Ethics Policy

For Authors

By submitting your manuscript to CIE, you agree to the following:

Authorship. The manuscript appropriately acknowledges the work of all co-authors and contributors. They should approve the final version of the manuscript submitted. If the authors have an Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID) iD, they are encouraged to add it to their author profile in the CIE journal system; as well as to the article metadata.

Appropriate Citation. Any material taken from other sources, including the author’s own published work*, should be cited and referenced appropriately, following APA Publication Manual (7th ed.) guidelines. Any material published elsewhere but not appropriately cited will be considered plagiarism and will automatically be rejected from consideration. Please note that CIE uses Turnitin to ensure that all material is original or appropriately cited.

Original research. The work submitted is original, and therefore is not under review elsewhere or already published. If related work is published elsewhere, the author/authors must disclose this information to the editor.

Accuracy. Authors are accountable for their work. While the journal upholds the principles of quality and accuracy the journal editors and/or reviewers may not be in a position to verify the accuracy of all aspects of a manuscript. Significant errors discovered by the author during or after publication of the manuscript must be brought to the notice of the CIE lead editor immediately.

Research data. Data included as part of the research follow institutional review guidelines and approvals (Institutional Review Board, Ethical Review Board, Research Ethics Board, or similar). If there is additional data available in a repository, authors are encouraged to cite and link the dataset in the manuscript.

Competing interests. Any competing interests should be declared. This could include, but it is not limited to, funding, affiliation, political, religious, or ideological interests. Funding details, if applicable, should be included at the time of submission.

Diversity, gender and inclusiveness. Biased or discriminatory language must be avoided. For example, sexist language should be replaced by inclusive or gender-neutral language. Different identities, needs, and abilities should be referred to with specificity, using person first language and consistent with how individuals self-identify (where possible). We encourage authors to visit the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications website (https://c4disc.org/) to know more about this topic.

*Note:  CIE discourages the use of self-citations. If self-citations are necessary (for example, in the case of the work extending or building on an earlier study), two versions of the manuscript must be submitted: one with the self-citations included for the editor, and the other with all self-citations blinded for peer review. 

For Reviewers

By reviewing the manuscript for CIE, you agree to the following:

Confidentiality: All manuscripts should be considered confidential; information from them should not be shared for any reason. Please do not cite manuscripts you receive or refer to the work before it has been published.

Conflict of Interest: If, after reading the manuscript, you determine that you have a conflict of interest in reviewing the article, please contact the associate editor who asked you to review it. Conflicts of interest might include working with the author or for a funding source for the research.

Time: CIE asks that you review a manuscript within six weeks of receiving it. If you are not able to do this, please contact the associate editor immediately.

Use of AI: As a reviewer for CIE, we value your expertise and ethical considerations in evaluating manuscripts. In light of the increasing use of AI tools such as ChatGPT, we want to outline specific guidelines to ensure the protection of authors' original work and maintain the integrity of the review process.

  1. Respect for Copyright and Original Work: Reviewers are prohibited from copying and pasting entire manuscripts into AI tools like ChatGPT or any other automated services. This precaution is necessary to protect the copyright and intellectual property rights of the authors, as well as to uphold the confidentiality and originality of their work.
  2. Personal Review Responsibility: It is not acceptable to rely on AI tools to conduct reviews or provide substantial feedback. Reviewers are expected to engage personally with the manuscripts and provide their expert analysis, insights, and evaluations.

For Editors

All CIE Editors guarantee authors that their manuscripts will be diligently reviewed with rigor and seriousness, honesty and respect, carefully copyedited, and widely disseminated.