IMJPL and its publisher Al-Mustafa International University adhere to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers. IMJPL also follows recommendations contained in A Guide for Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and Managing Editors.

• All copyrights reserved to the publisher in this Journal Al-Mustafa Open University (Affiliated with the Al-Mustafa International University).
• Reserved the right to accept, reject, correct and edit the article in any stage and time by the Editorial Board of the journal.

Open Access Statement

All articles are published by IMJPL, are licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0). The Journal is fully open access journal, which means that all articles are available on the internet to all users immediately upon publication. For open access articles, published in proprietary titles, Publisher is granted the following rights:

• The exclusive right to publish and distribute an article, and to grant rights to others, including for commercial purposes.
• The right to provide the article in all forms and media so the article can be used on the latest technology even after publication.
• The authority to enforce the rights in the article, on behalf of an author, against third parties, for example in the case of plagiarism or copyright infringement.

Plagiarism and Similarity Rates

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works. If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, they should appropriately cite or quote.

Paper Correction and Retraction Policy

A Retraction is a notice that the paper should not be regarded as part of the scientific literature. Retractions are issued if there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, this can be as a result of misconduct or honest error. The retraction may be initiated by the editors of the journal, or by the author(s) of the paper. However, since the Editor-in-Chief are responsible for the journal's content, always make the final decision to retract the material. The journal Editor-in-Chief may retract publications even if all or some of the authors refuse to retract the publication.

Erratum

An error introduced by the publisher that affects the integrity of the version of record, the reputation of the authors, or the reputation of the journal, is termed as Erratum. An Erratum is a statement by the authors of the original paper that briefly describes any correction(s) resulting from errors or omissions. Any effects on the conclusions of the paper should be noted. The corrected article is not removed from the online journal, but notice of erratum is given. The Erratum is made freely available to all readers and is linked to the corrected article.

Addendum

An addendum is a notification of the addition of information to an article. Addenda are published when the editors decide that the addendum is crucial to the reader's understanding of a significant part of the published contribution. Addenda include Editorial Expression of Concern, which is an editorial statement alerting our readership to serious concerns with the published paper. An Editorial Expression of Concern is typically updated with another amendment once further information is available.

Addenda do not contradict the original publication, but if the author inadvertently omitted significant information available at the time, this material can be published as an addendum. Addenda may be peer-reviewed, according to journal policy, and are normally subject to oversight by the editors of the journal. Addenda relating to the article content are published only rarely and only when the journal editors decide that an addendum is crucial to the reader's understanding of a significant part of the published article. All addenda are linked to the original article to which they relate.

Corrigenda

A corrigendum is a notification of a significant error made by the authors of the article. All corrigenda are normally approved by the editors of the journal. Corrigendum or Author Correction. Notification of an important error made by the author(s) that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors or the journal.

When should a Publication be Retracted?

Retraction takes place if:

1. The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper referencing, permission or justification.
2. If the work is plagiarized
3. If the work reports unethical research.

So, publications should be retracted as soon as possible when the journal editors are convinced that the publication is seriously flawed and misleading (or is redundant or plagiarized).

Also, in rare and extreme cases involving legal infringement, the Publisher may redact or remove an article. Bibliographic information about the article will be retained to ensure the integrity of the scientific record.

Read COPE Guidelines for Retracting Articles.

What Are the Compelling Reasons?

• Plagiarism
• Bogus Claims of Authorship
• Multiple Submissions
• Fraudulent Data
• Infringements of Ethical Codes
• Redundant Publication
• Failure to Disclose a Major Competing Interest

Should a Withdrawal be Applied in Cases of Disputed Authorship?

Authors sometimes request that articles are retracted when authorship is disputed after publication. If there is no reason to doubt the validity of the findings or the reliability of the data it is not appropriate to retract a publication solely for an authorship dispute. In such cases, the journal editor should inform those who are involved in the dispute that he/she cannot adjudicate in such cases, but they may be willing to publish a correction to the author/contributor list if the authors/contributors (or their institutions) provide appropriate proof that such a change is justified.

Paper Retraction Process

• A retraction note entitled "Retraction: [article title]" signed by the authors and/or the editor is published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list.
• In the electronic version, a link is made to the original article.
• The original article is retained unchanged saving for a watermark on the pdf. file version on each page to indicate that it is "retracted".

 Wager E, Barbour V, Yentis S, Kleinert S. Retraction Guidelines. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Sep 2009. Available from:

http://publicationethics.org/files/retraction%20guidelines.pdf

Withdrawal Regulations

• Withdrawal is an action that takes the manuscript out of the review process and places it back into the author's dashboard. Generally, we do not suggest the article withdrawal, since it wastes valuable manuscript processing time, cost and works spent by the publisher.
• Article withdrawal is applied to submitted papers either within peer review process or accepted for publication that is for the moment only available in a pre-publication form ("Early Release or Ahead of Print"). These sometimes contain errors or are articles that may have already been published and then mistakenly resubmitted for publication elsewhere. Articles may also be retracted to allow authors to correct any errors that had not been identified before submission.

 Withdrawal Steps

• Pre-Review: is a period at which the author(s) submit(s) her/his article until to be sent for the review. The author(s) can withdraw their papers at this step without paying any charges and/or posing compelling reasons.
• Peer-Review: is a period at which the manuscript is submitted completely to the website and is included in the review process. The authors must have compelling reasons and pay cost as the withdrawal penalty.
• Review-Final Decision: is a period from the acceptance of an article until to be sent for publication if the article meets the journal standards. The authors should have their compelling reasons and pay the cost of peer review as the withdrawal penalty.
• Post-Publication: when a paper is published (online and/or hard copy). Withdrawing at this step is not possible at all.

Republishing

Republishing is regarded as Plagiarism in IMJPL. The journal explicitly instructs authors not to submit papers or variations of papers that have already been published elsewhere even in other languages, especially, those articles which are published in local journals (in local languages) are not permitted to be submitted to this journal.