Ethical Guidelines for Publisher, Editors, Reviewers, and Authors (Based on Elsevier).

Publishing an article in a peer-reviewed academic journal fulfills numerous purposes beyond mere communication. It is an essential part of building a well-constructed and respected knowledge network. It functions as preliminary proof of the caliber and significance of the writers' research as well as the caliber of the organizations that fund it. Moreover, it exemplifies and upholds the principles of the scientific method. For these reasons and more, it is crucial to establish standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the publishing process: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, the publisher, and the scholarly community. This includes ensuring that there is no discrimination, harassment, bullying, or retaliation and that all parties treat one another with decency and respect.
JGUUA2 is adopting certain policies and procedures to support editors, reviewers, and authors in performing their ethical duties under these guidelines.
The Arab Council of the General Union of Arab Archaeologists plays a vital role in supporting, investing in, and nurturing the scholarly communication process. The Council is ultimately responsible for ensuring that its publications adhere to best practices. It acknowledges the significant efforts made by journal editors and the often-underappreciated contributions of peer reviewers in upholding the integrity of the scholarly record. The Council recognizes its responsibilities as the custodian of these records, a commitment reflected in all its policies, particularly the ethical guidelines it has adopted.
Duties of the Editorial Board

• Duties of the Editor-in-Chief

- The editor-in-chief is responsible for overseeing all editors within a publication and for establishing the editorial board. This role includes preparing budget proposals and providing any other necessary information requested by the publishers. The editor-in-chief develops the editorial outline for each issue of the publication, ensuring the timely release of each edition. Additionally, the editor-in-chief reviews all submitted articles and makes final decisions regarding any necessary revisions before publication, whether digital or in print. Approval of all layouts and design elements falls under the editor-in-chief's purview.
- The editor-in-chief also addresses complex issues, provides guidance on editorial matters, and generates innovative ideas, including the adoption of new technologies, strategies to enhance readership, and initiatives to attract prominent scholars to contribute to the journal. Representing the publication at social functions and potentially traveling for such events is also part of the editor-in-chief's responsibilities.

• Duties of Editors

Editors of a journal are primarily responsible for overseeing the manuscript review process, ensuring that each submission undergoes a rigorous and impartial evaluation. Key duties include selecting qualified peer reviewers, coordinating the review process, and making initial judgments about the manuscripts' suitability for publication. Each research article must be reviewed by at least two independent external reviewers, with additional opinions sought if necessary. Editors are tasked with providing constructive feedback to authors, ensuring revisions meet the journal’s standards, and maintaining the journal's quality and integrity in adherence to the highest academic and ethical standards.
-  Selection of Reviewers: Editors must choose reviewers with relevant expertise, ensuring diverse and inclusive representation while avoiding fraudulent reviewers. Reviewers should be selected based on their subject matter knowledge and ability to provide objective assessments.
-  Adherence to Policies and Legal Requirements: Editors must follow the journal's editorial board policies and comply with legal requirements related to libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. They are encouraged to consult with other editors, reviewers, or society officers as necessary.
-  Transparency and Fairness: A critical responsibility of editors is to establish a transparent appeal process for editorial decisions in collaboration with the publisher. They must treat all authors with fairness, courtesy, objectivity, honesty, and transparency. Clear policies regarding conflicts of interest for all parties involved—editors, staff, authors, and reviewers—must be defined, implemented, and regularly reviewed.
-  Editorial Decision-Making: Editors should make editorial decisions promptly and communicate them clearly and constructively. They must avoid undue delays in manuscript processing and provide clear guidelines to authors on acceptable practices for sharing experimental materials and replicating research, both before and after publication. Procedures for reconsidering editorial decisions must be in place, and authors should be informed about the evaluation process according to the journal’s standard procedures or any deviations.
-  Safeguarding the Published Record: Editors are responsible for maintaining the integrity of the published record by reviewing and addressing reported or suspected misconduct, including research, publication, reviewer, and editorial misconduct. This includes contacting authors, considering complaints, and communicating with relevant institutions and research bodies. Editors should use the publisher’s systems for detecting misconduct, such as plagiarism:
-  Confidentiality: Editors must protect the confidentiality of all submitted materials and communications with reviewers. In exceptional cases, and with consultation from the publisher, limited information may be shared with other journals or institutions investigating research misconduct. The identities of reviewers must be kept confidential to preserve the integrity of the double-blind peer review process. Unpublished materials disclosed in a manuscript must not be used in the editor’s research without the author's explicit written consent.
-  Avoiding Conflicts of Interest: Editors must not be involved in decisions regarding manuscripts they have authored themselves, those written by family members or colleagues, or those related to products or services in which they have an interest. Such submissions must follow the journal’s usual procedures and peer review, handled independently by the relevant author/editor and their research groups, with a clear statement on any published paper indicating this.
-  Development and Implementation of Policies: Editors are responsible for developing and implementing policies and strategies to enhance the journal’s scope and impact. They must stay informed about developments in their field to attract relevant, high-quality submissions.
-  Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies: Editors of JGUAA2 are prohibited from uploading manuscripts or any portion thereof into generative AI tools to protect authors' confidentiality and proprietary rights and to prevent breaches of data privacy. Additionally, generative AI or AI-assisted technologies should not be used in the manuscript evaluation or decision-making process due to their limitations in critical thinking and original assessment. Editors remain fully accountable for the editorial process and its outcomes. JGUAA2 is committed to integrating AI-driven technologies that support the editorial process while upholding confidentiality and data privacy principles.
-  Record Keeping: Accurate records of all corrections and retractions, including all related correspondence and reports, must be maintained to ensure transparency and integrity in the publishing process.

• Duties of the Assistant Editor

The assistant editor is integral to the journal's editorial process, providing essential support to the editor-in-chief and other editorial staff. Primary responsibilities include ensuring that submissions comply with the journal's guidelines, assisting in the preparation of editorial decisions and correspondence, and contributing to the implementation of editorial policies. The assistant editor also monitors deadlines and manages administrative tasks related to the publication process. This role is vital for maintaining the efficiency of the editorial workflow and upholding the journal’s high standards of excellence.

• Duties of Reviewers

Peer review is a fundamental element of scholarly communication and central to the scientific method. Reviewers must adhere to high ethical standards and maintain good reviewing etiquette, treating authors and their work with the same respect they wish to receive.
-   Confidentiality: Reviewers must handle all manuscripts as confidential documents. They should not share the review or details about the paper with unauthorized individuals or contact the authors directly without the editor’s permission. Manuscripts must not be uploaded to generative AI tools, as this could compromise authors' confidentiality and proprietary rights, and potentially breach data privacy rights.
-   Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Reviewers should provide a thorough and unbiased evaluation of the manuscript, conducting a single-blind peer-review process. They must submit reviews within the designated time frame and contribute expert information relevant to the subject. Reviewers should also be vigilant for potential ethical issues, such as substantial similarities between the manuscript and other published works, and ensure that any prior observations, derivations, or arguments are properly cited.
-   Handling Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers must consult the editor before agreeing to review a manuscript if they have potential conflicts of interest due to relationships with the authors, institutions, or companies involved. Personal bias should be acknowledged, and personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Feedback should be constructive and supported by clear arguments.
-   Reviewing Process: The review should be conducted using the JGUAA2 assessment form via the online reviewing system, or reviewers may send their reports directly to the editor at jguaa2@arabarch.org. Reviewers may suggest alternative reviewers with relevant subject expertise. Any suggestion for citations of their own or associates' work must be based on genuine scientific merit, not on increasing citation counts or visibility.
-   Ethical Use of AI Technologies: Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies must not be used by reviewers in the evaluation or decision-making process. These technologies cannot replace the critical thinking and original assessment required and may produce incorrect or biased conclusions. The responsibility for the editorial process, including final decisions and communications, rests solely with the editor.
Duties of Authors
-   Accuracy and Originality: Authors must provide an accurate account of their research and an objective discussion of its significance. The paper should be detailed enough to allow replication, and all data must be represented accurately. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements are considered unethical and unacceptable. Authors should ensure their work is entirely original and appropriately cite any sources or ideas from others.
-   Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Authors are required to disclose any substantive conflicts of interest that could influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. This includes financial support, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, patents, or other relevant interests. Disclosure should be made as early as possible.
-   Data Access and Retention: Authors must provide raw data for editorial review and should be prepared to offer public access to such data where practicable. Data should be retained for a reasonable time after publication, under the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases.
-   Multiple, redundant, or concurrent publication: Authors should not publish manuscripts describing the same research in more than one journal or submit the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously. Such practices are considered unethical.
-   Authorship and Contributions: Authorship should be limited to those who made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the research. All significant contributors should be listed as co-authors, while others should be acknowledged. The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have approved the final version of the manuscript. Authors must carefully consider the list and order of authors before submission, and only request changes in exceptional circumstances, with the agreement of all involved.
-   Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies: Authors may use generative AI and AI-assisted tools to improve language and readability before submission, provided they disclose this use in their manuscript. (See Elsevier’s Guide for Authors) The use of AI technologies should be carefully reviewed to avoid generating incorrect, incomplete, or biased results. AI tools should not be listed as authors or co-authors, nor cited as authors.
-   Use of AI in Figures, Images, and Artwork: Generative AI or AI-assisted tools are not permitted to create or alter images in submitted manuscripts. Adjustments to brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they do not obscure or eliminate information. The use of AI for graphical abstracts is not allowed.
-   Confidentiality: Information obtained through confidential services, such as manuscript refereeing, must not be used without explicit written permission from the original author.
-   Fundamental Errors: If an author discovers a significant error in their published work, they must promptly notify the journal editor and cooperate to retract or correct the paper. If a third party identifies an error, the author must provide evidence of the paper's accuracy or cooperate in the correction or retraction process.
-   Plagiarism: Plagiarism is absolutely prohibited. By submitting their manuscripts, authors consent to the publisher's right to take necessary action if plagiarism or forgery is identified. Should any instances of plagiarism be found, the manuscript will be rejected, and the authors will be barred from future submissions to JGUAA2. Editors and reviewers are encouraged to utilize plagiarism detection tools, such as those available at Small SEO Tools (http://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/) and Grammarly (https://www.grammarly.com/plagiarism-checker), to ensure the integrity of submissions.
-   Corrections After Publication: If errors or inaccuracies are discovered after publication, authors must promptly notify the editor and provide all relevant information and data required for correction. Upon receiving a correction request, the editor will review the provided information to assess the nature and impact of the error on the published work. It may be necessary to involve an additional editor or committee to evaluate the errors. Based on the assessment of the errors, one of the following actions may be taken: Correction if the error can be corrected without altering the essence of the research or its results, a correction will be published in a subsequent issue of the journal. The correction should be clearly identified and specify the exact sections that were amended. Retraction: if the error is significant enough to distort the research findings or impact, the article may be retracted. In this case, a retraction notice should be published, explaining the reason for the retraction and its implications for the scientific record.