JOURNAL  OVERVIEW 

The Mulungushi University Multidisciplinary Journal (MUMJ) is a bi-annual journal whose focus is to pursue the frontiers of knowledge. It provides a platform for sharing and communicating of knowledge from research and development issues from within Zambia and globally. It aspires to make use of research and development information that may inform policy direction on various issues, enhance national development and help transform the livelihoods of people. The journal offers opportunities for world scholars and individuals to contribute their knowledge and innovations to respond to developmental challenges facing the globe today.

The Journal focuses on multidisciplinary areas including: agriculture, environment and natural resources; business law and human resources development, humanities and social sciences, science, engineering and ICT, technology, medicine and health sciences and education. The journal invites academicians, researchers, and innovators to contribute their knowledge and communicate your insights in the world of knowledge. This is a bi-annual peer reviewed online journal.

Vision of the Journal

 “To be a high quality research publications journal of integrity for sharing outstanding knowledge, relevant, responsible and innovative journal for Africa and globally”

 Aims:
• To provide a platform for researchers, scholars, and practitioners from diverse disciplines to publish and disseminate their work.
• To promote the integration of different perspectives and methodologies to address complex problems and advance knowledge.

Scope:
The journal welcomes submissions from a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to natural sciences, social sciences,humanities, engineering, and health sciences. It encourages research articles, reviews, perspectives, and other scholarly contributions that demonstrate an interdisciplinary focus or the integration of multiple disciplines, with an emphasis on combining theoretical frameworks, methodologies, and techniques from different fields to shed light on complex phenomena or solve real-world problems.

ISSN: 2958-3926

Open Access Statement and Creative Common License:
MUMJ is an open access journal committed to making high-quality research freely available to readers worldwide. We believe that unrestricted access to scholarly literature fosters knowledge sharing, promotes innovation, and enables the advancement of scientific, technological, and societal progress.
• All articles published in MUMJ are freely and permanently accessible to anyone, without any subscription or paywall barriers.
• Authors retain the copyright of their work and grant MUMJ a license to publish the article under a Creative Commons Attribution License. This allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the work, even for commercial purposes, as long as they give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source of publication.
• The journal follows a rigorous peer review process to ensure the quality and integrity of the published research.
• We encourage authors to deposit their preprints or post prints in recognized repositories and databases to maximize the visibility and impact of their work.

Funding and Sustainability:
MUMJ may require article processing charges (APCs) or other forms of funding to cover the costs associated with the publication process, including peer review, editing, hosting, and archiving. However, we are committed to ensuring that the ability to pay does not hinder the publication of high-quality research. Waivers or discounts may be available for authors from low-income countries or researchers facing financial constraints. Please refer to our website for detailed information on any applicable charges and funding options.

Publication ethics
Ethical standards for publication exist to ensure high-quality scientific publications, public trust in scientific findings, and that people receive credit for their work and ideas.

Article assessment
All manuscripts are subject to peer review and are expected to meet standards of academic excellence. If approved by the editor, submissions will be considered by peer reviewers, whose identities will remain anonymous to the authors.
Our Research Integrity team will occasionally seek advice outside standard peer review, for example, on submissions with serious ethical, security, biosecurity, or societal implications. We may consult experts and the academic editor before deciding on appropriate actions, including but not limited to recruiting reviewers with specific expertise, assessment by additional editors, and declining to further consider a submission.

Peer Review Statement
MUMJ Journal implements a peer review process with an average duration of 6 weeks from submission to final decision. During this time, experts in the relevant field evaluate the manuscripts and provide valuable feedback.
Authors are expected to address the reviewers' comments within an average period of 5 working days. Following the revision, the editorial team conducts a final quality check. Once a revised manuscript is accepted, it usually takes an average of about a week for typesetting and online publication.
The journal emphasizes rigorous academic standards and a fair, streamlined peer review process. Each manuscript undergoes thorough evaluation by at least two independent reviewers, ensuring the highest quality and providing valuable feedback and recommendations to the authors.

Plagiarism
Authors must not use the words, figures, or ideas of others without attribution. All sources must be cited at the point they are used, and reuse of wording must be limited and be attributed or quoted in the text.
Manuscripts that are found to have been plagiarized from a manuscript by other authors, whether published or unpublished, will be rejected and the authors may incur sanctions. Any published articles may need to be corrected or retracted.

Duplicate submission
MUMJ considers only original content, i.e. articles that have not been previously published, including in a language other than English. Articles based on content previously made public only on a preprint server, institutional repository, or in a thesis will be considered. In such cases, the preprint or thesis must be cited and discussed within the article.
Manuscripts submitted to MUMJ must not be submitted elsewhere while under consideration and must be withdrawn before being submitted elsewhere. Authors whose articles are found to have been simultaneously submitted elsewhere may incur sanctions.
If authors have used their own previously published work, or work that is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they must cite the previous articles and indicate how their submitted manuscript differs from their previous work. Reuse of the authors’ own words outside the Methods should be attributed or quoted in the text. Reuse of the authors’ own figures or substantial amounts of wording may require permission from the copyright holder and the authors are responsible for obtaining this.

Citation manipulation
Authors whose submitted manuscripts are found to include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal, may incur sanctions.
Editors and reviewers must not ask authors to include references merely to increase citations to their own or an associate’s work, to the journal, or to another journal they are associated with.

Fabrication and falsification
The authors of submitted manuscripts or published articles that are found to have fabricated or falsified the results, including the manipulation of images, may incur sanctions, and published articles may be retracted.

Authorship and acknowledgements
All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript, approved its claims, and agreed to be an author. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution. Author contributions may be described at the end of the submission, optionally using roles defined by CREDIT statement. Submitting authors must provide an ORCID and we encourage all authors to provide one. Changes in authorship must be declared to the journal and agreed to by all authors.Submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be considered.

Conflicts of interest
Conflicts of interest (COIs, also known as ‘competing interests’) occur when issues outside research could be reasonably perceived to affect the neutrality or objectivity of the work or its assessment. This can happen at any stage in the research cycle, including during the experimentation phase, while a manuscript is being written, or during the process of turning a manuscript into a published article.
If unsure, declare a potential interest or discuss with the editorial office. Undeclared interests may incur sanctions. Submissions with undeclared conflicts that are later revealed may be rejected.