Ethical Principles

Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools is committed to maintaining high standards of integrity, transparency, accountability, and ethical conduct throughout the publication process. The journal expects editors, reviewers, authors, and all individuals involved in scholarly publishing to act responsibly and to protect the reliability of the scientific record.

The journal follows internationally recognized principles of responsible scholarly publishing and takes allegations of research or publication misconduct seriously. Ethical concerns may be investigated before or after publication, and appropriate editorial action may be taken whenever necessary.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts are original, accurate, ethically conducted, and appropriately documented. A manuscript should present an honest account of the research performed and should not contain fabricated, falsified, manipulated, or intentionally misleading information.

Authors must provide sufficient information about research procedures, participants, instruments, data collection, and analytical methods to allow readers and reviewers to understand and evaluate the study. Selective reporting of findings, intentional omission of relevant results, inappropriate manipulation of analyses, or presentation of misleading conclusions is considered inconsistent with responsible research practice.

Authors must ensure that all sources, ideas, data, theories, and previously published materials used in the manuscript are properly acknowledged and cited. Plagiarism, including direct copying without attribution, inappropriate paraphrasing, and presenting another person's ideas or findings as one's own, is unacceptable.

Originality and Duplicate Publication

Manuscripts submitted to the journal must represent original work and must not have been published previously in substantially the same form. Authors must not simultaneously submit the same manuscript to another journal while it is under consideration by Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools.

Duplicate publication, redundant publication, and inappropriate fragmentation of one study into multiple publications are discouraged. If a manuscript is based on, extends, or substantially overlaps with previously published work, conference proceedings, reports, theses, preprints, or related publications, authors should transparently disclose the relationship and appropriately cite the earlier material.

Substantial reuse of an author's own previously published text without appropriate acknowledgment may constitute inappropriate text recycling or self-plagiarism and may require correction, revision, or other editorial action.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a meaningful scholarly contribution to the research and the preparation of the manuscript. All listed authors should have contributed sufficiently to take appropriate responsibility for the work and should approve the final version submitted for publication.

Individuals who provided technical assistance, administrative support, language editing, data collection support, or other contributions that do not justify authorship should normally be acknowledged rather than listed as authors.

Guest authorship, honorary authorship, and ghost authorship are unacceptable. Authors should agree on authorship and author order before submission whenever possible.

Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be clearly justified. The journal may require written confirmation from all affected authors before approving an authorship change.

Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with appropriate ethical principles and applicable institutional and national requirements.

Where required, authors must obtain approval from an appropriate institutional ethics committee or review board before beginning the research. Information concerning ethical approval should be reported clearly in the manuscript, including the name of the approving institution or committee and, where applicable, the approval code or reference number.

Participation in research should normally be voluntary and based on appropriate informed consent. Authors should explain how informed consent was obtained when relevant. For research involving children, adolescents, individuals with limited decision-making capacity, or other vulnerable groups, additional ethical safeguards should be applied in accordance with applicable requirements.

Privacy, Confidentiality, and Informed Consent

Authors must respect the privacy and confidentiality of research participants. Personally identifying information should not be published unless its inclusion is scientifically necessary and the appropriate consent for publication has been obtained.

Names, identification numbers, photographs, detailed case information, or other data that could reasonably identify an individual should be removed or appropriately anonymized unless valid consent permits disclosure.

Researchers working in school settings should pay particular attention to protecting the confidentiality of students, teachers, parents, schools, and other participants, especially where sensitive psychological, behavioral, educational, or health-related information is involved.

Research Involving Children and Adolescents

Because the journal frequently publishes research conducted in schools, special attention must be given to ethical issues involving minors.

Studies involving children or adolescents should use age-appropriate procedures, minimize potential harm or discomfort, and protect participants from coercion. Where required, permission from parents or legal guardians should be obtained in addition to the assent or agreement of the participating child or adolescent.

The existence of an authority relationship between researchers, teachers, school administrators, and students should also be considered. Participation should not improperly affect students' grades, access to educational services, relationships with teachers, or standing within the school.

Data Integrity and Research Records

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of the data reported in their manuscripts. Fabrication, falsification, inappropriate alteration, or intentional misrepresentation of data constitutes serious research misconduct.

Data analysis should be conducted and reported transparently. Authors should not manipulate statistical procedures, exclude observations without appropriate justification, or selectively present results in a manner that creates a misleading interpretation of the findings.

Where reasonably requested during editorial evaluation, authors may be asked to provide supporting data, analysis files, instruments, ethical documentation, or other materials necessary to clarify questions about the integrity or reproducibility of the research. Any sharing of data must remain consistent with participant confidentiality, consent conditions, legal requirements, and institutional policies.

Plagiarism and Similarity Checking

The journal may screen submitted manuscripts using iThenticate or other appropriate similarity-detection tools.

Similarity reports are assessed carefully and are not interpreted solely on the basis of an overall percentage. Legitimate similarities may arise from references, standardized terminology, descriptions of commonly used methods, properly quoted material, or other acceptable sources.

Where substantial unattributed copying, inappropriate paraphrasing, duplicate publication, or excessive text recycling is identified, the manuscript may be returned for clarification, rejected, or subjected to further ethical investigation depending on the seriousness of the concern.

Citation and Reference Practices

Authors should cite sources accurately, fairly, and only where relevant to the manuscript. References should support the claims for which they are cited.

Authors should not manipulate citations to artificially increase citation counts for themselves, other researchers, particular journals, institutions, or editorial board members. Excessive self-citation, irrelevant citation, citation coercion, and citation arrangements designed primarily to influence bibliometric indicators are inconsistent with ethical scholarly practice.

Editors and reviewers should not request the addition of citations unless those references are genuinely relevant and academically justified.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose financial, professional, personal, institutional, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, interpretation of results, or publication of the manuscript.

Potential conflicts may include financial relationships, consultancy arrangements, institutional relationships, intellectual property interests, close personal relationships, or competing academic interests.

Editors and reviewers are also expected to disclose conflicts of interest that could compromise, or appear to compromise, their impartiality. Where an appropriate independent evaluation cannot be assured, the individual concerned should not participate in the editorial or review process.

Funding Disclosure

Authors should identify relevant sources of financial or material support for the research.

Where applicable, authors should also describe the role of the funding organization in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

If the funder had no involvement in these activities, this may also be stated. Transparent funding disclosure helps readers assess possible influences on the research.

Use of Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical acceptability of all content submitted to the journal, regardless of whether artificial intelligence or automated tools were used during manuscript preparation.

Artificial intelligence tools should not be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the work, approve the final manuscript, disclose conflicts of interest, or be accountable for the accuracy and integrity of published material.

Where generative artificial intelligence has been used substantially in manuscript preparation, analysis, or another research-related activity, authors should disclose such use when relevant and explain the purpose for which the tool was employed. Authors must verify AI-generated content carefully and remain responsible for inaccurate statements, fabricated references, inappropriate text reuse, or confidentiality breaches arising from such tools.

Confidential research data, unpublished manuscripts, identifiable participant information, or sensitive editorial material should not be entered into external AI systems where doing so would violate confidentiality, consent, legal requirements, or institutional policy.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers play an essential role in maintaining the scientific quality of the journal. Reviews should be objective, constructive, respectful, and focused on the academic content of the manuscript.

Reviewers should assess originality, methodological quality, clarity, relevance, interpretation of findings, ethical considerations, and contribution to knowledge. Personal criticism of authors, discriminatory remarks, hostile language, or unsupported accusations are inappropriate.

Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents. Unpublished ideas, findings, data, or methods encountered during peer review must not be used for personal advantage or shared with unauthorized individuals.

A reviewer who lacks sufficient expertise, cannot complete the review appropriately, or has a significant conflict of interest should inform the editorial office and decline the review where appropriate.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for ensuring that editorial decisions are fair, independent, confidential, and based primarily on the scholarly merit and relevance of the manuscript.

Editorial decisions should not be influenced by authors' nationality, gender, institutional affiliation, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, personal relationships, or other characteristics unrelated to the academic quality of the submission.

Editors should protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, author identities, reviewer identities, and peer-review communications. They should also take reasonable steps to ensure that manuscripts are reviewed by appropriately qualified and independent experts.

Where ethical concerns, conflicts of interest, allegations of misconduct, or serious errors are brought to the journal's attention, editors should evaluate the matter fairly and take proportionate action.

Double-Blind Peer Review and Confidentiality

The journal uses a double-blind anonymous peer-review process, meaning that reviewers are not informed of the authors' identities and authors are not informed of the reviewers' identities.

Authors should prepare manuscripts in a way that supports anonymous evaluation. Reviewers and editors must not intentionally attempt to identify anonymous participants in the peer-review process unless necessary for resolving an ethical or procedural concern.

Information obtained through peer review is confidential and should not be disclosed outside the authorized editorial process.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made on scholarly grounds. Payment of article processing charges, institutional relationships, sponsorship arrangements, advertising interests, or other commercial considerations must not determine whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected.

The journal's Article Processing Charge (APC) becomes relevant only after a manuscript has successfully completed the scientific evaluation process and has been accepted for publication. Payment does not guarantee acceptance and does not influence peer-review outcomes.

Corrections and Post-Publication Changes

The journal is committed to maintaining an accurate scholarly record. When an error is identified after publication, the journal may issue an appropriate correction or other publication notice depending on the nature and significance of the problem.

Minor errors that do not affect the scientific meaning of the article may be corrected according to editorial procedures. More substantial errors affecting interpretation, data, conclusions, authorship, ethical disclosures, or other important aspects of the publication may require a formal correction.

Authors have a responsibility to inform the journal promptly if they discover a significant error in their published work.

Retractions

Retraction may be considered when there is reliable evidence that the findings are seriously unreliable because of fabrication, falsification, major error, unethical research, plagiarism, duplicate publication, unauthorized use of material, or another serious breach of publication ethics.

A retraction is intended primarily to correct the scholarly record rather than to punish authors. Where appropriate, the journal will provide a clear retraction notice explaining the reason for the editorial action while avoiding unnecessary defamatory or speculative statements.

Expressions of Concern

When serious questions arise regarding a published article but the available evidence is incomplete, disputed, or subject to an ongoing investigation, the journal may issue an expression of concern where appropriate.

Such notices are intended to inform readers that substantial questions about the publication are being evaluated while avoiding premature conclusions before sufficient evidence becomes available.

Allegations of Misconduct

Concerns regarding suspected plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, inappropriate authorship, unethical research, undisclosed conflicts of interest, peer-review manipulation, citation manipulation, or other forms of misconduct may be reported to the journal.

Allegations should, whenever possible, be supported by specific information or documentation. The journal will assess concerns confidentially and fairly and may request explanations or supporting documentation from authors, reviewers, editors, institutions, or other relevant parties.

Where necessary, the journal may contact the author's institution or another competent body because some forms of research misconduct require investigation by organizations with access to original research records and appropriate investigative authority.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors may raise concerns regarding editorial procedures or appeal an editorial decision when they believe that a significant factual, procedural, or scientific issue has been overlooked.

Appeals should clearly explain the grounds for reconsideration and should respond to the scientific or procedural issues underlying the original decision. An appeal does not automatically result in reconsideration or acceptance.

Complaints concerning editorial conduct, peer review, ethical matters, or publication procedures will be considered seriously and, where appropriate, reviewed by an individual who was not directly involved in the matter.

Ethical Commitment of the Journal

Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools considers publication ethics a shared responsibility among authors, reviewers, editors, institutions, and publishers. The journal seeks not only to prevent misconduct but also to promote transparency, responsible research practices, fair peer review, protection of participants, and accuracy of the scientific record.

When ethical problems arise, editorial responses will be based on the nature and seriousness of the concern, the available evidence, and the need to preserve the reliability and integrity of scholarly communication.