Publication Ethics

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and research integrity. The journal follows the principles and best-practice guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Editors, reviewers, and authors are expected to uphold these standards throughout the editorial and publication process.

Editorial Responsibilities

Editors evaluate manuscripts based on scholarly merit, originality, relevance, and alignment with the journal’s aims and scope.

Manuscripts that fall outside the journal’s scope, fail to meet basic scholarly standards, or are clearly unsuitable may be declined without external peer review.

Editors treat all submissions confidentially and must avoid conflicts of interest. Unpublished material may not be used for personal research without the author's written permission.

Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers support editorial decisions by providing objective, constructive, and timely evaluations.

Reviews must remain confidential.
Reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest and decline the review when appropriate.
Relevant uncited literature should be identified where possible.
Suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other ethical concerns should be reported to the editors.

Author Responsibilities

Authors must submit original work that has not been published or submitted elsewhere at the same time.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of their research.
The work of others must be properly acknowledged and cited.
Authorship must be limited to those who made a meaningful contribution to the work.
Funding sources and conflicts of interest must be disclosed.
Ethics approval and informed consent must be obtained where required for research involving human participants.

Submissions may be screened using plagiarism-detection or similarity-checking software.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Authors must disclose any use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted tools in the preparation of a manuscript.

AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Human authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical compliance of all submitted content.

Corrections and Retractions

If significant errors or ethical concerns are identified after publication, Wagadu may issue corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern in accordance with COPE guidance.

Publication Fees

Wagadu does not charge submission fees, article processing charges (APCs), or publication fees.

As an open-access journal, Wagadu is supported by the State University of New York at Cortland and the voluntary contributions of its editors, editorial board members, and reviewers.