Complaints and Appeals Policy

The Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities (JTUH) places transparency and fairness at the forefront of its editorial priorities, providing a clear and documented mechanism for handling complaints and appeals. This policy aims to safeguard the rights of authors, reviewers, and readers, while protecting the Journal's academic integrity and institutional reputation.

First: Scope of Complaints

The Journal accepts complaints related to editorial and ethical processes, which include the following:

• Excessive and unjustified delays in the review or publication procedures via the Journal's electronic system.
• Allegations of professional bias or undisclosed conflicts of interest involving any member of the editorial board or scientific reviewers.
• Reports of plagiarism, data fabrication, or intellectual property rights violations in published manuscripts or those under review.
• Explicit violations of scientific research ethics or editorial misconduct.

Second: Appeals against Editorial Decisions

Authors have the right to submit a formal appeal against the decision to reject their manuscripts. This process is subject to the following regulations:

• The appeal must be based on strong scientific justifications or clear evidence of a technical error or a profound misunderstanding by the reviewers regarding the manuscript's content and methodology. Appeals based solely on dissatisfaction with the outcome will not be accepted.
• The appeal request must be submitted within a maximum of 30 days from the date of receiving the rejection notice.
• The Editor-in-Chief personally reviews the appeal request. If the justifications are convincing, one of the following two decisions is made:
  • Initiating a new review round or assigning the manuscript to entirely new reviewers to ensure the neutrality of the double-blind peer review process. The decision issued after this round is final and unappealable.
  • Requesting the author to resubmit the manuscript as a new submission without paying additional fees. The manuscript will be subject to the standard evaluation policy for new submissions, with the first round's reviewer notes provided to the new reviewers for reference.

Third: Submission and Resolution Procedure

• All complaints and appeal requests must be sent directly to the official email of the Editor-in-Chief, or submitted through the Journal's integrated messaging system (Add Discussion).
• The editorial board will document the complaint and send an acknowledgment of receipt within a maximum of 5 working days.
• A sub-committee comprising editorial board members (who are proven to have no conflict of interest with the parties involved) will be formed to review the complaint with strict objectivity based on the available evidence.
• The Journal is committed to concluding the investigation and issuing a final decision, accompanied by a detailed response to the complainant, within 30 days. Immediate corrective actions will be taken whenever a flaw is proven.