Professionals in Business Journal (PIBJ) | Ethics & Publication Policy
Professionals in Business Journal
An Official Publication of Pyrrhic Press Publishing
ISSN: 2998-9019
Last Updated: February 2025
1️⃣ Introduction & Core Ethical Commitments
Professionals in Business Journal (PIBJ) is a fully open-access, peer-reviewed journal, committed to academic integrity, transparency, and the free dissemination of knowledge. We uphold rigorous editorial and ethical standards, ensuring that all stakeholders—authors, reviewers, editors, and the publishing team—adhere to the highest principles of scholarly publishing.
PIBJ is dedicated to:
✔ Absolute Transparency – Full disclosure of policies, processes, and ethical commitments.
✔ Rigorous Peer Review – Ensuring unbiased and high-quality research evaluation.
✔ Zero Fees – No APCs, submission fees, or hidden charges.
✔ Permanent Open Access – All content remains free to read, share, and use under CC0 (Public Domain Dedication).
PIBJ is aligned with:
✔ Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
✔ Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Best Practices
✔ Sherpa Romeo Open Access Policies
✔ CrossRef DOI Standards
✔ Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI)
✔ Fairsharing, ORCID, and Zenodo for archiving and metadata preservation.
2️⃣ Journal Policies & Author Guidelines
2.1. Appeals & Dispute Resolution
Authors may appeal editorial decisions when they believe:
✔ Their manuscript was unfairly rejected.
✔ The peer review process was biased or incomplete.
✔ The editor did not fully consider all evidence.
📩 Appeals must be submitted in writing to editor@pyrrhicpress.org within 30 days of decision notification. The appeal will be reviewed by an independent senior editor, and a final decision will be made within 30 days.
🚫 Decisions that uphold original rejections cannot be appealed further.
2.2. Authorship & Contributorship
Authorship is reserved for individuals who significantly contributed to:
✔ Conceptualization, methodology, and research execution.
✔ Data collection, analysis, and manuscript drafting.
✔ Final approval of the manuscript prior to submission.
🚫 Honorary, ghost, or guest authorship is strictly prohibited.
🔹 Acknowledgment of contributions:
✔ Minor contributors (technical help, statistical analysis, etc.) should be recognized in the acknowledgment section.
🔹 Authorship disputes:
✔ Must be resolved before submission. Any changes post-publication require unanimous author approval and editor-in-chief confirmation.
2.3. Conflict of Interest Policy
All participants must disclose conflicts of interest related to:
✔ Financial, institutional, or personal relationships.
✔ Competing research interests or affiliations that may bias the research.
📌 Conflicts must be disclosed at submission. Failure to do so may result in rejection, retraction, or banning from future submissions.
3️⃣ Editorial & Peer Review Policies
3.1. Peer Review Process
PIBJ follows a double-blind peer review process to ensure unbiased evaluations.
🔹 Review Workflow:
1️⃣ Editorial Screening – Initial assessment for scope, ethical compliance, and plagiarism.
2️⃣ Reviewer Assignment – Sent to at least two independent experts.
3️⃣ Double-Blind Peer Review – Anonymized evaluation and feedback process.
4️⃣ Editorial Decision – Accept, minor revisions, major revisions, or reject.
5️⃣ Author Revisions & Resubmission – Final acceptance pending quality check.
🔹 Reviewer Responsibilities:
✔ Provide objective, constructive, and timely feedback.
✔ Maintain strict confidentiality.
✔ Declare conflicts of interest before accepting a review request.
🚫 Reviewers may not use manuscript data for personal research.
🔹 Handling Editorial Board Submissions:
📌 Manuscripts submitted by PIBJ editors or board members are handled by an external guest editor to ensure impartiality.
4️⃣ Data Integrity & Research Ethics
4.1. Data Fabrication, Falsification & Manipulation
🚫 PIBJ enforces zero tolerance for:
✔ Fabrication (invention of data/results).
✔ Falsification (manipulation of research findings).
✔ Selective reporting (omission of contradictory data).
🔎 Authors must retain original research data for at least five years and provide it upon request.
4.2. Plagiarism & Intellectual Property Protection
PIBJ actively screens all submissions for plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and copyright violations using advanced plagiarism detection software.
🚫 Plagiarism consequences:
✔ Immediate rejection before peer review.
✔ Retraction of published articles.
✔ Institutional reporting & permanent ban from submission.
5️⃣ Copyright, Licensing & Fees
5.1. Copyright & Licensing Policy
PIBJ publishes under a CC0 (Public Domain Dedication) license, allowing free use, adaptation, and distribution of all published works.
✔ Authors retain full copyright.
✔ No restrictions on self-archiving or repository deposits.
5.2. Journal Fees
🚫 PIBJ does not charge any fees.
✔ No Article Processing Charges (APCs).
✔ No Submission Fees.
✔ No Paywalls.
💡 Publishing should be free and accessible to all.
6️⃣ Digital Preservation & Archiving
PIBJ ensures permanent access and discoverability through:
✔ CrossRef DOI assignment.
✔ Indexing in academic databases.
✔ Repository storage in Fairsharing, ORCID, and Zenodo.
🔎 All published content is digitally preserved to prevent loss or alteration.
7️⃣ Ethics, Informed Consent & Human Research Compliance
✔ Studies involving human participants require ethics approval.
✔ Informed consent must be documented and submitted where applicable.
✔ Privacy and confidentiality must be strictly maintained.
📩 For ethics concerns, contact: editor@pyrrhicpress.org
8️⃣ Mandatory Statements on PDFs
Every published article PDF will include:
✔ Conflict of Interest Statement.
✔ CC0 Licensing & Copyright Info.
✔ Corresponding Author’s Contact Information.
✔ Journal Identifiers (ISSN, DOI).
🔗 Contact & Additional Information
📩 Email: editor@pyrrhicpress.org
📖 Website: www.pyrrhicpress.org
📞 Phone: +1 (862) 314-0079
📍 Address: 56 Breakneck Rd, Highland Lakes, NJ 07422
🚀 PIBJ is committed to ethical, transparent, and high-impact scholarly publishing. We meet and exceed COPE standards, ensuring credibility, integrity, and long-term accessibility.