AABRI Publication Policies and Procedures

The following is a list of the AABRI publishing policies and procedures. This list has been developed using the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and the COPE Core Practices.

Any issues not addressed herein or in the AABRI Submission Guidelines shall be governed by the above-listed COPE guidelines or by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association sixth edition, whichever is appropriate.

Any questions, comments or suggestions regarding these policies and procedures should be addressed to Dr. Russell Baker or the editor of the journal in which you publish.

Advertising Policy
Appeals and Complaints Policy
Archiving Policy
Authorship and Plagiarism Policy
Conflict of Interest Policy
Copyright Policy
Direct Marketing Policy
Double-Blind Peer Review Policy
Editorial Review
Ethics Policy
Institutional Review Board Approval Policy
Journal Acceptance Rates
Journal Editor Responsibilities
Journal Review Boards
Manuscript submissions – AABRI staff, editors, and review board
Open Access Policy
Originality
Ownership
Peer review process
Printed copies of journals
Privacy Policy
Publication Schedule
Quotation Requirements
Refund Policy
Research Misconduct Policy
Retraction/Correction/Withdrawal Policy
Reviewer Comments


Advertising Policy:
Advertising is not accepted on the AABRI website or in AABRI publications.


Appeals and Complaints Policy:
In the event a manuscript is removed from publication as a result of academic misconduct the author may appeal the decision directly to the individual journal's editor or to the AABRI editorial staff. The author should include a discussion stating why the items identified in the research-misconduct investigation are either wrong or do not rise to the level of research misconduct. The author should attach any documentation supporting his/her position. The appeal and documentation will be forwarded to a panel consisting of three members of the AABRI Advisory Board not involved in the original decision. The panel will evaluate the appeal and 1) uphold the removal, 2) overturn the removal and restore the manuscript to publication, 3) determine that the threshold for research misconduct was not reached but that the manuscript needs revision prior to republication.

This policy does not apply to unpublished papers rejected during the manuscript review process.

Complaints of research misconduct should be emailed directly to the individual journal's editor or to the AABRI editorial staff.


Archiving Policy:
AABRI maintains all active and retired journals on the www.aabri.com website journals page. Links to all published manuscripts (excluding manuscripts removed from publication for cause) are accessible through the individual journals' web pages. Retired journals are not removed from web publication.

AABRI has contracted with Portico E-journal preservation services for digital preservation of all current and retired academic journals. AABRI updates manuscripts to Portico when an online journal-volume goes into print. This service is provided in the event AABRI discontinues operations.

Effective with the contract signed 1/27/2015, full-text manuscripts from AABRI education journals (Research in Higher Education Journal, Journal of Instructional Pedagogies, Journal of Case Studies in Education, and Journal of Case Studies in Accreditation and Assessment) will be available through the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). ERIC has commenced uploading all back issues of the above journals to its repository and has stated these journals will be maintained in perpetuity. Future volumes will be uploaded as published.


Authorship and Plagiarism Policy:
As stated in the AABRI Authorization and Originality Certification all manuscripts must be the author's own work, not previously published in whole or part. Reviewers are not expected to be able to identify all instances of plagiarism. Consequently, effective August 2012, all papers will be submitted to an online plagiarism detection website to verify authenticity. Papers between a 10% nd 20% similarity level a (excluding quotes, bibliography and matches of 1% or less) will be reviewed and returned to the author for revision prior to peer review. Authors will have one opportunity to correct the excessive similarity. If not corrected, the paper will be rejected without peer review. Papers exceeding 20% similarity will be rejected without peer review.

For the purpose of manuscripts submitted to an AABRI journal for review, plagiarism is defined as the act of presenting the words, ideas, or images of another as your own whether deliberate or unintentional (APA). Plagiarism occurs when an author does not use adaquate paraphrasing, paraphrases without citations, or fails to quote (quotation marks or block quoting) material directly copied from another source.

All named authors on a manuscript are expected to have provided significant contribution to the manuscript. Contributions may include literature review, data collection, data analysis, conclusion determination and other significant components of the research/writing effort. Authors may work on any component or collaborate with other authors to be construed to have provided a significant contribution. Reading, reviewing, or editing of the manuscript in itself is not considered to be a significant contribution. Authorship of a manuscript may not be changed after submission for review.


Conflict of Interest Policy:
AABRI is committed to high standards of academic publishing principles. AABRI requires all editors, authors, reviewers, and staff to disclose any potential conflicts of interest which might affect professional judgment as it relates to the editorial and peer review process of submitted manuscripts. For the purposes of this disclosure statement, a conflict of interest occurs when an editor, author, or reviewer has a beneficial or personal relationship with a third party which could bias or compromise his or her academic or professional objectivity. Editors, reviewers and authors are responsible for disclosing financial and other potential conflicts of interest that could potentially impact your submission or reviews. Editors and Reviewers must complete the conflict of interest disclosure form. Authors must complete the form if they have a potential conflict of interest to disclose.


Copyright Policy:
Upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication, the author(s) grants in perpetuity to the Academic and Business Research Institute (AABRI) the right to journal-publish this manuscript at its discretion in an AABRI journal or website. AABRI also has the non-exclusive right to publish or list AABRI journal-published manuscripts on any hosting site or database (i.e.- ERIC, ProQuest, etc.). Authors retain copyright of the manuscript and are free to reuse, remix, publish or license the manuscript for all purposes at their discretion without consulting AABRI. AABRI authors are free to self-archive AABRI-published manuscripts or have manuscripts archived by a third party without permission from AABRI. Individuals or organizations desiring to license, archive or republish documents published in AABRI journals should contact the author(s) directly. Authors may assign copyright ownership without permission of AABRI providing it does not interfere with the aforementioned publication of the copyrighted material by AABRI.


Direct Marketing Policy:
AABRI maintains a contact list of academics worldwide. The information contained in this contact list includes the academic's First Name, Last Name, University, and Email Address. Individuals may add or remove themselves to/from the list using the AABRI Contact List form on the contact information webpage http://www.aabri.com/contact.html. Individuals on the list may also remove themselves from the list by clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of all emails sent from the list.

Individuals on the list may receive periodic emails announcing upcoming AABRI conferences, journal call for papers, retractions or corrections, and other notices of significance to AABRI stakeholders. At no time will AABRI sell, give, or otherwise distribute the information contained in the list to an outside individual or organization. At no time will AABRI contact individuals on the list for a third party or with information not specifically related to AABRI conferences and journals.

Editors or review-board members may contact a manuscript author with an invitation to submit for review if they identify a manuscript that appears suitable for a particular AABRI journal. At no time will the editor or review-board member imply that the paper has been pre-accepted. Editors or review-board members should include the following statement in all invitations to submit:
AABRI is a privately-owned, for-profit publishing corporation incorporated and operating in the state of Florida, United States of America. All revenues are generated from author fees. See the Publication Charges webpage for the complete fee structure. Not all institutions recognize publications in for-profit or author-pays journals for tenure and promotion. Please check with your institution prior to submission.


Double-Blind Peer Review Policy:
All manuscripts submitted to an AABRI journal are subject to double-blind peer review. Double-blind review is defined as a review process wherein both the authors and the reviewers are anonymous to each other. Peer review is defined as the evaluation of academic research by other academics in field. Author names, university affiliations, and contact information are removed from the review copy of the manuscript. Manuscript are subsequently sent by an AABRI staff member or the journal's editor to reviewers for blind-peer review. See Peer review process below for additional information.


Editorial Review:
All journal submissions are reviewed for compliance with the AABRI Submission Guidelines to be considered for publication. Authors are expected to review their manuscripts for compliance prior to submission. While minor areas of noncompliance will be corrected by the editorial staff, manuscripts not predominantly meeting the Submission Guidelines will be returned to the author for revision and resubmission.


Ethics Policy:
See the AABRI Publication Ethics Policy.


Institutional Review Board Approval Policy:
Behavioral research involving human subjects requires institutional review board (IRB) approval from the author(s)' university. Non-university related authors will be required to provide signed consent releases from each and every individual involved in the research. Authors must secure IRB approval (or signed releases) prior to submission for review and provide concurrent with manuscript submission for review. Biomedical research is not appropriate for AABRI published journals. Animal-based research is not appropriate for AABRI published journals.


Journal Acceptance Rates:
AABRI journals target acceptance rates of 40% or less. See the individual journal webpages for acceptance rates specific to each journal.


Journal Editor Responsibilities:
All AABRI journal editors and coeditors serve as members of the AABRI advisory board. The advisory board meets at every AABRI conference to discuss and advise on issues pertinent to the operation and policies of AABRI. Editors and coeditors are expected to attend at least one advisory-board meeting biennially. Journal editors and coeditors have the right to refuse for cause review/publication of any manuscript submitted. Editors and coeditors are copied on all manuscripts when sent out for review for their respective journals. If an editor or coeditor finds issue with any manuscript prior to publication, email editorial.staff@aabri.com including the specific problem(s) with the manuscript and/or the specific reasons the editor takes issue with publication of the manuscript. The manuscript will be removed from consideration for the journal. If the editor finds the manuscript more suitable to another AABRI journal it will be redirected as appropriate. Editors and coeditors are requested to review final web publication of accepted manuscripts for formatting/editorial errors. In the event of a dispute between reviewers or a reviewer and author regarding the acceptability of a manuscript for publication, the editor or coeditor of the applicable journal will be requested to review the manuscript. The editor then has the final authority to accept, request revision, or reject the manuscript.


Journal Review Boards:
Each active AABRI journal has a review board consisting of terminally-degreed academics holding degrees in the subject area of the journal. AABRI journal review-board member lists are available through the individual journal web pages. The review-board member lists display the member's name, university affiliation, terminal degree and granting institution, years in higher education, total number of peer-reviewed publications, and areas of research interest. Review-board member lists include both review-board members and invited reviewers. Invited reviewers are also terminally degreed and published in field. Invited reviewers will occasionally be called upon to review manuscripts as the need arises. Review-board members and invited reviewers serve voluntarily and may decline to review any manuscript if they do not believe themselves qualified. All qualified AABRI authors are invited to participate as review-board members or invited reviewers. Other individuals interested in serving as review-board members or invited reviewers may also participate. AABRI authors and other individuals are required to complete the AABRI Reviewer Information Form. Information collected therein is used to verify reviewer qualifications.


Manuscript submissions – AABRI staff, editors, and review board:
AABRI journal editors may not submit a manuscript for review to the journal they edit. AABRI journal editors may submit manuscripts for review to any of the other AABRI journals. The editor of the journal the manuscript is submitted to and/or AABRI editorial staff will verify that all author names, university affiliations and contact information are removed from the review copy of the manuscript prior to sending the manuscript to reviewers.

AABRI journal review-board members may submit manuscripts for review to any AABRI journal including the journal for which they review. The AABRI journal editor and/or AABRI editorial staff will verify that all author names, university affiliations and contact information are removed from the review copy of the manuscript prior to sending the manuscript to reviewers.

AABRI advisory-board members who do not serve as journal editors may submit manuscripts for review to any AABRI journal. The AABRI journal editors and/or AABRI editorial staff will verify that all author names, university affiliations and contact information are removed from the review copy of the manuscript prior to sending the manuscript to reviewers.


Open Access Policy:
All manuscripts published in AABRI journals are published online, open access. Manuscripts are available to the readers at no cost. Readers may read, download, and use the manuscripts and information therein for any lawful purpose without permission from AABRI. Copyright to all AABRI published manuscripts is retained by the author(s). See Copyright Policy above.


Originality:
AABRI Author(s) certify that the submitted manuscript is their own original work that has not been previously published in whole or part in an academic journal or other copyrighted material (see AABRI Quotation Requirements herein). Authors certify that the submitted manuscript is not currently being reviewed for publication consideration by another journal or other copyrighted material. Author(s) agree not to submit the manuscript to another journal or other copyrighted material until such time that the manuscript is rejected by an AABRI journal or until the Author(s) notify in writing (email acceptable) the withdrawal of the manuscript from AABRI-journal publication consideration. Author(s) agree to and accept all the terms and conditions published herein including the AABRI Research Misconduct Policy and the AABRI Submission Guidelines herein.


Ownership:
AABRI is a privately-owned, for-profit publishing corporation incorporated and operating in the state of Florida, United States of America. All revenues are generated from author fees. See the Publication Charges webpage for the complete fee structure. Not all institutions recognize publications in for-profit or author-pays journals for tenure and promotion. Please check with your institution prior to submission.


Peer review process:
All manuscripts submitted to an AABRI journal are subject to double-blind peer review. Double-blind review is defined as a review process where the author does not know the identity of the reviewer and the reviewer does not know the entity of the author. Peer review is defined as the evaluation of academic research by other academics in field. All AABRI reviewers are terminally degreed and published in the field(s) they review.

When a manuscript is received for review in an AABRI journal the following procedure is followed:
  1. The manuscript is logged into the Journal Registration Database.
  2. Reviewers are not expected to be able to identify all instances of plagiarism. Consequently, effective March 2013, 100% of manuscripts received for review will be submitted to an online plagiarism detection website to verify authenticity. Papers between a 10% and 20% similarity level a (excluding quotes, bibliography and matches of 1% or less) will be reviewed and returned to the author one time for revision prior to peer review. Papers >= 20% similarity will be rejected without peer review.
  3. If the manuscript is determined to be original in accordance with the above it is then forwarded for editorial review by a staff member or the journal's editor. This review is to ensure conformance with the AABRI Submission Guidelines.
  4. (http://www.aabri.com/guidelines.html); this is not a content review. Manuscripts with minor deviations from the submission guidelines are corrected. Manuscripts substantially non-conforming to the submission guidelines are returned to the submitting author for correction prior to peer review.
  5. Author names, university affiliations, and contact information are removed from the review copy of the manuscript. Manuscript are subsequently sent by an AABRI staff member or the journal's editor to reviewers for blind-peer review. Peer reviewers are requested to use the AABRI Journal Submission Review Form as a guideline for the review process. Additional comments may be provided as needed. Reviewers not using the review form are requested to type their comments on the cover sheet of the manuscript.
  6. Manuscripts may be accepted, returned for revision, or rejected. Authors are so notified.
  7. If manuscripts are returned for revision, the author is provided specific instructions as to the revision requirements via email. Authors then have 90 days to complete the required revisions and return the manuscript. Revised manuscripts evaluated for compliance with the revision requirements.
  8. If a manuscript is rejected, the author is notified and provided the reviewer's comments specifying the reason(s) for rejection. Rejection is final, there is no appeal procedure for rejected papers.
  9. If a manuscript is accepted the author is notified.


Printed Copies of Journals:
AABRI journals are printed after twelve manuscripts are published in an online volume or when one year has transpired since the previous volume printing, whichever comes first. The printing process takes approximately four to six weeks. When package publication is ordered, the submitting author is contacted and requested to provide a single mailing address for shipment of the two printed copies included in the package publication. Additional copies may be ordered directly from AABRI's outsource printer.


Privacy Policy:
Manuscripts submitted for review to AABRI journals are double-blind peer reviewed. By definition, the names of the reviewer(s) and author(s) are not disclosed to each other or individuals other than AABRI editors and staff. Authors submitting human-subject based research (either observational or interventional) are required to provide IRB approval documentation concurrent with the submission of the manuscript for review. Individual research participant information is not published or disclosed without participant permission.

Personal information collected on AABRI journal-submission, conference-submission, and reviewer-information forms is restricted to AABRI editors and staff except as indicated on the individual form webpages. We will not sell, disclose or distribute information provided on the forms to any individual or organization outside of AABRI unless required to so by law.

AABRI uses Google Analytics to evaluate website performance. Google provides aggregate information regarding browser types used, organic/non-organic searches, City/State/Country of individuals using AABRI webpages, pages viewed and time on the AABRI website and individual webpages. Personal individual information is not provided by Google analytics.


Publication Schedule:
All AABRI journals are published online, open access. No charges are required to read or download any manuscript published in an AABRI journal. Since all manuscripts are available online open access subscriptions are not offered or necessary.
All manuscripts accepted for publication in an AABRI journal are published to the online journal shortly after acceptance and receipt of publication fee. Web publication is scheduled monthly.
AABRI journals are continuously web published. AABRI journal volumes are closed, printed, and a new volume started when an online volume has twelve manuscripts published therein or when one calendar-year has passed since the last volume closed. Copies of AABRI journals currently in print are available from our outsource printer.
To maintain publishing-date identically between the online and printed versions of journal volumes, all AABRI online journals are dated when the volume is completed online. Journal volumes are usually considered completed online when twelve manuscripts are web-published in an online volume or one calendar-year has passed since the previous volume closed. The date that is displayed for a journal volume on the website will be the same as the date on the corresponding printed volume of that journal when the journal goes into print.


Quotation Requirements:
All manuscript content that is not the author's original work must be properly quoted, cited, and referenced whether published nor not published. All manuscript content that has been previously published and/or copyrighted, in whole or part, must be properly quoted, cited, and referenced. All manuscript content that is taken from one of the author's previous academic-journal or other copyrighted publications in whole or part, must be properly quoted, cited, and referenced.

As stated in the APA Publication Manual, "If the quotation comprises fewer than 40 words, incorporate it into the text and enclose the quotation with double quotation marks...If the quotation comprises 40 or more words, display it as a freestanding block of text and omit the quotation marks"(APA-6, 2015, pp. 170-171).

Manuscript content that is substantially paraphrased does not need to be quoted but must be cited and referenced. Sufficiency of paraphrasing will be determined by the journal editor or publisher guided by the result of the Turnitin.com evaluation (see the AABRI Originality Policy and the AABRI Research Misconduct Policy herein).


Refund Policies:
Review Service Charge Refund Policy - Review service charges are not refundable once a manuscript and review service charge are received, logged into the AABRI system, and a manuscript tracking number assigned.

Publishing Service Charge Refund Policy - If a refund is requested prior to web publication of an accepted manuscript, the Publishing Service Charge refund request will be honored at 90% of the Publishing Service Charge paid. If a refund is requested subsequent to web-publication of an accepted manuscript, no refund will be issued.

Conference Registration Charge Refund Policy - see http://www.aabri.com/RefundTransfer.html


Research Misconduct Policy:
Research misconduct includes fabrication of data, falsification of results, plagiarism or self-plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reporting research results. Research misconduct will not be tolerated in any AABRI journal publication.

Definitions:
Fabrication is defined as the making up of data or making up of results not derived from research and reporting these results.

Falsification is defined as the manipulating of research, changing or omitting research data or results in order to represent results that are not actually derived from the research/data collected.

Plagiarism is defined as (1) copying someone else's exact words, either in whole or in part, without quoting and properly citing, either intentionally or inadvertently, (2) paraphrasing another author(s)' work, either in whole or in part, without properly citing, (3) presenting the results of another individual's research as one's own, (4) representing facts, statistical analysis, or charts created by someone else as one's own. Using the same research methodology or analytical procedures is not considered plagiarism so long as the empirical data is originally obtained (or used with permission) and the statistical analysis is performed on the originally obtained data by the submitting authors.

Self-plagiarism is defined as the republication in whole or part of an author's own previously published work without appropriately quoting or paraphrasing and citing.
When research misconduct is discovered prior to publication the submission will be rejected and the author(s) notified of the reason for rejection.

All manuscripts submitted for journal-publication review will be evaluated using Turnitin.com online plagiarism detection and visual evaluation. If the online plagiarism detection website evaluation indicates a similarity index less than or equal to 10% (excluding matches of 1% or less), the paper routed for review in accordance with the Peer review process herein. If the online plagiarism detection website evaluation indicates similarity exceeding 10%, the AABRI author(s) notified. If the plagiarism was inadvertent (incomplete paraphrasing, failure to adequately cite, improper formatting) the author(s) will be given the opportunity to rewrite the paper, correct the areas of concern, and resubmit. If the plagiarism appears to be blatant (entire paper or major section(s) of paper copied) the paper will be rejected outright.

If research misconduct is alleged, suspected or discovered subsequent to publication, the suspect manuscript will be removed from publication and evaluated in accordance with the following:

Fabrication/Falsification- the author(s) will be asked to provide original survey data, observation notes, etc. to verify data used was validly obtained. Data analysis will be duplicated to verify the validity and accuracy of the results reported. If the data is found to be complete, accurate, and original and the data analysis is determined to be valid and accurate the manuscript will be restored to publication and no further action taken. If the data and/or the results are determined to be fabricated and/or falsified the manuscript will be permanently removed from publication.

Plagiarism/Self Plagiarism - manuscripts will be evaluated using Turnitin.com online plagiarism detection and visual evaluation. If the online plagiarism detection website evaluation indicates a similarity index less than or equal to 10% (excluding matches of 1% or less), the paper will be restored to publication and no further action taken. If the online plagiarism detection website evaluation indicates similarity exceeding 10%, it will remain removed from publication and the AABRI author(s) notified. If the plagiarism was inadvertent (incomplete paraphrasing, failure to adequately cite, improper formatting) the author(s) will be given the opportunity to rewrite the paper, correct the areas of concern, and resubmit. If the plagiarism appears to be blatant (entire paper or major section(s) of paper copied) the paper will be retracted in accordance with the Retraction/Correction/Withdrawal Policy below.

No additional information will be released to any third party regarding actions taken unless authorized by the author(s) in writing.

Readers are encouraged to notify AABRI in the event of suspected research misconduct. Please email.



Retractions/Corrections/Withdrawals Policy:
Manuscripts will be retracted from publication if:

1: There is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable (either through author misconduct (see Research Misconduct Policy) or unintentional error.

2. The content/findings have been previously published in an academic journal or other copyrighted material (without written permission). Academic manuscripts published in conference proceedings are acceptable for journal publication if the proceedings are not copyrighted.

3. Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or self-plagiarism as discussed in the Research Misconduct Policy.

A notice of retraction will be posted on journal page link to the manuscript and on the manuscript itself. The notice of retraction will read:
AABRI has permanently retracted this manuscript from publication for non-compliance with the AABRI __________________ policy
specifying the specific policy or policies that are violated. The retraction notice will also be published in the next available printed volume of the journal specifying the above statement along with the title, author, and volume of the journal in which the manuscript was printed.

In the event a manuscript is permanently retracted from publication, indexing services (ProQuest, ERIC, EbscoHost) will also be notified that the paper has been retracted from publication and the reason(s) for the retraction. The retraction notice will be published and indexing services will be notified as soon as possible after the decision to retract the manuscript is made.

Manuscripts will be corrected and a correction statement posted if a small portion of the manuscript of the publication is inadvertently misleading or apparently inadvertent plagiarism. If the misleading portions of the paper or the plagiarism was inadvertent (incomplete paraphrasing, failure to adequately cite, improper formatting) the author(s) will be given the opportunity to rewrite the paper, correct the areas of concern, and resubmit. If a correction is made a correction statement will be posted to the cover page of the online manuscript indicating the page and paragraph corrected along with the nature of the correction.

A correction may also be made if a participating author has been left off of the author list on the title page or a non-participating author included in the author list. This correction will be made only with the consent of all listed authors. In the event of this type of correction no correction notice will be posted.

Withdrawals requested by authors subsequent to publication will not be honored. In the event an author(s) requests a withdrawal it will be evaluated as either a retraction or correction and processed as specified above.

This policy is based on the COPE Retraction Guidelines. Decisions related to retractions, corrections, or withdrawals not directly addressed herein will be guided by those guidelines.

This retraction policy is effective beginning January, 2014. Retracted manuscripts published before this policy became effective may alternatively have the statement "The following manuscript has been retracted from publication:" added to the online volume table of contents before the manuscript title and author name.


Reviewer Comments:
Submitters are provided feedback on all papers returned for revise/resubmit or rejected. Feedback for accepted papers is provided upon request by the submitting author. Email editorial.staff@aabri.com

AABRI is continuously striving to improve the quality of its journals and conferences along with the level of service to our authors and potential authors. If you have any questions or comments regarding our procedures or policies, we encourage your feedback.
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Academic and Business Research Institute
P.O. Box 2235, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, 32004, USA
editorial.staff@aabri.com
Phone - (904)435-4330
Dr. Russell Baker, AABRI Executive Director