Editorial Policies

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

AI in Teaching and Learning (CUAITL) is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics. All parties involved in the publishing process — authors, peer reviewers, editors, and the publisher — are expected to adhere to the principles outlined below, which are consistent with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Peer Review Policy

All manuscripts submitted to CUAITL undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review. Author and reviewer identities are concealed from each other throughout the review process. Each submission is evaluated by a minimum of two independent reviewers with relevant subject expertise. Reviewers are asked to assess manuscripts on:

  • Originality and novelty of the contribution
  • Rigour and appropriateness of the research methodology
  • Clarity, organisation, and quality of writing
  • Significance of findings and their implications for the field
  • Adequacy of the literature review and referencing

Reviewer reports are provided to authors in full. The Editor-in-Chief retains the final right to accept or reject any submission based on reviewer recommendations and editorial judgement. Authors may expect an initial decision within eight to twelve weeks of submission.

Authorship Criteria

Authorship of a manuscript submitted to CUAITL must be restricted to individuals who have made a substantial contribution to all of the following:

  • Conception or design of the work, or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data
  • Drafting or critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content
  • Final approval of the version to be published
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work

All listed authors must meet these criteria. Contributors who do not meet all criteria should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section rather than listed as authors. The submitting author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have approved the final manuscript and agreed to submission.

CUAITL requires authors to declare their individual contributions using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework at the time of submission.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, or personal relationships that could be perceived as influencing the objectivity of the research. This includes funding sources, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, and patent applications. A conflict of interest statement is required for every submission. Where no conflict exists, authors should state: "The authors declare no conflict of interest."

Editors and reviewers who identify a conflict of interest with a submitted manuscript must recuse themselves and notify the Editor-in-Chief promptly.

Research Integrity

CUAITL requires that all submitted work is original and has not been previously published, in whole or in substantial part, in any language. Simultaneous submission of a manuscript to more than one journal is prohibited. All submissions are screened for plagiarism prior to peer review.

The following constitute serious breaches of publication ethics and will result in immediate rejection, retraction if already published, and notification to the authors' institution:

  • Plagiarism — presenting another person's work or ideas as one's own without attribution
  • Data fabrication — inventing research data or results
  • Data falsification — manipulating, selectively omitting, or altering data to misrepresent findings
  • Duplicate publication — submitting work already published elsewhere without disclosure
  • Inappropriate authorship — gift authorship, ghost authorship, or omitting legitimate contributors

Human Subjects and Ethical Approval

Research involving human participants, identifiable data, or personal information must have received prior ethical approval from a recognised Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee. Authors must state the name of the approving body and the approval reference number in the manuscript. Where research is exempt from formal ethics review, a brief explanation is required.

Informed consent must be obtained from all research participants. Where consent could not be obtained (e.g., retrospective analyses of anonymised datasets), authors must explain why and confirm compliance with applicable data protection regulations.

Data Sharing and Reproducibility

CUAITL strongly encourages authors to make research data, code, and materials publicly available where ethically and legally permissible. A data availability statement is required in all submissions, indicating where data can be accessed or explaining any restrictions. Datasets should be deposited in recognised open repositories and cited in the reference list with persistent identifiers (e.g., DOIs).

Corrections and Retractions

CUAITL is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the published record. Where errors are identified in published articles that do not affect the conclusions, a correction notice will be issued and linked to the original article. Where errors fundamentally affect the conclusions, or where serious ethical violations are identified post-publication, the article will be retracted in accordance with COPE retraction guidelines. Retracted articles remain on the platform clearly marked as retracted, so that the scholarly record is preserved.

To report a concern about a published article, contact the editorial office at journals@cosmopolitan.edu.ng.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made solely on the basis of scholarly merit, relevance to the journal's scope, and compliance with ethical standards. The publisher — Cosmopolitan University — does not interfere in editorial decisions. Editors do not accept manuscripts in which they have a personal, financial, or professional conflict of interest.

Open Access and Licensing

CUAITL is a fully open-access journal. All articles are published immediately and permanently freely available online at no cost to readers or authors. Published articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Appeals

Authors who believe their manuscript has been rejected in error, or that the peer review process was conducted unfairly, may submit a written appeal to the Editor-in-Chief at journals@cosmopolitan.edu.ng. Appeals must set out clearly the grounds for reconsideration. The Editor-in-Chief's decision on appeal is final.