Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
For all parties involved in the act of publishing (the author, the journal editor(s), the peer reviewer and the
publisher) it is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior. The ethics statements for
our journal are based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines for Journal.
Editors.
Duties of the Editors-in-Chief
Fair play
Submitted manuscripts are evaluated for their
intellectual content without regard to race,
gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic
origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the
authors.
Confidentiality
The Editor-in-Chief and any editorial staff must
not 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
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted
manuscript must not be used in an Editor's own
research without the explicit written consent of
the author(s).
Publication decisions
The handling Editor-in-Chief of the journal is
responsible for deciding which of the submitted
articles should be published. The Editor-in-Chief
may be guided by the policies of the journal's
Editorial Board and constrained by such legal
requirements as shall then be in force regarding
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.
Promptness
Any invited referee who feels unqualified to
review the research reported in a manuscript or
knows that its timely review will be impossible
should immediately notify the Editor-in-Chief so
that alternative reviewers can be contacted.
Confidentiality
Any manuscripts received for review must be
treated as confidential documents. They must not
be shown to or discussed with others except if
authorized by the Editor-in-Chief.
Standards of objectivity
Reviews should be conducted objectively.
Personal criticism of the author is inacceptable.
Referees should express their views clearly with
appropriate supporting arguments.
Acknowledgement of sources
Reviewers should identify relevant published work
that has not been cited by the authors. Any
statement that an observation, derivation, or
argument had been previously reported should be
accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer
should also call to the Editor's attention any
substantial similarity or overlap between the
manuscript under consideration and any other
published data of which they have personal
knowledge.
Disclosure and conflict of interest
Privileged information or ideas obtained through
peer review must 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,
companies, or institutions connected to the
submission.
Duties of authors
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. Underlying data should be
represented accurately in the manuscript. A paper
should contain sufficient detail and references to
permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or
knowingly inaccurate statements constitute
unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Originality and Plagiarism
The authors should ensure that they have written
entirely original works, and if the authors have
used the work and/or words of others that this
has been appropriately cited or quoted.
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. Parallel submission of the same
manuscript to more than one journal constitutes
unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
Acknowledgement of sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others
must always be given. Authors should also cite
publications that have been influential in
determining the nature of the reported work.
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
reported study. All those who have made
significant contributions should be listed as coauthors.
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 (according to the above
definition) and no inappropriate co-authors are
included in the author list of the manuscript, and
that all co-authors have seen and approved the
final version of the paper and have agreed to its
submission for publication.
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
their interpretation in the manuscript. All sources
of financial support for the project should be
disclosed.
Publisher’s confirmation
In cases of alleged or proven scientific
misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism
the publisher, in close collaboration with the
Editors-in-Chief, will take all appropriate measures
to clarify the situation and to amend the article in
question. This includes the prompt publication of
an erratum or, in the most severe cases, the
complete retraction of the affected work.
The Publisher and the Journal do not discriminate
on the basis of age, color, religion, creed,
disability, marital status, veteran status, national
origin, race, gender, genetic predisposition or
carrier status, or sexual orientation in its
publishing programs, services and activities.