I. Duties of Authors

• Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that their work is entirely original. They must properly cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Submitting recycled, fabricated, or plagiarized material, in any form, constitutes severe ethical misconduct.

• Reporting Standards and Data Integrity: Research reports must present an accurate account of the work performed, alongside an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data, especially in Governance and Social Welfare research involving human subjects or policy analysis, should be accurately represented. Authors must retain raw data for a reasonable period and be prepared to provide access for editorial review if requested (consistent with participant confidentiality and legal requirements).

• Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: Authors should not submit the same manuscript describing essentially the same research to more than one journal concurrently. Submitting a manuscript that has already been published elsewhere is also unacceptable.

• Authorship: 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 substantive contributions must be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author must ensure all co-authors approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission.

• Research Ethics and Consent: For studies involving human subjects (e.g., surveys, interviews, case studies related to governance or welfare programs), authors must demonstrate that the research was conducted in accordance with relevant ethical guidelines (e.g., institutional review board/ethics committee approval). Informed consent from participants, including consent to publish identifiable information (where applicable), is mandatory and must be documented.

• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose 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 must be clearly disclosed.

• Fundamental Errors in Published Works: If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, they have an obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate to retract or correct the paper.

II. Duties of Editors

• Publication Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which submissions will be published, basing their decision on the scholarly merit, reviewer feedback, and the journal's scope, while observing legal requirements regarding libel, copyright, and plagiarism.

• Fair Play and Objectivity: Manuscripts must be evaluated solely for their intellectual content without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.

• Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

• Conflict of Interest: Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author. Editors should recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest.

III. Duties of Reviewers

• Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and may also assist the author in improving the paper. Reviewers who feel unqualified to review a manuscript or know that prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and decline the invitation.

• Confidentiality: Any 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.

• Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively and clearly supported by arguments. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate.

• Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. They should also be alert to any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

• Disclosure and Conflict of Interest: Reviewers should not consider 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.