Ethics Guidelines for AJELT

The Asian Journal of English Language Teaching (AJELT) upholds the highest ethical standard in terms of the full process of research and publication, from research design, data collection, to manuscript preparation and presentation. We adopt a zero-tolerance policy for any form of academic misconduct. Authors of manuscripts submitted to AJELT should comply with the following guidelines.

      1）Research ethics

Authors should comply with the research ethical guidelines of their institutions. When human participants are involved, ethical approval should be sought from a relevant authority in the institution and consent should be obtained from participants. Parental consent must be secured if any minors participate in the research.

Any form of data fabrication, distortion, or falsification is strictly prohibited. All data should be accurately and adequately reported as an honest representation of your research.

      2） Submission

It is important to include a statement indicating that the submission (1) has not been previously published (in English or other languages) and (2) is neither currently being reviewed nor will be submitted for review while the manuscript is being considered by AJELT.

      3）Plagiarism

The journal requires that all contents consulted or works referenced be properly acknowledged according to the latest APA style. Failure to do so may result in rejection of the submission at any stage of the review and publication processes.

      4） Conflict of interest

The authors should honestly report any conflicts of interest that may affect the results of the study. If the authors do not declare a conflict of interest that may bias the actual or potential interpretation of the findings, the submission would be rejected.

The editors would abstain from handling manuscripts for which they have any conflicts of interest that may unduly influence reviewer selection and decision on the submission.

The reviewers are also required to declare conflicts of interest for the papers they are assigned to review.

      5） The double-blind peer review process

AJELT follows a strict double-blind peer review policy. The editors will conduct an in-house review to determine if the topic of the submission suits the scope of the journal and if the quality of the article is adequate for external review. At least two external experts on the topic of the article will be invited to assess the submission, provide comments, and make recommendations. The editors will make a decision to accept, reject, or request revisions of the submission based on the comments and recommendations of the anonymous reviewers. All research articles in this journal undergo such rigorous peer review, including the initial editor screening and anonymous refereeing by at least two reviewers. In most instances, the review process is completed in three months or less, but sometimes another second round of review is required after revision.

      6） Diamond Open Access

AJELT is published in the Diamond Open Access mode. That is, there is no subscription fee for readers or publication fee for the authors. All content is freely available for public access. There are no article processing charges.
AJELT is an open-access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Open Access (OA) Licenses: The authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights. The open access mode allows free distribution, sharing, and adaptation, provided the original work is credited. The authors are permitted to share their published articles on any platform or scholarly network.
Open Access: Articles published under Diamond Open Access are allowed to be deposited in any repositories immediately.
Self-Archiving: Authors are permitted to deposit all versions of their paper (Submitted, Accepted, and Published) in an institutional or other repository of their choice without embargo.

Responsible use of AI Tools

Authors must check the terms and conditions of any AI Tool that they use to ensure that the privacy and confidentiality of their data and inputs, including their unpublished manuscripts, is maintained. Particular care should be taken with any personally identifiable data. Images that duplicate or refer to existing copyrighted images, real people, or others’ identifiable products or brands must not be generated, nor any likeness of an individual’s voice. Authors should check for factual errors and for any potential bias.

Authors should also check the terms and conditions of any AI Tool they wish to use to ensure that, they only grant to the AI Tool the right to use their materials to provide the service to them and that they do not grant to the AI Tool any other rights to the materials that they input into the AI Tool (including without limitation the right to train the AI Tool on those materials). They must also ensure that the AI Tool does not impose constraints on the use of outputs from the AI Tool in a way that could restrict the subsequent publication of the relevant article.

Authorship Criteria & Responsibilities

Disclosure

Authors should disclose the use of AI Tools for manuscript preparation in a separate AI declaration statement in their manuscript upon submission and a statement will appear in the published work. Authors should document their use of AI, including the name of the AI Tool used, the purpose of the use, and the extent of their oversight. Declaring the use of AI Tools supports transparency and trust between authors, readers, reviewers, editors and contributors and facilitates compliance with the terms of use of the relevant AI Tool. Basic checks of grammar, spelling and punctuation need no declaration. AI use in the research process should be declared and described in detail in the methods section.

Authorship

Authors should not list AI Tools as an author or co-author, nor cite AI Tools as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans. Each (co-) author is accountable for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved and authorship requires the ability to approve the final version of the work and agree to its submission. Authors are also responsible for ensuring that the work is original and has not been previously published, that the stated authors qualify for authorship, and the work does not infringe third party rights, and should familiarize themselves with the Ethics in Publishing policy before they submit.

Publishing Malpractice & Scientific Misconduct

AJELT enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy regarding academic dishonesty and publishing malpractice. Misconduct that triggers immediate investigation includes:

• Plagiarism & Self-Plagiarism: Verbatim copying, improper paraphrasing, or reusing previously published work without proper citation or copyright permission. All submissions undergo automated plagiarism screening prior to double-blind peer review.
• Data Fabrication & Falsification: Any artificial generation, manipulation, or distortion of empirical data, classroom context findings, or research results is prohibited.
• Redundant / Duplicate Submission: Simultaneous submission of the manuscript (or substantial parts thereof) to another journal or prior publication in any language is strictly forbidden.
• Authorship Misconduct: Inclusion of “ghost” or “gift” authors who have not contributed significantly to the research design, data analysis, or manuscript draft.
• Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest: Failure of authors, editors, or reviewers to disclose financial, institutional, or personal conflicts that could bias the study or evaluation process.

Handling Corrections (Erratum / Corrigendum)

To preserve the accuracy of the scholarly record without invalidating main findings, AJELT issues formal correction notices under the following conditions:

• Corrigendum (Author Error): Published when significant errors in data, author affiliation, or analysis are identified post-publication by the author(s).
• Erratum (Publisher Error): Published if a significant formatting, printing, or editorial error was introduced during the typesetting/production process.
• Correction Process: Corrections do not edit the original PDF quietly; instead, a separate, open-access Correction Notice is published, permanently hyperlinked to and from the original article. Minor typographical or grammatical fixes that do not affect interpretation will not warrant a formal notice.

Retractions & Expressions of Concern

When the integrity or validity of a published article is compromised, AJELT aligns actions with the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE):

• Expressions of Concern: Issued by the Editor-in-Chief if an investigation into potential research misconduct, severe error, or unverified data is ongoing, but definitive proof is not yet established.
• Retractions: An article will be formally retracted if there is clear evidence of misconduct (data fabrication, severe plagiarism, breach of human subject ethics/consent) or major unintentional calculation errors that invalidate the study's conclusions.
• Retraction Notice Format: The original article PDF remains accessible in the digital archives to maintain historical record transparency, but it is explicitly watermarked “RETRACTED” on every page. A companion Retraction Statement is published detailing who is retracting the paper and the specific grounds for the action.