Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Ad Americam. Journal of American Studies is dedicated to following best practices on ethical matters, errors and retractions. Any kind of unethical behavior is not acceptable, and the editors of the journal do not tolerate plagiarism in any form. Authors submitting articles to the journal affirm that manuscripts are original in content.
The following rules are based on the COPE Code of Conduct.

Duties of Editor(s)

Publication Final Decisions: Based on the reviewers’ reports and Editorial Board advice, the editors make final decisions on accepting, rejecting, or requesting modifications of the manuscripts.
Review of Manuscripts: Editors are responsible for initial evaluation of the manuscripts. Following desk review, the manuscripts are forwarded to a double-blind peer review. Reviewers make recommendation to accept, reject, or modify the manuscripts.
Fair Review: Editors ensure that each manuscript submitted to the journal is reviewed for its intellectual content without regard to sex, race, religion, citizenship, nationality, institutional affiliations etc. of the authors.
Confidentiality: Editors ensure that information regarding manuscripts submitted by the authors is kept confidential and is processed for editorial duties only.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Editors must not use unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research.
Errata Information: Editors will publish errata content or make corrections when needed.
Ethical Guidelines: Editors ensure that all research material they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines.
Proof of Misconduct: Editors do not reject papers based on suspicions, they must have proof of misconduct.
Accountability: Editors contact if necessary Editorial Board members on any issues that may invoke doubt as to authorship or content of manuscripts.

Duties of Authors

Publication guidelines: Prospective authors must follow the submission guidelines of the journal.
Original Work: Authors must ensure that they have written entirely original work and the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere.
Multiple Submissions: Authors must acknowledge that the manuscript is not being considered for publication elsewhere.
Peer Review Process: Authors are expected to participate in the peer review process.
Authorship of the Paper: All authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research.
Data Access and Retention: Authors should provide raw data related to their manuscript for editorial review and must retain such data.
Authenticity of Data: Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript. Authors must state that all data are real and authentic.
Conflict of Interest: Authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest.
Fundamental Errors: Authors are obliged to provide corrections of mistakes at any point of time if the authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in submitted manuscript.
Research on Human Subjects: When appropriate, all authors must cite approval by an institutional review board for research on human subjects.
Use of generative AI tools: Authors must declare that such tools are used accordingly with legal provisions and standards of ethical research. This, at minimum, means that any assistance from generative AI tools should be clearly acknowledged.

Duties of Reviewers

Confidentiality: Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential.
Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers must ensure that authors have acknowledged all sources of data used in the research.
Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author.
Supporting Argument: Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Plagiarism, Fraud and Other Ethical Concerns: Reviewers should let the editors know if the a manuscript is a substantial copy of another work, citing the original work in as much detail as possible.
Relevant Work: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers must not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from relationships or connections with any of the authors.
Promptness: If a reviewer feels he/she is not possible to complete review of manuscript within assigned time then he/she must communicate this to the editors so that the manuscript could be sent to another reviewer.

Duties of Editorial Board Members

Editorial Board consists of a group of prominent scholars in the field.
Board members advise on journal policy, suggest ideas and new topics to include in the journal. They may review submitted manuscripts and they may also suggest prospective reviewers for a given manuscript.