influence, alter, or overrule an editorial decision.
• Fair Play & Non-Discrimination: Manuscripts are evaluated without regard to authors' nationality, citizenship, race, ethnicity, institutional prestige, religious belief, gender, sexual orientation, or political philosophy.
• Confidentiality of Submissions: Editors must treat all submitted manuscripts and peer review correspondence as strictly privileged, confidential documents. Editors must not disclose information about an active submission to anyone other than corresponding authors, assigned peer reviewers, and potential reviewers.
• Conflict of Interest Recusal: Editors must recuse themselves from handling any manuscript where they have a personal, professional, academic, or financial conflict of interest—including current institutional affiliation, co-authorship within the preceding three (3) years, or collaborative grant funding. An alternate handling editor will oversee the review.

3. Impartiality & Duties of Peer Reviewers

Peer reviewers provide the foundational evaluations upon which editorial decisions depend. Reviewers agree to uphold:

• Standardized 4-Axis Rubric: Evaluations must be objective, constructive, and evidence-based, focusing on four quantitative axes: Methodological Rigor, Novelty & Impact, Literature Context & Grounding, and Presentation Clarity. Hostile, derogatory, or personally critical remarks are strictly prohibited and will be excised.
• Strict Confidentiality & Prohibition of Public AI Tools: Submitted manuscripts are privileged legal documents. Reviewers are EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED from uploading, pasting, or transmitting any unpublished manuscript text, figures, code, or data into public third-party generative artificial intelligence platforms (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or other cloud AI models) for summarization, review drafting, or evaluation, as doing so violates author confidentiality and proprietary rights.
• Timeliness & Prompt Notification: Reviewers must complete evaluations within the requested editorial timeframe (typically 14 to 21 calendar days) or immediately decline the invitation so alternate reviewers can be engaged without delay.
• Detection of Misconduct: Reviewers are obligated to alert the handling editor immediately if they identify substantial similarities between the manuscript and any published work or ongoing study, suspect image manipulation, or notice unacknowledged sources.

4. Authorship Standards, Plagiarism & AI Disclosures

Submitting authors bear primary legal, ethical, and scientific accountability for their work:

• Originality & Anti-Plagiarism Screening: Plagiarism in any manifestation—including verbatim copying without quotation and citation, paraphrasing without attribution, self-plagiarism (text recycling of one's own previously published work without explicit cross-referencing), and copyright infringement—is unacceptable. All submissions undergo automated cross-checking against the Crossref Similarity Check (powered by iThenticate) database.
• CRediT Authorship Taxonomy: Authorship credit must strictly reflect genuine intellectual contributions per CRediT roles (Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition). All authors must approve the final version and agree to be accountable.
• Artificial Intelligence & Generative Models Policy: Large Language Models, generative AI software, and automated chatbots DO NOT meet the legal criteria for authorship and CANNOT be listed as authors. Any use of AI tools in literature retrieval, statistical analysis, image generation, data parsing, or manuscript drafting must be transparently described in the methodology section, naming the software, version, and date of access. Authors remain 100% accountable for all text and citations, including any AI-generated errors or non-existent citations.
• Data Access & Raw Archiving: Authors must retain raw research data, lab notebooks, computational scripts, and survey results for at least ten (10) years following publication and must provide access to editors or ethics reviewers upon request.

5. Human Subjects, Animal Welfare & Indigenous Knowledge

Research conducted across Africa and the global scientific community must respect human dignity and bioethical standards:

• Declaration of Helsinki & IRB Approvals: Any study involving human subjects must state the name of the granting Institutional Review Board (IRB) or ethics committee, the approval reference number, and that informed consent was obtained in writing.
• Patient Anonymity: Case reports and clinical trials must strictly protect patient identity. Photographs, medical records, or identifying traits must not be published unless accompanied by explicit written consent from the patient or legal guardian.
• Animal Welfare (ARRIVE Guidelines): Research involving animals must adhere to the ARRIVE guidelines and demonstrate formal ethical approval from an accredited animal care committee.
• Nagoya Protocol & Indigenous Genetic Resources: Studies utilizing African biological specimens, traditional medicinal herbs, or indigenous knowledge must confirm compliance with the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits, including documented prior informed consent from local communities and national authorities.

7. Formal Corrigenda, Errata & Retraction Protocol

The integrity of the scientific record requires prompt, transparent remediation of discovered defects:

• Corrigendum / Erratum: Minor errors, numerical typos, or unintentional oversights that do not invalidate the scientific conclusions are addressed through a formally published Corrigendum (author error) or Erratum (publisher error), assigned its own DOI and bidirectionally linked to the original article.
• Expression of Concern: If conclusive evidence of misconduct or severe error is under active institutional investigation, the Editor-in-Chief may publish an official Expression of Concern alerting the scholarly community.
• Retraction: In cases of redundant publication, plagiarism, severe data fabrication, unapproved human trials, or pervasive honest errors that invalidate the primary findings, a formal Retraction is published following COPE Retraction Guidelines. The original PDF galley is watermarked with “RETRACTED” on every page, and the retraction notice specifies the exact rationale and responsible parties. The historical record remains permanently accessible for bibliographic transparency.

8. Institutional Ethics Committee & Integrity Inquiries

To report suspected plagiarism, ethical breaches, authorship disputes, or data discrepancies, contact the AFRIK Research Integrity Office directly at [email protected]. All correspondence is held in strict institutional confidence.