Publisher Responsibilities
Publication Decisions
The final decision regarding which articles to publish is the responsibility of the editor. The decisions regarding publishing by the journal will however be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and guided by the prevailing legal requirements in as far as plagiarism is concerned as well as copyright infringements and libel. The editor will where necessary or prudent consult widely with relevant and knowledgeable third parties regarding these matters.
Fair Play and Independence of the Editor
It is the prerogative of the editor to evaluate submitted manuscripts for their academic merit (relevance, validity, originality and discipline validity) in relation to the scope of the journal, without regard to the authors race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, institutional affiliation or political philosophy of the authors. The editor has full authority in all matters regarding editorial content, and publication dates of the journal.
Confidentiality
Under no circumstances will the editor or editorial staff 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
Under no circumstances will editors and editorial board members use unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research purposes without the authors’ explicit written consent. All information obtained by editors as a result of handling the manuscript will handled in the strictest of confidence. In instances where any form of a conflict of interests may arise, editors will recuse themselves from considering such manuscripts. These conflicts include, but are not limited to, conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships/connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the papers.
Author responsibilities
Reporting standards
Authors should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation. Authors should describe their methods clearly and unambiguously so that their findings can be confirmed by others.
Originality, plagiarism and acknowledgement of sources
Authors should adhere to publication requirements that submitted work is original, is not plagiarized, and has not been published elsewhere – fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. If an author has used the work and/or words of others, that this original is been appropriately cited or quoted and accurately reflects the individual’s contributions to the work and its reporting.
Data Access and Retention
Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
Ethics
Authors should only submit papers only on work that has been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and that complies with all relevant legislation.
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.
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.
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.
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 duty to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
(Based on COPE’s Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors)
