Editorial Policies

The Lafia Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research (LJSIR) is dedicated to promoting ethical scholarship, academic transparency, intellectual honesty, and responsible scientific communication. The journal requires all submitted manuscripts to reflect authentic research efforts, sound academic judgement, and compliance with internationally recognised standards of research and publication ethics. Its editorial practices are guided by established global frameworks, including the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, and, where relevant, the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Every manuscript submitted to LJSIR is subjected to a rigorous editorial and peer-review process designed to evaluate originality, scientific relevance, methodological quality, clarity of presentation, and overall scholarly contribution. Beyond assessing academic merit, the review process also serves to protect the integrity and credibility of the scientific record. Editorial decisions are reached independently and are based solely on scholarly quality and relevance. Neither institutional affiliation nor administrative influence affects the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts.

Authorship Policy
Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to the study and manuscript preparation. Eligible authors are expected to have participated significantly in the conception of the research, study design, data acquisition, analysis, interpretation, drafting of the manuscript, or critical revision of its content. In addition, all authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and accept responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the work.

The journal strictly prohibits honorary, guest, gift, or ghost authorship. Any request to add, remove, or rearrange author names after submission must be formally communicated by the corresponding author and accompanied by written approval from all co-authors. Alterations to authorship after acceptance will only be considered under exceptional and properly justified circumstances.

The corresponding author acts as the official representative of all authors throughout the editorial and publication process. This individual is responsible for ensuring compliance with authorship criteria, coordinating communication with the Editorial Office, responding to reviewers’ observations, supervising revisions, and approving the final proof prior to publication.

Conflict of Interest and Transparency
To ensure fairness and transparency in scholarly publishing, authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any competing interests that may influence, or reasonably appear to influence, their objectivity. Such competing interests may arise from financial relationships, institutional affiliations, consultancy arrangements, funding support, patents, collaborations, or personal associations.

Declaration of a conflict of interest does not automatically prevent publication; however, undisclosed conflicts may result in editorial action, including rejection, correction, or retraction. Editors with relevant conflicts are expected to withdraw from the handling of affected manuscripts, while reviewers unable to provide impartial evaluations should decline review invitations.

Research Integrity and Academic Misconduct
LJSIR maintains strict standards regarding research integrity and has zero tolerance for academic misconduct. Practices such as fabrication of data, falsification of findings, plagiarism, deceptive image alteration, manipulation of results, citation fraud, and inclusion of fabricated or irrelevant references are regarded as serious ethical violations.

All manuscripts undergo plagiarism and similarity screening, including AI-assisted evaluation where necessary. Plagiarism includes direct copying without attribution, inadequate paraphrasing, duplicate publication, self-plagiarism, and undisclosed reuse of previously published material. Manuscripts found to contain unacceptable similarity or evidence of unethical conduct will be rejected. Where misconduct is discovered after publication, the journal may issue corrections, expressions of concern, or formal retractions depending on the gravity of the violation.

Image and Visual Data Integrity
All figures, charts, photographs, micrographs, and other visual materials included in submitted manuscripts must accurately represent the original research data. Minor technical adjustments, such as modifications to brightness, contrast, or colour balance, are acceptable only where applied uniformly and without affecting the scientific interpretation of the image.

Manipulations intended to exaggerate, conceal, fabricate, or selectively alter research findings are strictly prohibited. Where concerns arise regarding image authenticity, authors may be required to provide original, unedited image files or raw data for verification. Failure to provide authentic source material may lead to rejection or post-publication action.

Data Sharing and Reproducibility
The journal encourages openness and reproducibility in scientific research. Authors are expected, wherever reasonably possible, to make the data, materials, and computational resources supporting their findings available to readers. This may include depositing datasets in recognised repositories, providing supplementary materials, or including clear Data Availability Statements within the manuscript.

For computational or simulation-driven studies, authors should provide details of software, versions, computational tools, and repository links where applicable. Studies heavily dependent on computational methods should also include a Code Availability Statement. Where restrictions related to privacy, confidentiality, ethics, or law prevent data sharing, the reasons for such limitations must be clearly explained.

Reference Accuracy and Citation Ethics
References included in manuscripts submitted to LJSIR must be accurate, verifiable, relevant, and directly related to the study being presented. Authors are expected to provide complete bibliographic information, including author names, year of publication, titles, source details, page numbers, DOIs, and stable URLs where available.

Authors are fully responsible for ensuring that cited works genuinely support the statements made in the manuscript. Fabricated, misleading, irrelevant, or unverifiable citations constitute serious ethical misconduct. The journal accepts APA 7th edition referencing style for all submissions. Self-citation is permitted only where genuinely justified, while excessive or manipulative citation practices intended to artificially inflate metrics are discouraged.

Ethically Sensitive and Dual-Use Research
Where submitted research presents potential dual-use concerns or broader ethical implications relating to public health, security, safety, or environmental risk, the journal may apply additional editorial scrutiny. In such circumstances, reviewers and editors may request clarification, seek external expert advice, require modifications before publication, or decline publication where the risks associated with dissemination outweigh the potential scholarly benefit.

Corrections, Retractions, and Preservation of the Scholarly Record
LJSIR recognises the importance of maintaining an accurate and trustworthy scholarly record. Minor errors that do not materially affect the conclusions of a study may be corrected through editorial notices or updated online versions. More significant issues affecting reliability, interpretation, or validity may require formal corrections or retractions.

An article may be retracted where findings are shown to be unreliable due to error or misconduct, or where plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or major ethical breaches are confirmed. Retraction notices will remain permanently linked to the affected publication and will clearly state the reason for the retraction.

Author Name Change Requests
The journal recognises that authors may request name changes on previously published articles for personal, professional, cultural, or legal reasons. Upon formal request and verification, LJSIR may update the online HTML and PDF versions of the article as well as associated metadata. Such requests will be handled confidentially and respectfully, and correction notices will only be issued where specifically requested by the author.

Publishing Licence and Copyright
Submission of a manuscript to LJSIR constitutes agreement that, upon acceptance, the journal will be granted a Licence to Publish the work. This licence authorises the journal to reproduce, publish, archive, index, distribute, and disseminate the article in both print and electronic formats, including through recognised indexing services, databases, and repositories. Where a manuscript is rejected, the licence automatically terminates.

LJSIR operates as an open-access journal, and copyright for published articles remains with the publisher.

Sanctions and Ethical Enforcement Measures
Where ethical misconduct or violations of journal policy are confirmed, LJSIR reserves the right to apply sanctions proportionate to the seriousness of the offence and consistent with internationally accepted publishing standards. Such measures may include manuscript rejection, publication of corrections or retractions, temporary or permanent submission restrictions, and notification of relevant institutions, employers, or funding bodies where necessary.

Through these policies, LJSIR reaffirms its commitment to ethical publishing, rigorous scholarship, transparency, reproducibility, and the advancement of impactful scientific and industrial research.