Adapted from the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Originality

Authors must submit original works only.

Authors must not submit the same work to other journal at the same time or while the manuscript is under review. Authors must wait for a rejection decision or formally request for withdrawal before submitting to another journal.

The manuscript must not have been previously published or accepted for publication elsewhere, except as a conference proceedings paper, where the paper is work in progress toward the submitted manuscript. Authors must inform in the manuscript if it was published previously as conference paper.

Authors must properly cite all existing works which may overlap or may be used as a material for the manuscript, both in the body of the text and in the reference list.

Authors must explicitly cite their own earlier works used as a material in the manuscript. If exact sentences or paragraphs that appear in other works by the Author are included in the manuscript, the material should be put in quotation marks and appropriately cited in a way that does not compromise the double-blind review process.

The manuscript should identify the origin and originality of datasets used in the paper, such as data collected through survey. Authors should mention whether the datasets have been used elsewhere by the authors themselves or other authors, whether published or not..

Conflicts of Interest

Authors should avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest throughout the research process. Conflicts of interest may influence the judgment of Authors, Reviewers, and Editors.

All such interests (or their absence) should be declared in writing by Authors upon submission of the manuscript. If any are declared, they should be published with the article. If there is doubt about whether a circumstance represents a conflict, it should be disclosed, so that Editors may assess its significance. Any queries about possible conflicts of interest should be addressed to the Editorial Office or the Editor-in-Chiefs of Journal of Digital Education, Communication, and Arts (DECA).

Double-Blind Review

Journal of Digital Education, Communication, and Arts (DECA) follows double-blind review process, of which Authors do not know the Reviewers and vice versa, with at least 2 Reviewers for each article. Authors should respect the confidentiality of the review process and should not reveal themselves to Reviewers, and vice versa. For example, the manuscript should not include any self-revealing information that would identify the Author to a Reviewer.

Accuracy

Authors have the ultimate responsibility for all materials included in a submitted manuscript. Authors are obligated to present an accurate account of the research performed as well as an objective discussion of the significance of the research.

Authors should report their findings in full and should not omit data that are relevant within the context of the research question(s). Results should be reported, regradless of whether they support or contradict the expected outcomes. Authors should take particular care to present relevant qualifications to their research or to the findings and interpretations of them. Underlying assumptions, theories, methods, measures and research designs relevant to the findings and interpretations of their work should be disclosed.

The manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to provide peers with accesses to the same datasets to replicate the study.

Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism:

All work in the manuscript should be free of any plagiarism, falsification, fabrications, or omission of significant material. Authors are expected to explicitly cite others' work and ideas, even if the work or ideas are not quoted verbatim, i.e. paraphrased. This standard applies whether the previous work is published, unpublished, or electronically available. Failure to properly cite the work of others may constitute plagiarism. Plagiarism in all of its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Redundancy (or “self-plagiarism”) is an unacceptable publishing behavior. Redundancy can occur in at least two ways: (1) Authors recycle portions of their previous writings by using identical or nearly identical sentences or paragraphs from earlier writings in subsequent research papers without any quotation or acknowledgement; or (2) Authors create multiple papers that are of slight variations of each other, which are submitted for publications in different journals but without any acknowledgement of the other papers.

Authors can and often do develop different aspects of an argument in more than one manuscripts. However, manuscripts that differ primarily in appearance but are presented as separate and distinct research without acknowledging other related work constitute attempts (which can be intentionally or not) to deceive reviewers and readers by overinflating the intellectual contribution of the manuscript. Since publication decisions are influenced by the novelty and innovativeness of the manuscript, such deception is inappropriate and unethical.

If exact sentences or paragraphs that appear in other works by the Author are included in the manuscript, the material must be put in quotation marks and must be cited appropriately.

Journal of Digital Education, Communication, and Arts (DECA) reserves the right to evaluate issues of plagiarism and redundancy on a case-by-case basis.

Co-Authorship

All Co-Authors of papers should provide significant contributions to the work and share accountability for the results. Authorship and credit should be shared in proportion to the various contributions by the party. Authors should take responsibility and credit, including authorship credit, only for work they have actually performed or to which they have contributed. Other contributions should be cited in the Acknowledgements or endnote of the manuscript.

Authors should normally list students as the principal Co-Author on multiple-authored publications that substantially derive from the dissertation or thesis of the student.

Authors who analyze data from others should explicitly acknowledge the contribution of the initial researchers.

Copyright Law

Authors should check their manuscripts for possible breaches of copyright law (e.g., where permissions are needed for quotations, artwork or tables taken from other publications) and secure the necessary permissions before submission.

Timeliness

Authors should be prompt with their manuscript revisions. If an Author cannot meet the deadline given, the Author should contact the Managing Editor as soon as possible to determine whether a longer time period or withdrawal from the review process should be chosen.

Human Subjects

Authors have a responsibility to preserve and protect the privacy, dignity, well-being, and freedom of human subjects and research participants. Informed consent should be sought from all human subjects and if confidentiality or anonymity is requested, it should be honored.

Manuscripts involving human subjects (surveys, simulations, interviews) should comply with the relevant Human Subject Protocol requirements from the University of which the Author represents.

Post publication

Authors must ask for permission to publish their article (or selected parts of the article) elsewhere, such as in an article that later appears as a book chapter or as a translation.