JCRI Publication Ethics Policy
1. Board Accountability. The JCRI Editorial Board shall be responsible for establishing and updating, as needed, the Publication Ethics Policy of the Journal of Case Research and Inquiry.
2. Editor Responsibilities. The JCRI Editor shall be responsible for the content of the cases, notes, articles, and letters published in the journal. In consultation with the Editorial Board, the Editor shall endeavor to ensure that the content of the journal meets the standards of quality expected by the Western Casewriters Association (WCA) through the application of the blind peer-review process. The Editor shall also be responsible for ensuring that any non-peer reviewed content of the journal is clearly identifiable.
3. Records. The JCRI Editor shall keep accurate records of submissions to the journal, reviews, revisions, acceptances, and all other pertinent information to be able to inform the Editorial Board and WCA members of the status of the journal. The Editor shall also maintain a list of qualified reviewers for the journal that is updated based on reviewers’ performance (availability, quality of review, and timeliness).
4. Continuous improvement. The Editor shall strive for continuous improvement of the quality of the journal and the quality of the published cases, notes and articles in each issue. The Editor shall seek the advice and input of Editorial Board and WCA members on ways to improve the quality, appeal, and usefulness of the journal.
5. Retractions and Corrections. The JCRI Editor shall be responsible for the publication of retractions, corrections, or clarification as needed, and shall keep the Editorial Board aware of any issues that might necessitate a retraction, correction, clarification, or apology.
6. Volunteer Basis. The JCRI Editor, Associate Editor(s), Special Issue Editors, Editorial Board members, Webmaster, and reviewers shall carry out their duties on a volunteer basis, and under no circumstances accept any payment for such duties. Under no circumstances shall potential authors be required to make any payments to the JCRI or its Editor, Associate Editor(s), Special Issue Editors, Editorial Board members, Webmaster, reviewers, or any other person associated with JCRI or WCA, nor shall any such payment be accepted. .
7. Quality of the Review Process. The Editor, in consultation with Editorial Board, shall review and as needed update the journal’s editorial policy and guidelines for reviewers in order to ensure that thorough and timely reviews. The Editor shall also endeavor to ensure that the reviewers selected are qualified to review the submissions sent to them. The Editor shall apply the same review policies, procedures, and standards to submissions by WCA members, JCRI Editorial Board members, and non-WCA members. In addition, the JCRI Editor shall encourage reviewers to comment on the originality of submissions and be attentive to redundant publications or plagiarism. JCRI shall not accept fictional cases, nor cases, notes, or articles previously published elsewhere.
8. Decisions and Appeals. Decisions to accept or reject cases, notes, and articles shall be based on each paper’s importance, originality, clarity, and pedagogical relevance as well as adherence to the submission requirements provided at www.jcri.org. Editorial decisions shall not be affected by the origins of the manuscript, including the institutional affiliation, nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation of authors. Authors whose submissions to JCRI have been rejected may appeal to the President of the Western Casewriters Association at www.westerncasewriters.org.
9. Support of the Scholarly Process. As appropriate, the Editor shall provide information to authors, reviewers, and institutions in order to support recognition of scholarly contributions.
10. Support for author rights. As per JCRI editorial policy, authors shall maintain full ownership and copyright for all papers published in the journal, with all the associated rights and obligations.
11. Case Release Permissions. Authors of cases shall be required to reveal the sources of information (primary, secondary or both) and to obtain release forms, when necessary, from the organizations studied, prior to publication of cases. In particular, release forms shall be required when primary data have been used as source of information.