Responsibilities of Editors
Decisions on publication
The editor is responsible for deciding which of the manuscripts submitted to the journal should be published. The editor's decision should be based on the importance of the research to the research community, its novelty, clarity of presentation, applicability, and impact, as well as correlation to the journal's aims and scope. Editorial decisions are based upon unbiased assessments of manuscripts without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or the authors' political alignment. The editor must be aware of libel, copyright, and plagiarism considerations.
Confidentiality
Editors may not disclose any information regarding a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other members of the editorial board, and the publisher when appropriate.
Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Editors and editorial board members may not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts for their own research purposes without the author's express written permission.
Editorial Board
The Iraqi Journal of Physics is guided by an international Editorial Board composed of recognized experts in various fields of physics and related disciplines. The editorial board is responsible for maintaining the scientific quality, integrity, and transparency of the journal’s editorial and peer-review processes.
The full names, institutional affiliations, countries, and editorial roles of all Editorial Board members are provided below. Editorial Board members are selected based on their academic expertise, research achievements, and contributions to the scientific community.
The journal periodically reviews and updates the compositions of its Editorial Board to ensure broad disciplinary coverage and adherence to international publishing standards.
Responsibilities of Reviewers
Editorial board contribution
The peer-review process is an integral part of the academic publication, as it helps the editor and editorial board assess the quality and legitimacy of a piece while offering the author(s) insight into how they may improve their work.
Promptness
Reviewers should notify the editor immediately if they feel unqualified to review a manuscript or cannot complete a review on time. This will assist the editor instantly in assigning the manuscript to another, better-suited reviewer.
Confidentiality
Manuscripts submitted for review are confidential and should not be disclosed to anyone except the reviewer and editor assigned to the review process. The reviewer should not be disclosed publicly later unless the editor permits the manuscript to be published elsewhere. To disclose this information compromises the trust between the authors, reviewers, and editors and places the author in a position of potential unscrupulous behavior later on. Without confidentiality, there are concerns of professional misconduct and a need for an appropriate and unbiased atmosphere.
Standards of Objectivity
Reviewers must be objective. The arguments presented in a work must be logically sound and supported. Reviewers should avoid personal criticism of the author.
Sources’ Acknowledgment
Reviewers must ensure all relevant published works are cited in the reference manuscript of the manuscript. Works with ideas taken from other published works must be cited as appropriate. If reviewers observe that the article under review is substantially similar to or overlaps with any other published manuscript, they must notify the editor.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
Reviewers must not take any advantage of unpublished materials revealed during the peer-review process for personal benefit. Reviewers must recuse themselves from the review process if they have conflicts of interest stemming from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any authors, institutions, or commercial sponsors related to this journal or publication.
Responsibilities of Authors
Reporting Standards
Authors should be honest and objective about their findings, yet simultaneously provide a definitive assessment of the importance of the research. Manuscripts are supposed to present factual, falsifiable claims and findings so detailed in the steps taken that anyone could replicate the work. Furthermore, citations and bibliographies are required to give credit to the efforts of others and provide support for one's intention to try new efforts. Therefore, any embellishment, deception, or intentional omission runs against the ethics and the integrity of scholarship.
Data access and retention
Authors must submit the underlying research data for their manuscript during the review process. Such data should be publicly available when appropriate. If data cannot be made publicly available, authors must make it accessible to competent third-party investigators for a minimum of ten years post-publication. The ideal location for such accessibility is an author's institutional repository, a subject-based repository, or a recognized data repository. However, the author may choose not to provide access to such data when participant confidentiality requirements and legal or proprietary restrictions apply.
Originality, plagiarism, and acknowledgement of sources
The author's responsibility is to ensure that all manuscripts are original. No unpublished work of authorship or previously plagiarized works may be utilized. All borrowed thoughts, writings, and findings should be cited, and those works cited that had the most impact upon this research should be acknowledged. Citing and crediting work not only avoids potential concerns of scholarly misconduct but also enhances the authenticity and credibility of the endeavor.
Authorship and Contributorship
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the concepts, design, execution, analysis, or interpretation of the reported study. All authors should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all eligible contributors are listed as authors and that no inappropriate authors are included. All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission.
Changes to authorship, including the addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors, after submission require the written consent of all authors and approval by the Editor-in-Chief.
Disclosure and conflicts of interest
All authors must disclose in the manuscript all financial or other relationships that could be viewed as having a potential conflict of interest. Authors must also disclose sponsorship.
Research Misconduct
The Iraqi Journal of Physics is committed to maintaining the highest standards of research integrity and takes all allegations of research misconduct seriously. The journal will take all reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of research involving misconduct.
Research misconduct includes, but is not limited to:
• Mistreatment of human participants or animal subjects.
• Falsification of research data, results, or records.
• Fabrication of data, experiments, or results.
• Plagiarism in any form.
• Duplicate or redundant publication.
• Citation manipulation.
• Image manipulation or other deceptive research practices.
All submitted manuscripts are screened for plagiarism and other forms of publication misconduct. Editors and reviewers are encouraged to report any suspected ethical concerns.
The Iraqi Journal of Physics, its editors, reviewers, and publisher will not knowingly encourage or permit research misconduct.
In cases where allegations of misconduct arise before or after publication, the journal will investigate the matter in accordance with the guidelines and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Depending on the findings, appropriate actions may include manuscript rejection, publication of corrections, expressions of concern, article retraction, or notification of the relevant institution.
Falsification and Fabrication of data
Fabrication is the creation of data that was neither gathered nor analyzed. Falsification is the deliberate change of significant research data or findings. Falsification and fabrication can occur at any stage, from data collection to final publication. The Iraqi Journal of Physics tries to prevent, find, and address fabrication and falsification during the submission and peer review stages. Should any falsification or fabrication of data be determined, a retraction or manuscript withdrawal will occur. The Iraqi Journal of Physics abides by the Council on Editors' policy.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the unauthorized use or abuse of another person's and/or entity's ideas, processes, results, or words without proper acknowledgment. There is also a form of plagiarism called self-plagiarism, whereby an author publishes the same article in multiple journals for personal gain without distinguishing where the article should be published. The Iraqi Journal of Physics uses various methods to detect plagiarism and follows the COPE guidelines in adjusting such unethical scholarly actions.
Adherence to these policies ensures the Iraqi Journal of Physics adheres to ethical publishing practices and research integrity.
Complaints and Appeals
Authors may appeal editorial decisions or submit complaints regarding the editorial process, peer review, publication ethics, or journal management.
Appeals and complaints should be submitted in writing to the Editorial Office, providing detailed justification and supporting evidence. The Editor-in-Chief will investigate the matter and may consult members of the Editorial Board or independent experts when necessary.
The journal follows the principles and recommendations of COPE in handling complaints and appeals.
Data Sharing and Reproducibility
The Iraqi Journal of Physics encourages authors to retain and, where appropriate, share the data, codes, and materials supporting the results presented in their manuscripts.
Authors may be requested to provide underlying research data for editorial review. When possible, authors are encouraged to deposit research data in appropriate public repositories and provide relevant access information written in the manuscript.
Any restrictions on data availability should be clearly stated by the authors.
Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections
The Iraqi Journal of Physics is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record.
When errors, ethical concerns, or research misconduct are identified after publication, the journal may publish corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or other notices as appropriate.
Requests for corrections should be submitted to the Editorial Office with supporting documentations. All post-publication actions will be conducted in accordance with COPE guidelines and the journal’s editorial policies.
Ethical Oversight
The Iraqi Journal of Physics is committed to ensuring that all research published in the journal complies with internationally accepted ethical standards.
For authors involving human participants, authors must confirm that the research was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and that approval was obtained from the appropriate ethics committee or institutional review board (IRB), where applicable. Informed consent must be obtained from all participants.
For research involving animals, authors must provide evidence that the research was conducted in accordance with relevant institutional, national, and international guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals and that appropriate ethical approval was obtained.
Authors may be required to provide documentation of ethical approval, informed consent, permissions, or other relevant ethical clearances upon request by the Editor.
The journal reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not meet accepted ethical standards or fail to provide appropriate ethical documentation when requested.
Self-Archiving and Repository Policy
Authors retain copyright of their published work and may deposit the accepted manuscript or the published version of record in institutional repositories, personal websites, or non-commercial scholarly repositories, provided that full bibliographic detailed of the published article, including the DOI and a link to the journal website, are included.
Authors are encouraged to acknowledge the Iraqi Journal of Physics as the original source of publication when sharing or archiving their work.
The journal permits the archiving of published article in accordance with the
Authors are encouraged to acknowledge the Iraqi Journal of Physics as the original source of publication when sharing or archiving their work.
The journal permits the archiving of published articles in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License