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IGI Global is committed to publishing original scholarly materials of the highest quality that provide comprehensive insight into all aspects of business and management, computer science and IT, education, environment and agriculture, government and law, library and information science, media and communications, medicine and healthcare, science and engineering, security and forensics, and social sciences and humanities.
As an internationally-recognized publisher, IGI Global’s goal is to facilitate the availability of academic excellence and disseminate innovative knowledge worldwide.
IGI Global book and journal editors and authors are provided written guidelines and checklists that must be followed to maintain the high value that IGI Global places on the work it publishes. IGI Global reviewers are an important component of the scholarly process and therefore are instructed to provide comprehensive, detailed appraisals of work that they are reviewing to assist the author in improving the quality and usability of the presented research.
IGI Global affirms that ethical publication practices are critical to the successful development of knowledge. Therefore, it is the policy of IGI Global to maintain high ethical standards in all publications. These standards pertain to all books, journals, chapters, and articles accepted for publication. This is in accordance with standard scientific principles and IGI Global’s position as a source of scientific knowledge.
Please use the links below to jump directly to a specific heading or simply scroll through all sections. Authors and contributors may play a number of roles in the research, writing, and preparation of submitted manuscripts.
IGI Global as the publisher does assume that all authors listed on the work have agreed with the content and have given explicit consent to submit and have obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institution/organization where they work prior to the submission of the manuscript.
IGI Global recommends adhering to the following guidelines when establishing authorship of a submitted manuscript. Specifically, all authors whose names appear on the submission should have contributed in the following ways
(Sources: ICMJE & PNAS)- Made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work;
- Drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;
- Provided final approval of the version to be published; and
- Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Special acknowledgments may be added to the end of the submission for anyone who has contributed to the work but not in an author capacity.
IGI Global does not tolerate discrimination based on age, gender, race, affiliation, religious beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientation or country
of origin. We are an inclusive company and we continually strive to ensure that our staff, management, review boards, publications, and all aspects of the company reflect the highest level of inclusion of experts from all over the world. Our goal is to continue to demonstrate a diverse, inclusive culture that fuels innovation among the communities we serve.
Please visit our Web Content Accessibility Guidelines page for more information on how we are continually working to make our content more inclusive.
All chapters and articles published in IGI Global publications must undergo a rigorous double-blind academic peer review process. Allegations of improperly or unethically conducted peer review can be very damaging to the success of a publication, as well as to the careers of any scholars affiliated with the
questioned work.
The double-blind peer review process should be fully conducted within the
eEditorial DiscoveryTM online submission manager, and as such, the reviews should be easily accessible to the IGI Global editorial staff. This is to ensure that should accusations of fraudulent peer review arise, IGI Global will be able to support its published authors and editors in dismissing these claims and ensuring the continued success of the corresponding publications.
All research is to be conducted according to the general standards of practice, which include proper protection of any subjects, whether they are individuals or organizations. Defamatory or intentionally false information is considered a serious offense, and any work including unethical research will be rejected and the authors barred from publishing with all IGI Global publications. All identities of private organizations and individuals should be removed from any proposed work, unless proper written consent has been gained prior to publication.
Furthermore, research and data being presented for publication must be complete and whole. Falsification of one’s research through intentional data suppression or misrepresentation is considered unethical and will result in the rejection of the submitted work and may be cause for other action. This pertains only to cases in which data is misconstrued with the author’s knowledge.
IGI Global follows United States copyright law for all published books and journals. Additional information on US copyright law can be found here. Author’s Warranty and Transfer of Copyright
Corresponding authors on submissions will be required to sign an Author’s Warranty (if open access) or an Author’s Warranty and Transfer of Copyright Agreement (if subscription-based) prior to the publication of the submitted work. In the Author’s Warranty the author is confirming originality of the work. In the Author’s Warranty and Transfer of Copyright Agreement the author is both ensuring originality of the work, as well as transferring the copyright to the publisher.
In the event of multiple authors, if the Corresponding Author is not given authorization by the co-authors on the submission to sign the Agreement, then all authors will be required to sign. This Agreement must be signed and submitted before IGI Global will agree to publish any manuscript.
The Warranty portion includes the following language:
The author(s) hereby warrants that the manuscript named above that has been submitted to IGI Global for publication in the named publication, IS ORIGINAL AND HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION OR PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE, and that all trademark use within the manuscript has been credited to its owner or written permission to use the name has been granted. In addition, the author(s) acknowledges that all images such as tables, screenshots, graphics, etc., do not have a copyright that is held by a third party. IGI Global will not accept a manuscript for which the copyright is held by a third party. Authors may not use substantial verbatim text from another copyrighted work without the written permission of the copyright holder.
When an author transfers the copyright of the work to the publisher it is for the verbatim text within the submission only and should not to be confused with intellectual property rights.
Copyright Infringement
Copyright infringement is the reuse of materials for which the author does not have ownership without the express permission of the copyright holder. IGI Global recognizes that transfer of copyright to a publisher is a standard practice in the industry and that large quantities of quoted text, images, layouts, and formats, which may or may not be the creation of the author, may be owned by a third party. IGI Global also recognizes that all models, equations, conclusions, theories, algorithms, mathematical definitions, and computer code are the intellectual property of the author and that ownership of these elements belongs solely to that author, unless otherwise agreed upon with a third party. In cases in which an author is allegedly infringing upon the copyright of a third party prior to the publication of the work in question, IGI Global will return the work to the author(s) and request revision to remove all copyrighted materials.
Images taken from a third-party source are protected under United States copyright law, and permission must be obtained before any such image or figure may be included in a manuscript published under an IGI Global imprint. Please see Part 4 of the
IGI Global Image Formatting Guidelines for more information. A sample image permission form can be downloaded
here.
Allegations of copyright infringement in which the work has already been published by IGI Global will be investigated immediately upon receipt of the initial complaint.
→ Work which has been found to be in breach of a third-party copyright will be removed from circulation and a retraction and notification of the infringement will be published at the corresponding link in all IGI Global e-Collection products.
→ The author(s) of the infringing work may be prohibited from publishing with IGI Global for an allotted period of time or indefinitely, at the discretion of the publisher.
→ Any submissions accepted for review after an allotted period may be subject to further review by the publisher to satisfy the publisher that no copyrighted material is included in the manuscript and that all legal stipulations within the publisher’s Author’s Warranty and Transfer of Copyright
are met.
→ Further action may be taken as deemed necessary by the publisher based on the severity and quantity of the infringement.
IGI Global acknowledges that in some cases copyright infringement can also be classified as plagiarism. In these cases, IGI Global will also undertake a review for plagiarism within the text as well as implement any further actions necessary to satisfy the requirements of the publisher’s own copyright as well as the copyright of the third party.
Dr. Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, IGI Global’s Executive Editor, recently spoke about the importance of maintaining the highest ethical standards as a publisher. View his presentation entitled “
Maintaining the Integrity of Scientific Knowledge Content,” which debuted on September 14th, 2017 as a part of 2017 Peer
Review Week.
IGI Global defines plagiarism as the intentional or unintentional use of another individuals, or collection of individuals’, ideas, theories, models, equations, conclusions, research (intellectual property), and/or verbatim or paraphrased words without proper attribution to the original source.
IGI Global takes these claims very seriously and immediately will launch a full and fair investigation of the allegations to learn more about the claim. IGI Global conducts the appropriate due process in order to be fair to both the individual bringing forth the claim, as well as to the author(s) in question to ensure their side of the story is also fairly heard. As a result, the due process may take some time, as proper documentation must
be secured.
Furthermore, the manuscript will be carefully reviewed with the goal of determining if plagiarism has taken place and, if so, to what extent.
IGI Global uses iThenticate, a plagiarism detection software, to assist with the identification of plagiarized content.If it is determined that a manuscript contains plagiarism, the authors(s) will be notified promptly of the rejection of their submitted work and may be barred from consideration for future publication with IGI Global for an allotted period or indefinitely, at the publisher’s discretion. Further action may be taken as deemed necessary by the publisher based on the severity and quantity of the plagiarism. Any submissions accepted for review after the allotted period may be subject to further review by the publisher to satisfy the publisher that no plagiarism is included.
Also, work which has been found to contain plagiarism will be removed from all IGI Global e-Collection products. A statement of notification and retraction will be included at the e-Collection link providing the citation for the original work. (Please view the “Corrections and Retractions” section below for additional detail).
Simultaneous submission is defined as a work submitted to IGI Global for publication that is under review, has been previously published, or has been accepted for publication elsewhere in whole or in part. Although IGI Global acknowledges the importance of the use of previously published work to the evolving research process, work submitted for publication must show significant advances in the research conducted and should appropriately quote, cite, and attribute the earlier work for any prior research mentioned. The failure to disclose previously published work upon which the current work is based may be considered cause for investigation into allegations of plagiarism.
Below are three articles that explain the dangers of plagiarism and self-plagiarism in greater depth:
After an article or chapter is published, it may be found that major corrections must be made, or the chapter or article needs to be retracted due to ethical concerns including plagiarism. IGI Global will conduct a thorough investigation of these corrections and retractions and take the appropriate steps, as outlined below.
In the cases of plagiarized content:
Prior to 2020: Once the article or chapter in question has been fully and thoroughly investigated and confirmed to be plagiarized, IGI Global removes the specific article or chapter listing from their e-Collections and website so as to prevent accidental individual chapter or article level sales of the manuscript, and then makes a note in the remaining documentation (the physical publication and all electronic files) that the article or chapter has been retracted. The title and author information of the article or chapter is still present in the print and e-publication (PDF); however, the body text (content) is no longer present and instead the retraction statement has replaced it. The adjusted publication is resent to the printers without the plagiarized content and IGI Global’s full network of booksellers and distributors are notified and provided updated metadata feeds and the electronic content.
As of 2020: IGI Global’s retraction processes evolved further in 2020, as the academic community came forward with a more consistent and preferred method for handling plagiarized content. The article or chapter in question is still fully and thoroughly investigated before further action is taken. Once confirmed to be plagiarized, as of 2020, IGI Global now keeps the full plagiarized content (body text) within the publication; however, each page is noted with a watermark that the content is considered retracted from the publication. This is so that the various retraction monitoring databases can adjust their data appropriately and it offers even fuller transparency. The adjusted publication is resent to the printers and IGI Global’s full network of booksellers and distributors are notified and provided updated metadata feeds and the electronic content.
Regarding major corrections:
If an author, editor, or reviewer brings forth a major correction request to IGI Global, the request will be carefully reviewed and the decision to honor the change request will be made at the publisher’s discretion. Major correction requests include: changes to titles, name changes, affiliation changes, and content changes. If a change is made, the file in question will be updated appropriately and distributed out in the form of updated files and/or metadata to all impacted parties, and IGI Global will communicate with the contributors impacted.
IGI Global carefully selects its editors based on academic standing, experience, and expertise in a topic, as supported by their submitted CV prior to appointment. However, in the event that a contributor has questions or concerns, they are first encouraged to contact the editor of the publication directly.
→ For journals, the contact email is listed on the individual journal webpages. For books, the contact email is listed on the book’s Call for Chapters.
→ If a complaint is directed to the editor of a publication, and there is no response within 30 days, the contributor may contact the Intellectual Property and Contracts Division of IGI Global at contracts@igi-global.com.
All submissions to IGI Global publications undergo a multi-step process. The editor(s) leading the publication perform the initial evaluation of the submission to ensure it meets the coverage and follows the guidelines of the publication. If it does, then the editor will anonymize the submission to remove all contributors’ personal information and assign the manuscript for the
double-blind peer review process to reviewers within the eEditorial Discovery manuscript submission system. The editors will make a final decision on the manuscript based on the results of the peer review process. There may be several rounds of revision and additional review prior to the final decision.
Questions or disagreement with the final decision on a manuscript, such as rejection of a submission
The Editor-in-Chief receives the authors’ argument, and after again looking at the paper, peer reviews and associate/managing editor evaluation can make a decision whether the decision to reject should stand or further investigation is needed. The person lodging the complaint should be informed of the decision with an explanation if appropriate. Decisions on appeals are final.
Complaint about the length of time from submission until a decision on publication is made
The Editor-in-Chief and/or in-house contact (where appropriate) will investigate the matter. The complainant will be given appropriate feedback. Feedback is provided to relevant stakeholders to improve processes and procedures.
Questions concerning publication ethics, e.g., researcher's, author's, or reviewer's conduct
The Editor-in-Chief follows guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The Editor-in-Chief may ask the publisher via their in-house contact for advice on difficult or complicated cases. The Editor-in-Chief decides on a course of action and provides feedback to the complainant. If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint, he or she can submit the complaint to the IGI Global’s in-house journal contact or to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). More information can be found here.
A conflict of interest occurs when an entity or individual becomes unreliable because of a clash between personal (or self-serving) interests and professional duties or responsibilities and can be highly detrimental to academic publications.
- If at any time an Editor-in-Chief suspects a conflict of interest they should bring the matter to the publisher’s attention immediately (e.g. an author of submitted work is based at their same institution and on a competitive project).
- Should a reviewer experience a conflict of interest (e.g. they are aware of the article manuscript author’s identity and/or are based at the same institution), they should bring the matter to the Editor(s)-in-Chief attention immediately.
- If an author perceives that there may be a conflict of interest for their submitted work, they should include a declaration of any conflict of interest along with the article manuscript upon submission.
Competing interests include, but are not limited to: funding sources, financial interests, employment status, as well as those that go beyond financial interests (non-financial interests).
If an author is interested in having a chapter or article reproduced in a forthcoming publication (for commercial or non-commercial use), they should contact IGI Global’s Intellectual Property and Contracts Division at contracts@igi-global.com. It is recommended to consult IGI Global’s Fair Use Policy here, for further details on sharing.
IGI Global currently does not accept external paid-for advertisements to be published in its publications.