PUBLICATION ETHICS

 

The journal “Advances in Multilingual and Multicultural Research” strictly adheres to internationally recognized ethical principles of publication and research activities, including the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Adherence to ethical standards ensures the scholarly integrity of publications, reader confidence, and high standards of the academic community.

Responsibilities of Editors

Integrity and Transparency. Editors publish clear statements that disclose the journal's goals, thematic scope, peer review policies, and publication ethics.

Ensure that all stages of the editorial process are open to authors and reviewers.

Confidentiality. Editors are obliged to keep the data contained in submitted manuscripts confidential and not to disclose them to third parties, except for participants in the publication process.

Combating ethical violations. Editors are obliged to follow COPE guidelines in cases of suspected plagiarism, fabrication of data, or other ethical violations.

Handling complaints. Editors are committed to handling complaints about ethical violations by authors, reviewers or editors in accordance with international standards.

Objectivity. Publication decisions are based solely on the academic relevance and quality of the research and not on personal interests.

Responsibilities of authors

Originality. All submitted manuscripts must be original and not previously published elsewhere. Authorship must be stated honestly, without artificially adding or excluding co-authors.

Credibility of data. Submitted data must be authentic. Falsification, manipulation and/or fabrication of data are considered gross violations.

Respect for human rights. Research involving human subjects must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki (2013) and be approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Sh. Ualikhanov Kokshetau University.

Informed consent. In research involving human subjects, written informed consent must be obtained from participants. Confidentiality of respondent data must be ensured.

Avoidance of duplicate publications. Authors must ensure that the submitted work has not been submitted to other journals or previously published, including translations into other languages.

Indication of sponsors. Authors are obliged to indicate the sources of funding and the role of sponsors in conducting the study. Corrections and withdrawal of articles. In case of errors, the author is obliged to immediately inform the editorial office and offer corrections or review of the article.

Duties of reviewers

Confidentiality. Reviewers are obliged to keep the contents of manuscripts confidential and not to use the provided data for personal interests.

Objectivity. Reviews should be constructive, reasoned and objective, without unjustified criticism.

Conflict of Interest. Reviewers are obliged to refuse to evaluate a manuscript in case of conflict of interest. Reviewers must meet the deadlines set by the editorial board for submitting a review.

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is strictly prohibited and is considered a serious breach of ethics. All manuscripts submitted to the Editorial Office are checked for borrowed content using specialized software. If plagiarism is detected, the manuscript is immediately rejected, regardless of the degree of borrowing. This applies to both direct copying of other people's texts and paraphrasing without appropriate references. Authors are solely responsible for the originality of their submissions.

DATA FABRICATION

The journal takes a strict stance on the authenticity of data presented in studies. Any fabrication or falsification of data - such as inventing, distorting or manipulating data - is considered a serious breach of ethics. If falsification is detected, the editorial board may take the following actions: reject the manuscript, notify the organization with which the author is affiliated, or exclude the author from future interaction with the journal. All submissions must be verifiable and meet the standards of scientific ethics.

CITATION MANIPULATION

 Authors must avoid citation manipulation that may artificially increase the citation index of articles, authors, or journals. Citations in the manuscript should be strictly relevant to the topic under investigation and directly related to the issue under discussion. Irrelevant or redundant citations are considered a violation of editorial policy. The journal reserves the right to check the reference list and clarify the justification for citing the cited sources. 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Transparency is a key requirement for participants in the publication process. All authors, editors and reviewers are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest that may affect the objectivity of the work. This includes: receipt of grants, sponsorship, or other funding related to the subject matter of the article; collaboration with organizations or participation in projects that may affect the interpretation of data; and any relationships that may affect independence of opinion.

Conflicts of interest should be disclosed in the cover letter or directly in the manuscript.

The journal reserves the right to reject articles if such information is withheld. The editorial policy of the journal is aimed at maintaining high standards of scientific integrity and transparency. Any violation of these principles will result in serious action, up to and including notification of the authors' affiliated organizations or expulsion from the journal.

NOTIFICATION OF ERRORS (RETRACTION)

If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his or her published work, he or she must immediately notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editorial board to retract or correct the article. Corrections may be made to a published article with the permission of the journal editor.

The editors decide on the extent of corrections required. Minor corrections are made directly to the original article. However, in case of major corrections, the original article will remain unchanged and the corrected version will be published separately. Both versions, the original and the corrected version, will be linked to each other. A statement indicating the reason for major changes to the article will also be published. If necessary, articles will be withdrawn in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). 

POLICY ON THE USE OF AI (AI/GenAI)

The author (or team of authors) is fully responsible for the novelty and reliability of the results of the scientific research, which implies compliance with the following principles:

Authors should guarantee that the research results stated in the submitted manuscript are completely original.

The application of AI systems in writing a scientific article should be carried out by the author (team of authors) in an ethical manner and should not replace creative research activities.

Authors are encouraged to provide the editorial board with reliable information about the use of AI systems in writing a scientific article.

Authors are allowed to use AI systems at the stages of collection of initial data, analysis of scientific publications in the subject area of the publication and formulation of its title, brief abstract of the article, design of the text of the article according to the requirements of the scientific edition.

When using AI systems, the authors are obliged to indicate in the methodology and methods section which AI methods were used, at what stage and how their use influenced the course of the research.

The use of AI systems in the formulation of original conclusions, evaluation of research results, as well as unformatted quotations, paraphrasing or appropriation of rights to the results of other people's research is considered unethical and unacceptable. The author (team of authors) is responsible for the use of AI systems.

CONSENT

All authors are required to comply with the ICMJE and the Kazakhstan Education Researchers Code of Ethics (hyperlink to the document here, it is available) regarding confidentiality and informed consent of patients and study participants. Authors must include a statement confirming that any patient, service user or participant (or that person's parent/legal guardian) in any type of qualitative or quantitative research has given informed consent to participate in the study.

For materials in which patients or participants are potentially identifiable (e.g. a clinical case describing their medical history, identifiable images or media content, etc.), authors should include a statement confirming that they have obtained written informed consent for publication of the data from the individual concerned (or their parent/legal guardian if the participant is not an adult or cannot give informed consent; or next of kin if the participant is deceased).

The process of obtaining consent for publication should include familiarizing the individual (or whoever is consenting on their behalf) with the content of the article so that he/she is fully aware of its content prior to publication. Authors may use this Publication Consent Form (Appendix 1).