Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

The ethics statements for our Journal are based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors:

Duties of the Editor-in-Chief:

• Fair play and anti-discrimination policy.  Submitted manuscripts shall be evaluated on the basis of their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
• Confidentiality policy. The Editor-in-Chief and any editorial staff shall not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author and editorial board reviewers.
• Non-disclosure policy and conflicts of interest. Unpublished submitted manuscripts shall be not used in an Editor's own research without the explicit written consent of the author(s).
• Publication decision-making policy. The Editor-in-Chief of the Journal is responsible for deciding which of the submitted articles should be published. The Editor-in-Chief is guided by the Journal policies and supervises the prevention of libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The Editor-in-Chief may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

 
Duties of Peer Reviewers:

• Contribution to editorial decisions: Peer review assists the Editor-in-Chief in making editorial decisions and, through the editorial communication with the author, may also assist the author in improving the manuscript.
• Timely review. If timely reviews are not possible, reviewers immediately notify the Editor-in-Chief so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.
• Confidentiality policy. Any manuscripts received for review shall be treated as confidential documents.
• Objectivity policy.  Reviews should be conducted objectively. Referees should express their views clearly with appropriate supporting arguments. Personal criticism of the author is inacceptable.
• Acknowledgement of sources. Reviewers should identify if sources are not properly cited within the manuscript. Also reviewers should notify if submitted manuscripts are of high similarity to other publications based on their personal knowledge.
• Disclosure and conflict of interest. Information or ideas obtained through peer review shall be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider evaluating manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors or organizations connected to the submission.

 
Duties of Authors:

• Originality and Plagiarism, Authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works. Citations of other sources should be accurate.
• Reporting standards. Authors reporting results of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance.  A paper should contain sufficient detail, evidence and references to permit others to replicate the work.
• Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
• Authorship of a manuscript. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the submitted paper. 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 named in an Acknowledgement section. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included in the author list of 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.
• 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’s Editor-in-Chief in order to correct the paper.