Publication Ethics
The Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research establishes rules for ethical practices and guidelines that authors, reviewers, and editors should understand and adhere to. Below are the practices and guidelines:

 

Research Ethics
When submitting a manuscript on human subjects, the authors should have obtained approval from their respective research ethics committees and stated in their manuscripts. The authors should have assured the research reported in their manuscripts has been carried out in an ethical manner.

In the manuscript, the name of the research ethics committee, its respective organisation, and the approval number should be stated. If there is no ethical approval, the authors should be able to explain the reasons why they did not obtain ethical approval and how the research ethics were assured.

 

Declaration of Helsinki
All research processes which are presented in the manuscripts must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors who submit their manuscripts to the Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research are considered to have agreed and complied with the Declaration of Helsinki.

 

Funding
There should be a statement in the manuscripts to indicate the funding sources. If there is no funding, a declaration should be made.

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Conflict of Interest
The authors should declare a conflict of interest (if any) when submitting their manuscripts. The reviewers (including editors) should declare a conflict of interest (if any) before agreeing to review the manuscripts. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.

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Publication Decisions
The Editorial members of the Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always drive such decisions. The editors 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 libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editors may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

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Data and reproducibility
The Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research does not request the authors to store and make their research data available in open access platform. However, the authors are encouraged to provide their research data upon reasonable requests from the readers and authorities, according to standard practice in their disciplines.

 

Authorship and Contributorship
In accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, the Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research encourages authors to adhere to the following authorship criteria.
 

Authorship should be based on the following 4 criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

• Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND

• Final approval of the version to be published; AND

• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

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Peer Review
The Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research is committed to the highest standards of peer review. After receiving a manuscript, an editor is assigned to assess the quality of the manuscript. If the manuscript is deemed suitable, it will be double-blind peer reviewed by independent, anonymous experts. If the authors have submitted their manuscripts as preprints on an open-access platform, anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

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Fair play
An editor at any time will evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or ideology of the authors.

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Confidentiality
The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

 

Appeals and Complaints
The Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on appeals and complaints on manuscript reviews, revisions, rejections, and acceptance. The authors should write their genuine appeals and complaints on the editorial decision and present their arguments with evidence in response to the editorial decision to the Editor-in-Chief (qram.journal@gmail.com).

After receiving the appeal, the Editor-in-Chief will chair the investigation process and make appropriate decisions with selected editorial board members, who do not have prior relationships with the authors involved. The Editor-in-Chief may decide to reject or accept the manuscript, invite additional reviewers for the manuscript, or other decisions. All decisions on appeals and complaints are final.

 

Allegations of Misconduct
Readers and authorities can report to the Editor-in-Chief (qram.journal@gmail.com) allegations of misconduct on published articles – post-publication. The report should undergo real-name authentication, but the whistleblowers must not be revealed by the Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research unless required by law. Editor-in-Chief will chair the investigation process and make appropriate decisions with selected editorial board members, who do not have prior relationships with the authors involved. The published articles may be retracted. The corresponding author of the manuscripts must be given an opportunity to provide explanations before any decision is made. 

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Manuscripts that have been identified with misconduct will be rejected – pre-publication. The corresponding author of the manuscripts must be given an opportunity to provide explanations before any decision is made.

 

Retraction of a Published Article
The Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research can consider retracting a published article if there are serious concerns about scientific methods or integrity of the article post-publication. The decision to retract a published article will be made in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. MJQR Editor-in-Chief will chair the investigation process and make appropriate decisions with selected editorial board members, who do not have prior relationships with the authors involved.

 

Corrections on a Published Article
The Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research can consider the author’s request to make corrections to their published articles, upon written request made to the Editor-in-Chief (qram.journal@gmail.com). The corrections must be genuine (i.e., typos), and do not have concerns about scientific methods or integrity about the article post-publication.

 

Discussions on a Published Article
The Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research allows academic debate post-publication. Readers may write to the Editor-in-Chief (qram.journal@gmail.com) to discuss publishing letters to the editor.

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Intellectual Property
The Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research is an open-access journal. The authors are responsible and should have sought written permission from the copyright owners to publish any copyrighted materials in their manuscripts.

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Duties of Authors and Reviewers

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 behaviour and are
unacceptable.

Originality and Plagiarism
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.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication
An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable. Authors should not publish their manuscripts in other journals after the manuscripts have been reviewed by the Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research reviewers prior to publication. This is also unacceptable and unethical publishing behaviour.

Acknowledgement of Sources
Proper acknowledgement of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

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 significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in  certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included in 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.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

 

Fundamental errors in published works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her 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.

 

Reporting and Complaints
Any report or complaints on plagiarism, fraud and misconduct can be made by writing to:

Chief Editor
email: qram.journal@gmail.com