Our Ethics
American Indian Culture and Research Journal
Ethical Principles and Policies for Publishing
Our journal seeks to be a publication that maintains the highest of ethical standards. A commitment of responsibility best serves our internal organization, our authors, our readers, and the communities whom we seek to serve. To those ends, we provide these explanations of principles and procedures.
Concurrent Submissions
Our journal does not permit concurrent submissions of a manuscript to multiple journals. If we learn about multiple submissions, we will suspend the current review. We will first contact the author(s) to request a clarification. We may also contact the other journals to compare manuscripts. We also may communicate with their editorial offices regarding our decision, which may include proceeding with our current review or ceasing the review. After comparing submissions, we will communicate with the author regarding whether we will continue our review or refrain from continuing our review. If we find an essay replicates or nearly replicates an essay under consideration, we archive the submission, rather than reject the essay. If an author declines our request to review their essays, we will archive the essay submitted to our journal.
Text Recycling and Redundant Publication
In the cases that a submitted work contains similarities to an author’s previously published work, these cases of “text recycling” are first brought to the attention of the authors. In the cases when the overlap is minor, we will invite the authors to rewrite those sections. In the cases when the overlap is major, we reserve the right to reject the manuscript for peer-review. In the cases when a previously published piece is already under review with us, we will stop the review process and archive (rather than “reject”) the work in question. In the case of replicated data or self-citation, we will ask that authors use appropriate citational methods to refer readers to the original publications. Following a long-standing standard among many merit and promotion review committees, publishing selections from one’s forthcoming book manuscript continues to be acceptable.
In the case that our journal becomes aware of an already published essay evidencing text recycling, we reserve the right to publish a correction or a retraction, which entails removing the essay from its online issue. See section on retractions below. Please note that “recycling” refers to the wholesale replication of previously published prose beyond simple sentences or phrases. When the prose continues verbatim beyond two paragraphs, we will ask the author to consider rephrasing the repeated prose if still in copy editing with our editorial staff.
If we determine that a published work in large form replicates a work already published by the same or some combination of authors (in the case of multiple authors), we may publish an editorial statement on the online version of the published works. In egregious cases, we will retract these redundant works from its online issue.
Plagiarism
As a publication of the American Indian Studies Center, a research center at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), we are committed to uploading the ethical principles provided by the American Association of University Professors.
Professors, guided by a deep conviction of the worth and dignity of the advancements of knowledge, recognize the special responsibilities placed upon them. Their primary responsibility to their subject is to seek and to state the truth as they see it. To this end professors devote their energies to developing and improving their scholarly competence. They accept the obligation to exercise critical self-discipline and judgment in using, extending, and transmitting knowledge. They practice intellectual honesty. Although professors may follow subsidiary interest, these interests must never seriously hamper or compromise their freedom of inquiry.
— AAUP Statement 1966; Revised 1987.
Our journal does not include in this definition honest errors of similar phrasing or reliance on previous sources, when those instances include proper citations. In the cases when the editorial team finds sufficient evidence of plagiarism, the journal reserves the right to reject the essay before, during, or after review; if the article has been published, we may issue a retraction.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Machine Learning, and Large Language Modeling
Our journal has been publishing via an open access platform since 2022. As such, our content is freely available to readers as well as to entities that may use internet content for machine learning or large language modeling (LLM). Our journal, staff, and affiliated partners at UCLA bear no responsibility for any AI use of our published content. We are in dialogue with our publishing platform about ways to protect our content from being included in AI tools when authors and publishers have not granted permissions. Such protections are unavailable at this time. We will continue to monitor technical and practical developments on the matter.
Rather than forbidding any use of AI by our authors, we require that any and all such instances be cited clearly and comprehensively. Authors must acknowledge in their submitted works (art, reviews, commentaries, and scholarly essays) any use of generative AI, ML, or LLM by explaining how it was used, the reasons for use, and the full version number and date of the AI tool. Such statements must be included in the text rather than in footnotes or endnotes, or as an adjoined disclaimer in the case of graphic art and poetry.
When an original submission is found to have used AI tools without the explanation described immediately above, our editorial team may reject the essay for review. In the cases when such a work is already under review, we may cease the review and archive the essay, or we may reject the essay for publication. When such a work has already been published, we reserve the right to place an editorial comment on the original publication, remove said work, and/or issue a retraction.
Research Misconduct and Identity Fraud
At the heart of our journal’s long-standing relations with Indigenous peoples and Indigenous Studies we hold the value of “do no harm.” In Native American and Indigenous Studies, we do not easily separate an author’s personal ethics from an author’s research ethics. Prioritizing tribal sovereignty entails deferring to Indigenous nations’ respective criteria for belonging and processes for enrollment. As many scholars have demonstrated, when non-Indigenous people claim Indigenous identity, they can risk speaking on behalf of Indigenous community members. In some instances, these opportunities for self-representation may be rare. A form of erasure ensues where non-Indigenous authors speak about, then for, and then as Native community members. Scholars who identify as Native may gain access to community knowledge, research materials, and funding reserved for Native people with implications for promotion and professional standing. False identity claims thus harm Native communities in material ways and constitute a violation of scholarly research ethics. Because we are a peer-reviewed, scholarly publication, we must take a clear position on these situations since our choices function as a form of accreditation to our authors and to those who are charged with evaluating their merit and significance to their respective fields.
Out of respect for both research ethics and the health and vitality of Indigenous communities who should be able to define their own membership, we insist upon honesty and integrity on the part of our authors, artists, and contributors. Indigenous self-identification cannot be asserted in isolation. We find particularly useful the statement on identity claims in the official statement on identity fraud (2015) by the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. Although they may change their statement over time, our journal appreciates their emphasis on honesty.
In no way are we implying that one must be Indigenous in order to undertake Native American and Indigenous Studies. We are simply stating that we must be honest about our identity claims, whatever our particular positionalities. Belonging does not arise simply from individual feelings – it is not simply who you claim to be, but also who claims you. Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, 2015
Our journal does not accentuate citizenship/enrollment, blood quantum, or any single form of tribal recognition or definition of Indigenous identity. We take seriously an Indigenous community’s requirements for membership when articulated. To be sure, we recognize the long history of colonization, missionization, violence, and misogyny that have led to complex configurations of family and personal ancestry. Nevertheless, claims of Indigenous identity and tribal membership must be held in dialogue with Indigenous communities when possible.
We understand identity claims as taking many forms in the world of publishing, including a parenthetical reference after one’s name, self-references within submissions, or the use of inclusive pronouns within a text. We must therefore remain diligent about any manipulation of the publication process. Manipulation may include the use of inclusive pronouns about one’s research methods (i.e., working in “my” community) and the significance of the research to communities (i.e., writing as a community member). Such claims impact our peer-reviewers’ reports and readers’ impressions. In those cases where we find convincing evidence of misrepresentation, we will first invite authors to share names of community members for a confidential dialogue about an author’s claims. To respect authors’ rights along with tribal sovereignty, we will foster conversations with relevant community members to help us confirm claims of Indigenous identity either on the part of authors or by others in submitted works. When relevant, with special issues or re-prints as examples, we may include the guest editors of special issues in these discussions.
In the cases of self-identifying Indigenous membership and ancestry, we may invite authors into a conversation about their kinship, relations with others, and family history. If an author chooses not to hold such conversations, our journal retains the right to either reject essays for review or cease on-going review processes, both of which would lead to the submission being archived (neither formally accepted nor rejected by peer-review evaluation). If a submitted work has already been accepted for publication and an author chooses not to work pro-actively and honestly with us in discussions of identity claims, we reserve the right to archive the essay or art without further commentary. If an author chooses to engage with us in those conversations and we disagree on ethical representation of authors’ identities, the journal retains the right to publish an editorial statement regarding our concerns, penned by either a guest editor, community member, or member of our own editorial team. In the case we find that an author has committed ethical violations in their research methods and community relations, such as using one’s false identity claims to secure collaboration or data, we retain the right to reject the essay as well as to communicate our concerns to the relevant communities.
In the cases when the journal receives stated concerns about already published authors who may be self-identifying unethically, the journal will work diligently to communicate in a transparent manner with the authors and relevant community members. After a review of the matter, our editorial team retains the right to distribute an editorial statement, publish a formal retraction of the published work(s), and/or remove the publication from its on-line issue.
Retractions
Our journal relies on the recommendations and guidelines provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We will follow COPE’s Retraction Guidelines when retractions are necessary. Please visit their site for the full guidelines. We appreciate their prioritizing evidence, legalities, ethics, and integrity.
Retracting an essay necessitates replacing an online work with a statement as to the date when the item was removed from view as well as a description of the range of page numbers. Such statements enable readers to clearly understand (a) the discontinuous page numbering and (b) why retractions do not impact citations for the other works in a particular issue. Retractions may or may not include the reasons for the removal of these works. For example, researchers would benefit from knowing that a retracted essay’s contents may in some part be found in another publication.
We are beholden to our readers to communicate about retractions. Therefore, retractions may be communicated on our journal’s publication page as well as in communications to our editorial board and via our social media platforms.
This Statement of Ethics, Procedures and Policies was approved by UCLA’s American Indian Studies’ Publication Committee on January 28,2025.