Publication Ethics

Authors should declare that all work in their submitted piece is original, and cite content from other sources appropriately to avoid plagiarism.

Authors must ensure their contribution does not contain any libellous matter or infringe any copyright or other intellectual property rights or any other rights of any third party.

The listing of authors should accurately reflect who carried out the research and wrote the article, and the order of authorship should be jointly determined by all of the co-authors.

All authors should be aware of the submission of their paper to the journal.

Authors should ensure that their manuscript as submitted is not under consideration (or accepted for publication) elsewhere. Where sections of the manuscript overlap with published or submitted content, this should be acknowledged and cited.

Authors should obtain permission to reproduce any content from third-party sources (text and images). The source of funding for a research project should be listed on all funded research papers. Other sources of support (including funding for Open Access article processing charges) should also be clearly identified in the manuscript, typically in an acknowledgement.

Authors should declare any potential conflicts of interest relating to a specific article.

Authors should inform the editor or publisher if there is a significant error in their published piece, and work with the editor to publish an erratum, addendum or retraction where necessary.

Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions.

Reviewers should assist in improving the quality of a submitted article by reviewing the manuscript with care, consideration and objectivity, in a timely manner.

Reviewers should inform the journal editor of any published or submitted content that is similar to the material under review, or any suspected plagiarism.

Reviewers should declare any potential conflicts of interest relating to a specific article or author.

Reviewers should respect the confidentiality of any information or material supplied during the review process.

Guest editors should be accountable for everything published in their guest journal: this includes having measures in place to assess the quality of the material they accept for the journal and a willingness to publish corrections and clarifications when required.

Guest editors should act in a fair and balanced way when carrying out their duties, without discrimination on grounds of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religious or political beliefs.

Editors should provide guidance to authors and reviewers on everything that is expected of them.

Guest editors should make decisions on which articles to publish based on quality and suitability for the journal and without interference from the journal owner/publisher.