Publication Ethics and Research integrity policy

BUKETOV BUSINESS REVIEW is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, editorial transparency, and research integrity. This policy applies to authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and the journal’s publisher. The journal expects all submitted and published work to meet accepted standards of originality, honesty, accountability, proper attribution, transparency, and responsible scholarly communication.

The journal handles ethical concerns in line with recognized good practice in scholarly publishing and may consult COPE guidance and flowcharts where appropriate. Ethics-related questions, concerns, complaints, appeals, and post-publication issues should be sent to businessreview@buketov.edu.kz.

1. Authorship and contributorship

Authorship must be limited to persons who have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the work and who are able to take public responsibility for its content.

To qualify as an author, a contributor should normally have participated in the conception or design of the work; data collection, access, or analysis; drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content; approval of the final version; and accountability for the accuracy and integrity of the work.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all eligible contributors are listed as authors, that no ineligible persons are included as authors, that all authors approve the final version, and that all declarations and permissions are accurate and complete.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately, with their permission.

Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must include a clear explanation and written agreement from all listed authors and from any author being added or removed. Such requests will be considered only in justified cases.

2. Complaints and appeals

The journal distinguishes between appeals and complaints.

An appeal is a request for reconsideration of an editorial decision. Authors wishing to appeal should submit a reasoned written statement explaining the basis of the appeal and any evidence of factual error or procedural irregularity.

A complaint concerns the editorial process, reviewer conduct, communication, delay, research-integrity handling, or another aspect of publication management.

The journal will acknowledge complaints and appeals within a reasonable period, review them fairly and confidentially, and communicate the outcome in writing.

If a complaint concerns the handling editor, that editor will take no part in the review of the complaint. If the complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief, the matter should be referred by the publisher or a designated university representative for independent consideration.

3. Allegations of research and publication misconduct

The journal takes all allegations of research or publication misconduct seriously, whether they arise before publication, during peer review, or after publication.

Concerns may include plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, self-plagiarism or excessive text recycling, fabricated or falsified data, manipulated images or results, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, unethical research, misrepresentation of affiliation or funding, citation manipulation, or peer-review manipulation.

When concerns are raised, the journal may conduct an initial assessment; request explanations, original files, raw data, ethics approvals, or other supporting documentation; consult editors, reviewers, or external experts; and, where appropriate, contact authors’ institutions, funders, or other relevant bodies.

Possible outcomes include editorial clarification, request for revision, rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or notification of relevant institutions or bodies.

4. Conflicts of interest / competing interests

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial, institutional, professional, personal, ideological, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived to influence their judgment.

Authors must provide a conflict of interest statement at submission. If no competing interests exist, authors should state this explicitly.

Reviewers must decline invitations if they cannot provide an objective review because of a conflict of interest or any other disqualifying circumstance.

Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a competing interest. In such cases, editorial responsibility will be reassigned.

5. Data sharing and reproducibility

Each article must include a Data Availability Statement indicating whether supporting data are available, where they can be accessed, and whether any restrictions apply.

Where ethically, legally, and contractually possible, authors are encouraged to deposit data and related research materials in a trusted public or institutional repository.

Depending on the nature of the research, relevant materials may include datasets, statistical code or scripts, questionnaires, interview protocols, coding frameworks, appendices, and other replication materials.

If data cannot be shared because of confidentiality, privacy, legal restrictions, commercial sensitivity, or third-party ownership, authors must explain those restrictions clearly.

The journal may request raw data, code, or supporting materials during editorial assessment or post-publication investigation. Failure to provide such materials without adequate justification may lead to rejection or post-publication action.

6. Ethical oversight

Research involving human participants, personal data, interviews, surveys, experiments, focus groups, case studies, identifiable organizational information, or other sensitive data must be conducted in accordance with applicable ethical and legal standards.

Authors must state whether ethics approval was obtained, name the approving body where applicable, provide the approval or reference number where applicable, and indicate whether informed consent was obtained where required.

If formal ethics approval was not required, authors must explain the reason.

Authors are responsible for protecting privacy, confidentiality, and the rights and dignity of participants and data subjects.

Where research uses proprietary or restricted organizational data, authors must confirm that they had appropriate permission to use the data and to publish the findings as presented.

7. Intellectual property

Authors must submit only original work and must properly acknowledge the work, ideas, words, data, images, and other materials of others.

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript is original, has not been published previously in substantially the same form except where disclosure is permitted, and is not under consideration elsewhere.

The journal provides immediate open access to its content under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). Authors retain copyright and grant readers permission to access, share, and adapt the material with proper attribution.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reuse copyrighted third-party material, including figures, tables, photographs, datasets, or lengthy text extracts, where permission is required.

If a rights problem is identified after publication, the journal may issue a correction, replace or remove the affected material, or retract the article where necessary.

8. Post-publication discussion

The journal supports responsible post-publication discussion of published research.

Readers, authors, and other stakeholders may submit substantiated comments, critiques, correspondence, or concerns regarding published articles to the editorial office.

The journal may consider letters to the editor, comments, author responses, corrections, or formal investigation depending on the nature of the issue.

Where appropriate, the authors of the original publication may be invited to respond.

9. Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions

The journal is committed to correcting the scholarly record where necessary.

Minor corrections may be issued for typographical or limited factual errors that do not affect the overall findings of the work.

Major corrections may be issued where errors affect interpretation, attribution, or important parts of the article but do not invalidate the work in its entirety.

An expression of concern may be issued if serious doubts arise about an article but the available evidence is not yet conclusive or an institutional investigation is pending.

A retraction may be issued when a publication is shown to be seriously unreliable or unethical, including cases involving major error, plagiarism, fabricated or falsified data, duplicate publication, manipulated peer review, or unethical research.

Correction, expression-of-concern, and retraction notices will be clearly labeled and linked to the original article.

10. Integrity of the scholarly record

The journal takes active steps to safeguard the integrity of the literature it publishes.

The journal may use editorial checks, similarity screening, reviewer feedback, reference review, and post-publication reporting to identify potential concerns.

Issues that may be investigated include plagiarism, duplicate publication, self-plagiarism, citation manipulation, fabricated or falsified data, image manipulation, authorship manipulation, peer-review manipulation, undeclared use of third-party or AI-generated content where disclosure is required, and undisclosed conflicts of interest.

Where such issues arise, the journal will act in a proportionate, fair, and evidence-based manner in order to protect readers and maintain an accurate scholarly record.

11. Use of generative AI and AI-assisted tools

Authors may use generative AI or AI-assisted tools only in a responsible and transparent manner. Such tools must not replace authors’ own critical thinking, analysis, interpretation, or accountability.

AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors.

If AI tools meaningfully contributed to drafting, editing, analysis, or idea generation, authors should disclose the name of the tool, the purpose of use, and the extent of human oversight at submission.

Generative AI must not be used to create or alter figures, images, or artwork unless AI is itself part of the research method and this is clearly described in the manuscript to ensure transparency and reproducibility.

Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscript content, review reports, or editorial correspondence into public generative AI systems. AI tools must not be used to make editorial decisions or substitute for human scholarly judgment.

12. Duties of authors, reviewers, and editors

Authors must present their work honestly, accurately, and transparently; retain research records where appropriate; disclose relevant funding and competing interests; and cooperate with editorial inquiries.

Reviewers must review objectively and constructively, treat manuscripts as confidential, avoid inappropriate requests for irrelevant citations, and alert editors to overlap, ethical concerns, or possible misconduct.

Editors are responsible for fair, unbiased, and timely decisions based on scholarly merit and relevance to the journal. Editors must manage conflicts of interest appropriately and take reasonable steps to maintain the quality and integrity of the journal.

13. Contact

All ethics-related questions, concerns, complaints, appeals, and post-publication correspondence should be sent to businessreview@buketov.edu.kz.

Editor in Chief: kairat.moldashev@sdu.edu.kz.

Publisher: Karaganda Buketov University, Kazakhstan.