Research and Publication Ethics

The Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology (JWMAP), owned, managed, and published by KODISA Foundation, is committed to maintaining high standards of research integrity, publication ethics, scientific transparency, confidentiality, accountability, and editorial independence.

JWMAP publishes research within the broad field of Environmental, Occupational, and Human Wellbeing Sciences and applies ethical principles appropriate to the diverse forms of research represented within this scope.

The journal follows internationally recognized principles of responsible scholarly publishing, including relevant guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and applies appropriate ethical procedures throughout manuscript submission, peer review, editorial decision-making, publication, correction, retraction, and post-publication review.

All authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and persons involved in the publication process are expected to comply with the ethical requirements described below.

1. Author Responsibilities

1.1 Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts represent original scholarly work.

The words, ideas, methods, data, images, results, or other intellectual contributions of others must be appropriately cited and acknowledged.

The following practices are not permitted:

• plagiarism;
• inappropriate paraphrasing without attribution;
• copying substantial portions of previously published material without proper citation or permission;
• presenting another person's work as one's own;
• unauthorized use of unpublished work;
• inappropriate reuse of the authors' own previously published material;
• duplicate or redundant publication; and
• other forms of misrepresentation of scholarly originality.

JWMAP may use iThenticate, Crossref Similarity Check, KCI Similarity Check, or another appropriate similarity-screening system, where available.

Similarity scores are considered as supplementary information and are not, by themselves, evidence of plagiarism.

When significant text overlap or other originality concerns are identified, the journal may request clarification, require revision, reject the manuscript, or initiate an ethics review.

1.2 Data Accuracy, Research Integrity, and Transparency

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, integrity, reliability, and appropriate interpretation of all data and results reported in their manuscript.

Authors must not:

• fabricate data or research participants;
• falsify measurements or results;
• manipulate data in a misleading manner;
• selectively omit results in order to create a misleading interpretation;
• misrepresent statistical or qualitative findings;
• fabricate figures, images, tables, or other research outputs; or
• conceal material methodological limitations.

Research procedures, analytical methods, and relevant methodological decisions should be reported with sufficient transparency to permit appropriate scholarly evaluation.

Where appropriate, authors should retain original data, analytical records, code, images, laboratory records, survey instruments, interview materials, or other relevant research documentation.

The Editor or Editorial Board may request supporting materials when reasonably necessary to verify the integrity, reliability, or reproducibility of the reported research.

1.3 Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants, identifiable human information, behavioral data, health information, physiological measurements, workplace participants, interviews, surveys, experiments, or other human-subject research must comply with applicable institutional, national, and ethical requirements.

Where applicable, authors must provide information concerning:

• Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent ethics committee approval;
• approval number and date;
• exemption from ethics review, where applicable;
• informed consent;
• protection of privacy and confidentiality; and
• procedures for protecting vulnerable participants.

Informed consent must be obtained where required by applicable ethical or institutional standards.

Personally identifiable information must not be published unless its publication is scientifically justified, ethically permitted, and supported by appropriate consent.

1.4 Research Involving Animals or Biological Materials

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and internationally recognized standards for animal welfare.

Where applicable, authors must report approval by an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent body.

Research involving human biological materials, specimens, biosamples, or other biological resources must comply with applicable ethical approval, consent, biosafety, and data-protection requirements.

Relevant approvals or exemptions must be stated in the manuscript where applicable.

1.5 Environmental, Occupational, and Field Research Ethics

Research involving occupational environments, workplaces, environmental exposures, community populations, environmental monitoring, wearable technologies, sensors, or field-based data collection must be conducted in accordance with applicable ethical, privacy, safety, institutional, and legal requirements.

Researchers should take appropriate measures to protect:

• participants and workers;
• confidential workplace information;
• environmental and occupational data;
• personal or physiological data;
• proprietary organizational information; and
• other sensitive research information.

Research activities must not unnecessarily expose participants, workers, researchers, communities, or the environment to avoidable risk.

1.6 Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose financial, personal, institutional, professional, commercial, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived to influence the research or its interpretation.

Potential conflicts may include:

• research funding;
• employment;
• consulting relationships;
• honoraria;
• stock ownership;
• patents or intellectual property;
• commercial relationships;
• personal relationships; and
• editorial roles.

The existence of a conflict of interest does not automatically prevent publication, but it must be transparently disclosed.

Authors must also disclose all relevant sources of research funding and material support.

1.7 Authorship and Contributor Responsibilities

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work and who are able to take responsibility for the content of the manuscript.

Authors should have contributed substantially to one or more relevant areas, such as:

• conceptualization;
• study design;
• methodology;
• investigation;
• data collection;
• data analysis;
• interpretation;
• software or computational work;
• drafting;
• substantive revision; or
• supervision of the research.

All listed authors must:

• approve the submitted manuscript;
• approve the final version;
• agree to its submission and publication; and
• accept appropriate responsibility for the integrity of the work.

JWMAP may request an Author Contributions Statement, including contribution descriptions consistent with the CRediT contributor taxonomy where appropriate.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.

1.8 Changes in Authorship

Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be accompanied by:

• a clear explanation for the requested change;
• confirmation of the contribution of each affected author; and
• written agreement from all authors, including any author being added or removed.

Authorship changes after acceptance are permitted only in exceptional and adequately justified circumstances and may require additional editorial review.

Unauthorized authorship changes may result in suspension or rejection of the manuscript.

1.9 Authorship Involving Special Personal Relationships

Where authors have close personal or family relationships, or where questions may reasonably arise concerning whether an individual satisfies authorship criteria, all authorship requirements apply without exception.

Age, family relationship, institutional status, seniority, or personal relationship alone does not qualify an individual for authorship.

JWMAP may request documentation concerning individual contributions where there is reasonable concern regarding:

• gift authorship;
• honorary authorship;
• guest authorship;
• ghost authorship; or
• other inappropriate attribution of authorship.

Confirmed inappropriate authorship may result in correction, rejection, retraction, notification of relevant institutions, or other appropriate editorial action.

1.10 Multiple Submission and Redundant Publication

Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to JWMAP and another journal.

A manuscript that is under consideration elsewhere must not be submitted to JWMAP.

Authors must disclose previous publication, conference publication, preprints, reports, theses, working papers, or related manuscripts when they may overlap substantially with the submitted work.

Substantial reuse of previously published data, text, analyses, figures, or conclusions must be appropriately disclosed and justified.

Duplicate or redundant publication without appropriate disclosure is not permitted.

2. Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

2.1 General Principle

The use of generative artificial intelligence must comply with the separate JWMAP Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies Policy.

Generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the integrity, originality, accuracy, ethics, or final approval of scholarly work.

Human authors remain fully responsible for all submitted material.

2.2 AI Use in Manuscript Preparation

Authors may use generative AI for permitted supporting purposes such as language editing, translation, readability improvement, or other activities allowed under the journal's AI policy.

Material use of generative AI must be disclosed where required.

Authors must independently verify:

• factual statements;
• citations;
• references;
• interpretations;
• numerical information;
• analytical outputs; and
• other AI-assisted content.

Fabricated references, invented evidence, false claims, or unverified AI-generated scholarly content are not acceptable.

2.3 AI and Machine Learning as Research Methodology

The use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, predictive modeling, wearable-data analysis, sensor-data analysis, and related computational approaches is permitted when scientifically appropriate.

When these methods form part of the research methodology, they must be reported transparently in the Research Methods section.

Authors should provide, where relevant:

• model or algorithm;
• software and version;
• source of data;
• preprocessing procedures;
• training and testing procedures;
• validation methods;
• performance measures;
• relevant parameters; and
• procedures used to assess bias, reliability, or reproducibility.

The legitimate use of AI as a scientific research method must be distinguished from the inappropriate use of generative AI to fabricate data, evidence, analyses, or research findings.

2.4 AI Disclosure

Where disclosure is required, authors should include a statement under:

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

The disclosure should identify the AI tool, its purpose, the extent of its use, and the authors' verification and responsibility.

The specific requirements are governed by the journal's current Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies Policy.

3. Data Availability and Reproducibility

Authors should provide an appropriate Data Availability Statement where applicable.

Data may be:

• deposited in a public repository;
• available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request;
• subject to restricted access;
• unavailable for ethical, privacy, proprietary, or legal reasons; or
• not applicable where no new dataset was created or analyzed.

Authors must not publicly disclose data when doing so would violate:

• participant confidentiality;
• informed consent;
• ethics approval;
• privacy law;
• contractual restrictions;
• intellectual property rights; or
• legitimate institutional restrictions.

Where code, algorithms, protocols, questionnaires, or supplementary materials are central to reproducibility, authors are encouraged to make them available where ethically and legally appropriate.

4. Citation and Reference Integrity

Authors are responsible for ensuring that citations and references are accurate, relevant, and appropriately used.

Authors must verify that:

• cited works exist;
• bibliographic information is accurate;
• cited sources support the statements for which they are referenced;
• references cited in the text appear in the reference list;
• references in the reference list are appropriately cited in the manuscript; and
• citations have not been included solely to manipulate citation indicators.

Fabricated, nonexistent, misattributed, or materially inaccurate citations may result in editorial investigation.

5. Reviewer Responsibilities

5.1 Confidentiality

Reviewers must treat submitted manuscripts and all associated review materials as confidential.

They must not disclose, distribute, discuss, retain, or use unpublished manuscript information outside the authorized peer-review process.

5.2 Independent and Constructive Review

Reviewers should provide independent, evidence-based, professional, and constructive assessments.

Reviews should focus on matters such as:

• scientific quality;
• research design;
• methodological rigor;
• analysis;
• interpretation;
• originality;
• ethical compliance;
• presentation; and
• relevance to JWMAP.

Personal criticism, discriminatory comments, or irrelevant judgments concerning authors are inappropriate.

5.3 Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers must disclose any relationship or circumstance that could affect, or reasonably appear to affect, their impartiality.

Potential conflicts may arise from:

• recent collaboration;
• professional competition;
• personal relationships;
• financial relationships;
• institutional relationships; or
• other relevant circumstances.

Where an appropriate independent review cannot be provided, the reviewer should decline the invitation.

5.4 Unpublished Information

Reviewers must not use unpublished information obtained through peer review for:

• their own research advantage;
• personal benefit;
• competitive advantage;
• financial benefit; or
• the benefit of another person or organization.

5.5 Generative AI and Peer Review

Reviewers must comply with JWMAP's Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies Policy.

Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, manuscript excerpts, figures, tables, supplementary materials, unpublished data, author information, or other confidential review material to external generative AI systems.

Generative AI must not replace the reviewer's own scholarly judgment.

Reviewers must not delegate substantive manuscript assessment or peer-review decisions to generative AI.

Limited language polishing of independently written review comments may be permitted only where no confidential information is provided to an external AI system.

Reviewers remain fully responsible for their reviews.

5.6 Promptness

Reviewers should complete reviews within the agreed period.

If a reviewer cannot complete the review within the requested time or lacks appropriate expertise, the reviewer should inform the Editorial Office promptly.

6. Editor Responsibilities

6.1 Editorial Independence

Editors must make editorial decisions based on:

• relevance to the Aims and Scope;
• academic and scientific merit;
• originality;
• methodological quality;
• research integrity;
• ethical compliance;
• transparency; and
• contribution to the field.

Editorial decisions must not be influenced by commercial pressure or irrelevant personal characteristics.

6.2 Fairness and Non-Discrimination

Manuscripts must be evaluated without discrimination based on characteristics unrelated to scholarly merit, including race, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, sex or gender, religion, institutional affiliation, financial status, political belief, or other irrelevant personal characteristics.

6.3 Confidentiality

Editors must protect the confidentiality of:

• submitted manuscripts;
• unpublished results;
• author information;
• reviewer identities;
• reviewer reports;
• editorial correspondence; and
• editorial deliberations.

6.4 Conflicts of Interest

Editors must not handle manuscripts when they have a conflict of interest that could compromise independent editorial judgment.

In such circumstances, the manuscript should be assigned to another appropriately qualified editor.

6.5 Generative AI and Editorial Work

Editors must comply with the journal's Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies Policy.

Confidential manuscripts, reviewer reports, unpublished data, author information, or editorial deliberations must not be uploaded to unauthorized external generative AI systems.

Generative AI must not make or replace editorial decisions.

Editors remain fully responsible for all editorial judgments and communications.

6.6 Ethical Oversight

Editors should respond appropriately to credible concerns involving:

• plagiarism;
• duplicate submission;
• redundant publication;
• data fabrication;
• data falsification;
• image manipulation;
• inappropriate authorship;
• undisclosed conflicts of interest;
• citation manipulation;
• peer-review manipulation;
• inappropriate generative AI use;
• ethics approval concerns;
• participant privacy violations; and
• other forms of research or publication misconduct.

The journal may request relevant supporting information and may apply appropriate COPE guidance when investigating such concerns.

7. Double-Blind Peer Review and Confidentiality

JWMAP operates a double-blind peer-review process.

During external peer review, the identities of authors and reviewers are normally concealed from each other.

For initial peer-review submission, authors should provide:

1. a Title Page containing author names, affiliations, corresponding-author information, and other identifying information; and
2. a Blinded Main Manuscript without author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, or other information that would unnecessarily reveal author identity.

Where self-citations are necessary, authors should avoid unnecessary wording that directly identifies themselves while preserving the scholarly meaning of the citation.

After acceptance, author information and acknowledgements are restored for production and final publication.

Manuscripts that pass initial editorial screening are normally evaluated by at least two independent expert reviewers.

Reviewer recommendations are advisory.

The final decision concerning acceptance, revision, or rejection is made by the Editor-in-Chief or an authorized editor in accordance with JWMAP editorial policy.

8. Citation Manipulation and Self-Citation

JWMAP does not permit coercive citation or citation manipulation.

Authors, reviewers, and editors must not request citations primarily for the purpose of artificially increasing:

• citations to the journal;
• citations to an editor;
• citations to a reviewer;
• citations to an author; or
• citation-based metrics.

Self-citation is acceptable when it is academically relevant and necessary to the research.

Excessive, irrelevant, or strategically manipulated self-citation may result in a request for revision or other editorial action.

9. Copyright and Open Access

JWMAP is an open-access journal.

Unless otherwise stated in the applicable publication agreement, authors retain copyright in their published articles and grant JWMAP and KODISA Foundation the right to publish, distribute, preserve, archive, register metadata for, and make the published work publicly accessible.

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) unless another license is explicitly stated.

Under CC BY-NC 4.0, users may share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given to the original authors and source and applicable license conditions are followed.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted third-party materials where permission is required.

10. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, Retractions, and Withdrawal

JWMAP is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record.

When significant errors, ethical concerns, or publication misconduct are identified before or after publication, the journal may take appropriate action.

Depending on the circumstances, this may include:

• correction;
• addendum;
• editorial notice;
• expression of concern;
• retraction;
• withdrawal; or
• other appropriate measures.

Retraction may be considered where published findings are unreliable because of fabrication, falsification, serious methodological error, plagiarism, unethical research, duplicate publication, or other serious circumstances affecting the reliability or integrity of the article.

Post-publication actions should be proportionate to the evidence and seriousness of the issue.

11. Investigation of Research or Publication Misconduct

When credible concerns arise, JWMAP may request:

• explanations from authors;
• original or source data;
• analytical files;
• computer code;
• original images;
• ethics approval documentation;
• informed-consent documentation;
• authorship contribution records;
• citation-source verification;
• AI-use information;
• or other relevant materials.

An allegation alone does not establish misconduct.

Editorial actions should be based on available evidence and appropriate investigation.

In serious cases, JWMAP may communicate with the authors' institution, ethics committee, funding body, or another relevant authority when appropriate.

12. Appeals and Complaints

Authors may raise a reasoned appeal concerning an editorial decision when they believe that a material factual, procedural, methodological, or ethical issue has been overlooked.

An appeal should identify the specific basis for reconsideration and should not merely express disagreement with reviewer recommendations.

Where appropriate, an appeal may be evaluated by an editor who was not directly responsible for the original decision.

Complaints relating to editorial procedure, peer review, ethics, or publication conduct may be submitted to the Editorial Contact.

Appeals and complaints do not guarantee reversal of an editorial decision.

13. Publisher Responsibilities

KODISA Foundation, as the owner, manager, and publisher of JWMAP, supports the editorial independence of the journal.

The publisher supports:

• maintenance of publication infrastructure;
• preservation of the scholarly record;
• implementation of research and publication ethics policies;
• appropriate metadata and DOI management;
• digital preservation and access;
• editorial independence;
• correction and retraction procedures; and
• investigation of serious ethical concerns where appropriate.

Editorial decisions regarding individual manuscripts are based on scholarly and ethical considerations and remain the responsibility of the authorized editorial team.

14. Relationship with Other JWMAP Policies

This policy should be read together with the current JWMAP:

• Aims and Scope
• Instructions for Authors
• Manuscript Template
• Submission, Review, Acceptance, Production, Publication, and Indexing Process
• Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies Policy
• Authorship and Contributor requirements
• Data Availability requirements
• Conflict of Interest requirements
• Peer Review and Confidentiality requirements
• Correction and Retraction procedures

Where a specialized JWMAP policy provides more detailed requirements, that policy should be followed together with the principles stated here.

15. Editorial Contact

Questions concerning research ethics, publication ethics, authorship, peer review, generative AI use, corrections, retractions, appeals, complaints, or individual cases may be directed to:

Professor Woo-Taeg KWON
Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology (JWMAP)
KODISA Foundation
Email: awtkw@eulji.ac.kr