Publication Ethics

Focus Journal Law Review is committed to uphold the highest standards of publication ethics to ensure the integrity, transparency, and reliability of the scientific record guided by the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices.

1. Article assessment

All manuscripts are subject to peer review and are expected to meet standards of academic excellence. If approved by the editor, submissions will be considered by peer reviewers, whose identities will remain anonymous to the authors.

Our team will occasionally seek advice outside standard peer review, for example, on submissions with serious ethical, security, biosecurity, or societal implications. We may consult experts and the academic editor before deciding on appropriate actions, including but not limited to recruiting reviewers with specific expertise, assessment by additional editors, and declining to further consider a submission.

2. Plagiarism

Authors must not use the words, figures, or ideas of others without attribution. All sources must be cited at the point they are used, and reuse of wording must be limited and be attributed or quoted in the text.

Manuscripts that are found to have been plagiarized from a manuscript by other authors, whether published or unpublished, will be rejected and the authors may incur sanctions. Any published articles may need to be corrected or retracted.

See our Plagiarism Policy here

3. Allegations of Misconduct

We take all allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously, whether they occur pre- or post-publication. Misconduct includes, but is not limited to, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and inappropriate image manipulation. When an allegation of misconduct is raised, we will investigate and take appropriate action, which may include retraction or correction of the affected publication.

4. Authorship and acknowledgments

All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript, approved its claims, and agreed to be an author. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution.

Submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be considered.

5. Corrections and retractions

When errors are identified in published articles, the publisher will consider what action is required and may consult the editors and the authors’ institution(s).

If there are errors that significantly affect the conclusions or there is evidence of misconduct, this may require retraction or an expression of concern following the Guidelines.

All authors will be asked to agree to the content of the notice.

An author name change after publication will be made to the article and any citing articles published without requiring documentation, a corrigendum notice, or informing any other authors, following a request to the journal.

6. Complaints and Appeals Process

When author made a complaint to this journal, it must be passed to the journal Editor, who must then inform the publisher. Author can submit their complaint and appeals to our journal Contact. Appeals are considered by the members of the editorial team. After your case is discussed, a member of the Editorial Board will contact you with the result of your appeal.

7. Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections

Where post-publication corrections or retractions need to be made, or if an article is to be removed, these will be accompanied by a correction or retraction notice to indicate the incorrect elements of the article and the extent of the corrections made, or the basis for the article’s retraction or removal.

Correction notices are issued to address relatively minor errors in the article’s content or changes that have been made to the article’s metadata. To avoid multiple versions of the same article being circulated, these corrections are strictly limited to, for example, errors of spelling and phrasing that affect meaning, data errors, or mis-citations. These changes are outlined in the corrections notice and the original article must be clearly linked to this notice. Corrections are usually made within a short time period after publication (typically within 7 working days).

Retraction notices are issued for major issues affecting the argument or substantive content of an article that a correction would otherwise not fix. When a retraction is made a retraction notice will be issued, linking to the original article, which states very clearly and exactly which part(s) of the article are incorrect or unreliable, and therefore the basis for the retraction. A ‘Publisher’s Announcment’ will be added to the original article linking readers to the retraction notice.

Removals are only to be made in rare circumstances, where not doing so would infringe copyright or cause harm. In the case of an article’s removal, the contents of the article will be removed from circulation. It will not be downloadable as a file or displayed on the article's webpage. A notice of retraction will be issued in the same manner as a standard retraction notice, and it will include the reason(s) for the article’s removal. The original article’s metadata will remain, linked to the retraction notice.

8. Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests

A potential conflict of interest may arise from relationships, allegiances or hostilities to particular groups, organizations or interests, which may influence one’s judgments or actions excessively. The issue is particularly sensitive when such interests are private and/or may result in personal gain.

All manuscripts submitted to Focus Journal Law Review are evaluated fairly.

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest at the earliest possible stage, preferably upon submission of the manuscript or before the review process.

If a potential conflict of interest is disclosed or identified, the editorial team will assess the nature of the conflict and decide on the appropriate course of action, which may include involving additional editors or reviewers, disclosing the conflict to readers, or, in severe cases, rejecting a submission or retracting a publication.

Conflicts of interest identified after publication will be investigated. Corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern will be published as needed.

9. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

Focus Journal Law Review committed to a more open research landscape and facilitating access to research by enabling reproducibility. We encourages authors of articles published in our journals to share their research data where relevant, including, but not limited to, raw data, processed data, software, algorithms, protocols, methods, and materials.

10. Intellectual Property

Full details are available on the ‘Copyright and License’ section here

11. Ethical Oversight

Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, the studies must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee and the authors should include a statement within the article text detailing this approval, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number of the approval. Authors are expected to follow their institutional policies for research ethics. For most research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or guardian in the case of children under 16). Peer reviewers are asked to comment on any ethical problems perceived within submissions.