Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

1. Duties of Editors

• Fair Play: Evaluate manuscripts exclusively on their intellectual merit without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
• Confidentiality: Do not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and the publisher.
• Conflict of Interest: Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.

2. Duties of Reviewers

• Contribution: Assist the editor in making editorial decisions and help the author improve the paper.
• Promptness: Any selected referee who feels unqualified or knows that prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse themselves.
• Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents.

3. Duties of Authors

• Originality and Plagiarism: Ensure that the work is entirely original. If authors have used the work/words of others, this must be appropriately cited.
• Multiple Publication: An author should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication.
• Data Access: Authors should be prepared to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review.