Ethical Statement &
Publication Malpractice Statement These guidelines are fully consistent with
the COPE Principles of Transparency and Best Practice Guidelines and the COPE
Code of Conduct. More details can be found here: https://publicationethics.org.
Guidelines
for Editors General Responsibilities The editors are accountable for all content
published in their journal. The editors must be ready to publish corrections
and apologies when necessary.
The editors must follow a transparent
editorial policy. Submission guidelines and requirements for potential
contributors to the journal must be published.
Conflicts of Interest The editors require authors, reviewers and
editorial board members to disclose potential conflicts of interest.
The editors make decisions to accept or
reject submissions on the basis of the quality of the submission and its
suitability for the journal. The editors must make sure that commercial
considerations do not interfere with their editorial decisions.
The editors must make sure that
non-peer-reviewed sections of the journal are clearly marked as such.
Peer Review Practice The editors must ensure that all research
submissions are peer-reviewed. A description of the peer review practice must
be published for the benefit of potential contributors to the journal.
The editors are accountable for recruiting
qualified reviewers. The editors must strive to obtain highly competent
reviewers and discontinue using reviewers who consistently deliver poor-quality
reviews.
The editors must ensure that reviews are
relevant, courteous and timely. Reviewers should judge the quality of the
research and not comment on the researcher’s gender, race, beliefs and the
like.
Academic Integrity Editors and reviewers must treat all
submissions under review as confidential.
The editors must protect the identity of
reviewers and the identity of authors if a double-blind review process is used.
The editors must ensure that all
submissions comply with ethical research standards, particularly in research
involving human or animal subjects.
The editors must make sure that all
submissions comply with academic integrity standards, particularly with respect
to plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation and the like. Suspicions
of scientific misconduct must be promptly investigated and a response from
authors suspected of misconduct must be sought.
Guidelines
for Reviewers Any manuscripts received for review are
confidential documents and must be treated as such; they must not be shown to
or discussed with others except if authorized by the Editor-in-Chief (who would
only do so under exceptional and specific circumstances). This applies also to
invited reviewers who decline the review invitation.
Reviews should be conducted objectively and
observations formulated clearly with supporting arguments so that authors can
use them for improving the manuscript. Personal criticism of the authors is
inappropriate.
Reviewers should identify relevant
published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that is an
observation, derivation or argument that has been reported in previous
publications should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should
also notify the editors of any substantial similarity or overlap between the
manuscript under consideration and any other manuscript (published or
unpublished) of which they have personal knowledge.
Any invited referee who has conflicts of
interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or
connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the
manuscript and the work described therein should immediately notify the editors
to declare their conflicts of interest and decline the invitation to review so
that alternative reviewers can be contacted.
Unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a
reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the authors.
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept
confidential and not used for the reviewer’s personal advantage. This applies
also to invited reviewers who decline the review invitation. Guidelines
for Authors General Responsibilities Authors are accountable for all aspects of
their research submitted for publication to the journal. Authors of a
multi-author submission have joint responsibility for their research, unless
stated otherwise.
Authors must promptly notify the editors if
they discover any errors in their research. This applies to research that has
been submitted, is under review or has been published. Authors must cooperate
with the editors to rectify any errors.
Authors must comply with submission
guidelines and requirements published by the editors. Authors are aware that
failure to meet these requirements may result in rejection of their research
for publication.
Conflicts of Interest Authors must disclose potential conflicts
of interest.
Authors must publish all sources of their
research funding, including both financial and non-financial support.
Authors must disclose their relationship to
the journal, particularly when editors and reviewers seek publication in a
journal that they are affiliated with.
Peer Review Process Authors must cooperate with the editors at
all stages of the publication process. Authors must notify the editors if they
choose to withdraw their submission at any stage of the peer review and
publication process.
Authors must respond to the comments of
reviewers in a relevant and timely manner. Authors must carefully check proofs
supplied by the editors before authorising them.
Academic Integrity Authors must not seek publication of their
research in more than one journal concurrently, unless all parties agree on
co-publishing.
Authors are accountable for the soundness
and honesty of their research. Authors must use appropriate methods for
reporting their research and provide sufficient detail for other researchers to
repeat their experiments. Authors must publish the complete results of their
research and not withhold findings that are inconsistent with their hypothesis.
Authors must comply with ethical research
standards, particularly in research involving human or animal subjects, and
must be prepared to provide sufficient proof on request.
Authors must comply with academic integrity
standards, particularly with respect to plagiarism, data falsification, image
manipulation and the like. Authors must appropriately quote and cite all
sources used in their research and refrain from including indirect quotations
from sources that they have not consulted.
Authors must obtain permission to use any
third party images, figures and the like from the respective copyright holders.
