Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Educational Development and Quality Assurance (ICED-QA 2021)

Peer Review & Publication Ethics

This proceedings volume is published by Atlantis Press as part of the Springer Nature book publishing program. All published articles are subject to established editorial, peer review, and ethical standards that govern responsible research publication.

Publisher Policies and Ethical Framework

Atlantis Press adheres to the Springer Nature Book Publishing Policies, which apply fully to conference proceedings. Ethical standards are guided by the Committee on Publication Ethics COPE, including the COPE Core Practices and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

Publisher‑level policies and detailed guidance are available at: Policies and Guidelines to conference organizers and authors.

All ethical and publication‑related issues for this volume are handled in accordance with these policies.

Series‑Level Standards

This volume belongs to a proceedings series published under defined series‑level policies covering ethics, originality, peer review, and malpractice handling.

Series‑level publishing information, including the Code of Ethics and Malpractice Statement, is available on the corresponding proceedings series page.

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to this proceedings volume underwent editorial evaluation and peer review organized by the editors and volume editors of the conference.

The peer review process was designed to assess:

  • academic quality and scholarly relevance,
  • originality and contribution to the field,
  • clarity and coherence of presentation,
  • compliance with ethical and publishing standards.

Editors and volume editors were responsible for ensuring that the peer review process was conducted fairly, rigorously, and in line with Atlantis Press and Springer Nature requirements.

Peer Review Statement and Review Outcomes

Where available, a formal peer review statement is published for this proceedings volume as part of the permanent publication record. The statement describes the peer review procedures applied at volume level and may include information on:
  • the number of submissions received,
  • the number of manuscripts accepted for publication,
  • the resulting acceptance rate.

For proceedings volumes published from September 2022 onwards, peer review statements are made publicly available. For volumes published before this date, a peer review statement is not provided, although the same peer review criteria and editorial standards were applied.

Editorial Responsibilities and Governance

Editorial responsibilities are assigned to ensure transparency, accountability, and the avoidance of conflicts of interest.

Volume editors manage peer review and make editorial decisions for individual volumes. Series editors support proposal evaluation, review the scientific quality of final manuscripts, and oversee the strategic and ethical standards of the series.

Editorial independence at the volume level is strictly maintained. Volume editors retain full responsibility for peer review and acceptance decisions. Series editors do not participate in editorial decisions for volumes where they are involved in the associated conference.

Ethics Approval Requirements

For studies involving human participants, animals, or sensitive data, authors were required to include a clear statement of ethics committee approval or ethical exemption, where applicable. Compliance with ethical requirements was verified as part of the submission and editorial evaluation process for this volume.

Originality and Research Integrity

All articles included in this proceedings volume present original research and clearly state their scholarly contribution to the relevant field. Manuscripts were evaluated to ensure that they do not substantially overlap with previously published work and that they meet accepted standards of research integrity.

Originality checks using similarity detection software form part of the editorial evaluation process.

Editorial Responsibility

The editors and volume editors are responsible for overseeing peer review, ensuring consistent application of ethics and originality requirements, and maintaining the scholarly standards and scope of the proceedings volume. Peer review procedures and outcomes are documented transparently at volume level.

Further information on AI policies and guidance is available at AI Policies and Guidance