Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation is dedicated to ensuring the content it publishes adheres to the highest ethical standards. Our editorial policies align with the guidance set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), an independent organization dedicated to promoting integrity in research and publication. COPE’s Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and its Core Practices form the framework around which the journal operates. While we strive for clarity in these policies, we recognize that we might fall short of that goal. Any questions or concerns related to our stated policies may be directed to our editorial board at eval-jmde@wmich.edu. 

The editorial board is committed to upholding the highest ethical standards in its work. In its policies, we set out general expectations for authors, editors, reviewers, and readers. The editorial board has the sole right to ethical oversight of JMDE. As such, it creates, reviews, and updates these policies as appropriate.

 

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Statement

We are mindful that many voices have been intentionally marginalized through the publishing process while others have been amplified. Our goal is to enable people to explore various roles in writing and publishing for a scholarly audience and achieve their desired role in scholarly writing and publishing.

 We acknowledge that de-traumatizing publishing is a journey that will require consistent effort over time. The following list identifies some major topics we prioritize:

•     Inclusive and bias-free language
•     Plain-language summaries or abstracts
•     Multilingualism
•     Decolonization
•     Including voices from across political views
•     Antiracism
•     Accessibility
•     Name-change policy
•     Self-examination for unknown biases in practices 

 JMDE reviews all manuscripts with an eye for the highest quality of research and writing, regardless of epistemological or ontological approach. In other words, we welcome submissions utilizing Indigenous methods and ways of knowing, non-Western approaches to understanding evidence, and other historically marginalized or oppressed approaches to inquiry. Please realize that this is a new space for JMDE to navigate, but we will learn from our experiences with a goal of improvement.

JMDE is committed to expanding access to its content and to the publication process. If an author should require accommodations at any point during the submission process, they may contact us at eval-jmde@wmich.edu.

 

Open Access Statement

JMDE provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Published manuscripts will be shared at jmde.com for global use.

 

Peer Review

Manuscripts submitted to the Articles, Case Studies, and Teaching Evaluation sections of JMDE are subject to double-anonymous (also called double-blind) peer review. (Prior to 2023, manuscripts submitted to the Case Studies and Teaching Evaluation sections were subject to peer review at the discretion of the section editor.) 

Each scholarly manuscript submitted to these sections is reviewed by at least two external scholars or practitioners with expertise related to the manuscript topic, who provide recommendations to the section editor for publication. Where useful, reviewers’ comments are made available to authors. If revisions are recommended, authors are strongly encouraged to revise the paper accordingly and note in detail, in a separate attachment, how each suggestion was addressed. 

Manuscripts submitted to the Reviews and Ideas to Consider sections are subject to single-anonymous review by at least two members of the editorial board prior to publication. 

Final decisions about all publications are made by the section editor and co-executive editors, with strong adherence to reviewers’ recommendations. For more information regarding peer review procedures, see the Submissions page.

 

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

 

Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies

Authorship and Contributorship. JMDE requires authorship to be extended to any individual or organization that provided a substantial contribution to the submitted work. All authors must agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work, both as performed and as presented. At a minimum, anyone substantively involved in the conceptualization, clarifying or honing in, designing, testing, analysis, interpretation, or writing (including editing and responding to reviewer comments) of a submission should receive authorship credit.

Authors may follow the conventions and expectations held in their discipline or field regarding authorship order, with the understanding that anyone considered an author by the above statement is appropriately credited. Author order should be based primarily on contribution to the work, not external factors, including relative status as a student, junior or senior faculty, or community partner. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) provides guidance on authorship issues on their website. As part of the submission process, all authors agree to the listed order of authors as submitted. This order may only be changed after submission with the written consent of all authors.

Acknowledgments. Colleagues who do not meet the requirements for authorship, but without whom the work would not have been possible, should be given appropriate credit in an acknowledgment. Acknowledgments should appear in a separate section at the end of the manuscript that identifies the individual(s) or organization(s) receiving acknowledgment and the nature of their contribution.

Corresponding author. Every submission must identify one corresponding author. The corresponding author is responsible for submitting the work for review, including ensuring that the authorship information, acknowledgments, funding, conflicts of interest, and other disclosures are complete and accurate. The corresponding author is the point of contact with the editorial team during the submission, review, and publication process. They are the main point of contact for all inquiries regarding the published work after publication. It is the corresponding author’s duty to remain in contact with all other authors regarding the submission/publication. Additionally, the corresponding author must retain all relevant data and other materials related to the work. The corresponding author designation may be changed prior to publication by contacting the section editor.

Author Rights. An author who publishes with JMDE may enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., to post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal via a properly formatted citation or short statement.

For example:

“Article Title” was published in *year* by Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation (JMDE). Explore other scholarship that contributes to the development of evaluation theory, methods, and practice at jmde.com.  

JMDE authors are permitted and encouraged to post about their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on personal websites) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

Intellectual Property. JMDE recognizes the intellectual property rights of all parties involved in research, including authors and participants. This recognition includes the recognition of traditional knowledge and Indigenous rights (https://localcontexts.org/) and the moral rights of creators. All content published in and by JMDE should adhere to these standards.

See more information about copyrights, licensing, traditional knowledge, and indigenous rights on the About the Journal page.

Originality. During the Section Editor’s initial review, each work submitted for publication will be checked for originality using plagiarism detection software. Plagiarism is the uncredited use of previously published material. Works containing substantial plagiarism will be returned to the author without being sent to reviewers. Additional actions will follow COPE guidance on dealing with plagiarism. This policy extends to unique cases of redundant or duplicate publication. JMDE editors will follow COPE guidance. Text recycling, also called self-plagiarism, is a particular case of using material written by an author for another purpose. JMDE editors will handle each instance of text recycling on a case-by-case basis, working with the author to resolve the concern following COPE guidance.

Data Sharing and Reproducibility. JMDE encourages public access to all materials and data used to draw conclusions in the published work. Though JMDE does not publish data, it will provide hyperlinks to data published in appropriate public repositories at the request of authors. Authors are solely responsible for any and all issues related to data sharing and reproducibility.

Regardless of whether the data are shared publicly, the corresponding author must retain all data related to the research performed and make it available upon request as appropriate, and in compliance with local legal requirements. As a best practice, JMDE advises ensuring all authors have access to all data.

Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts of interest, also called competing interests, arise when the objectivity of the research may be compromised by an external factor. Though often thought of solely in financial terms, conflicts of interest may be personal, professional, or organizational, or even result from the conduct of the research itself.

Authors, peer reviewers, and editors must disclose any conflicts of interest to the editors as soon as possible. For authors, this is at the time of submission. For peer reviewers and editors, this is upon discovery of a potential conflict of interest. Peer reviewers must notify the requesting editor of the potential conflict and wait for further guidance before continuing the review. Editors must notify the co-executive editors and wait for further guidance. 

In all cases, conflicts of interest will be addressed in accordance with COPE guidance. Conflicts of interest may require corrections to the scholarly record, ranging from adding an identification of the conflict of interest to the published work to retraction or removal of the published work.

Post-Publication Discussions. JMDE welcomes discussions about its published materials, including relevant, reasonable, supported critiques. Any reader may submit a critique of a published article to the editors via email at eval-jmde@wmich.edu. Please include the article title, authors, and DOI in your email to facilitate a speedy response. The editors will follow the guidance provided by COPE when reviewing critiques of published material.

Depending on their merit, critiques may be shared directly with authors, result in an amendment or other alteration to the published work, be published (with permission) as part of a point-counterpoint dialogue, or be rejected by the editors, among other possibilities. 

Allegations of Research Misconduct or Unethical Behavior. Any party who identifies or suspects a breach of ethical conduct or research misconduct related to any item published in JMDE should contact the co-executive editors immediately at eval-jmde@wmich.edu, whether they are a reader, author, editor, or peer reviewer, or have any other relationship to JMDE.

You will need to provide the following information in your allegation of research misconduct or breach of ethics:

1. Your contact information
2. DOI(s) related to the instance of misconduct
3. Identification of the misconduct
4. Documentation or other evidence of the misconduct
5. Requested action to resolve the matter

Complaints and Appeals. All complaints will be first reviewed by the co-executive editors. In the event that a complaint involves one or both co-executive editors, the associate editor(s) with the longest tenure with JMDE will review the complaint and assume all authority of the co-executive editor(s) with regard to the complaint and its resolution.

For minor infractions, the co-executive editors will assign either a section editor or an associate editor to research and resolve the issue with their oversight. For any major claim of research misconduct or other unethical behavior, the co-executive editors will establish a team of inquiry consisting of five people: one co-executive editor, two associate editors, one section editor, and one member of the evaluation community at large. The team will investigate the claim and provide a written response to the claimant describing the results of the investigation and the steps being taken as a result. Claims that fall outside the means or jurisdiction or the editors to investigate (e.g., data fabrication or theft) will be referred to the author’s institution with a request for investigation. 

In all investigations, evidence will be gathered in a manner that limits knowledge of the allegation beyond those who need to know. The identity of the claimant will be held in confidence, to the extent possible and as permissible by law. The accused party will be given notice of the accusation and provided the opportunity to respond to the allegation. If the allegation is found to be accurate, the severity of the breach will be assessed and the team of inquiry will make a recommendation to the co-executive editors for next steps. All investigations will be conducted in a reasonable amount of time. 

The claimant may file an appeal of the decision, which must include a reason why the claimant believes an appeal of the decision is justified. The co-executive editor not involved with the original investigation will assemble a second team of inquiry consisting of one co-executive editor, two associate editors, one section editor, and one member of the evaluation community at large, none of whom may have served on the original team of inquiry. The team will investigate the original claim as well as the original investigation and provide a written response to the claimant describing the results of the investigations and the steps being taken as a result. The team of inquiry for the appealed decisions are final and may not be appealed.

Consequences. If unethical behavior or research misconduct is confirmed, one of the following four notices to the scholarly record will be issued: correction, retraction, expression of concern, or removal. All notices issued will be permanently attached to the article(s) associated with the unethical behavior or research misconduct. Details about each of these four consequences are provided under Altering the Scholarly Record (found below).

The editorial board is authorized to make decisions to amend, correct, or retract published materials in cases of unethical research practices, including but not limited to copyright infringement, confirmed research misconduct, plagiarism, unauthorized use of data, compromised peer review processes, and authors’ failure to disclose competing interests. 

In addition to the correction, retraction, expression of concern, or removal, the editorial board reserves the right to inform the author’s or reviewer’s employer, funding agency, professional organization, licensing body, and/or regulatory agency of the misconduct and request a review and further action. The decision to contact an outside organization regarding the unethical behavior or research misconduct will match the severity of the misconduct.

Altering the Scholarly Record.JMDE is dedicated to the dissemination of ethical research and ensuring an accurate scholarly record. In order to achieve these goals, Authors may find it necessary to amend, correct, or retract previously published materials. Similarly the editorial board may also choose to amend, correct, retract, or remove published materials.

Materials published in JMDE are part of the scholarly record. In effort to maintain an accurate, complete, citable, and stable record, JMDE has developed the following policies based on STM’s guidelines regarding the preservation of the objective record of science and structured around the format and content used by Taylor & Francis. 

The published version, or “version of record” (VoR), includes the manuscript in its final form, as it is accepted for publication after peer review. This includes the abstract, text, references, bibliography, all accompanying tables, illustrations, data, and supplemental materials. The VoR is the final, citable, copyedited, typeset, metadata enriched version with an assigned DOI (digital object identifier). STM notes, “Articles that have been published should remain extant, exact, and unaltered to the maximum extent possible.”

However, there are valid reasons to add, change, or remove published materials. There are six types of alterations JMDE permits, all of which are permanently attached to the original article and appear under the same DOI. In order of least invasive to most invasive they are:

1. Addenda. This option is used to update or add key information. Nothing in an addendum can contradict the original publication or fix an error. Authors may request an addendum be added to the publication at any time by contacting the managing editor. Addenda are subject to peer review and editorial oversight. When possible, addenda will be reviewed by the same set of reviewers as the original publication.
2. Comments, responses, and rejoinder correspondence. A comment points out a brief observation about an article by a reader. Comments sent to the editorial board will be shared with the published article’s author(s), who will be asked to provide a response. Responses will be shared with the reader, who may reply with a rejoinder if so desired. Editors may reject any portion of the comment, response, or rejoinder correspondence.
3. Correction. This option is used to correct an error or omission in a published article. The error or omission cannot alter the integrity of the article, but may alter the interpretations of the article. Minor errors do not affect the readability or understandability of the article and may be resolved using a footnote detailing the correction to the reader. Major errors will be resolved using a correction notice attached to the original article. Examples of corrections include errors in the labels on figures, missing information about funding or conflict of interest, misspellings, or author name changes. Correction notices detail the nature of the correction in addition to making the details of the correction explicit.
   
4. Expression of concern.This tool is used when a team of inquiry’s investigation yields no definitive evidence of misconduct, or the complexity of the investigation delays the conclusion and summary judgment beyond a reasonable time frame. In the latter case, a correction or retraction notice may be issued after the expression of concern. An expression of concern notes that serious issues related to the interpretation of the research or the conduct of the research have been raised but conclusive evidence has not been discovered. It also cautions the reader from using or relying on the conclusions presented. Expressions of concern are separate notices attached to the original article permanently.
5. Retraction. This option is reserved for situations where major errors in the publication alter or invalidate the conclusions reached, or instances of research misconduct or publication misconduct. Errors of this severity are usually in the Method or Analysis section. Examples of research misconduct include fabricating data and issues with institutional reviews or other ethical approvals. Examples of publication misconduct include manipulating images, plagiarism, and duplicate publication. Retractions can only occur after a team of inquiry makes a decision regarding an allegation (see above). The decision to issue a retraction will be made by the co-executive editors in accordance with COPE guidance. Authors and institutions may request a retraction if the reason for the request aligns with COPE guidance on retractions and sufficient evidence of the misconduct is provided to JMDE. Retraction notices are separate from the publication and are issued under the title “Retraction: [article title].” Retraction notices are permanently linked to the article addressed.
6. Removal.This option is reserved for only the most egregious errors. Examples include violations of the privacy of study participants, defamation or infringement of legal rights, information in the published article that poses a serious risk if followed, or a court order requiring the removal of an article. Removal notices are rare and identify the reason for removal. The offending publication, all links to it, the associated metadata, and other parts of the version of record will be removed from the JMDE public website, and the removal notice will appear in place of the original article.