Our Ethical Standards
Northeast Langchive is committed to maintaining the highest standards of research ethics and publication integrity. We recognize the unique ethical considerations inherent in research on indigenous languages and communities, and we are guided by principles of respect, reciprocity, and community benefit.
Research Ethics
Community Engagement and Consent
All research published in Northeast Langchive must be conducted with informed consent from participating communities and individuals. Researchers must demonstrate meaningful community engagement, ensuring that communities understand the research purpose, methods, and potential outcomes.
Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property
We recognize indigenous communities’ rights to their linguistic and cultural knowledge. Authors must acknowledge community ownership of language data and traditional knowledge. Research should benefit the communities involved, not merely extract knowledge for academic purposes.
Data Sovereignty
Language communities have the right to control how their linguistic data is collected, used, and shared. Researchers must respect community protocols regarding sensitive or sacred information, and obtain appropriate permissions for data sharing and archiving.
Publication Ethics
Authorship
Authorship must reflect genuine intellectual contribution to the work. All those who have made substantial contributions to conception, design, data collection, analysis, or writing should be listed as authors. Community members who contribute significantly should be offered co-authorship when appropriate.
Originality and Plagiarism
All submissions must be original work that has not been published elsewhere. Authors must properly cite all sources and acknowledge others’ contributions. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable and will result in rejection or retraction.
Conflicts of Interest
Authors must disclose any financial, professional, or personal relationships that could influence their work. Reviewers and editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where conflicts of interest exist.
Data Transparency
Authors should make research data available whenever possible, while respecting community protocols and privacy concerns. Data sharing practices must be clearly stated and must prioritize community interests and data sovereignty.
Peer Review Ethics
Confidentiality
Reviewers must treat all manuscripts as confidential documents. Manuscript content should not be shared or discussed with others without explicit permission from editors.
Objectivity and Fairness
Reviews must be conducted objectively, providing constructive feedback based on scholarly merit. Personal criticism or biased judgments are unacceptable.
Timeliness
Reviewers should complete reviews within agreed timeframes. If unable to review, reviewers should decline promptly so alternative reviewers can be found.
Editorial Ethics
Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions are based solely on scholarly merit, relevance, and ethical compliance, not on commercial, political, or personal considerations.
Fair Treatment
All submissions receive fair consideration regardless of author nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, ethnicity, political views, or career stage.
Corrections and Retractions
We are committed to correcting errors promptly. When necessary, we will retract publications that contain serious errors, ethical violations, or fraudulent data.
Indigenous Research Protocols
CARE Principles
Northeast Langchive follows the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance:
- Collective Benefit: Research should benefit communities collectively
- Authority to Control: Communities have authority over their data
- Responsibility: Researchers are accountable to communities
- Ethics: Research must respect community values and wellbeing
Community Review
We encourage authors to seek community review of manuscripts when appropriate. Publications should be shared with participating communities in accessible formats.
Language Reclamation
We support community-led language reclamation efforts. Research should contribute to community language goals, not merely academic careers.
Standards and Guidelines
Northeast Langchive adheres to:
- Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines
- CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance
- OCAP® principles (Ownership, Control, Access, Possession)
- Local Research Ethics Committee guidelines where applicable
Long-Term Preservation
Northeast Langchive is committed to ensuring the permanent accessibility and preservation of all published research. Scholarship on endangered languages is too important to risk digital loss or technological obsolescence.
Our preservation strategy includes:
Digital Archiving: Every volume and chapter is published as archival-quality PDF and deposited in open access repositories with persistent identifiers. All content receives persistent DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) ensuring permanent citability even if our website changes or becomes unavailable.
Distributed Preservation: We encourage authors to self-archive accepted manuscripts in their institutional repositories (green open access). Content is registered with Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine for web preservation, with planned integration into LOCKSS/CLOCKSS distributed preservation networks.
Publisher Commitment: Master copies of all publications are maintained by MWire Labs (publisher) with regular backups across multiple geographic locations and storage systems.
Access Guarantee: Even if the Northeast Langchive website becomes unavailable, all published content remains permanently accessible through DOI resolution, author institutional repositories, and publisher archives.
This preservation policy follows UNESCO and PERSIST guidelines for digital heritage preservation, recognizing that research on Northeast India’s indigenous languages constitutes irreplaceable cultural and linguistic documentation.
Reporting Misconduct
Northeast Langchive takes allegations of research or publication misconduct seriously. Concerns about ethical violations, plagiarism, data fabrication, or other misconduct should be reported to:
All complaints will be investigated confidentially following Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines.