Policies

Focus and Scope

The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities (JPAC) is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing both empirical and theoretical work related to plain Anabaptist communities, including, among others, the Amish, conservative Mennonites, Amish-Mennonites, Apostolic Christians, Brethren, Bruderhof, and Hutterites. JPAC articles may include emerging issues associated with plain Anabaptist communities, diverse theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to the study of plain Anabaptist groups, and significant research findings about plain Anabaptist populations.

JPAC aims to facilitate the advancement of scholarship and research on plain Anabaptist communities in North America and around the world, and to strengthen the networks of scholars from all disciplines who examine faith groups that emerged from the Anabaptist movement of the 16^th century and who today maintain distinctive sectarian lifestyles and religious practices. JPAC enjoys the support and collaboration of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania and the Amish & Mennonite Information Center, Berlin, Ohio.

Peer Review Process

Submissions to JPAC will first receive an editor's review to determine if the submission fits within the Focus and Scope of the journal. All submissions are reviewed by peers who have the appropriate knowledge and expertise. All JPAC submissions are peer-reviewed through a double anonymous process, that is, neither those who submit a manuscript know the identity of those who review their manuscript, nor do reviewers know the identity of those who submitted a manuscript to JPAC. The final publication decisions are made by the Editor based on information gathered from the peer reviews.

Publication Frequency

The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities is published by The Ohio State University Libraries twice each year – Spring and Autumn.

Open Access Policy

Journals published by The Ohio State University Libraries provide immediate open access to their content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

In order to lower barriers to publication for authors, our journals do not charge submission or any other form of author fees.

The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license unless otherwise indicated.

While authors retain copyright ownership of their work, this Creative Commons license will allow readers to print, share, re-post, and republish an article, without asking for permission, as long as the work is properly attributed to the author(s), it isn't used commercially, and it isn't changed in any way. Read more about the license here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or view the full legal text here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode.

(Updated December 18, 2019)

Publication Ethics

The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities (JPAC) is guided by the highest standards in publication ethics as outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in their Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

(Updated October 1, 2020)

Authorship

All published articles in JPAC will contain clear and accurate attribution of authorship. The author is responsible for ensuring that everyone who contributed to the work is fairly acknowledged.

An author is defined using the ICMJE description:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

If authorship disputes arise, the JPAC editorial team will follow the COPE guidelines.

(Updated October 1, 2020)

Complaints and Appeals

JPAC editors have discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for the journal. However, if the author feels the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error, the author can appeal the decision by contacting the editors with a detailed description of the perceived error.

JPAC editors will promptly respond to ethical complaints and, in collaboration with JPAC’s publisher, The Ohio State University Libraries, will follow guidance described by COPE.

(Updated October 1, 2020)

Conflict of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose conflicts of interest at the earliest possible opportunity - for example, when a manuscript is submitted or a review assignment is accepted. Conflict of interest is defined as any competing personal, professional, or financial interest that may introduce bias into the publishing process of the journal.

Example conflicts of interest:

• financial support from commercial enterprises that have a vested interest in the results
• personal relationships that would compromise objectivity during review or publication
• professional competition that would prevent objective evaluation of a submitted manuscript

Disclosure of a conflict of interest by an author does not necessarily mean that a manuscript will be denied acceptance to the journal. If an author is found to have a conflict of interest that was not disclosed during the submission and review process, the editor will identify an appropriate remedy, which may include a published correction or a retraction.

(Updated September 20, 2019)

Copyright and Plagiarism

Copyright Policy

Authors retain all rights to work published by The Ohio State University Libraries' Publishing Program. The specific terms of our author agreements may vary slightly from journal to journal, but they all constitute nonexclusive licenses covering the rights required to publish, index, abstract, and preserve the content. Authors are free to reuse their work and to enter into other agreements as long as they credit the relevant journal as the site of first publication and provide a link to the journal website.

The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license unless otherwise indicated.

Plagarism Policy

JPAC does not accept manuscripts with plagiarised material. For the purposes of this policy, plagiarism is defined as the use of previously authored works - including text, data, and images – of others or self without proper attribution. Submissions to all sections of the Journal will be checked online using the plagiarism detection service Turnitin.

The editors of JPAC will respond to plagiarism at their discretion. Actions taken will be based on the severity of the plagiarism attempt, but can include corrections to or retractions of the published article, the author being banned from publishing in the journal, and/or the editor notification of the author’s institution or funding agencies.

(Updated August 26, 2024)

Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC)

Definitions

Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC), commonly referred to as material generated using AI, is unique content created by tools using predictions made via machine learning from LLMs (large language models) or SMLs (small language models.)

This policy covers the use of AIGC whether by authors, editors, or peer reviewers.

Authorship

JPAC is in agreement with the following statement from Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE):

AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements.

Please review COPE’s Full statement on AI authorship.

Therefore, manuscripts should not list AI tools as coauthors when submitting to JPAC.

Authors

If authors submitting to JPAC have used AIGC in  any portion of a manuscript, including text, data, images, graphics, videos, citations or translations, the tool and its use  must be described in detail in the Methods and/or Acknowledgements sections of the manuscript, including prompts used if appropriate, and the full text of the original AIGC be attached as supplemental material. AIGC tools include, but are not limited to, GPT-4, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Bard, DALL-E2, Midjourney, and other tools trained on Large Language Models (LLMs) or SMLs (small language models) that generate unique content based on predictions. This also applies to AIGC add-ons within software offered by Microsoft, Adobe and others, as well as online applications offered by Google, Zoom, Canva, Atlas.ti and others.

In the submission process authors will be asked to complete the following statement declaring any AIGC in the manuscript:

During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the factual accuracy and originality of the material. 

Standard grammatical aid tools that automate general spelling and grammar are not considered AIGC and are not required to be listed.

If authors discover sources through the use of AI tools, they must access those sources directly in order to use and cite them in their manuscripts.

In accordance with the above COPE statement: 

• AIGC tools cannot be listed as authors. 
• As with standard manuscript submission, the author is responsible for the accuracy of all information provided by the tool. 

Editors

Selection of peer reviewers by JPAC editors will not be done by AI tools and manuscripts submitted to JPAC will not be uploaded into such tools. Authors submitting to JPAC assume that their manuscript will be treated with confidentiality throughout the editorial and peer review process. As it is currently unclear how data ingested in AI tools is stored and reused, sharing any part of the manuscript including text, figures, graphs, and images violates the confidentiality authors expect when submitting manuscripts to JPAC. As such, editors agree not to ingest the manuscript into AI tools to evaluate the material or find potential peer reviewers. 

Editors may search AI supported discovery tools with keywords of their own design to assist in finding expert researchers in a particular field, much as they would consult resources such as Google Scholar or Scopus to find names of prominent authors in a given area of expertise.

Peer Review

Just as authors are accountable for the quality and integrity of their scholarly work, JPAC holds peer reviewers to the same standard. At this point in time JPAC does not allow the use of AI tools in the peer review of manuscripts because:

• AIGC tools are trained on past data whereas the peer review process is concerned with the evaluation of new research and the novel application of methodologies which can only be properly assessed by expert researchers in the field.
• AIGC tools at this point in time can replicate and amplify human bias rather than correct it in the peer review process.
• AIGC tools are often created and owned by private commercial interests and their processes are not transparent.

In addition, uploading manuscripts into AIGC tools potentially compromises authors' proprietary rights and confidentiality.

(Updated August 26, 2024)

Ethical Oversight

JPAC will promote the highest standards of research by ensuring that the published research is conducted in a fair and ethical manner. Wherever appropriate, published research based on human subjects will provide the name of the local ethics committee that approved the study (or confirmation that such approval is not needed). Any submissions that don’t meet these criteria will be returned to the authors.

(Updated October 1, 2020)

Post-Publication Corrections

When errors are discovered in published content, JPAC will follow the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The following language is a brief summary of relevant portions of the guidelines for the benefit of our editors, authors, and readers. The full guidelines should be consulted if questions arise or action is being considered.

If the editor becomes aware of major errors in, or misconduct related to published work, the editor may issue a retraction, statement of concern, or correction. These actions are meant to maintain the scholarly record and are not meant to be a form of punishment. An author who determines that his or her published article may contain errors should contact the editor promptly so that the journal can determine a path forward. Readers are also invited to contact the editor with concerns about published content.

Retraction

A retraction is defined as a public disavowal, not an erasure or removal. Retractions will occur if the editors and editorial board find that the main conclusion of the work is undermined or if subsequent information about the work comes to light of which the authors or the editors were not aware at the time of publication.

Statement of Concern

A statement of concern will be issued if there is inconclusive evidence of research misconduct / ethical wrongdoing or there is an ongoing investigation and results are pending.

Correction

A correction will be published if the scholarly record is seriously affected (e.g., if accuracy / intended meaning, scientific reproducibility, author reputation, or journal reputation is judged to be compromised). Corrections such as misspellings or grammatical errors will not be published. Published corrections will be added to the original article whenever possible. When that is not possible, the correction will link to and from the original work.

Removal

Removal of published content may occur if an article is determined to be defamatory by a court of law, if it infringes on legal rights, or if there is a reasonable expectation that it will be subject to a court order for any reason. The bibliographic information about the work will be retained online, but the work will no longer be available through the journal. A note will be added to indicate that the item was removed for legal reasons.

(Updated October 1, 2020)

Preservation

This journal participates in the Public Knowledge Project's Private LOCKSS Network to preserve its contents. https://pkp.sfu.ca/pkp-pn/

(Updated September 20, 2019)