Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

(based on Cope's Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors)

Editors

Editors are responsible for receiving submitted manuscripts from authors. Once manuscripts are received, it is the editor’s responsibility to forward them to evaluators. It is important that editors keep authors’ identities confidential when sending manuscripts out for review. Based on evaluations, the editors can accept, reject, or request modifications to the manuscript. The editors of the journal will not use unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript for his or her own research without the written consent of the author. It is imperative that editors take the appropriate measures when a complaint has been made concerning the ethics of a submitted manuscript or published paper.

Authors

Authors must ensure that they have written the manuscript that is being submitted. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.  Authors should present an accurate account of their original research as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Authors should not submit the same manuscript to different journal at the same time. It is also expected that the author will not submit manuscripts describing the same research in more than one journal.

Evaluators

As stated above, all information regarding manuscripts submitted by authors should be kept confidential. Evaluators are not to know the authors manuscript of which they are evaluating. Any kind of similarity or overlap between the manuscripts under consideration or with any other published paper of which reviewer has personal knowledge must be immediately brought to the editor's notice. When conducting evaluations of submitted manuscripts it is important that evaluators express their views clearly with supporting arguments. If an evaluator feels that it is not possible for them to complete their evaluation within the requested time the editor needs to be notified right away, so that the manuscript could be sent to another evaluator.