Author Policy

The International Journal of Advances and Applications in Convergent Studies & Transdisciplinary (IJ-AACST) expects authors to uphold the highest standards of academic integrity, originality, and ethical conduct. Submission of a manuscript to IJ-AACST implies agreement to the following policies:

1. Originality and Plagiarism

• Manuscripts must be original and unpublished.
• They must not be under consideration elsewhere at the time of submission.
• Similarity index must be ≤10% (excluding references and quotations). Papers exceeding this will be returned or rejected.

2. Authorship Criteria

• Only those who substantially contributed to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation should be listed as authors.
• The Corresponding Author must obtain consent from all co-authors before submission.
• All co-authors must sign a No Objection Certificate (NOC) authorizing the Corresponding Author to communicate with the journal.

3. Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Submissions

• Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal or primary publication simultaneously.
• Duplicate or redundant publication is unethical and may lead to rejection or retraction.

4. Data Integrity and Research Ethics

• Authors must present accurate research data, honestly collected, analyzed, and reported.
• Data manipulation, falsification, or fabrication constitutes misconduct.
• Studies involving humans or animals require an Ethical Approval Statement in the manuscript.

5. Conflict of Interest

• Declare any financial or personal relationships that may influence research.
• If no conflicts exist, include: “The authors declare no conflict of interest.”

6. Acknowledgment of Sources

• Proper acknowledgment of the work of others is mandatory.
• All sources influencing the work must be cited.

7. Copyright and Licensing

• Authors retain copyright of their work.
• All articles are published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), permitting use, distribution, and reproduction with proper credit.

8. Revisions and Corrections

• Authors must cooperate with editors/reviewers and revise manuscripts promptly.
• If a significant error is found after publication, authors must notify the editor and cooperate in issuing a correction, erratum, or retraction.

9. Withdrawal and Retraction Policy

• Withdrawal requests are only accepted before acceptance for publication and must be approved by all authors.
• After publication, papers may be retracted for proven cases of plagiarism, duplication, data manipulation, or ethical violations.

10. Use of Generative AI Tools

• Authors must disclose the use of any AI-generated content or assistance (e.g., ChatGPT, Grammarly). AI tools may improve language/clarity but cannot be listed as authors.
• AI must not be used to fabricate data, conduct analysis, or interpret results.

11. ORCID iD

• Authors are encouraged to provide ORCID iDs for improved visibility and indexing.
• Register free at https://orcid.org.

12. Compliance

• Submission acknowledges that authors have read, understood, and agreed to these policies.
• Any violations will be treated as research misconduct in line with international best practices and COPE guidelines.