Journal Policies

1. Commitment to Quality Over Quantity

The Mdooter Journal of Communication and Digital Technologies is fundamentally committed to publishing impactful research, prioritising quality over volume. Our selection process ensures that only manuscripts of the highest scientific merit, originality, and relevance are accepted to maintain the journal’s academic standing and strong citation performance.

Regular Issue Constraints: Each regular issue shall contain a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 12 original research articles or reviewed works.
Special Issue Constraints: Special issues are optional and, when published, shall contain a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10 articles. The journal limits itself to a maximum of one special issue per calendar year.
Under-Limit Procedure: If the total number of accepted, high-quality manuscripts falls below the minimum requirement of 5, the journal will proceed with publication and include an explanatory editorial note to inform readers and indexing bodies of the selection volume.
Over-Limit Procedure: When the number of accepted quality manuscripts exceeds the maximum limit for an issue (12 for regular issues and 10 for special issues), only the maximum allowable number will be published in the current issue. Remaining manuscripts will be automatically rescheduled for the subsequent issue.

2. Revenue Sources and Business Model

To ensure full transparency regarding financial operations, the revenue model of the journal is outlined below.

The journal operates on a pure Open Access model, meaning all published content is freely available immediately upon publication. The journal is sustained by Article Processing Charges (APCs) paid upon the formal acceptance of a manuscript, alongside occasional administrative rescheduling fees as specified in Section 6. The APC covers all costs associated with the publication process, including peer review management, professional copyediting, typesetting, online hosting, and permanent digital archiving.

The journal does not receive any grants, institutional subsidies, subscriptions, advertising revenue, or other forms of external funding. No waivers or discounts on the Article Processing Charge are offered.

All editorial decisions regarding manuscript acceptance or rejection are based solely on the scientific merit, originality, and relevance of the research. The obligation for APC payment begins only after a manuscript has been formally accepted following peer review. Payment status has absolutely no influence on the editorial decision-making process.

3. Advertising Policy

The journal maintains a strict commitment to editorial independence and does not participate in any commercial advertising activities. The journal does not accept, display, or promote any form of paid advertisement, banner, or sponsored content on its website or within its published material. This policy ensures the complete separation of administrative and editorial functions, guaranteeing that content is influenced solely by academic merit.

4. Direct Marketing Policy

The journal is committed to conducting all direct marketing and solicitation activities ethically, professionally, and transparently.

Any direct marketing efforts, including calls for papers, special issue solicitations, or invitations for reviewer recruitment, are appropriate, well-targeted, and unobtrusive. We utilise professional contact lists and communicate primarily with scholars known to be active in the fields of communication or digital technologies. All information provided in marketing materials regarding indexing status, peer review timelines, publication speed, scope, and affiliation is guaranteed to be truthful, accurate, and not misleading. Marketing communications are sent only to individuals who have consented to receive such information, in full compliance with relevant data protection regulations.

5. Manuscript Withdrawal Policy

The journal invests significant resources into the peer review and technical processing of every manuscript. To maintain the integrity of the scholarly record, the journal adheres to the following withdrawal policy:

Pre-Publication Withdrawal: Authors may request to withdraw their manuscript at any stage prior to the final approval of the Galley Proof. Such requests must be submitted in writing and signed by all contributing authors.
Post-Approval and Archival Restrictions: Once authors have approved the Galley Proof, the manuscript is considered finalised. At this stage, a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is assigned and the metadata is prepared for deposit into international repositories, including Zenodo. If a withdrawal is requested after this stage, the manuscript cannot be simply removed. Because the record has been deposited in permanent databases, a formal Withdrawal Notice will be issued and permanently linked to the DOI to explain that the article was withdrawn at the authors' request after the archival process had commenced.
Editorial Withdrawal for Non-Compliance: The Editorial Board reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript from the workflow if it fails to meet mandatory standards. This includes issues of originality (exceeding a 20% similarity index or returning high AI-detection scores), ethical breaches, duplicate submissions, or non-responsiveness to editorial queries and revision deadlines.

Authors are strongly advised to ensure all data, authorship details, and institutional approvals are correct before approving the Galley Proof, as a formal Withdrawal Notice becomes a permanent public record in DOI databases.

6. Production Deadlines and Rescheduling Fees

To ensure the timely release of each issue, authors must adhere strictly to production timelines. Authors are required to return their corrected galley proofs within the timeframe specified in the production notice, which is usually 48 hours.

If an author fails to return their galley proof on time and consequently misses the issue for which their article was scheduled, an administrative rescheduling fee equivalent to 50% of the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be applied. This fee must be settled in full before the manuscript can be rescheduled for publication in a subsequent issue.

7. Policy Against Bulk and Third-Party Submissions

Policy Overview

To safeguard the integrity of the peer-review process and ensure absolute authenticity of authorship, the Mdooter Journal of Communication and Digital Technologies strictly prohibits bulk submissions and any submissions managed by third-party agencies or paper mills.

Provisions

Individual Authorship: All manuscripts must be submitted personally by one of the credit-earning authors of the paper via the official Open Journal Systems (OJS) portal. Submissions by agents, representatives, or third-party services on behalf of authors are explicitly prohibited.

Prohibition of Bulk Submissions: The journal does not accept clusters or bulk submissions of multiple papers originating from a single project, institution, or coordinator that attempt to bypass the standard individual submission workflow.

Special Issues: The journal considers formal proposals for guest-edited Special Issues or dedicated sections from reputable scholars. These proposals undergo a rigorous internal assessment by the Editorial Board, and, if approved, guest editors must strictly adhere to the journal's independent peer-review workflows and editorial integrity guidelines.

Verification Protocols: The Editorial Office reserves the right to reject any submission immediately if it shows indications of being handled by a third-party service, or if it does not originate directly from the author’s own verified OJS account.

LAST UPDATED: June 1, 2026