Ethical Oversight Policy

International Journal of Research in Vocational Studies (IJRVOCAS) is committed to maintaining ethical oversight throughout the submission, peer-review, editorial decision, and publication processes. Ethical oversight is applied to ensure that all published works meet standards of academic integrity, research ethics, transparency, accountability, and responsible scholarly publishing.

The editorial team is responsible for identifying, reviewing, and responding to ethical issues that may arise before, during, or after publication. Ethical concerns may include plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, data falsification, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, unethical research practices, misuse of personal data, lack of informed consent, or other forms of publication misconduct.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their research has been conducted ethically and that all necessary approvals, permissions, and informed consent have been obtained where required. Research involving human participants, personal data, institutions, organizations, students, employees, interviews, surveys, observations, or sensitive information must protect participants’ rights, privacy, confidentiality, dignity, and welfare.

Editors and reviewers are responsible for maintaining confidentiality, declaring conflicts of interest, evaluating manuscripts fairly, and reporting any suspected ethical concerns to the editorial office. Reviewers must not use unpublished manuscript content for personal, academic, or professional advantage.

When ethical concerns are identified, IJRVOCAS may request clarification, supporting documents, ethical approval evidence, informed consent documentation, raw data, or other relevant information from the authors. The journal may also consult members of the editorial board, reviewers, institutions, or other relevant parties when necessary.

If ethical misconduct is confirmed, IJRVOCAS may take appropriate editorial action, including manuscript rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, notification to relevant institutions, or other measures depending on the nature and severity of the case.

IJRVOCAS is committed to handling ethical concerns fairly, transparently, and responsibly in order to protect the integrity of the scholarly record and maintain public trust in academic publishing.