Publication Ethics

The Annals of Statistical Theory and Applications (ASTA) is committed to maintaining high standards of research integrity, publication ethics, and responsible scholarly communication. The journal expects authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher to conduct themselves according to accepted principles of academic integrity.

ASTA does not tolerate plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, manipulation of the peer-review process, or other forms of research and publication misconduct.

This policy applies to all manuscripts submitted to the journal and to all published content. Where allegations of misconduct arise, the journal will assess the available evidence and take appropriate action in accordance with established scholarly publishing practices.

1. Editorial Responsibilities

Editors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are handled fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with the journal's editorial policies.

Editors shall:

Evaluate manuscripts objectively based on their scholarly quality, originality, methodological soundness, relevance, and alignment with the journal's aims and scope.
Ensure that editorial decisions are not influenced by an author's nationality, ethnicity, gender, institutional affiliation, political views, personal characteristics, or commercial interests.
Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and associated editorial correspondence.
Select appropriate and independent reviewers.
Identify and manage actual or potential conflicts of interest.
Ensure that peer-review decisions are based on appropriate scholarly evidence.
Protect the integrity and confidentiality of the peer-review process.
Investigate credible allegations of research or publication misconduct.
Correct the published record when errors or misconduct are confirmed.
Ensure that appropriate corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern are issued when necessary.
Avoid using unpublished information from submitted manuscripts for personal or professional advantage.

Editors must not reject or accept manuscripts for reasons unrelated to their scholarly merit.

Editorial independence is maintained throughout the publication process. The Professional Statisticians' Society of Nigeria, as the journal's sponsoring organisation, does not determine the acceptance or rejection of individual manuscripts on non-scholarly grounds.

2. Authors' Responsibilities

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts represent original and ethically conducted research.

Authors shall:

Submit only original work that has not been published elsewhere, except where appropriately declared and permitted.
Ensure that all information, data, analyses, and results presented in the manuscript are accurate.
Provide sufficient methodological information to permit appropriate evaluation and, where possible, reproducibility of the research.
Properly acknowledge the work of other researchers through appropriate citations.
Obtain appropriate ethical approval where required.
Declare relevant financial and non-financial conflicts of interest.
Disclose sources of research funding.
Provide appropriate data availability and code availability information where applicable.
Ensure that all listed authors have made substantial contributions to the research and approve the submitted version.
Obtain the consent of all authors before submission.
Respond appropriately and honestly to reviewer and editorial comments.
Correct significant errors discovered in a manuscript or published article promptly.
Disclose any previous dissemination or publication of substantially related material.

Authors must not manipulate data, fabricate results, falsify research findings, or deliberately misrepresent the contribution or provenance of their work.

3. Reviewers' Responsibilities

Reviewers play an important role in maintaining the quality and integrity of the journal.

Reviewers shall:

Conduct reviews objectively, fairly, and constructively.
Maintain strict confidentiality concerning manuscripts under review.
Declare any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest.
Decline a review where they lack the appropriate expertise or cannot provide an impartial assessment.
Complete reviews within the agreed timeframe or inform the editor if additional time is required.
Identify major methodological, statistical, ethical, or interpretative concerns.
Identify relevant published work that may have been overlooked where appropriate.
Avoid personal criticism or discriminatory, offensive, or inappropriate language.
Not use unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal or professional advantage.
Not share manuscripts or review materials with unauthorised individuals.
Not attempt to identify or contact authors where the journal's double-anonymous peer-review process prohibits such contact.

Reviewer recommendations are advisory. Final editorial decisions remain the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief or designated editor.

4. Plagiarism

ASTA considers plagiarism to be a serious form of publication misconduct.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

Presenting another person's words, ideas, data, figures, or intellectual contributions as one's own.
Copying substantial portions of text without appropriate attribution.
Reusing material from another publication without appropriate citation or permission where permission is required.
Inappropriate paraphrasing that reproduces the intellectual or textual content of another work without proper acknowledgement.
Self-plagiarism or substantial reuse of an author's previously published material without appropriate disclosure.

Manuscripts may be screened using appropriate similarity-detection tools. A similarity score alone does not establish plagiarism, and the editorial team will consider the context and nature of any identified overlap.

Where plagiarism is suspected, the journal may request an explanation from the authors and may investigate the matter before making an editorial decision.

Confirmed plagiarism may result in manuscript rejection, withdrawal, correction, retraction, or notification of the relevant institution or other appropriate authority, depending on the circumstances.

5. Fabrication and Falsification

ASTA considers the fabrication or falsification of research to be serious misconduct.

Fabrication involves inventing data, observations, experiments, participants, results, references, or other research information that did not exist.

Falsification involves manipulating research materials, procedures, data, images, analyses, or results in a manner that misrepresents the research record.

Examples include:

Inventing experimental or survey data.
Removing observations solely to produce a desired result without appropriate methodological justification.
Manipulating statistical analyses or reporting.
Deliberately misrepresenting research findings.
Manipulating images or figures in a misleading manner.
Creating fictitious references or citations.

Where credible concerns arise, the journal may request supporting information, data, analytical materials, or clarification from the authors and may refer the matter to the authors' institution or other appropriate body when necessary.

6. Duplicate Publication

Authors must not submit or publish substantially the same manuscript in more than one journal simultaneously.

Duplicate or redundant publication includes:

Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals at the same time.
Republishing substantially the same research without appropriate disclosure and justification.
Splitting a single study into multiple publications in a manner that improperly duplicates or fragments the research record.
Reusing substantial portions of a previously published article without appropriate citation and disclosure.

Authors must disclose any closely related manuscripts, previous publications, conference papers, preprints, or other publicly available versions that may overlap substantially with the submitted work.

Where legitimate secondary publication is appropriate, it must comply with applicable scholarly publishing requirements and must be transparently disclosed.

7. Authorship

Authorship should reflect genuine and substantial contributions to the research and manuscript.

Individuals listed as authors should have made meaningful contributions to areas such as:

Conception or design of the study.
Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
Development of methodology or substantial computational work.
Drafting the manuscript or making substantial intellectual revisions.
Approval of the final version.
Acceptance of responsibility for the integrity of the work.

Individuals who contributed to the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be appropriately acknowledged, with their permission.

ASTA does not permit:

Guest authorship, where individuals are listed despite making no substantial contribution.
Gift or honorary authorship, where authorship is granted because of status, position, or personal relationships.
Ghost authorship, where individuals who made substantial contributions are deliberately omitted.

All authors must approve the submitted manuscript and agree to its submission.

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be supported by an appropriate explanation and, normally, written agreement from all affected authors. The journal may suspend consideration of the manuscript while an authorship dispute is investigated.

8. Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest may arise where personal, professional, financial, institutional, or other relationships could reasonably influence the interpretation of research or the editorial process.

Authors must disclose relevant conflicts of interest, including where applicable:

Financial relationships.
Employment or consultancy.
Research funding.
Commercial interests.
Patents or intellectual property interests.
Personal or professional relationships.
Institutional interests.
Other circumstances that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research.

Editors and reviewers must also disclose relevant conflicts of interest and should withdraw from handling or reviewing a manuscript where their impartiality could reasonably be compromised.

Failure to disclose a significant conflict of interest may constitute publication misconduct.

9. Ethical Approval

Research involving human participants, identifiable personal data, animals, or other activities requiring ethical oversight must comply with applicable ethical and regulatory requirements.

Where ethical approval is required, authors should provide:

The name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board.
The approval or reference number, where applicable.
The date or year of approval, where appropriate.
Relevant information concerning informed consent.

Authors must not claim ethical approval that was not obtained.

Where a study does not require formal ethical approval, authors should provide an appropriate statement explaining why approval was not required when relevant to the nature of the research.

For studies involving human participants, authors should ensure that informed consent and confidentiality requirements have been appropriately addressed.

The journal may request evidence of ethical approval or supporting documentation when necessary.

10. Corrections

ASTA is committed to maintaining an accurate and reliable published record.

If a significant error is identified after publication, the journal may publish a correction or other appropriate notice.

Corrections may be issued for errors such as:

Incorrect author information.
Errors in data or tables.
Significant typographical errors affecting interpretation.
Incorrect references.
Methodological or factual errors that can be corrected without invalidating the overall findings.

Authors are encouraged to notify the journal promptly if they discover a significant error in their published work.

Corrections will be linked to the original article where technically possible, and the original publication will remain part of the scholarly record unless there is a justified reason for removal.

11. Retractions

An article may be retracted when there is compelling evidence that its findings or publication record are unreliable or when serious publication misconduct has occurred.

Possible grounds for retraction include:

Fabrication or falsification of data.
Serious plagiarism.
Major methodological or analytical errors that invalidate the findings.
Duplicate publication.
Serious ethical violations.
Manipulation of the peer-review process.
Unlawful or unethical use of research data.
Other circumstances that substantially undermine the reliability or integrity of the published work.

A retraction does not necessarily imply misconduct by every author.

When an article is retracted, the journal will publish a clear retraction notice identifying the article and explaining the reason for the retraction. The original article will remain part of the scholarly record where possible, with its retracted status clearly indicated.

12. Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision where they believe there has been a significant procedural error, factual misunderstanding, or other substantive issue that may have materially affected the decision.

An appeal should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief and should clearly identify:

The manuscript title and reference number.
The editorial decision being appealed.
The specific grounds for the appeal.
Relevant evidence supporting the appeal.

Simply disagreeing with the editorial assessment or reviewer recommendations is not normally sufficient grounds for an appeal.

Complaints concerning editorial conduct, peer review, publication ethics, authorship, or other journal processes should be directed to the appropriate journal contact.

Complaints will be handled fairly and confidentially. Where a complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief, the matter may be referred to an appropriate independent or senior representative of the Professional Statisticians' Society of Nigeria.

The journal may seek advice from independent editors, reviewers, institutional representatives, or other appropriate experts when necessary.

13. Misconduct Investigations

ASTA takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously.

When a credible allegation is received, the journal may:

Conduct an initial assessment of the concern.
Request an explanation or supporting documentation from the authors or other relevant parties.
Review available evidence, including manuscript records, reviewer reports, data, similarity reports, and correspondence.
Seek independent expert advice where necessary.
Contact the relevant institution or research organisation when the matter requires institutional investigation.
Take appropriate editorial action based on the available evidence.

Depending on the circumstances, editorial action may include:

Rejection of a submitted manuscript.
Suspension of the editorial process.
Correction of a published article.
Retraction.
Publication of an expression of concern.
Restriction on future submissions where justified.
Notification of an author's institution or other appropriate authority.

The journal will seek to protect the confidentiality and rights of all parties while ensuring that credible concerns about research integrity are appropriately investigated.

14. Use of Artificial Intelligence

ASTA recognises that artificial intelligence and generative AI tools can assist researchers with activities such as language improvement, coding, statistical analysis, literature organisation, and other research-related tasks. Their use must not compromise research integrity, confidentiality, authorship transparency, or the accuracy of published work.

Authors

Authors remain fully responsible for the content, accuracy, originality, and integrity of their manuscripts.

AI tools must not be listed as authors because they cannot accept responsibility for a publication.

Authors should disclose substantive use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in manuscript preparation or research where such use could materially affect the content, analysis, interpretation, or presentation of the work.

AI tools must not be used to fabricate data, generate false references, manipulate research findings, create misleading images, or otherwise misrepresent the research.

Authors should verify all AI-generated content, references, calculations, statistical outputs, and factual claims before submission.

Reviewers

Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and must not upload confidential manuscripts, unpublished data, reviewer reports, or other protected editorial materials to generative AI systems or third-party services where doing so could compromise confidentiality or intellectual property.

Reviewers remain responsible for the accuracy and integrity of their review reports.

Editors

Editors must protect confidential manuscript and reviewer information when using AI-assisted tools. AI systems may assist with administrative or analytical tasks where appropriate, but editorial decisions remain the responsibility of human editors.

AI-generated recommendations must not replace independent editorial judgement.

Research and Data Integrity

The use of AI does not remove the authors' responsibility to comply with applicable research ethics, data protection, copyright, intellectual property, and confidentiality requirements.

Where AI has been used to generate or substantially transform research content, authors should ensure that the use is transparent, reproducible where relevant, and consistent with accepted scholarly practice.

Commitment to Research Integrity

ASTA is committed to protecting the integrity of the scholarly record and promoting responsible conduct throughout the publication process. Authors,