Journal Policies

Authorship Criteria

Each author, and any co-authors, must meet the following criteria:

1. All must have made a significant contribution to the design of the study, the collection of data, or the analysis and interpretation of data;
2. All must, either by writing or by helping to edit the manuscript, have contributed to the design of its intellectual content to a significant degree;
3. All must have approved the submitted manuscript.

Each author must also be able to take responsibility for part of the article's content and be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for the remaining parts.

Those who do not meet these criteria but who nevertheless contributed significantly to the final manuscript should be included in the acknowledgments section. It is the author's responsibility to obtain the written approval of persons named in the acknowledgments section.

Policy on the Use of AI Tools

In accordance with COPE’s position statement on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, AI tools such as Large Language Models, chatbots and image creators cannot be credited with authorship of any manuscript submitted to this journal. Authorship attribution implies responsibility for the integrity, originality, accuracy and validity of a work, and AI tools cannot take such responsibility.

In any instance where generative AI tools have been employed in the creation of written content, generation of images or graphical elements, or the collection and analysis of data within a submitted work, authors are required to disclose these uses within the manuscript. This acknowledgement should provide explicit information about the specific tasks performed by AI tools, including the identification of the tool(s) and their respective versions. AI tools used to improve or correct spelling and grammar need not be credited.

Authors bear full responsibility for the content of their manuscript, including any portions generated with the assistance of AI tools. Consequently, they are liable for any potential breaches of publication ethics. Authors must ensure that all quoted and referenced material is appropriately credited.

Policy for Peer Reviewers

Authors of manuscripts and reviewers of the same manuscript must not be close colleagues, family members, work on the same research project, or otherwise have a close collaboration.

Reviewers should only accept to assess manuscripts that fall within their own subject area.

Reviewers should respond to invitations without delay and submit completed reviews within a reasonable time.

Reviewers' comments must not be influenced by the author's nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender or commercial interests.

Reviewers' comments must not contain hostile or provocative language and must not include personal attacks, slander or other derogatory comments.

Author Reviewing Policy

Submission of a manuscript to CIWIL also carries an implicit quid pro quo: willingness to review for CIWIL. The cornerstone of the editorial process at CIWIL is the willingness of colleagues to provide each other feedback through peer review. Authors who submit manuscripts to CIWIL for review are expected to reciprocate by reviewing for CIWIL if called upon to do so.

Preprint Policy

The journal's editors allow authors to make available earlier drafts of manuscripts/articles on the condition that authors agree to the following:

Authors retain all rights to any previously published version and are permitted to submit their updated manuscript to the journal.

Authors accept that the journal's editors cannot guarantee full anonymity in the review process, even if the author anonymises the manuscript when earlier versions are made available.

If the manuscript is published in the journal, the author is expected to cross-link, with DOI link, the different versions of the manuscript/article.

ORCID Policy

The journal's editors strongly recommend that authors who submit manuscripts register an "Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier" or ORCID.

This registration provides a unique and stable digital author identity that ensures that the article is attributed to the correct person and improves the searchability of all the author's publications. This helps to ensure that the author receives recognition for their work. As a person's ORCID remains the same as long as the account exists, any name changes, change of employment, department affiliation or research field do not affect the searchability of previous publications. This facilitates correspondence between research colleagues.

The journal's editors encourage all authors to include ORCID along with other author information when the manuscript is registered in the system. If the article is accepted, this will be published with the article.

Open Access Policy

CIWIL provides immediate open access to all its published content. Users do not need to register or pay to read content.

Authors of content published in CIWIL retain the copyright to their works.

Articles in CIWIL are published under the terms of a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, downloading, distribution, linking to and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Licensing and copyright information are indicated on each article’s landing page.

CIWIL does not charge any author or publication fees.

Authors are encouraged to deposit the final published version of their article for self-archiving (author's personal website) and/or archiving in an institutional repository immediately upon publication.

Open Data Policy

As research funders' and universities' demands for open research data become increasingly common, some authors may be required to make their collected empirical material open and available to everyone.

In cases where this applies to the journal's authors, the journal's editors encourage making the data available according to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).

In that case, the material made available must be linked to within the submitted manuscript under a special heading. Research data should then be made public when the article is published. Empirical material obtained from other researchers must be referenced in the same way as other scientific sources. For further questions about guidelines for handling open data and guidelines about how data should be handled and published, please contact your university.

Archiving Policy

Beginning when the journal joins Publicera, its current and future content is made available via Publicera and stored long-term on a secure and central server at the National Library of Sweden (KB).

In the event that the journal ceases publishing, the journal's content on Publicera will remain archived at KB.

Policy for Self-Archiving

Article authors have the right to self-archive the submitted ("preprint") version of the manuscript and the published version without any embargo period.

Submitted manuscripts and published versions of articles can, for example, be archived on:

• the author's personal website
• the author's company website and/or institutional repository or archive
• non-profit preprint servers or subject-based archives

Corrections and Retractions

The conditions of publication with persistent identifiers such as DOIs include that the published object is final and not changed without readers being clearly informed.

Articles published in the journal cannot therefore be changed without a) an erratum or b) a change notice being published and linked to the original article.

If a factual error in an article is discovered, this should be reported to the editor-in-chief, who decides on possible actions and corrections.

The journal encourages post-publication discussion through letters to the editor or on an externally moderated site for review and discussion of published research, such as PubPeer.

Complaints and Appeals Policy

In the case of formal complaints, disputes, or appeals, authors should contact the editor-in-chief, who is responsible for ensuring that a fair, deliberative, and thorough investigation is conducted.

Policy for Ethical Oversight

The journal follows the ethical guidelines and best practices set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All cases of ethical misconduct will be handled in accordance with COPE's recommendations and guidelines.

Compliance with ethical standards:
To ensure that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct, objectivity and transparency in research, have been followed, authors should include information regarding sources of funding, potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial) and informed consent of the research involved human participants.

Policy on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are foundational to our culture at University West as well as to CIWIL. We value the diversity of thought, belief and background of our authors, reviewers and editorial team, which enable us to publish a wide range of voices that challenge accepted norms. Increasing equity, diversity and inclusion in academic publishing contributes to the quality and innovation of research and inspires and attracts the next generation of researchers.

EDI in CIWIL’s submissions and decisions
CIWIL accepts submission of manuscripts within our thematic scope and language from all potential authors and that decision-making concerning content acceptance is without regard to authors’ language, race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, geographic location, or political philosophy.

CIWIL uses bias-free language related to age, disability, gender, racial and ethnic identity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status in all its communications and public information. As journal editors we work to address bias and create a culture of inclusiveness in the publishing process, making changes where required.

CIWIL requires authors to inform whether the underlying research data of their publications are sensitive to age, disability status, sex, gender identity, racial and ethnic identity, sexual orientation, and /or socioeconomic status. CIWIL follows the ethical guidelines and best practices set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

CIWIL follows clear editorial policies to ensure that all research submissions are subjected to the same assessment criteria and standards. All research articles published in CIWIL undergo double anonymous peer review.

CIWIL is committed to increasing diversity in peer review by actively working to expand our reviewer base, ensuring papers are reviewed by scholars with appropriate experience and knowledge.