Publication Ethics and Policy

The Journal of Anti Money Laundering and Countering The Financing of Terrorism (AML CFT Journal) publishes peer-reviewed articles on focus and Scope. The following statements describe ethical behavior of all parties involved in the act of publishing an article for AML CFT Journal, i.e.: the author, the Editor, the peer reviewer and the publisher

DUTIES OF EDITORS

Decision on the Publication of Articles, the Editor in Chief of AML CFT Journal is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The Editor in Chief is guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and subjected to such legal requirements regarding copyright and plagiarism. The Editor in Chief may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this final decision.

Fair play, Manuscripts shall be evaluated solely on their intellectual merit without regard to author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, or citizenship.

Confidentiality, the Editor in Chief and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest, unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by anyone who has a view of the manuscript (while handling it) in his or her own research without the express written consent of the author.

DUTIES OF REVIEWERS

Contribution to editorial decisions, peer review assists the Editor in Chief and the editorial board in making editorial decisions while editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.

Promptness, any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the assigned manuscript or unable to provide a prompt review should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

Confidentiality, manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to, or discussed with, others except as authorized by the Editor in Chief. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Standards of Objectivity, reviews should be conducted objectively. There shall be no personal criticism of the author. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Sources, reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that had been previously reported elsewhere should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the Editor in Chief/Editorial Board member's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest, reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

DUTIES OF AUTHORS

Reporting standards, authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work.

Data Access and Retention, authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review and should be prepared to provide public access to such, if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and Plagiarism, authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others this must be appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple and Concurrent Publications, an author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of Sources, proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of the Paper, authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest, all authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works, when an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

 

Retraction & Correction Policy

It is acknowledged that the authors have invested considerable effort in preparing their manuscripts for publication. Peer review processes have been carried out in accordance with the relevant standards. However, it should be noted that there is a possibility that published articles may be withdrawn or deleted for scientific reasons. Such action should not be taken lightly and can only occur under exceptional circumstances. In such instances, corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies will be carried out in accordance with the highest standards to maintain confidence in the authority of the electronic archives. It is our commitment and policy to maintain the integrity and completeness of important scientific records for researchers and librarians' archives.

Article Retraction

AML/CFT Journal: The Journal of Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing Terrorism is committed to playing its part in maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record; therefore, on occasion, it is necessary to retract articles. Articles may be retracted if:

  • A significant scientific error could invalidate the article's conclusions. For instance, if there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either due to misconduct (e.g., data fabrication) or honest error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error), the article's conclusions would be rendered invalid.
  • The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission, or justification (i.e., cases of redundant publication).
  • There are ethical issues such as plagiarism (appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit, including those obtained through confidential review of others' manuscripts) or inappropriate authorship.
  • In order to guarantee that retractions are conducted in accordance with the highest standards of publication practice and in compliance with the COPE retraction guidelines, the AML/CFT Journal: The Journal of Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing Terrorism has established the following retraction process:
    • An article requiring potential retraction is brought to the journal editor's attention.
    • The journal editor should follow the step-by-step guidelines according to the COPE flowcharts (including evaluating a response from the author of the article in question).
    • Before any action is taken, the editor's findings should be sent to the Ethics Advisory Board. The purpose of this step is to ensure a consistent approach in accordance with industry best practices.
    • The final decision as to whether to retract is then communicated to the author and, if necessary, any other relevant bodies, such as the author's institution on occasion.
    • The retraction statement is then posted online and published in the next available issue of the journal (see below for more details of this step).

Note that if authors retain the copyright for an article, this does not mean they automatically have the right to retract it after publication. The integrity of the published scientific record is of paramount importance, and COPE’s Retraction Guidelines still apply in such cases.

Article Correction

It might be advisable for the AML/CFT Journal: The Journal of Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing Terrorism to consider issuing a correction if:

  • A small part of an otherwise reliable publication reports flawed data or proves to be misleading, especially if this is the result of honest error.
  • The Author or Contributor list is incorrect (e.g., a deserving author has been omitted or someone who does not meet authorship criteria has been included).

Corrections to peer-reviewed content fall into one of three categories:

  • Publisher correction (erratum): to notify readers of a critical error made by publishing/journal staff (usually a production error) that has a negative impact on the publication record or the scientific integrity of the article, or on the reputation of the Authors or the journal.
  • Author correction (corrigendum): to notify readers of an important error made by the Authors, which negatively impacts the publication record or the scientific integrity of the article or the reputation of the Authors or the journal.
  • Addendum: an addition to the article by its Authors to explain inconsistencies, to expand the existing work, or otherwise explain or update the information in the main work.

The decision of whether a correction should be issued is made by the Editor(s) of a journal, sometimes with advice from Reviewers or Editorial Board members. Handling Editors will contact the Authors of the paper concerned with a request for clarification, but the final decision about whether a correction is required and which type rests with the Editors.

 Article Removal

In an extremely limited number of cases, it may be necessary to remove a published article from our online platform. This will only happen if an article is clearly defamatory, or infringes others’ legal rights, or where the article is, or we have good reason to expect that it will be, the subject of a court order, or where the article if acted upon, may pose a serious health risk. In such circumstances, while the article's metadata (i.e., title and author information) will be retained, the text will be replaced with a screen indicating that the article has been removed for legal reasons.

 Article Replacement

In instances where an article, if acted upon, may pose a significant health risk, the authors of the original paper may opt to retract the flawed original and replace it with a revised version. In such cases, the aforementioned procedures for retraction will be followed, with the exception that the article retraction notice will include a link to the revised republished article, along with a history of the document.