Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
Authors’ Rights & Responsibilities
What rights do I retain as an author?
The right to make copies (print or electronic) of the article for your own personal use, including for your own classroom teaching use;
The right to make copies and distribute copies of the article (including via e‐mail) to research colleagues, for personal use by such colleagues for scholarly purposes;
The right to post a pre‐print version of the journal article on Internet websites including electronic pre‐print servers, and to retain indefinitely such version on such servers or sites for scholarly purposes;
The right to post a revised personal version of the text of the final journal article (to reflect changes made in the peer review process) on your personal or institutional website or server for scholarly purposes;
The right to present the journal article at a meeting or conference and to distribute copies of such paper or article to the delegates attending the meeting;
Patent and trademark rights and rights to any process or procedure described in the journal article;
The right to include the journal article, in full or in part, in a thesis or dissertation;
The right to use the journal article or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes (subsequent to publication of the article in the journal); and
the right to prepare other derivative works, to extend the journal article into book‐ length form, or to otherwise re‐use portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal.
Copyright
We are dedicated to protecting your rights as an author, and ensuring that any and all legal information and copyright regulations are addressed.
“Transfer of copyright agreement”
When the article is accepted for publication, I, as the author and representative of the coauthors, hereby agree to transfer all rights, including those pertaining to electronic forms and transmissions, under existing copyright laws, except those specified above.
Publication ethics
The editor is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published.
The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.
Fair play
An editor at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
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 manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author.
Prevention and Fight against Plagiarism
Authors of the journal must be aware and understand that we intend to prevent, and also sanction attempts and acts of plagiarism! Therefore, authors are hereby advised that:
Plagiarism attempts discovered and documented during the review process (Editorial Office, peer review) lead to:
- rejection of the manuscript for publication;
- definitive elimination of the author as future possible author of the journal;
- official information of the higher education or research institution of the author’s affiliation; and
- information of the scholarly community and public opinion.
Upon notification on allegation of plagiarism for any article that has been previously published and following the thorough verification of the notification, the Editorial Office will take the following steps:
officially inform the higher education or research institution of the author’s affiliation, making available all necessary documents (including the author’s responsible declaration of originality)
then the Editorial Office will advise the most important international databases about the allegation of plagiarism, and
will publish (on the site, etc.) its official position on the matter.
As conceptual and general guidelines on plagiarism “What Constitutes Plagiarism?”, in “Harvard Guide to Using Sources” http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&pageid=icb.page342054
Duties of Reviewers
Contribution to Editorial Decisions
Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist 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 excuse himself from the review process.
Confidentiality
Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown 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 relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor’s attention 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 connected to the papers.
Duties of Authors
Reporting standards
Authors of reports of original research 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 are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
Originality and Plagiarism
The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication
An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported 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 those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co‐authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.
The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co‐authors and no inappropriate co‐authors are included on the paper, and that all co‐authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects
If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might 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 cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.