Adoption of Editorial Policy by Journal Editorial Team in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

Abstract

This paper investigated the Adoption of Editorial Policies by Journal Editorial Team in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The objectives are  to; find out the academic journals that have written editorial policy in ABU, Zaria; identify the extent at which editorial team use editorial  policies in ABU, Zaria; uncover the percentage of similarity index accepted by Journal Editorial Team in ABU, Zaria; find out the journals’  editorial team that use antiplagiarism checker for article verification in ABU, Zaria. Quantitative methodology using Survey research  design was adopted. The population comprised chief editors of all the existing journals in ABU, Zaria. There are 37 journals in A.B.U Zaria  as at 2019. There was no sample for this study. Questionnaire was used for data collection. The findings revealed that; almost all the  editors do not have written editorial policy. It was also discovered that policy that encourages maximum transparency, complete and  honest reporting is the most used. Declaring and publishing of funding sources of the research (clinical), policy on adding or removing an  author of a submitted manuscript and screening of plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication are least used. Most editors do not  use Anti-plagiarism checker for article verification. Some journals do not have provision for any percentage of similarity index. The  study concluded that there is possibility of publishing redundant/predatory articles by Journal editorial team in ABU Zaria. The study recommended that all the journals should have written policy, should be using ant plagiarism checker, should adopt all the editorial  policies and have a minimum similarity index accepted from authors.