Anti-plagiarism policy and publication bad practices

ORIGINALITY AND PLAGIARISM

Authors must ensure that the data and results included in the manuscript are original and have not been copied, fabricated, falsified or manipulated. Plagiarism in all its forms, multiple or redundant publication, and fabrication or manipulation of data constitute serious ethical misconduct and are considered scientific fraud.

Authors should not submit any manuscript that is being considered for publication simultaneously by another journal, and should not submit their manuscript to another journal until they are notified that it has been rejected or have voluntarily withdrawn it from publication.

RESPONSIBILITY OF AUTHORS

  • Manuscripts submitted to the journal for publication must be based on original and unpublished research. They should include the data obtained and used, as well as an objective discussion of the results. They should provide sufficient information to allow any specialist to reproduce the research and confirm or refute the interpretations defended in the manuscript.
  • Authors should be aware of and refrain from engaging in scientific misconduct and violating editorial ethics.
  • Authors should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate manipulation of data.
  • All authors must ensure that the data and results reported in the manuscript are original and have not been copied, fabricated, falsified or manipulated.
  • Plagiarism in all its forms, multiple or redundant publication, as well as invention or manipulation of data constitute serious ethical misconduct and are considered scientific fraud.
  • Authors must provide appropriate authorship and acknowledgement. Authors should refrain from deliberately underrepresenting their relationship to the published work. All authors must have contributed significantly to the research.
  • In case of any direct or indirect conflict of interest with the editors or members of the Editorial Team, the author should inform the journal.
  • No significant part of the article will have been previously published as an article or chapter, nor will it be considered for publication elsewhere.
  • In the event that the author discovers a serious error in his or her manuscript, he or she should inform the journal editors as soon as possible to modify the manuscript, withdraw it, retract it, or publish a correction or errata notice.
  • If the Editorial Team detects the possible error, authors must demonstrate that their manuscript is error-free.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EDITOR

  • The Editorial Team will be impartial in handling manuscripts submitted for publication and must respect the intellectual independence of the authors, who should be given the right of reply if they receive a negative review.
  • The members of the Editorial Team are obliged to maintain confidentiality about the manuscripts submitted and their content until they have been accepted for publication. Only then can their title and authorship be communicated.
  • In addition, no member of the Editorial Team may use the data, lines of inquiry, or interpretations in unpublished work for his or her own research, except with the express written consent of the author.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS

  • Reviewers should be aware of and consider the editorial policy and the statement of ethics and malpractice in publishing.
  • Reviewers should have significant scientific expertise or work experience in their field recognized by their peers. Prospective reviewers should provide accurate personal and professional information about their experience.
  • All reviewers must reject the proposal to review a manuscript if they consider that they are not qualified to review it, if they consider that their evaluation will not be objective, or if they think that they may have a conflict of interest.
  • Reviewed articles are treated confidentially by the reviewers and members of the journal's Editorial Team.

 

 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Any business, financial or personal relationship that may influence the results and conclusions of the study, or its review process, must be declared at the time of manuscript submission. In addition, all sources of financial support for the study should be reported. This information will be included in the article if it is accepted for publication.

Manuscripts that have a conflict of interest as a result of competitive, collaborative, or any other type of relationship or connection with the institutions related to the paper will not be considered.

Members of the Editorial Team and reviewers will withdraw in the event of any conflict of interest in relation to an author(s) or the content of a manuscript to be reviewed.

The journal will avoid any conflict of interest between authors, reviewers and members of the Editorial Team.

 

PUBLICATION MALPRACTICES

Members of the journal's Editorial Team do not encourage misconduct of any kind and will attempt to prevent malpractice by informing authors and reviewers of the ethical conduct required of them.

Editorial staff members and reviewers are requested to be aware of any possible malpractice in order to identify manuscripts in which malpractice has occurred or appears to have occurred in research of any kind, in order to address actions accordingly.

In the event of malpractice, it shall be documented accordingly and all related questions shall be sought. All relevant documents, in particular manuscripts and disputed evaluation reports, shall be retained.

In case of malpractice, the members of the Editorial Team are responsible for solving the problem. They will contact the author or publications involved. The author has the opportunity to respond and substantiate the allegation.

In the event that a malpractice has occurred or appears to have occurred, or in the event that some corrections are needed, the Editorial Team will deal with the different cases following COPE's recommendations in this regard. Great care will be taken to distinguish cases of simple human error from deliberate intent to defraud.

The Editorial Team will consider withdrawal of a publication in cases of misconduct, issuing a note of expression of concern if there is any inconclusive evidence of malpractice; or it may write a request for correction of any misleading part of the text.