Editorial Policies

Journal of Arts, Meaning and Public Life (JAMPL) is committed to maintaining high standards of editorial integrity, ethical publishing, originality, and scholarly responsibility. The journal’s editorial policies are guided by recognized principles of publication ethics, including the core standards promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). By submitting a manuscript to JAMPL, authors confirm that they have read and agreed to comply with the journal’s editorial policies and that all listed authors have approved the version submitted.

Contributions and Authorship

Each listed author must have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the work described in the manuscript, approved its claims, and agreed to be named as an author. All individuals who have made significant contributions should be appropriately credited. Changes in authorship after submission require the consent of all authors and must be justified to the journal.

Authors are expected to take public responsibility for the integrity of the work. While not every author may be responsible for every technical or interpretive detail, all authors should be confident that appropriate checks have been made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the manuscript as a whole.

Corresponding Author

The corresponding author is responsible for the submission of the manuscript and for communication with the editorial office throughout the review, production, and publication process. The corresponding author must ensure that all authors are properly listed, that all authors have approved the submission, and that all required declarations and corrections are handled appropriately.

Competing Interests

Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, personal, or professional relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the work reported in the manuscript. Reviewers and editors must likewise disclose any conflict of interest when asked to assess a submission.

Disclosure of a competing interest does not necessarily prevent publication or editorial participation, but it is essential for transparency. Where appropriate, a disclosure statement may be published with the article.

Financial Competing Interests: These may include grants, employment, consultancy, honoraria, paid expert testimony, or other financial relationships connected to the subject of the manuscript.

Personal or Professional Competing Interests: These may arise from relationships with family members, close collaborators, institutional colleagues, or academic competitors. Where such relationships may affect impartial judgment, the individual concerned must not participate in editorial assessment or peer review.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors must present their work honestly, acknowledge all relevant sources, disclose funding and competing interests, and ensure that the manuscript is original and not under consideration elsewhere. Authors are also responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any copyrighted material used in the manuscript.

Responsibilities of Editors and Reviewers

Editors and reviewers are expected to treat submissions confidentially, evaluate manuscripts fairly and professionally, and disclose any conflict of interest that may compromise impartiality. Where a conflict exists, the editor or reviewer must decline involvement in the manuscript.

Research of Concern

If a manuscript raises serious ethical, legal, reputational, or public-sensitivity concerns, the journal may undertake additional editorial review and, where necessary, seek further expert advice before a final decision is made.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

Authors should notify the editorial office if a published article requires correction. Minor errors that do not affect the overall meaning or conclusions of the work may be corrected through an erratum or corrigendum. More substantial concerns may require an expression of concern or retraction.

JAMPL may retract a published article where there is clear evidence of serious error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research practice, or other forms of misconduct. Retraction decisions are made in accordance with accepted editorial standards and publication ethics guidance.

Change of Name

JAMPL recognizes that authors may change their names for personal, professional, cultural, or legal reasons. Authors who wish to request a name change in a published article should contact the editorial office. The journal will consider such requests carefully and handle them in a timely, respectful, and confidential manner. Updated metadata may be communicated to relevant indexing and registration services, although the journal cannot control changes made by third-party platforms.

Image Integrity

Technical adjustment of images is permitted only where it improves clarity and does not alter the meaning or evidentiary value of the material. Acceptable adjustments may include limited changes to brightness, contrast, or color balance applied uniformly. Images must not be manipulated in ways that conceal, enhance, remove, or introduce content that could mislead readers. Where image adjustments have been made, authors may be asked to provide the original files.

License to Publish

By completing the journal’s submission process, authors grant JAMPL and its publisher a license to review, edit, produce, and publish the manuscript if it is accepted. This publishing right takes effect only if the manuscript is accepted for publication and does not limit any separate copyright or licensing arrangements stated in the journal’s publication policy.

Materials, Data, and Source Access

JAMPL supports transparency, accessibility, and responsible scholarly documentation. Where relevant, authors should make available the materials, data, sources, archives, transcripts, codes, instruments, or other supporting resources necessary to understand or evaluate the research. Where such materials cannot be shared openly, authors should provide a clear explanation, for example where legal, ethical, confidential, cultural, or archival restrictions apply.

Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to deposit supporting materials in reliable repositories and include a citation or link in the manuscript. If the work depends on custom code, digital tools, or specialized workflows, authors should provide sufficient information to allow readers to understand how these resources were used and, where possible, how they may be accessed.

Citation Guidelines

Authors submitting to JAMPL are required to ensure that all citations are accurate, relevant, and properly formatted. Every source cited in the text must appear in the reference list, and every reference listed must be cited in the text.

Reference List: Each entry should provide complete bibliographic details, including author(s), year of publication, title, source title, volume and issue where applicable, page range, and DOI or stable URL where available.

Electronic Sources: Online materials should include a DOI or stable URL. Authors must ensure that all links provided are functional and lead to the cited material.

Self-Citation: Self-citation is permitted where genuinely relevant, but it should be used sparingly and only where it contributes meaningfully to the manuscript.

Unpublished Work: References to unpublished work, manuscripts under review, or personal communications should be avoided where possible. Where essential, they should be clearly identified and used only with appropriate permission.

Attribution and Integrity: Authors must ensure that all citations fairly acknowledge the original source. Any misuse of quotation, paraphrase, or attribution is unacceptable.