IJAMS

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

This statement sets out the position of IJAMS on publication ethics and publication malpractice. It applies to everyone involved in publishing in the journal — authors, editors, and reviewers — and follows the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (COPE, DOAJ, OASPA & WAME, 2022) and the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Duties of Authors

• Authors must present an accurate account of the work performed and an objective discussion of its significance.
• Authors must ensure that the work is entirely original. The words, ideas, data, or figures of others must be appropriately cited or quoted.
• The same manuscript must not be submitted to more than one journal concurrently, and substantially the same research must not be published in more than one journal (see also For Authors).
• Authors who discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work must promptly notify the editorial office and cooperate in correcting or retracting the article.

Duties of Editors

• Editors evaluate manuscripts solely on their academic merit, without regard to the race, nationality, ideology, religion, sex, age, disability, status, or affiliation of the authors.
• Editors keep all information about submitted manuscripts confidential, disclosing it only to those involved in the evaluation and publication process.
• Unpublished material contained in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the authors.
• Editors recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest.
• Editors respond to and investigate ethical concerns raised about submitted or published work, and are willing to publish corrections and retractions where warranted.

Duties of Reviewers

• Reviewers treat manuscripts received for review as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others, nor used for the reviewer's own advantage.
• Reviews are conducted objectively. Observations are formulated clearly, with supporting arguments, so that authors can use them to improve the work. Personal criticism of the authors is inappropriate.
• Reviewers alert the Editors to any substantial similarity between the manuscript under review and other published work, and identify relevant published work that has not been cited.
• Reviewers who feel unqualified to review a manuscript, who cannot review it promptly, or who have a conflict of interest with respect to the work decline the invitation to review.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship is 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 significant contributions should be listed as co-authors; others who have participated in substantive aspects of the work should be acknowledged. The corresponding author ensures that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to its submission. Any change to the author list after submission requires the written agreement of all authors. Generative AI tools cannot be credited as an author (see Use of Generative AI below).

Conflicts of Interest

All parties involved in publication are expected to disclose conflicts of interest. Authors must disclose in the manuscript any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or their interpretation, together with all sources of financial support for the work. Editors and reviewers must declare potential conflicts of interest — such as competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with the authors, or with institutions connected to the manuscript — and recuse themselves from handling or reviewing the manuscript where such a conflict exists.

Data Sharing and Reproducibility

Authors must retain the data underlying their published work and, where reasonable, make it available to the Editors or to readers on request, so that the findings can be verified. Authors are encouraged to share supporting data and materials — for example, as supplementary material or in a suitable repository — to the extent that ethical and legal constraints, including the protection of personal data, permit. Methods should be reported in sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced.

Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with the applicable ethical standards, with appropriate informed consent from the participants and, where required, the approval of the relevant research ethics committee; a statement to this effect should be included in the manuscript. Particular care is required for research involving vulnerable populations and for the handling of personal data, in line with the Code of Ethics of JAMS below. The Editors may request evidence of ethical approval or consent.

Intellectual Property

Authors must ensure that their work does not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. Material taken from other sources, including the authors' own prior work, must be appropriately cited and, where necessary, reproduced with the permission of the rights holder. Copyright of articles published in IJAMS belongs to the Japan Association for Management Systems (see Open Access & Copyright), and the Code of Ethics of JAMS below sets out the society's position on respect for intellectual property.

Allegations of Research Misconduct

Plagiarism — presenting the words, ideas, data, or figures of others as one's own without appropriate attribution — is unacceptable in any form. The same applies to other practices that threaten the integrity of the scholarly record, including the fabrication or falsification of data, citation manipulation, and redundant publication. Allegations of research misconduct concerning submitted or published work, whoever raises them, are investigated by the Editors with reference to COPE guidance, and the authors concerned are given the opportunity to respond. Where misconduct is confirmed, the journal may reject or retract the work, publish a correction or an expression of concern, and inform the authors' institutions.

Corrections and Retractions

Honest errors that affect the interpretation of a published article are corrected through a published corrigendum or erratum. Articles may be retracted where the findings are unreliable as a result of misconduct or honest error, where the work is plagiarised, or where it constitutes redundant publication. Correction and retraction notices are published on J-STAGE and linked to the original article.

Post-Publication Discussions

IJAMS welcomes scholarly debate on the work it publishes. Readers who wish to comment on, or raise concerns about, a published article may write to the editorial office at ijams@jams-web.jp. Where appropriate, the Editors may invite a response from the authors and publish the exchange, or issue a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction as described above.

Use of Generative AI

• Generative AI tools cannot be credited as an author of a manuscript, as they cannot take responsibility for the work.
• Authors who use generative AI in preparing a manuscript must disclose this in the manuscript (for example, in the acknowledgements or the methods section), stating the tool used and the purpose of its use.
• Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all content in their manuscript, including any content produced with the assistance of AI tools.
• To protect confidentiality, editors and reviewers must not upload a submitted manuscript, in whole or in part, to generative AI services.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision, and any reader may raise concerns about work published in the journal, by contacting the editorial office at ijams@jams-web.jp. Appeals and complaints are reviewed by the Editors and, where necessary, by the IJAMS Committee of JAMS, and the parties concerned are informed of the outcome.

Code of Ethics of JAMS

IJAMS constantly takes a future-thinking approach to business management problems and expresses its commitment to cross-sectional management design from engineering, information, and social sciences perspectives. Its mission is to advance research in management systems from a global perspective and contribute to developing realistic and practical thinking and methods. All contributors to the journal are therefore expected to observe the following Code of Ethics.

Research Attitude

Contributors to IJAMS shall engage in professional research that contributes to the development of science and society, and shall strive to maintain, improve, and disseminate their professional knowledge. All contributors must also be aware of the scope of their own specialised research and respect the technical study of other fields.

Awareness of Social Responsibility

Contributors to IJAMS must take responsibility for their words and actions as responsible agents of society. Contributors must also actively explain the significance of their research to the community and disclose the impact of their research findings on society and people's lives neutrally and objectively.

Fairness

Contributors must respect individuals' human rights and personalities and deal with them impartially, without discrimination based on race, nationality, ideology, religion, sex, age, disability, status, or affiliation.

Respect for Intellectual Property Rights

In their research, contributors must take great care not to infringe the intellectual property rights and academic results of others. When using the intellectual property of others, such as copyrighted works, they must follow the necessary procedures in accordance with the applicable rules.

Protection of Personal Data

Given the importance of respect for the personality of others and the protection of privacy, contributors must ensure that materials, data, and information collected for research that can be used to identify individuals are not leaked, illegally transferred, or disclosed.