Publication Ethics & Malpractice

We are committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity in scholarly publishing. We follow the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This statement sets out the responsibilities of everyone involved in publishing with us: authors, editors, reviewers and the publisher.

Responsibilities of Authors

• Originality and integrity: Submitted work must be original, unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable and all submissions are screened using plagiarism-detection software.
• Citation integrity: All references must be real, accurate and verifiable. Authors must not cite sources they have not read or that do not exist and every source must genuinely support the claim it is attached to.
• Authorship: All listed authors must have made a genuine contribution to the work and approved the final manuscript. No one who contributed should be omitted, and no one who did not contribute should be listed.
• Data and honesty: Data must be accurate and not fabricated or manipulated. Authors should be prepared to provide access to data where reasonably requested.
• Disclosure: Authors must disclose conflicts of interest, sources of funding, required ethical approvals for research involving human participants, and any use of AI tools in preparing the manuscript.
• Errors: If an author discovers a significant error in their published work, they must promptly notify the editors to enable a correction.

Responsibilities of Editors

• Fair decisions: Editors evaluate manuscripts solely on academic merit, significance, originality, clarity and relevance to the journal, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, nationality, religion, seniority or institutional affiliation.
• Confidentiality: Editors keep all information about submitted manuscripts confidential.
• Conflicts of interest: Editors do not handle manuscripts in which they have a competing interest and recuse themselves where appropriate.
• Integrity: Editors act promptly in line with COPE guidance, when ethical concerns are raised.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

• Confidentiality: Reviewers treat manuscripts as confidential documents and do not share or use their contents.
• Objectivity: Reviews are conducted objectively and constructively, with observations supported by reasoning. Personal criticism of authors is not acceptable.
• Promptness: Reviewers who cannot complete a review on time, or who feel unqualified to assess a manuscript, inform the editors promptly.
• Disclosure: Reviewers alert editors to any conflict of interest and to any substantial similarity between the manuscript and other published work they are aware of.

Responsibilities of the Publisher

The publisher supports the editors and reviewers in carrying out their duties, maintains the integrity of the published record and ensures that commercial considerations do not influence editorial decisions.

Misconduct, Corrections and Retractions

Where ethical concerns or allegations of misconduct arise, including plagiarism, fabricated or misused citations, falsified data, duplicate publication or disputed authorship, we investigate in accordance with COPE guidance. Depending on the findings, we may reject a manuscript, require correction, or issue a correction, retraction or expression of concern for published work. Our decisions are guided by the need to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.