PUBLICATION ETHICS
Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
Our publication ethics and publication malpractice statement is
mainly 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. The editor will evaluate manuscripts
without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious
belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. The decision will
be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s
validity and its relevance to the journal's scope. Current legal requirements
regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism should also be
considered.
Confidentiality
The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any
information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding
author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other 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Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be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 the members of the editorial board for their own research
purposes without the author's explicit written consent.
Reviewers' responsibilities
Contribution to editorial decisions
The peer-reviewing process assists the editor and the editorial
board in making editorial decisions and may also serve the author in improving
the paper.
Promptness
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research
reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible
should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.
Confidentiality
Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as
confidential documents. They must not be disclosed to 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 in which relevant published work referred
to in the paper has not been cited in the reference section. They should point
out whether observations or arguments derived from other publications are
accompanied by the respective source. Reviewers will notify the editor of any
substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration
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 or connections with any of
the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the papers.
Authors' duties
Reporting standards
Authors of original research reports should present an accurate
account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its
significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A
paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to
replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute
unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Data access and retention
Authors could be asked to provide the raw data of their study
together with the paper for editorial review and should be prepared to make the
data publicly available if practicable. In any event, 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 or other data center), provided that the confidentiality of the
participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do
not preclude their release.
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. Publications that
have been influential in determining the nature of 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 which have been published as copyrighted material
elsewhere cannot be submitted. In addition, manuscripts under review by the
journal should not be resubmitted to copyrighted publications. However, 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 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/], which allows others to copy, distribute and transmit the
work as well as to adapt the work and to make commercial use of it.
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 those who have made significant contributions 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 be construed to 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
his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify
the journal editor or publisher and to cooperate with the editor to retract or
correct the paper in form of an erratum.
Reference
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.pdf
