When submitting a manuscript to one of the ESRC journals, the corresponding author is required to confirm that the work is original, unpublished, and not under consideration by any other journal.

As part of standard editorial checks—consistent with practices followed by major international publishers such as Springer and Wiley—the editorial office conducts routine screening to identify potential cases of duplicate or redundant submission. This includes automated similarity checks and manual verification of titles and authorship across widely used scholarly databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, and other indexing platforms.

If any indication arises that a manuscript has been submitted or published elsewhere, the corresponding author will be contacted and given a limited timeframe to clarify the situation. Failure to respond, or confirmation of a breach of exclusivity, will result in rejection of the manuscript. In cases of serious or repeated violations, the journal reserves the right to impose temporary submission restrictions, in line with COPE recommendations and standard publishing ethics.

Authors who have previously submitted the manuscript to another journal are expected to disclose this information transparently at the time of submission. Where necessary, editorial processing may be paused until the manuscript’s status elsewhere is clearly resolved. This approach ensures fairness to authors while safeguarding the integrity of the peer-review process.

Any exclusivity breach discovered after acceptance or publication is handled in accordance with COPE guidelines, which may include retraction and the publication of an explanatory notice linked to the article. The Emirates Scholar Center for Research & Studies maintains internal records of confirmed cases to support consistent editorial decision-making and, where appropriate, may notify affiliated institutions in cases of serious misconduct.

Through these measures, ESRC upholds responsible scholarly publishing practices and meets the integrity standards expected by the Scopus Content Selection & Advisory Board.