About the Journal

About this Journal

The International Journal on Graft and Corruption (IJGC) serves as a forum for disseminating high-quality research on the complex and critical issue of corruption. We aim to foster a global exchange of knowledge and critical discourse to illuminate the nature, causes, and consequences of corruption, while also exploring effective strategies for prevention, detection, and mitigation.

About The Publishers

Philippine Association of Institutions for Research, Inc. (PAIR) is a scientific and professional organization of research institutions, researchers, academicians, and educators with currently 143 active member institutions and more than 5,000 national and international individual members across the country and beyond. It is a SEC Registered with SEC registration number CN200728844. It is affiliated with the Association of Institutional Research (AIR), United States of America. PAIR organizes national and international conferences, publishes academic and scientific journals, and conducts national and international research trainings. PAIR provides recognition to researchers with outstanding achievements.

PAIR journals cover a broad range of scientific disciplines and feature articles published on an electronic platform each year.

International Journal on Graft and Corruption aims to publish new discoveries in the various disciplines of knowledge that are contributed by member researchers.

Aims and Scope

Aim:

The International Journal on Graft and Corruption (IJGC) aspires to be a leading platform for disseminating high-quality research on the multifaceted issues of graft and corruption. It aims to foster a global exchange of knowledge and critical discourse to understand the nature, causes, and consequences of corruption, as well as effective strategies for prevention, detection, and mitigation.

Scope:

IJGC welcomes original research articles, review papers, case studies, and theoretical perspectives that explore various aspects of graft and corruption.  Here are some potential areas of interest, but not exhaustive:

Theories of corruption: Exploring the root causes and underlying factors that contribute to corruption.
Forms and manifestations of corruption: Examining different types of corruption, such as bribery, extortion, nepotism, and embezzlement.
The impact of corruption: Analyzing the economic, social, and political consequences of corruption on various levels (individual, organizational, national, and international).
Anti-corruption strategies: Investigating and evaluating effective approaches to prevent, detect, and punish corruption.
The role of institutions and governance: Analyzing the role of institutions, governance structures, and legal frameworks in combating corruption.
The impact of technology: Exploring the influence of technology on both facilitating and deterring corruption.
Regional and global perspectives: Encouraging comparative studies and analyses of corruption across different countries and regions.

IJGC is committed to publishing rigorous and impactful research that contributes to a deeper understanding of graft and corruption and informs the development of effective anti-corruption strategies.

Abstract and Indexing

The International Journal on Graft and Corruption are indexed in the CrossRef and Google Scholar. 

The International Journal on Graft and Corruption are available via RSS Web Feed and repository in the Academia, ResearchGate, Philippine EJournals, and JournalTOCs.

Editorial Team

International Journal on Graft and Corruption Editorial Board is made up of internationally renowned academics in the journal's discipline. They are chosen by the editorial team and provide professional input on key policy and content issues. They also review articles that have been submitted, solicit new authors and submissions, and promote the journal to the global academic community. The Editorial Team members improve and strengthen the quality, integrity, reputation, and sustainability of our publication through their field of expertise and substantial work as scientists and researchers.

Article Processing Charges

Manuscripts that are submitted and accepted after the first author review to the International Journal on Graft and Corruption, the manuscript charge whose work is accepted for publication is subjected to pay 125 USD (6,500php) for 1-3 authors, 155 USD (8,000php) for 4-6 authors and 195 USD (10,000php) for 7-10 authors. This article-processing charge is aimed to cover publication costs. This includes a provision of online tools, plagiarism check cost, journal printing and freight, and customer related services. If your manuscript is accepted for publication, we will send you an invoice and ask you to pay the Article Publication Charge.

Information for Editors

The International Journal on Graft and Corruption is open to the global community of scholars who wish to have their researches published in a peer-reviewed journal. The journal adopts Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for every article to facilitate cross-referencing, linking, and citation tracking. Contributors can access the journal website at www.philair.ph. Articles are contributed by a member and non-member researchers of the Philippine Association of Institutions for Research. The frequency of the issue is four times a year. The efforts of both the study authors and the reviewers are crucial to the efficiency and efficacy of the editorial review process. An author takes on the task of preparing the research article for review by independent reviewers. Subjecting the paper to peer review and revision before to submission is part of the obligation. The review process is not to be used to obtain feedback at the early stages of developing the research paper. The Editorial Board makes publication decisions for submitted manuscripts based on the reviewer’s evaluation of the manuscript.

Policy on Retraction

The act of a journal publisher to remove a published article from the digital file owing to post-publication discovery of fraudulent claims by the study, plagiarism, or major technique mistakes that escaped detection in the quality assurance procedure is known as retraction. Third-party researcher complaints of any kind that are confirmed by the editorial office lead to retraction, but only after the writer has been notified and given the opportunity to explain his case in accordance with due procedure.

Policy on Digital Preservation

Digital Preservation is the process of systematically storing electronic files in multiple formats such as compact discs, cloud computing, Google drive, email accounts, and external hard drives, among others. This guarantees that in conditions where the website crashes, there is a natural calamity, fire, and other manmade destructions, virus invasions, and the files are preserved.

Policy on Handling Complaints

Suppose the Journal receives a complaint alleging that a contribution to the Journal violates copyright or other intellectual property rights, or contains significant inaccuracies, libelous information, or other illegal items. In that case, the Journal will investigate the complaint. The Investigation may include a request that the parties involved substantiate their claims. The Journal will decide whether or not to remove the allegedly erroneous material in good faith. If the complaint is well-founded, the Journal's decision not to remove the information should reflect the Journal's opinion that a legal defense or exemption may apply, such as fair use in the case of copyright infringement or veracity of a statement in the case of libel. The study and choice should be documented in the journal. If the article is found guilty after an investigation, it will be subject to a retraction policy.

Policy on Conflicts of Interest

The Journal will only publish articles when the author(s) has confirmed that all potential conflicts of interest have been disclosed.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice

The International Journal on Graft and Corruption is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against any publication malpractices. All authors submitting their works for publication as original articles attest that the submitted works represent their authors’ contributions and have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other works. The authors acknowledge that they have disclosed any actual or potential conflicts of interest with their work or partial benefits associated with it. Similarly, the Journal is dedicated to conducting objective and fair double-blind peer assessment of all works submitted for publication, as well as avoiding any actual or prospective conflicts of interest between editorial and review personnel and the reviewed material. Any deviation from the above-mentioned rules should be notified to the Editor-in-Chief immediately. They are unequivocally committed to providing swift resolutions to any of such type of problems.

The Peer Review System

Definition. Peer review (also known as refereeing) is the process of subjecting an author’s scholarly work, research ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field. Peer review requires a community of experts in a given (and often narrowly defined) field who are qualified and able to perform impartial International Journal on Graft and Corruption review. Peer review refers to the work done while screening submitted manuscripts and funding applications. This normative procedure encourages authors to adhere to their discipline's established standards and discourages the spread of unfounded claims, undesirable interpretations, and personal viewpoints. Peer review increases the probability that weaknesses will be identified and fixed with advice and encouragement. For both grant funding and publication in a scholarly journal, it is normally required that the subject be both novel and substantial.

Type. The double-blind review process is adopted for the journal. The reviewer/s and the author/s do not know each other’s identities.

Join the PAIR Peer-Review Program

PAIR is one of the academic Open Access publishers worldwide. Manuscripts submitted to all our journals are peer-reviewed. Reviewers are involved in all manuscripts submitted to our journals. Based on the reviewer’s comments, the Editor-in-Chief is subsequently making a final decision about how a manuscript needs to be improved.

Recruiting Referees. The editorial office has the obligation of selecting reviewers. When a manuscript is received, an editor seeks reviews from scholars or other specialists to serve as referees. In rare situations, the authors may suggest referees' names, which must be approved by the Editorial Office. The referees must have an excellent track record as researchers in the field, as evidenced by researches published in refereed journals, research-related awards, and an experience in peer review. Referees are not selected from the author’s close colleagues, students, or friends. Referees are to inform the editor of any conflict of interest. The Editorial Board often invites research authors to name people they consider qualified to referee their work. The author’s input in selecting referees is solicited because academic writing is typically very specialized.

The identities of the referees selected by the Editorial Board are kept unknown to research authors. However, the reviewer’s identity can be disclosed under some special circumstances. Disclosure of Peer Review may be granted for the following reasons: as proof that the published paper underwent peer review as required by the university for ranking and financial incentives, for regulatory bodies, and as required by the Commission on Higher Education, and for academic program accreditation. Request for peer review results shall be made in writing.

If you are ready to be a peer reviewer, please submit your CV to jpairjournals@gmail.com with the email subject: Peer-Reviewer Application. After evaluation, we will contact you and let you know where to start.

Procedure:

1. Send us your CV.
2. Become a peer-reviewer.
3. Once listed as Peer Reviewer, the Managing Editor will send an invitation to review a manuscript (inclusion of email: full paper and peer review form). There are times when you are given 1-2 papers to review.
4. The peer reviewer is given 3-5 days to return the reviewed manuscript.
5. The Managing Editor will send a Certificate as Peer Reviewer.

Open Access

"By 'open access' to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, allowing anyone to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without any financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inextricably linked to obtaining connection to the web itself." The sole restriction on replication and distribution should be to provide contributors authority over the quality of their work and the right to be appropriately credited and cited."

Publication Ethics

Criteria for Acceptance and Rejection.

A manuscript is accepted when it is (1) endorsed for publication by 2 or 3 referees, (2) the instructions of the reviewers are substantially complied; (3) the manuscript passed the plagiarism detection test with a score of at least 90 for originality; and, (4) the manuscript obtained a score of 90 percent for grammarly software; otherwise, the manuscript is rejected. The referees’ evaluations include an explicit recommendation of what to do with the manuscript, chosen from options provided by the journal.

Most recommendations are along the following lines:

• Unconditional acceptance
• Acceptance with revision based on the referee’s recommendations
• Rejection with an invitation to resubmit after major adjustments based on the advice of the referees and editorial board
• Complete rejection

In situations where the referees disagree substantially about the quality of work, there are a number of strategies for reaching a decision. When the editor receives both extremely favorable and extremely negative feedback on the same manuscript, the board will request one or more extra reviews to break the tie. In the event of a tie, the board may invite writers to respond to a referee's criticisms and allow a strong response to break the tie. The board may request a response from the referee who made the original critique if the editor does not feel secure in judging the persuasiveness of a rebuttal. In rare instances, the board will convey communications back and forth between an author and a referee, allowing them to debate on a point. However, even in such a case, the board does not allow referees to confer with each other. The goal of the process is explicitly not to reach a consensus or to convince anyone to change his/her opinions.

Plagiarism Policy

Journals published in the International Journal on Graft and Corruption Journal evaluate submissions on the understanding that they are the original work of the author(s). Plagiarism is defined as the use of text, data, figures, or images without proper acknowledgement or authorization, as well as the paraphrasing of language, thoughts, and ideas. All plagiarism claims are investigated according to COPE rules detailed at http://publicationethics.org/files/u7140/plagiarism%20A.pdf

Duplicate Submission

Duplicate submission/publication sanctions will be applied to manuscripts that have been published or are under review elsewhere. Suppose authors have used their own previously published work or work that is currently under review as the basis for a submitted manuscript. In that instance, they must cite the preceding work and explain how their submitted article adds to the previous work in a unique way.

Citation Manipulation

Citation manipulation sanctions will be applied to submitted manuscripts that contain citations whose primary objective is to boost the number of citations to a given author's work or publications published in a particular journal.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

Data fabrication and falsification sanctions will be applied to papers deemed to have faked or falsified experimental results, including picture manipulation.

Improper Author Contribution or Attribution

All mentioned authors must have contributed significantly to the research in the publication and must have approved all of its claims. It is critical to include students and laboratory personnel among those who made significant scientific contributions.

Redundant Publications

Redundant publications involve the inappropriate division of study outcomes into several articles.

Sanctions

In the event that there are documented violations of any of the above-mentioned policies in any journal, regardless of whether or not the violations occurred in a journal published by JPAIR, the following sanctions will be applied:

The infringing manuscript is immediately rejected.

• Immediate rejection of any other paper submitted by any of the infringing manuscript's authors to any JPAIR-published journal.
• All of the writers are prohibited from submitting future manuscripts to any JPAIR-published journal, either individually or in combination with other authors of the infringing work and any other authors. This prohibition will be in place for at least 36 months.
• Prohibition against all authors from serving on the Editorial Board of any journal published by JPAIR.

The publisher maintains the right to impose further punishments beyond those indicated above in circumstances where violations of the above policies are judged to be extremely serious.

Authorship and Change in Authorship

An author must provide a significant contribution to the research project's framework, methodology, statistical tool selection, and data interpretation, among other things. Critical revision is also a requirement for authorship. Any questions about the accuracy or integrity of any aspect of the work should be directed to the author. Authorship also includes the responsibility of researching and resolving problems.

Submission of Manuscript

Authors should follow the guidelines on the journal's policies page when preparing their manuscripts. All manuscripts sent to the managing editor for assessment will be considered for review.

The authors named on the manuscript should have met the authorship standards outlined above. No paper will be published until it has received final approval from the corresponding author. Once the paper has been submitted to our journal, it is believed that all of the authors will be accepted and will be bound by the journal's terms and conditions. The article should include all authors' contact information. Make a Submission here

Manuscript Withdrawal Policy

Once the corresponding author has confirmed to withdraw the submitted article, the author must communicate with the Executive Editor via e-mail. Upon receiving the email from the corresponding author, further processing of the article will be stopped. No processing charges will be collected after withdrawal.

Peer Review Process

Peer Review Process. Advanced copies of an author's work are sent to specialists in the field (known as "referees" or "reviewers") via e-mail or a Web-based manuscript processing system by the Editorial Board. For each article, there are two or three referees. Two are research professionals, and one is a research and statistics expert who will look over the technical aspects of the research. These referees give the board an appraisal of the work, pointing out any flaws or faults and offering suggestions for improvement. The board then considers the referees' remarks and writes their impressions of the document before returning the decision to the author with the referees' comments (s).

Criteria for Acceptance and Rejection. A manuscript is accepted if it is (1) endorsed for publication by two or three referees, (2) the reviewers' instructions are substantially followed, (3) the manuscript passed the plagiarism detection test with at least 90 percent originality, and (4) the manuscript received a score of 90 percent for Grammarly software; otherwise, the manuscript is rejected. The referees’ evaluations include an explicit recommendation of what to do with the manuscript, chosen from options provided by the journal. Most recommendations are along the following lines:

• Unconditional acceptance
• Acceptance with revision based on the referee’s recommendations
• Rejection with an invitation to resubmit after major adjustments based on the advice of the referees and editorial board
• Complete rejection

In situations where the referees disagree substantially about the quality of work, there are a number of strategies for reaching a decision. When the editor receives both extremely favorable and extremely negative feedback on the same manuscript, the board will request one or more extra reviews to break the tie. In the event of a tie, the board may invite writers to respond to a referee's criticisms and allow a strong response to break the tie. The board may request a response from the referee who made the original critique if the editor does not feel secure in judging the persuasiveness of a rebuttal. In rare instances, the board will convey communications back and forth between an author and a referee, allowing them to debate on a point. However, even in such a case, the board does not allow referees to confer with each other. The goal of the process is explicitly not to reach a consensus or to convince anyone to change his/her opinions.

Comments

The International Journal on Graft and Corruption welcomes the submission of comments on previous articles. Comments on previously published articles will usually be assessed by two reviewers: an author of the original article (to aid the editor in determining whether the provided remark accurately represents the accuracy of the preceding article) and an independent reviewer. If a comment is accepted for publication, the author will be given the opportunity to respond. All other editorial requirements, as enumerated above, apply to proposed comments—technology-based Quality Assurance English Writing Readability. Readability tests are designed to indicate comprehension difficulty when reading a passage of contemporary academic English. To guide teachers and researchers in the proper selection of articles that suit the comprehension level of users, contributors are advised to use the Flesch Kincaid readability test, particularly the Flesch Reading Ease test. The interpretation of the score is as follows:

Score Notes
90.0 – 100.00 Easily understandable by an average 11-year-old student
60.0 – 70.0 Easily understandable by 13 to 15-year-old students
0.0 – 30.0 Best understood by university graduates

Gunning Fog Index. Developed by Robert Gunning, an American Businessman, in 1952, Gunning Fog Index measures the readability of English writing. The index estimates the years of formal education required to understand the text on a first reading. A fog index of 12 requires a reading level of a US high school senior (around 18 years old) or third-year college/university in the Philippines.

Plagiarism Detection. Contributors are advised to use software for plagiarism detection to increase the manuscript’s chances of acceptance. The editorial office uses licensed software to screen research articles of plagiarism. The standard set is 95 percent original to pass the plagiarism detection test. Appropriateness of Citation Format. Contributors are advised to use the citation format prescribed by the Harvard System.

Word Count, Spelling, and Grammar Checks. Contributors are encouraged to perform word count for the abstract (200) and the full text (about 4000 to 6000). Spelling and grammar checks should be performed prior to submission. The standard set is 90 percent to pass the Grammarly Software.

Final Evaluation: After favorable opinions of referees, the editorial board is made the final evaluation. They will be given an endorsement form together with their comments and suggestions to be applied to each manuscript. The articles accepted for publication by the editorial are placed in an issue sequence.

Time of Peer Review Process: The journal aims to complete the all peer review process within 15 weeks (effective from 2022). This time, however, may vary depending on the amount of revision work that needs to be completed before the manuscript is acceptable.

Peer Review Policy

• Before submitting the work, the authors are asked to prepare it to high standards and check the policies of JPAIR publications. We stand for critical analysis, in-depth study, and the most effective means of disseminating research articles.
• Once an article has been accepted for publication in our journal, authors should not submit the same article to another journal or remove articles that have already been accepted. Manuscripts with content that is outside the scope will not be reviewed.
• One or Two Peer Reviewers will review each article. If necessary, the article may be subjected to additional scrutiny. When needed, authors will be given timely information regarding the review process.
• The journal reserves the right not to accept the article if it fails to follow the PAIR Qualifying Standards. By referees report, the Editors-in-Chief can decide and notify the authors if their article is not accepted for publication.
• The manuscript will be considered as confidential once it has been submitted. Other than the author, no other individuals or publication agencies will be contacted about the manuscript.
• We will take all the necessary actions to prevent the misuse of privileged information or ideas obtained through a peer review of submitted articles and will not be used for any competitive gain.
• Any time along the process, the editorial team/reviewers have the right to request any supporting documentation (datasheets, informed consent, research approval letters, and relevant ethical documents).
• The privacy and confidentiality of the peer reviewers and their work will be protected.

Self-Archiving Policy

The International Journal on Graft and Corruption (IJGC) recognizes the value of open access and knowledge sharing.  To promote wider dissemination of research, authors retain copyright of their work and can self-archive their articles (pre-print, post-print, or published version) in institutional repositories or personal websites. An embargo period may apply to the published version (e.g., 6 months) to ensure readers access the official IJGC version first.  Authors are responsible for acknowledging IJGC as the publisher, including a link to the published article (if available), and clearly identifying the self-archived version type. IJGC remains committed to providing clear information about this policy, linking to published articles, and supporting the dissemination of research.  For any questions, please contact the IJGC editorial team.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of JPAIR and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Publication Frequency

International Journal on Graft and Corruption is a annual publication. It comes out in January. Special issues may be published in a year.

Copyright and Permission

If any changes in authorship (order, deletion, or addition) occur after the manuscript is submitted, agreement by all authors for such changes must be on file with PAIR Journal. An author’s name may only be removed at his/her request and with written consent from all of the authors, and as final approval by the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal.

Author’s Responsibilities.

1. The manuscript is not currently under consideration, in the press, or published elsewhere. The research reported will not be submitted for publication elsewhere until the final decision has been made regarding its acceptability by the PAIR Journal. (Note: posting of submitted material on any website or by any other electronic means may be considered prior to publication);
2. The manuscript is an original work without fabrication, fraud, or plagiarism;
3. The author has made an important scientific contribution to the study and is/are thoroughly familiar with the primary data and;
4. The author has read the complete manuscript takes responsibility for the content and completeness of the manuscript, and understands that he/she shares responsibility if the paper, or part of the paper, is faulty or fraudulent.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure. All funding sources supporting the work and all institutional or corporate affiliations of the author are acknowledged. Except as disclosed in a separate attachment, the author certifies that he/she has no commercial association (e.g., consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent-licensing arrangement, etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article, and that he/she accepts full responsibility for the conduct of the research, had full access to all data, and decision to publish.

Copyright Transfer. In consideration of the acceptance of the manuscript for publication, the author hereby assigns and transfers all the copyright and other interests, and to the PAIR Journal. This includes, but is not limited to, posting the accepted manuscript on the PAIR website, online publication of the journal and its articles, and archiving of the same in various formats.

Withdrawal Policy

The author must notify with the Editor in Chief via e-mail once the corresponding author has confirmed to withdraw the submitted manuscript. A manuscript withdrawal form will be emailed to the author's email address, and the author must sign and express their desire to withdraw. Upon receiving the completed form from the corresponding author, the article will be put on hold. No processing charges will be collected if the article is withdrawn within 7 days of submission. If the author requests withdrawal beyond this time, the article processing charges (APC) must be paid by the author.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in the articles published on the International Journal on Graft and Corruption website are solely those of the research paper's author(s). It does not represent the views of both the Editor and the Editorial Board. The author/s are solely responsible for the subject matter of the research paper. However, due to the possibility of human error, neither the authors, editors, or publisher, nor anyone else involved in the preparation of the work warrants that the information contained herein is accurate or complete in every aspect, and they are not responsible for any errors or omissions or the results obtained from the use of such information. Readers should double-check the information in this article with other sources.