Publication Ethics & Malpractice Statement

The Journal of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and ethics throughout the publication process. This statement outlines the responsibilities of authors, editors, peer reviewers, and the publisher to ensure transparency, fairness, and accountability in all aspects of scholarly publishing.

Publisher’s Responsibilities
Editorial independence is respected, and publication decisions are made free from commercial influence. The publisher supports the editorial team in upholding ethical standards and ensures that proper procedures are followed in the event of any ethical concerns.

The publisher, New Jersey Big Data Alliance (NJBDA), is a non-profit organization and an alliance of higher education institutions, industry corporations and government institutions, that catalyzes collaboration in advanced computing and data analytics research, education, technology and AI.

NJBDA does not manage or influence JBDAI operations in any way.

 Editors’ Responsibilities

1. Editors are responsible for ensuring that all manuscripts are evaluated based on their academic merit and relevance to the journal’s scope. 
2. Editorial decisions are made impartially, and all submitted manuscripts are handled confidentially.
3. Editors must not use unpublished material from submitted manuscripts in their own research without the author’s explicit written consent.
4. Any ethical concerns raised during submission, review, or post-publication will be addressed promptly and appropriately. See Conflict of Interest Statement below for more information.
5. Editors are required to follow the Journal’s policies on the use of AI.

Reviewers’ Responsibilities

1. 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.
2. Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, and timely assessments of submitted manuscripts.
3. Manuscripts must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorised by the editor or used for personal gain.
4. Reviewers should ensure authors cite all relevant prior work and alert the editor to any uncited sources, previously reported findings, or significant overlap with other published papers.
5. Reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest and recuse themselves when such conflicts exist. If concerns about ethical issues arise during the review process, reviewers should alert the editor. See Conflict of Interest Statement below for more information.
6. Reviewers are required to follow the Journal’s policies on the ethical use of AI. 

Authors’ Responsibilities

1. Authors must ensure that their submissions are original, accurate, and free from plagiarism, data fabrication/falsification, or other forms of misconduct. 
2. Authors must present research data accurately, provide sufficient detail for replication, and avoid fraudulent or misleading statements. See Data Sharing and Reproducibility below for more information.
3. Duplicate or redundant publication is prohibited. Authors are to make a submission only when it has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration. 
4. Proper acknowledgement of the work of others must always be given. Sources must be appropriately cited. Reused material must have the necessary permissions. 
5. Authorship should reflect significant contributions to the work. All listed authors must approve the final version of the manuscript. See Authorship Criteria for more information.
6. Authors must disclose any financial or personal conflicts of interest and all sources of funding. See Conflict of Interest Statement below for more information.
7. In the event of errors discovered after publication, authors are responsible for notifying the journal so that appropriate action (e.g., correction or retraction) can be taken. 
8. Research involving human or animal subjects must comply with all applicable legal and ethical standards. Documentation of approval must be provided where necessary.
9. Authors are required to follow the Journal’s policies on the ethical use of AI.

Handling of Misconduct
All allegations of unethical behavior will be investigated thoroughly. When misconduct is confirmed, appropriate corrective actions will be taken, which may include corrections, retractions, or formal notices. The journal reserves the right to inform relevant institutions or funding bodies in cases of serious ethical violations.

1. Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication
The Journal of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence treats plagiarism and duplicate publication as serious forms of scientific misconduct and a violation of publication ethics. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must represent original work that has not been published previously and must appropriately acknowledge the contributions of others.

Plagiarism is defined as the unreferenced or insufficiently referenced use of another individual’s published or unpublished ideas, data, text, results, images, or other forms of intellectual property without proper acknowledgment or permission, and the presentation of such material as one’s own original work. This includes, but is not limited to:

i. Verbatim or near-verbatim copying of text without clear and appropriate citation.
ii. Inadequate paraphrasing or summarization of another’s work without attribution.
iii. Republication of an unattributed translation of another person’s work.
iv. Use of figures, tables, or images without proper acknowledgment or without permission from the copyright holder.

The journal considers the reuse of substantial portions of an author’s own previously published work without appropriate citation as self-plagiarism or duplicate (redundant) publication. This includes submitting identical or largely overlapping manuscripts to multiple journals or republishing content with only minimal additions of new data. Any reuse of previously published material must be transparently disclosed and properly cited. Any prior dissemination, related submissions, or overlapping material must be fully disclosed and justified in the Comments to the Editor.

Major plagiarism, such as extensive unattributed copying of text, ideas, or results, will result in immediate rejection of the manuscript. Minor plagiarism, such as limited unattributed reuse of standard methodological descriptions or background material, may prompt the editor to contact the author for clarification and correction. A final decision will be made after revised materials with proper attribution are reviewed.

If plagiarism is identified after publication, the journal will conduct an investigation. Minor issues may be addressed through published corrections. In cases of significant plagiarism that compromise the integrity of the work, the journal reserves the right to retract the article and notify all authors, their affiliated institutions, and, where appropriate, funding agencies.

2. Data falsification/fabrication
The Journal of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence strictly prohibits data fabrication and data falsification. Data fabrication refers to the invention or fabrication of data or results and their recording or reporting in the research record. Data falsification involves the manipulation of research data, materials, images, or processes in a way that misrepresents the true findings of a study, including selective reporting, omission of conflicting or inconvenient results, modification or removal of data points, or inappropriate image manipulation. Such practices constitute serious breaches of scientific integrity, undermine the credibility of the scientific record, and may mislead subsequent research, policy, or clinical decision-making, potentially resulting in significant harm.

The journal permits limited image adjustments made solely to improve clarity or readability such as adjustments to brightness, contrast, or color balance, provided such modifications do not alter the scientific meaning of the image and are properly disclosed. The addition, removal, or selective alteration of image elements is considered data fabrication and is not permitted.

If evidence of data fabrication or falsification is identified, either before or after publication, the journal reserves the right to reject the manuscript without review, retract published articles, and prohibit future submissions by the responsible author(s).

3. Citation Manipulation
The journal strictly prohibits citation manipulation in any form. Authors, reviewers, and editors must ensure that citations are relevant and contribute meaningfully to the scholarly content.

Handling complaints and appeals 
All complaints and appeals will be reviewed by the JBDAI Editorial Board. Depending on the nature of the issue, an appropriate editor will be assigned to address it. If the matter remains unresolved, a panel of editors will be convened to review the case and reach a final decision.

Decisions made by the Editor-in-Chief and the Executive Editorial Board are final and binding.

Data Sharing and Reproducibility
All research articles are encouraged to include a Data Availability Statement describing where the supporting data, code, or materials can be found, whether in a public repository, as supplementary files, or available on request. Any limits on sharing, such as privacy concerns or proprietary restrictions, should be explained. Methods should be described clearly enough to allow replication.

 

Conflict of Interest Statement

Editor Conflict of Interest Overview

Every participant in the peer-review and publication process — including authors, editors, editorial board members, and ad hoc reviewers for the Journal of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence — must consider their conflicts of interest when participating in the process of article review and publication and must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest.

Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have conflicts of interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration. One challenge for editors is to recognize the potential for conflicts of interest and to take appropriate action when biases are likely.

A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients’ welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Perceptions of conflict of interest are as important as actual conflicts of interest.

Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership or options, honoraria, patents, and paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the editors, and of research itself. However, conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as personal relationships or rivalries, academic competition, and intellectual beliefs.  Some specific types of conflict of interest are identified and policies outlined below.

Types of Conflicts of Interest

Personal Conflicts

Editors should avoid making decisions on manuscripts submitted from their own institution, or by research collaborators, or co-authors, or competitors. To avoid the possibility of bias, editors should recuse themselves if they have published with, have collaborated with, or have been in a mentoring relationship with any author or contributor of the manuscript within the past three years.

Financial Conflicts

The most apparent type of conflict of financial interest occurs when an editor or affiliated organization may benefit financially from a decision to publish or to reject a manuscript. Financial conflicts may include salary, grants from a company with an interest in the results, honoraria, stock or equity interests in a company whose product is discussed in the article, and intellectual property rights (patents, royalties, and copyrights).

Non-financial Conflicts

Other nonfinancial conflicts of interest should also be avoided or disclosed. Editorial decisions should be based on an objective and impartial consideration of the facts, exclusive of personal or professional bias. All decisions by editors should be based solely on the paper’s scientific merit, originality, and quality of writing as well as on the relevance to the journal’s scope and mission, without regard to race, ethnic origin, sex, religion, or citizenship of the authors. Editors must disclose personal biases that may affect their editorial decisions.

Note

Even if prospective reviewers feel confident that the existence of one or more of these potential conflicts of interest would not intrude upon their objectivity, they should protect the credibility of the review process by avoiding even the appearance of a conflict of interest and decline to review the manuscript.

A reviewer should not take scientific, financial, personal, or other advantage of material available through the privileged communication of peer review, and every effort should be made to avoid even the appearance of taking advantage of information obtained through the review process.

Specific Conflict of Interest Policies

Submission by an Editor

A paper submitted by an editor will be handled by one of the other editors who does not have a conflict with the review and who is not at the same institution as the submitting editor. The other editor will select referees and make all decisions on the paper. In such circumstances, full masking of the process must be ensured so that the anonymity of the peer reviewers is maintained. Therefore, the editor submitting the paper will not have access to the review records of their own manuscript.

Submission From the Same Institution

A paper submitted by author at the same institution as one of the editors will be handled by one of the other editors. The other editor will select referees and make all decisions on the paper. In the case of an article from the same institution as the editor-in-chief,  anytime research is submitted from the editor-in-chief’s institution, a co-editor-in-chief will handle the manuscript, and the submission will then not be assigned to any editor at that same institution.

Personal Relationships

A paper submitted by a family member of one of the editors, or by an author whose relationship with one of the editors might create the perception of bias (e.g. in terms of close friendship or conflict/rivalry), will be handled by another editor. The other editor will select referees and make all decisions on the paper. If in doubt, the editors will consult with the editor-in-chief for the journal.

Previous Review

If an editor is assigned a manuscript for review that they had previously rendered a decision on for another journal, then the editor should state they need recuse themselves due to a previous review connection with that article; no further explanation or detail is needed.

 

The journal policies are reviewed regularly to ensure continued alignment with current standards in scholarly publishing.