PUBLICATION ETHICS

Manthano: Journal of Christian Education is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics across all stages of the editorial process. The journal follows the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and expects all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, and editors, to adhere to these standards.

Duties of Authors

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts represent original work that has not been previously published and is not under simultaneous consideration by any other journal. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time constitutes duplicate submission and is not permitted. Authors must accurately represent the methods, data, and findings of their research. Fabrication, falsification, or selective reporting of data are considered forms of research misconduct and will result in rejection or retraction of the manuscript.

All individuals who meet the criteria for authorship must be listed as authors. Authorship criteria require a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; drafting or critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content; approving the final version for publication; and agreeing to be accountable for all aspects of the work. Individuals who contributed to the research but do not meet all four criteria must be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section rather than listed as authors. Ghost authorship, gift authorship, and the inclusion of individuals who did not contribute to the work are prohibited.

Authors must disclose all sources of funding, any competing financial or personal interests, and any prior dissemination of the work in the form of a conference presentation, preprint, or thesis. Any use of AI-assisted technologies during research or manuscript preparation must be disclosed in the Acknowledgements. AI tools may not be listed as authors.

All research involving human participants must have received ethics approval from a recognised Institutional Review Board or ethics committee prior to the conduct of the study. Authors must provide the name of the ethics committee, the approval number, the type of informed consent obtained, and confirmation that the study was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

Duties of Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, and timely assessments of manuscripts assigned to them. Reviews must be based solely on the scholarly merit of the work, without regard to the authors' nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, or any other personal characteristic. Reviewers must maintain strict confidentiality regarding the content of manuscripts under review and must not use unpublished information disclosed in a manuscript for their own research purposes.

Reviewers who identify a conflict of interest with a submitted manuscript, whether due to personal, professional, financial, or intellectual ties with the authors or the subject matter, must declare this to the editorial office and decline the review assignment. Reviewers are expected to alert the editor to any substantial similarity between the manuscript under review and any other published or submitted work of which they are aware.

Duties of Editors

The editorial board is responsible for ensuring a fair, impartial, and timely review process for all submitted manuscripts. Editorial decisions are based solely on the scholarly quality, originality, and relevance of the manuscript to the journal's scope, without regard to the authors' identity, institutional affiliation, or any other non-academic consideration. Editors must maintain the confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts and reviewer identities throughout the double-blind review process.

Editors must declare and manage any conflict of interest arising from a submitted manuscript. Where an editor has a personal or professional relationship with the authors, the manuscript will be assigned to another member of the editorial board. Editors are responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct, including plagiarism, duplicate submission, data fabrication, and authorship disputes, and for taking appropriate action in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Plagiarism

Manthano uses similarity detection software to screen all submitted manuscripts. A similarity index of more than 20 percent, excluding the reference list, is considered unacceptable and will result in the manuscript being returned to the authors without review. Self-plagiarism, including the reproduction of substantial portions of the authors' own previously published work without proper attribution, is treated with the same seriousness as plagiarism of others' work.

Corrections and Retractions

Where a published article is found to contain significant errors that affect the interpretation of the findings, the journal will publish a correction notice. Where an article is found to have been published in violation of publication ethics, including fabrication of data, duplicate publication, or undisclosed conflicts of interest, the journal reserves the right to retract the article. Retraction notices will be published and linked to the original article in accordance with COPE retraction guidelines.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision or raise a concern regarding the review process may contact the editorial office in writing. All complaints will be handled promptly, confidentially, and in accordance with COPE guidelines for handling complaints and appeals.