Publication Ethics

Ethics and Malpractice

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

Editors' Responsibilities

Publication decisions- The editor is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal will be published. The editor will evaluate the manuscripts regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship or political philosophy of the authors. The decision will be made based on the importance, originality and clarity of the article, and on the validity of the study and its relevance to the scope of the journal. The current legal requirements relating to defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism should also be considered.   

Confidentiality - The editor and any editorial staff should not disclose any information about a manuscript submitted to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial consultants and the editor, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest - Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted article will not be used by the editor or members of the editorial board for their own research purposes without the explicit written consent of the author.

Reviewers' responsibilities

Contribution to editorial decisions- The peer review process assists the editor and the editorial board in making editorial decisions and can also serve the author in improving the article.

Speed ​​- Any selected reviewer who feels disqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its immediate review will be impossible must 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 or discussed with others, except when authorized by the editor. 

Standards of objectivity - reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inadequate. The referees must express their opinions clearly with supporting arguments.  

Acknowledgment of the sources - The reviewers must identify the cases in which the relevant published work referred to in the article was not mentioned in the reference section. They must indicate whether the observations or arguments derived from other publications are accompanied by the respective source. The reviewers will notify the editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published article of which they are personally aware.  

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

Duties of Authors

Reporting standards - authors of original research reports must present an accurate account of the work done, as well as an objective discussion of its importance. The underlying data must be accurately represented on paper. An article must contain sufficient details and references to allow others to reproduce the work. Fraudulent or intentionally inaccurate statements are unethical and unacceptable.   

Data access and retention - authors may be asked to provide raw data from their study along with the article for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available, if possible. In any case, authors must guarantee the accessibility of such data to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication (preferably through an institutional data repository or by subject or other data center), provided that confidentiality is maintained. of the participants can be protected and the legal rights relating to proprietary data do not prevent its disclosure. 

Originality, plagiarism and acknowledgment of sources - Authors will send only entirely original works and will cite or cite the work and / or words of third parties accordingly. Publications that have influenced the determination of the nature of the reported work should also be cited. 

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication - In general, articles that describe essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal. Sending the same article to more than one journal constitutes unethical publication behavior and is unacceptable. Manuscripts that have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. In addition, manuscripts under review by the journal should not be returned to publications protected by copyright. However, when submitting a manuscript, the author (s) own the rights to the published material. In case of publication, they allow the use of their work under a CC-BY license [ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/] , which allows third parties to copy, distribute and transmit the work, as well as adapt work and make commercial use of it.       

Authorship of the article - 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 list of authors. The corresponding author will also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the article and agreed with its submission for publication.   

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

Fundamental errors in published works - When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his own published work, it is the author's obligation to immediately notify the editor of the magazine or publisher and cooperate with the editor to withdraw or correct the article in the form of an errata.