Publication Ethics

Our publication ethics and malpractice statement is primarily based on the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011).

Editors' Responsibilities

Publication Decisions

The editor is responsible for deciding which of the papers submitted to the journal will be published. Manuscripts are evaluated without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. Decisions are based on the paper’s importance, originality, clarity, validity, and relevance to the journal’s scope. Legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism are also considered.

Confidentiality

The editor and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or editorial board members for their own research purposes without the author’s explicit written consent.

Reviewers' Responsibilities

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

The peer-review process assists the editor and editorial board in making editorial decisions and can help authors improve their papers.

Promptness

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research in a manuscript or knows that prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents and must not be disclosed or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Reviewers should identify cases where relevant published work referred to in the paper has not been cited. They should point out whether observations or arguments from other publications are accompanied by the respective source. Reviewers must notify the editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the papers.

Authors' Duties

Reporting Standards

Authors of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed and an objective discussion of its significance. Data should be accurately represented, and sufficient detail and references should be provided to permit replication. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data of their study for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable. Authors should ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication, preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository, provided confidentiality and legal rights are protected.

Originality, Plagiarism, and Acknowledgement of Sources

Authors will submit only entirely original works and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Influential publications that have shaped the reported work should also be cited.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication

In general, papers describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Manuscripts published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. Manuscripts under review by the journal should not be resubmitted to copyrighted publications. By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) retain the rights to the published material. In case of publication, they permit the use of their work under a CC-BY license, which allows others to copy, distribute, transmit, adapt, and make commercial use of the work.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All significant contributors should be listed as co-authors.

The corresponding author ensures that all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved persons are included in the author list. The corresponding author will also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors should include a statement disclosing any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that may influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate to retract or correct the paper in the form of an erratum.

References

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2011, March 7). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Retrieved from http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pd