Publication ethics

Inventive International Publishers follows the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for its books, edited volumes and the International Journal of Legal Research and Development. This page sets out what we expect of authors, editors and reviewers, and what we do when something goes wrong.

Authors

• Originality. Work must be original and not published or under review elsewhere. Every submission is checked for similarity. For the journal, similarity must be below 15%, excluding references.
• Authorship. Everyone listed as an author must have contributed substantially to the work and agreed to its submission. People who helped in other ways belong in the acknowledgements.
• Citation. Sources must be cited accurately. Copying, close paraphrase without citation and self-plagiarism are not acceptable.
• Artificial intelligence. AI tools may help with language, but their use must be disclosed, and they cannot be listed as authors. Authors remain responsible for every word.
• Conflicts of interest. Authors must disclose any financial or personal interest that could affect the work.

Editors and reviewers

• Decisions are made on the merit of the work alone. Payment never decides acceptance.
• Submissions are confidential. Reviewers must not use or share what they read.
• Editors and reviewers step aside from any submission where they have a conflict of interest.

Corrections and retractions

If an error is found after publication, we publish a correction. If a work is found to be plagiarised, fabricated or seriously flawed, we retract it, keep a notice of retraction in its place, and inform any indexing service that holds its record.

Complaints

Concerns about a publication or about our conduct can be sent to [email]. We look into every complaint and reply with what we found and what we did.