Ethics

Values Statement

The Journal of Black Military Studies holds ethical values in keeping with the mission and aims of the Society for Black Military St udies:

“The mission of the Society for Black Military Studies (SBMS) is to promote understanding, appreciation, and greater dialogue about the Black military experience. Our mission is to provide greater coherence to the field and preserve, analyze, and disseminate histories, heritages, arts, and literature that focus on the lives and legacies of Black military service members globally. We welcome scholars from all disciplines [and community members] who are interested in exploring and expanding the narratives of soldiers of African descent from all branches, veterans, military family life, paramilitary organizations, militias, and self-defense practitioners.

SMBS aims to:

Exchange: To provide a forum for exchanging information and ideas about the Black military experience.

Scholarship: To support research and scholarship on the Black military, culture, history, and heritage.

Engagement: Commitment to public engagement and sharing the stories of the often ignored and overlooked.

Awareness: To promote a broader understanding and awareness of the Black people in war and society.

Honor: To honor the service and sacrifice of Black military service members.

These objectives underpin the Society’s mission of exploring, preserving, and sharing Black people’s contributions throughout history and raising awareness of the Black military experience in all its complexity.” (SBMS, 2024)

Through the use of a rigorous, inclusive review process, JBMS considers and evaluates work that stands against erasure, generating contemporary discussion while acknowledging the Black military past.

Our published work showcases scholars’ and others’ enthusiasm for and dedication to researching, exploring, presenting, and celebrating the histories and cultures of Black people and their vast experiences, over time, with the military and within the Black imagination.

Research and Publication Ethics

JBMS operates under the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (COPE et al., 2022) and the COPE Council’s guidance for ethical editorial procedures (COPE Council, 2022), as well as the scholarly and literary traditions of our respective academic disciplines. We seek to publish original work that meets high standards of intellectual integrity, honesty, and accuracy while promoting the respectful exchange of ideas. To this end, JBMS authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to work within the COPE guidelines for ethical behavior, professionalism, and transparency.

Ethics Overview for Authors

Originality. All work submitted for consideration must be original, meaning it has not been published previously in any other form (including in another language), and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in any other form. Upon submission to JBMS, the work may not be submitted for consideration elsewhere until JBMS communicates its publication decision to the author. If a manuscript is rejected, the author is free to submit it to a different publication.
Author credit. All authors involved in research, writing, or editing submitted work must be credited by role according to the CREDiT Taxonomy. Other contributors, who do not qualify as authors, can be acknowledged in an author note. See Qualifications for Authorship, below, for additional information.
Citation. Authors must cite all material—text, image, or data—quoted or paraphrased from other sources, including material drawn from their own published work, according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition.
Human subjects. For manuscripts that involve research with human subjects written by authors with institutional affiliations, it is the authors’ sole responsibility to ensure that their work falls under the Institutional Review Board (IRB) guidelines of their institution. Authors may direct specific questions to the Editor in Chief.
Image integrity. Authors are responsible for procuring all required permissions for included images. All images must be attributed and presented in their original form. With the exception of cropping, images must not be altered, combined, edited, or enhanced with software or AI tools. If an image is reused from another published source, the author must obtain a written copyright release from the original publisher. Authors are responsible for any costs associated with obtaining a copyright release for each image.
Notification of errors. If authors discover errors in or omissions from their work after publication, they must communicate them to the Editor in Chief as soon as possible for consideration and possible correction or retraction. All authors must approve any requested correction.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) use. Authors must work within the JBMS AI Policy if using AI tools to develop their submission.
Data transparency. Submissions that reference large amounts of supporting research data, defined as detailed information gathered and digitally stored during all phases of the research process, must make that data available free of charge by depositing it to a public repository and including a link to the data within the paper. There are a number of free resources available for depositing data in many disciplines. All data should adhere to FAIR principles and be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
Disclosures and conflicts of interest. At the time of submission, authors must disclose any funding sources, conflict of interest, and related publications or presentations relevant to the submitted work.

Qualifications for Authorship

JBMS suggests that authors follow ICMJE guidance when defining authors and non-author contributors. Named authors must be responsible for major contributions to the work and they will be accountable for its published content.

All authors involved in research, writing, or editing submitted work must be credited by role according to the CREDiT Taxonomy. Other contributors, who do not qualify as authors, can be acknowledged in an author note.

AI tools do not qualify for authorship.

Editor as Author

JBMS editors are welcome to submit their own work to the journal for consideration. In such cases, the author-editor will be removed from all related discussions and decision-making, and will not have any electronic access to the submission during the peer review process. If the Editor in Chief is the sole author or co-author of a submission, a member of the JBMS Advisory Committee will serve in that capacity for the entirety of the submission. These changes to the editorial workflow ensure impartial, anonymous evaluation while allowing editors the opportunity to share their own, impactful scholarship.

Requests for Changes in Authorship

JBMS follows COPE guidance for adding or removing an author before publication. The journal also follows COPE guidance for adding or removing an author after publication.

Changes in authorship: Authors must confirm authorship and contributorship prior to initial submission. Requests must be made to jbms@uvm.edu specifying the reason for the change, and all authors must provide written agreement to the change. The Editor in Chief will consider each request on a case-by-case basis.

Changes in affiliation: Requests for changes in affiliation will be considered prior to an article’s acceptance. Requests must be made to jbms@uvm.edu. The Editor in Chief will consider each request on a case-by-case basis. Affiliation cannot be changed after publication; the ORCID iD associated with an author’s name can be updated at any time to reflect current affiliation.

JBMS follows COPE guidance for addressing authorship disputes and problems with authorship. JBMS and its personnel will not mediate authorship disputes. The journal reserves the right to adjust authorship and author contributions on any article if an investigation finds proof of ghost, guest, or gift authorship.

Requests for Name Changes

Upon request, JBMS will honor an author’s request for a name change on submitted or published work. The journal follows COPE guidance on author name changes. Name changes will be made to the best of the journal’s ability throughout its editorial workflow and platform, as well as on all public-facing systems and published work. Any requested name change will be made without notification of correction or errata unless requested by the author.

Intellectual Property and Copyright

JBMS publishes under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits copying and redistribution of the unmodified, unadapted article in any medium for noncommercial purposes, provided the original author and source are credited. Attribution must include appropriate credit and provide a link to the license.

Authors retain ownership of all rights under copyright in all versions of the published article. JBMS encourages authors to share the version of record and its DOI on social media and personal websites and blogs, in the classroom, and at conferences; to add it to ORCID and Google Scholar records; and to post it to an institutional repository and to scholarly collaboration networks.

Authors who include previously published material in a submission must secure a written copyright release from the original publisher, at their own cost.

Plagiarism and Text Recycling

JBMS does not publish plagiarized or recycled work.

The journal follows COPE guidance on plagiarism and text recycling (self plagiarism) and these definitions of each:

Plagiarism

JBMS follows the University of Vermont, Office of the Vice President for Research (UVM OVPR), definition of plagiarism:

“Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.” (UVM OVPR, 2025)

Text Recycling

JBMS follows the Text Recycling Research Project definition of text recycling:

“Text recycling is the reuse of [one’s own] textual material (prose, visuals, or equations) in a new document where (1) the material in the new document is identical to that of the source (or substantively equivalent in both form and content), (2) the material is not presented in the new document as a quotation (via quotation marks or block indentation), and (3) at least one author of the new document is also an author of the prior document.” (Text Recycling Research Project, 2020)

Upon submission, all manuscripts are screened for plagiarism and text recycling using SimilarityCheck. If a manuscript is found to have significant, uncited overlaps with other published work at any time prior to publication, the editors will approach the corresponding author for an explanation and the possibility of an extensive revision. Depending upon the severity of the case, the editors reserve the right to withdraw the manuscript from consideration. If a published manuscript is found to contain plagiarized material, JBMS reserves the right to publish a correction or to retract the manuscript.

Procedures for Allegations of Misconduct

Allegations of suspected research misconduct, including specific details about areas of concern, can be emailed to the Editor in Chief at jbms@uvm.edu.

JBMS follows the University of Vermont, Office of the Vice President for Research (UVM OVPR), definition of research misconduct as stated in the University of Vermont Misconduct in Research policy:

“Research Misconduct means fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.

Fabrication is making up data or results and recording or reporting them.

Falsification is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record.

Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.

Research misconduct does not include honest error or differences of opinion.” (University of Vermont, 2022)

The JBMS submission process provides a thorough review of submitted scholarship at multiple levels, by multiple experts in the subject matter. In the rare case that investigation is deemed necessary, JBMS follows COPE guidance. Each investigation will be led by the Editor in Chief and the Associate Editor handling the manuscript in question, and members of the Advisory Committee may be asked to weigh in on the investigation depending upon the situation.

Appeals

The journal does not accept appeals. All editorial decisions are final.

Ethics Overview for Reviewers

Peer Reviewers include members of the JBMS Editorial Board, which is comprised of the entirety of the Advisory Committee, in addition to invited reviewers and volunteer reviewers. Interested, qualified reviewers may self-nominate themselves by clicking “Become a Reviewer” in the menu bar. Reviewers do not need to be affiliated with the Society for Black Military Studies or the University of Vermont. Authors may suggest, at the time of submission, subject-matter-expert reviewers; JBMS is not obligated to contact or assign reviewers suggested by the authors.

Please see the JBMS Reviewer Guidelines for full details on reviewer qualifications and responsibilities.

Invitation and acceptance. Upon receiving the invitation to review, the recipient should accept or decline within two weeks. Reviewers may decline an invitation without any penalty. Unacknowledged review requests will be withdrawn.
Timely, unbiased, constructive review. After accepting the invitation, reviewers are expected to provide a thoughtful, unbiased, constructive review and a fair recommendation of decision within 8 weeks of the invitation date. Deadline extensions are available upon request. All reviews are composed and submitted via the private JBMS portal.
Use of JBMS platform. Reviewers must use the dedicated JBMS platform to accept review invitations, submit reviews using the provided form, and communicate about reviews. While the platform and process are intuitive, one-on-one virtual training and support are available upon request to jbms@uvm.edu.
Anonymity. This journal uses double anonymized peer review, as defined by the National Information Standards Organization. Reviewers’ identities are known only to the Editor in Chief and the Associate Editor handling the manuscript, and reviewers interact only with the Associate Editor. We do not publish any information about the review process or editorial decision process. Reviewers are notified upon publication of manuscripts they have reviewed.
Confidentiality. Reviewers must keep all submission materials, as well as related editorial conversations and decisions, confidential. Sharing of submission materials, including uploading manuscripts to AI tools, is expressly prohibited.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) use. Reviewers must work within the JBMS AI Policy and should not use AI tools to perform reviews, prepare review reports, or aid decisions. Uploading a submitted manuscript to any AI platform violates the authors’ copyright.
Conflict of interest. Upon acceptance of the review invitation, reviewers must disclose to their Associate Editor any conflict of interest they may have with a submission’s subject matter or funding source.
Suspected research misconduct. Reviewers who suspect substantial research errors, omissions, or misconduct in a manuscript must immediately report their concerns to their Associate Editor.
Subsequent round reviews. We encourage, but do not require, reviewers to re-review manuscripts that have undergone major and minor revision and will prioritize invitations to Round 1 reviewers when revisions undergo multiple rounds. If availability makes this impossible, the Associate Editor will assign a replacement reviewer.