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Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems

PAJAIS Policies

Contents


1. Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in PAJAIS provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).

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2. General Submission Rules

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to PAJAIS, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at PAJAIS. If you have concerns about the submission terms for PAJAIS, please contact the editors.

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3. Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

The ethical policy of Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems (PAJAIS) guided by the core practices and policies outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Authors must be honest in presenting their results and conclusions of their research. Research misconduct is harmful for knowledge. It could mislead other researchers.

In addition, all prospective authors must adhere to the AIS Code of Research Conduct in their work. Authors who believe their work has been plagiarized or subjected to other scholarly misconduct are urged to consult Guidelines for a Victim Plagiarism. AIS Council's process for dealing with allegations of scholarly misconduct in the Association's journals and proceedings is detailed in AIS Research Conduct Committee Process Guidelines.

PAJAIS takes the protection of intellectual property seriously. For this reason, all submissions are filtered by iThenticate, a powerful plagiarism detection system. By submitting your work, you agree to allow PAJAIS to screen it. If plagiarism is detected, penalties are severe and include being banned from publishing in PAJAIS.

The Similarity Report combines matches from multiple sources into a summary (e.g., journal paper, conference paper, magazine, website, thesis, report, etc.), and the percentage of plagiarized content from all the resources detected by the plagiarism detection system will be taken into account.

Journal editors do not rely solely on the Similarity Report. In most cases, they will not reject a manuscript based solely on the results of the Similarity Report, unless the percentage of plagiarized content is very high, at least 20%. Please note that either a 20% score could be a 20% match to one source, or the 20% could be made up of a number of smaller matches; both scenarios will lead the editors to desk-reject the manuscript.

A selection of key points is included below, but you should always refer to the three documents listed above for full details.

Duties of Authors

Reporting Standards

Authors of reports 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.

Review and professional publication articles should also be accurate and objective, and editorial ‘opinion’ works should be clearly identified as such.

Data Access and Retention

Authors may be asked to provide the research data supporting their paper for editorial review and/or to comply with the open data requirements of the journal. Authors should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable number of years after publication. Authors may refer to their journal’s Guide for Authors for further details.

Originality and Acknowledgement of Sources

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 and permission has been obtained where necessary.

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal of primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.

In general, an author should not submit for consideration in another journal a paper that has been published previously, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint.

Confidentiality

Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made substantial contributions should be listed as co-authors.

Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the paper (e.g. language editing or medical writing), they should be recognized in the acknowledgments section.

The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider (at their discretion) the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been submitted.

After submission, any change in the order of authors or the deletion/addition of authors, need to provide the "Change of Authorship Request Form" to the editorial office and must be agreed by every author. PAJAIS will not investigate or adjudicate authorship disputes before or after publication. If the difference cannot be resolved amongst authors, it should be directed to the relevant institutional authority.

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects

If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.

If the work involves the use of animal or human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) have approved them. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

Declaration of Competing Interests

WAME define conflict of interest as “a divergence between an individual’s private interests (competing interests) and his or her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities, such that a reasonable observer might wonder if the individual’s behavior or judgment was motivated by considerations of his or her competing interests”. All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could be viewed as inappropriately influencing (bias) their work.

Notification of Fundamental Errors

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper if deemed necessary by the editor. If the editor or the publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains an error, it is the obligation of the author to cooperate with the editor, including providing evidence to the editor where requested.

Duties of Editors

Publication decisions

The editor of a learned journal is solely and independently responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published, often working in conjunction with the relevant society (for society-owned or sponsored journals). The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always underwrite such decisions. The editor 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 issues such as libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers (or society officers) in making these decisions.

Peer review

The editor shall ensure that the peer review process is fair, unbiased, and timely. Research articles must typically be reviewed by at least two external and independent reviewers, and where necessary the editor should seek additional opinions.

The editor shall select reviewers who have suitable expertise in the relevant field, taking account of the need for appropriate, inclusive and diverse representation. The editor shall follow best practice in avoiding the selection of fraudulent peer reviewers. The editor shall review all disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and suggestions for self-citation made by reviewers in order to determine whether there is any potential for bias.

Fair play

The editor should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors. When nominating potential editorial board members, the editor shall take account of the need for appropriate, inclusive and diverse representation. The editor shall use the journal’s standard electronic submission system for all journal communications. The editor shall establish, along with the publisher, a transparent mechanism for appeal against editorial decisions.

Confidentiality

The editor must protect the confidentiality of all material submitted to the journal and all communications with reviewers, unless otherwise agreed with the relevant authors and reviewers. The editor must protect reviewers’ identities. In exceptional circumstances and in consultation with the publisher, the editor may share limited information with editors of other journals where deemed necessary to investigate suspected research misconduct.

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Declaration of Competing Interests

Any potential editorial conflicts of interest should be declared to the publisher in writing prior to the appointment of the editor, and then updated if and when new conflicts arise.

The editor must not be involved in decisions about papers which s/he has written him/herself or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. Peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication, and lies at the heart of the scientific method. In addition to the specific ethics-related duties described below, reviewers are asked generally to treat authors and their work as they would like to be treated themselves and to observe good reviewing etiquette.

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 and decline to participate in the review process.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not share the review or information about the paper with anyone or contact the authors directly without permission from the editor.

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Alertness to Ethical Issues

A reviewer should be alert to potential ethical issues in the paper and should bring these to the attention of the editor, including any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which the reviewer has personal knowledge. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation.

Standards of Objectivity & Competing Interests

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Reviewers should be aware of any personal bias they may have and take this into account when reviewing a paper. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Reviewers should consult the Editor before agreeing to review a paper where they have potential conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

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4. Archiving

As part of its mission, PAJAIS maintains a digital archive of all published articles here.

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5. PAJAIS Data Policies

PAJAIS promotes careful, systematic, open and efficient use of all types of data sets- quantitative and qualitative- for theory development and validation. To this end authors need to recognize the following policies with regard to use of their data sets while submitting to PAJAIS:

(1) Senior Editors can ask authors to provide a complete dataset during the review for testing and validation of executed statistical analyses. In such cases, authors are expected to provide the dataset as a condition for publishing the article.

(2) PAJAIS accept no responsibility regarding the accuracy of data provided by authors of papers they publish, nor any liability for consequences related to the publication and/or use of those data.

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Authors are required to hold exclusive copyright of material submitted for publication in an PAJAIS and to warrant that the work is not an infringement of any existing copyright, proprietary right, invasion of privacy or libel and will hold harmless PAJAIS from any damages, expenses, and costs against any breach of such warranty.

Authors are required to transfer limited copyright for material published in PAJAIS to AIS. This limited copyright allows AIS to grant republication rights, without charge and without restriction, for any academic use as long as there is full acknowledgment of the original source of the work. Upon acceptance of an article, a decision of manuscript e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author together with a Copyright Transfer Form and the corresponding author will be asked to complete it before publication.

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7. Author Verification Process for AIS Journals

AIS will verify each article by ensuring at least one author of the article is an AIS member.

(1) If at least one author is an AIS member, the article qualifies.

(2) If none of the authors on the article are AIS members, AIS will offer each of the authors to either join AIS or pay the publication fee. At least one author on the article must show proof of either AIS membership or payment of the publication fee. Authors are given at least a week to make the decision to join AIS or pay the publication fee.

(3) If at least one author does not join AIS or pay the AIS publication fee, the article will be pulled from the AIS eLibrary and journal.

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