Qubahan EcoLead Journal is committed to maintaining the integrity, reliability, transparency, and ethical quality of the scholarly record.

The journal's publication-ethics practices are informed by internationally recognized principles of responsible scholarly publishing, including guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1. ORIGINALITY AND PLAGIARISM

Authors must submit original scholarly work.

Plagiarism, unattributed copying, duplicate publication, inappropriate text recycling, fabrication, falsification, and misleading manipulation of data, images, artistic material, quotations, or sources are prohibited.

Similarity-detection tools may be used as part of editorial screening.

A numerical similarity percentage alone does not determine whether plagiarism has occurred.

2. DUPLICATE AND CONCURRENT SUBMISSION

Manuscripts must not be submitted simultaneously to another journal.

Duplicate or redundant publication is prohibited.

3. AUTHORSHIP AND CONTRIBUTORSHIP

Authorship must reflect genuine scholarly contribution.

All authors must approve the submitted manuscript and the final Version of Record.

Guest, gift, honorary, purchased, and ghost authorship are prohibited.

4. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably affect, or appear to affect, scholarly judgment.

5. FUNDING

Authors must disclose all relevant sources of financial, institutional, commercial, or material support.

6. DATA AND EVIDENCE INTEGRITY

Fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation, or misleading presentation of research data, financial information, statistical findings, images, artistic evidence, archival sources, quotations, or other research material is prohibited.

7. DATA AVAILABILITY

Authors should make supporting data, materials, code, instruments, or other relevant resources available where ethically, legally, and practically possible.

8. HUMAN PARTICIPANTS

Research involving humans must comply with applicable ethical requirements.

Ethics approval and informed consent must be reported where required.

9. VULNERABLE POPULATIONS

Research involving children, marginalized communities, displaced populations, persons with impaired decision-making capacity, or other vulnerable groups requires appropriate safeguards.

10. CULTURAL AND INDIGENOUS MATERIAL

Research involving indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage, traditional cultural expressions, sacred materials, community-owned knowledge, or culturally sensitive materials should respect applicable ethical standards, community rights, permissions, attribution requirements, and restrictions on disclosure.

11. ARTWORKS AND CREATIVE MATERIAL

Authors must respect copyright, moral rights, attribution, ownership, and permissions for artworks, photographs, performances, recordings, scripts, music, film stills, archival materials, and other creative works.

12. PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

Identifiable or sensitive personal information must not be published without an appropriate ethical and legal basis.

13. IMAGE AND DATA MANIPULATION

Images, data, artworks, or research material must not be manipulated in a manner that misrepresents the underlying evidence.

14. CITATION PRACTICES

References must be relevant and genuinely support the claims for which they are cited.

Citation coercion, citation cartels, fabricated citations, and unnecessary citations designed to influence metrics are prohibited.

15. EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE

Editorial decisions are made according to scholarly merit and are independent of financial, commercial, personal, institutional, or publisher interests.

16. ALLEGATIONS OF MISCONDUCT

QELJ will take reasonable steps to investigate credible allegations of research or publication misconduct.

Actions may include:

• requesting clarification;
• requesting supporting evidence or original data;
• suspending editorial processing;
• rejecting a submission;
• issuing a correction;
• issuing an expression of concern;
• retracting an article; or
• contacting relevant institutions where appropriate.

17. CORRECTIONS AND RETRACTIONS

QELJ is responsible for correcting the scholarly record when significant errors or integrity problems are identified.

18. COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS

Authors, readers, reviewers, and other parties may submit legitimate complaints or appeals regarding editorial processes, ethics, or published content.

19. POST-PUBLICATION CONCERNS

Substantiated concerns raised after publication will be evaluated and may result in clarification, correction, expression of concern, or retraction.