Ethical Policy

Commitment to Research Integrity and Ethical Practice

Innovations in STEAM: Research & Education (ISRE) upholds the highest standards of scholarly integrity, ethical publishing, transparency, and responsible research conduct. The journal strictly adheres to internationally recognized frameworks established by COPE, ICMJE, DOAJ, Scopus Content Policy, Clarivate (Web of Science/JCR), UNESCO, WAME, and national regulatory authorities.

The journal ensures that all published research is original, ethically approved, reproducible where applicable, and compliant with global standards of academic publishing integrity.

1. International Ethical Frameworks and Compliance

All manuscripts submitted to ISRE must comply with the following internationally recognized ethical standards:

COPE Core Practices: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices
ICMJE Recommendations: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/
WAME Ethical Guidelines: https://wame.org/
DOAJ Publisher Criteria: https://doaj.org/publishers
Scopus Content Policy: https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/how-scopus-works/content/content-policy-and-selection
Clarivate Journal Evaluation: https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/journal-evaluation-process-and-selection-criteria/
UNESCO Bioethics Declaration: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000146180
UNESCO AI Ethics Framework: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381137
ARRIVE Guidelines: https://arriveguidelines.org/

2. Principles of Research Integrity

Research must be conducted with honesty, transparency, and accountability at all stages.
Fabrication, falsification, selective reporting, or manipulation of data is strictly prohibited.
Authors are fully responsible for originality and accuracy of submitted work.
Proper citation and acknowledgment of prior work is mandatory.
Research must comply with institutional, national, and international laws.
Any misconduct is investigated under COPE Flowcharts: https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts

3. Ethics for Human Research

All studies involving human participants must follow the highest ethical safeguards.

Mandatory compliance with Declaration of Helsinki: https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/
Ethical approval from IRB/Ethics Committee with approval ID required.
Written informed consent is mandatory for all participants.
Confidentiality, anonymity, and privacy must be protected.
Vulnerable groups require additional safeguards.
Participants must have right to withdraw without penalty.
Case reports must follow CARE guidelines: https://www.care-statement.org/

4. Animal Research Ethics

Must be approved by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).
Compliance with ARRIVE 2.0 reporting standards is required: https://arriveguidelines.org/
Strict adherence to 3Rs principle: Replacement, Reduction, Refinement.
Humane care, housing, and minimal suffering required.
Scientific justification for animal use must be provided.
Humane endpoints must be clearly defined.

5. Arts, Humanities, and Social Science Ethics

Respect for cultural diversity, indigenous knowledge, and traditions.
Informed consent required for interviews and ethnographic research.
Fair representation of communities without bias or exploitation.
Proper attribution of cultural and intellectual heritage.
Ethical sensitivity required for religious and political contexts.

6. AI, Digital and Computational Ethics

Mandatory disclosure of AI tools used in writing, coding, analysis, or imaging.
AI must not be credited as an author under any circumstances.
Human authors remain fully accountable for accuracy and conclusions.
AI must not be used to fabricate datasets or references.
Compliance with UNESCO AI Ethics Framework is required: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381137

7. Data Ethics and FAIR Principles

The journal promotes open science, reproducibility, and ethical data sharing.

All datasets must comply with privacy, consent, and IP regulations.
Human data must be anonymized or securely restricted.
Data availability statements are mandatory.
FAIR Principles must be followed: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/

8. Plagiarism and Research Misconduct

Zero tolerance for plagiarism, duplication, and unethical reuse.
All submissions are screened using plagiarism detection software.
Includes self-plagiarism, mosaic plagiarism, and citation manipulation.
Handled under HEC Anti-Plagiarism Policy: https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/policies/Documents/Plagiarism-Policy.pdf
Serious cases may result in rejection, retraction, or institutional reporting.

9. Authorship and Conflict of Interest

Authorship must follow ICMJE criteria strictly: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/
All contributors must meet authorship qualification standards.
Ghost, guest, and honorary authorship is prohibited.
All conflicts of interest must be disclosed transparently.
Funding sources and sponsor influence must be declared.

10. Editorial and Peer Review Ethics

ISRE follows double-blind peer review.
Editorial decisions are based only on academic merit.
Reviewers must maintain confidentiality at all times.
Conflicts of interest must be declared by editors and reviewers.
No use of unpublished manuscripts for personal gain.

11. Post-Publication Ethics

Retractions issued for serious ethical violations.
All actions follow COPE Retraction Guidelines: https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Articles published in this journal are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the source. Under this licence, all content is freely accessible without any charge to users or their institutions. Users are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, and link to the full text of articles, as well as use them for any lawful purpose, without requiring prior permission from the publisher or the authors. This policy is consistent with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.