Peer review policy
BJES is a double-blind peer review international academic journal. BJES is committed to the academic community and in this regard, it stands for meeting the highest standards of publication ethics, whereas the publication malpractice is strictly prohibited by all possible measures. That is why it is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing. Our ethic statements are based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
The BJES pays the utmost attention to respecting the basic norms of copyrights protection. This is done to protect the papers written by our authors against copyright malpractice, as well as to protect non-contributing researchers against having their rights infringed.
Authors may not use our journal to publish any information which is illegal or which violates or infringes the rights of other persons. The authors of the manuscripts submitted to BJES should bear in mind that, by the very act of submitting an article for consideration to BJES, the author implicitly states that the article has not been previously published with any other scholarly journals or submitted to any other journals for concurrent review. If any part of a submitted manuscript has been previously published, the author must inform the editorial office. Manuscripts which represent substantially revised and updated versions of previously published articles may be considered, provided that the Board is informed by the author and that the previous version is acknowledged in the text as well. In this respect, the author has the right to use this previous version only after obtaining permission of the editor who published this version.
Unacceptability of Plagiarism and Fabrication of Data
Contributors to BJES should not submit any manuscript that includes unacknowledged text, in part or in full, belonging to other authors or in any other form use texts or data from other scientific publications without making the requisite references. Identification of plagiarized segments within a submitted manuscript will immediately disqualify that manuscript from being published. Data should be reported accurately. Fabrication of data would disqualify the manuscript, and BJES will refrain from future collaboration with contributors whose manuscripts have been previously justifiably rejected on grounds of plagiarism, data-fabrication, or other comparable forms of ethical misconduct.
For Editors
The editor(s) of the journal are responsible for the final decision on whether a certain submitted manuscript should be published. The editor(s) may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor(s) may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision. An editor will at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors. The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate. Disclosure and conflicts of interest regarding unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the expressed written consent of the author.
For Reviewers
Peer review assists the editor(s) in making editorial decisions and through the communications mediated by the editor(s), the author may also be assisted to improve the article.
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor(s) and excuse himself from the review process. Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents.
They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor. Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also bring to the editor(s)’ attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
For Authors
BJES emphasizes that contributing authors bear full responsibility for the research findings reported in their articles and for the statements and conclusions they derive from their findings and analysis. The authors must acknowledge that they have disclosed any actual or potential conflicts of interest in which their work might or does play a role. This includes, but is not limited to such cases in which an author represents the vested interest of a political party, private or public company or other interest group while taking advantage of the journal as a forum for objective, scholarly dialogue. In such cases, the editors and/or the referees have the right to ask the potential contributor to disclose (within the article) his/her affiliation and/or source of funding on which the research is based.
Authors of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication: An author should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Manuscript after it is published electronically on nothing to be changed. Therefore, authors are obliged to be very careful reviewing and correcting any errors on galley proof.
Similarity Detection Process
BJES makes use of various tools to detect plagiarism, including Turnitin Similarity Tool, and this helps to match the text within an academic/research work by comparing an author’s submission against an archive of internet documents, internet data, a repository of previously submitted papers, and subscription repository of periodicals, journals, and publications. Turnitin Similarity integrates with today’s top learning management systems, collaboration tools, and single-sign-on services. Turnitin’s software takes what an author submits and the tool compares it to a massive database of content, including internet, academic, and research content, and it looks for similarities. It reports those similarities with a percentage, the percentage of the work submitted by the author that is similar to the content in those databases. In the report, the author and the editor can dig into the details to see what, exactly, is matching, and how much. BJES accepts around 20% of similarity index with the other sources. Then, the editor sends back to the authors the similarity report, in case it is above the accepted percentage by BJES. At this point, the author is asked to revise the work and send it back to the editor. Then, the editor assigns the manuscript to two different reviewers following a double-blind peer review process. We strongly believe that plagiarism is a violation of academic integrity, and it is never “acceptable.”