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Journal Policies

Publication Ethics

The International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS) adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) standards on publications ethics. Submission of an article implies that:

  • The work described has not been published previously except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis.
  • That it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  • That its submission and publication in the journal is known and approved by all Authors.
  • The work is the Author’s own and there is no falsification, fabrication of data or plagiarism including duplicate publication of the Author’s own work without proper citation.

Authors should include the statements on research involving human subjects/animals, conflict of interest, and informed consent (if applicable) in a separate section entitled “Compliance with Ethical Standards” before the References when submitting a manuscript.

The journal reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned guidelines. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned guidelines.

Any cases of ethical misconduct are treated very seriously and will be dealt with using the guidelines issued by the COPE. For further details please visit:

Copyright Policy

This Journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. All articles in the Journal are published open access under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0). Authors transfer the copyright to Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia. This copyright transfer enables the Journal to protect the copyrighted material for the authors but does not relinquish the authors’ proprietary rights. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilm or any other reproductions of similar nature and translations. Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce any materials for which copyright exists.

The works are released under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0), which provides unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles in this Journal and to use them for any other lawful purpose.

Content Originality and Plagiarism

Authors are responsible to submit contents which are original, and for other works which have been referred to in the research, proper citations must be made to the referred works. All articles submitted to the journal are subject to plagiarism check using Turnitin software.

Open Access Policy

IJAPS published by Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia is an open access journal. All articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). All articles are freely available to read, share and download. In accordance with publication ethics and best practices of scholarly publishing, authors and journals must be properly credited. All articles are accessible via the Journal’s website and selected indexing and abstracting databases. 

Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY)

IJAPS published by Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia is an open access journal. All articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). This licence permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction provided that the authors, citation details and publisher are clearly identified. For any reuse or distribution, users must include the copyright notice and make clear that the article is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution license. Please inform the Publisher when the article is reused or distributed.

Article Publishing Charge (APC)

With effect from 1st January 2023 onwards, an Article Publishing Charge (APC) of MYR500/USD150 will be imposed on authors upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication (for submission starting 1st January 2023).

All manuscripts published in our journals are open access and freely available online. APC is crucial to sustain and develop an open-access journal. The APC payable for a manuscript is agreed as part of the manuscript submission process. Authors pay a one-time APC to cover the costs of publishing services we provide. This includes provision of online tools for editors and authors, manuscript production and hosting, liaison with abstracting and indexing services, and customer services. The corresponding author of the manuscript is responsible for making or arranging the payment upon editorial acceptance of the manuscript. We advise prompt payment as we are unable to publish accepted manuscripts until payment has been received. Payment should be made through the University’s payment gateway as instructed in the acceptance email from the Editor-in-Chief.

Upon acceptance of a manuscript, an APC of RM500/USD150 will be imposed on the authors. The APC is based on the followings: 

  • MYR500 for corresponding author affiliated mainly to an institution in Malaysia.
  • USD150 for corresponding author affiliated mainly to foreign institution outside Malaysia.

(Bank charges have to be defrayed by authors.)

Refund Policy

The corresponding author assumes the responsibility for the APC payment. Penerbit USM will refund an APC if an error on our part has resulted in a failure to publish the accepted manuscript. APCs will not be refunded when articles are withdrawn by the author(s) or retracted as a result of author error or misconduct.

Waiver Policy

There is no discount or waiver on the APC for accepted papers.

Payment Instruction

The APC payment must be made online through USM e-payment portal. Author(s) of accepted paper will be instructed on the payment via the acceptance email from the Editor. Please note that your publication will only be considered upon acceptance of payment, not acceptance date.

Only payment through the USM e-payment portal will be accepted and processed. Once you click the provided link, you should be directed to the USM e-payment form for “Journal Publication” services, in which it will land to the designated journal e-payment portal. Please make sure that the name of the journal is correctly displayed. If the link does not direct to the correct journal, please refer the matter to the Journal Admin immediately.

Author then must fill in the Manuscript ID (provided by the journal during submission). Before you click “Next”, please ensure that you have filled in all required information. Through this portal, payment can be made either by credit card or interbank online transfer method. Author MUST ensure to select the correct currency and amount as instructed in the acceptance email. After you have successfully made the payment, please print the proof of payment as PDF and email this document to the Journal Admin. You will receive an acknowledgement email once we have received the notification of successful transaction from the bank. Should you have enquiries or issues regarding the payment process, please contact the Journal Admin.

APC Payment Guidelines
APC FAQs

USM ePayment Operating Hours

Normal Day Transaction
02:00 am – 10:30 pm
Malaysia Time Zone (UTC+08:00)

Month/Year End Transaction
02:00 am – 11:59 am
Malaysia Time Zone (UTC+08:00)

Review of Manuscript

IJAPS practices double-blind academic review; both author and reviewer are unknown to one another. Every submitted manuscript, if deemed appropriate, will go through a review process that involved a minimum of one reviewer to a maximum of three reviewers. The number of reviewers is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Panel. The review may be lengthy but all efforts are made to ensure that an outcome be made known to the author at the soonest possible time. Delays are often commonplace as reviewers are working academics with heavy work commitments. Patience on the part of authors is greatly appreciated.

Archiving Policy

The journal contents are archived by the Malaysian Citation Centre.

License

All articles published in IJAPS are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

You are free to:

  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

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