Ethical oversight

Ethics Statement

The Editorial Board of the Journal of Learning Theory and Methodology adheres to internationally recognized ethical standards for research involving human participants, including the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and relevant institutional and national regulations.

Research involving human participants must have received prior approval from an appropriate Research Ethics Committee / Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the institution where the study was conducted. Authors are required to explicitly state in the manuscript the name of the approving body and, where applicable, the approval reference number.

All studies involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with the principles of informed consent. Authors must include a clear statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to their inclusion in the study.

For research involving children or other vulnerable populations, authors must confirm that:

  • informed consent was obtained from a parent or legal guardian;

  • assent was obtained from the participant, when developmentally appropriate;
    and

  • additional safeguards were implemented to protect participants’ rights, safety, and well-being.

The privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity of all participants must be respected at all stages of the research and publication process. Identifiable personal data must not be disclosed unless explicit consent has been obtained and such disclosure is justified by the research design.

Manuscripts that do not comply with these ethical requirements may be rejected without review.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper if deemed necessary by the editor. If the editor or the publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains an error, it is the obligation of the author to cooperate with the editor, including providing evidence to the editor where requested.

Plagiarism policy

The Editorial Board of the journal considers plagiarism in articles unacceptable (publication in a written or electronic form of the research results obtained and published by other persons as the author’s own contribution, or reprint of the published texts authored by other persons without proper reference thereto).

The articles must not contain:

  • copied or published work executed by other scholars and presented as the author’s own findings.
  • word-for-word copying of fragments of any text (from a single phrase to several sentences) without proper quotation formatting;
  • slightly modified copied material (re-phrased sentences, changes in the word order, etc.) without proper quotation/reference formatting;
  • other people’s thoughts, ideas or texts rendered in the author’s own words without providing proper references to the sources.

The author must provide references to his or her own previously published works.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject any manuscript containing borrowings from previous publications without proper references thereto and can cancel any publication pursuant to a plagiarism complaint.

The Editorial Board uses Unicheck, eTXT Antiplagiarism.

AI Transparency Statement

The Journal of Learning Theory and Methodology is committed to scientific integrity and transparency, including the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in manuscript preparation.

1. General principles

1.1. Authors bear full responsibility for the content of the manuscript, including study conception, design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and conclusions – regardless of whether AI tools were used.

1.2. AI tools cannot be listed as authors and do not qualify for authorship.

2. Acceptable use of AI tools

2.1. AI tools may be used only for technical assistance, such as:

  • language editing and grammar checking,

  • improving clarity and fluency of English language,

  • minor stylistic adjustments that do not alter the scientific content.

2.2. In such cases, authors are required to openly declare the use of AI in a separate statement within the manuscript (e.g., before the Acknowledgements or in the Ethics / Conflict of Interest section).

Recommended wording:

AI Transparency Statement.
The authors declare that no artificial intelligence (AI) tools were used in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of study data. AI-assisted software (ChatGPT, OpenAI, USA) was employed only for language editing and grammar refinement during manuscript preparation. All scientific content, study design, statistical analysis, and interpretation were performed solely by the authors.

3. Unacceptable use of AI tools

The use of AI is considered unacceptable if it compromises research integrity, including but not limited to:

  • generating fabricated data, results, or references;

  • performing statistical analyses in a way that the authors cannot reproduce, verify, or fully explain;

  • producing substantial parts of the scientific content (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion) without critical review and full intellectual ownership by the authors;

  • using AI tools without transparent disclosure in the manuscript.

In such cases, manuscripts may be rejected, and already published articles may be subject to correction or retraction.

4. Editorial policy

4.1. The Editorial Board reserves the right to request additional clarification from authors regarding the use of AI tools during manuscript preparation.

4.2. Reviewers and editors may pay special attention to signs of inappropriate AI use (e.g., inconsistent text, implausible results, incorrect or non-existent references).

4.3. By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors confirm that they have read and agree to comply with this AI transparency policy.