The Bank and Policy Journal is fully committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, integrity, and academic responsibility. As a proud member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), we follow COPE’s Core Practices, guidelines, and flowcharts to guide our policies and editorial processes.

---

General Principles

• All manuscripts must be original and unpublished. Submissions under review elsewhere will not be considered.

• Any substantial overlap with previously published work must be declared at submission. The editor may use the Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate) or equivalent software to verify originality.

• Authors must not submit articles on behalf of others, conceal their identities, or provide misleading personal details. Academic exaggeration (e.g., false academic titles or affiliations) is considered misconduct.

• Authors are strongly encouraged to register and provide an ORCID iD to ensure proper attribution.

---

Conflicts of Interest

• All authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest—financial, institutional, or personal—at the time of submission.

• Editors and reviewers must also declare any conflicts and recuse themselves from handling affected manuscripts.

---

Language and Integrity

• Manuscripts must not include defamatory language, slander, offensive expressions, discriminatory remarks, or unethical content.

• The journal does not tolerate hate speech, plagiarism, falsification, fabrication of data, or other forms of research misconduct.

---

Error Reporting

• Authors are obliged to promptly notify the editorial office if they discover errors or inaccuracies in their submitted or published work.

• The journal will publish corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern as appropriate, following COPE guidance.

---

Sanctions for Misconduct

• If an author is found to have committed serious violations of publication ethics, the journal reserves the right to reject the manuscript and embargo further submissions from that author for up to five years.

• Confirmed misconduct may also be reported to the author’s institution or relevant authorities.

---

Editorial Responsibilities

• The Editor-in-Chief makes final decisions on acceptance or rejection, based on scholarly merit and relevance, not on the authors’ race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, or political affiliation.

• The editorial office treats all manuscripts as confidential documents, sharing details only with those directly involved in the publication process.

• Manuscripts with potential conflicts of interest are reassigned to a different editorial board member to ensure impartial evaluation.

---

Responsibilities of Reviewers

The peer review process is central to maintaining academic quality. Reviewers are expected to:

• Provide objective, constructive, and timely evaluations of manuscripts.

• Treat all manuscripts as confidential and not use unpublished data for personal advantage.

• Avoid discrimination of any kind; manuscripts are judged solely on intellectual content.

• Alert the editor to any suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, or ethical concern.

• Decline review assignments where conflicts of interest exist.

Reviewer identities remain confidential, while authors receive constructive feedback in the form of reviewer reports.

---

Copyright and Permissions

• Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). Authors retain copyright while granting the journal non-exclusive rights to publish in both print and electronic formats.

• Authors may reuse their work without time limitations, provided that proper citation of the original publication in the Bank and Policy Journal is included.

• When reproducing third-party material, authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate permissions and licenses.

---

Reference and Citation Policy

• Authors must ensure accurate, complete, and relevant referencing in accordance with the journal’s guidelines.

• All citations to articles published in the Bank and Policy Journal must clearly acknowledge the journal title to support discoverability and citation integrity.

• Plagiarism and inappropriate citation practices are strictly prohibited and will be managed according to COPE procedures.

---

Conclusion

By adhering to this Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement, Bank and Policy ensures that all stakeholders—authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher—uphold the highest standards of academic integrity, human rights, and responsible scholarship.