Our ethical statements are based on COPE's Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (publicationethics.org).
Publication Decisions and Duties of the Editors, Editorial Board and Guest Editors
The final decision to publish an article submitted to the Journal is the sole responsibility of the Editors, in collaboration with the Editorial Board and Guest Editors. In making their decisions, the Editors are required to follow the strategies and editorial choices of the Journal. The materials published in the Journal are subject to a peer evaluation process, differentiated according to section editorial policies. Each scientific article submitted undergoes a double-blind peer review process.
Editors and Editorial Board are required to evaluate submitted manuscripts uniquely on their scientific merit, without distinction and discrimination.
Editors and Editorial Board shall guarantee the non-traceability of authors and reviewers. To this end, direct and indirect information relating to the author will be deleted before submitting the articles to the referees.
Editors, Editorial Board, Editorial Staff, Advisory Board and Guest Editors may not divulge any information concerning submitted manuscripts to any subject other than the authors, referees and potential referees.
Any unpublished material contained in a manuscript submitted to the Journal may not be used by the Editors, Editorial Board, Editorial Staff, Advisory Board and Guest Editors for their research without the author's express written permission.
Should Editors become aware of any mistakes, inaccuracies, conflicts of interest or plagiarism to be found in a published article, they will promptly inform the author and the Publisher, will take any action necessary to clarify the issue and, if necessary, will withdraw the article or issue a retraction.
Editors ensure compliance with applicable laws on libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.
Duties of peer reviewers
Peer reviewers assist the Editors, Editorial Board and Guest Editors in making publication decisions and may suggest the authors corrections and improvements to their manuscripts, through communications mediated by the editorial staff.
The reviewing process should be conducted in an impartial way. Reviewers should not resort to ad hominem arguments or insult authors. Reviewers should express their opinions clearly and support them with arguments.
Manuscripts submitted for publication should be treated confidentially. They should not be shown to or discussed with any person without previous authorization of the Editors.
Any information or idea obtained through the reviewing process should be kept confidential and not used to the reviewer's personal advantage.
Reviewers should inform the Editors of any substantial similarity of submitted manuscripts to published materials that they happen to detect.
Reviewers should not accept to review manuscripts whose evaluation would involve a conflict of interests arising from competition, collaboration or any other relation with authors, companies or other bodies related to the manuscripts' topics.
If a reviewer does not feel competent to review a manuscript or expects to be unable to meet the assigned deadline, he (or she) must decline the invitation to take part in the reviewing process and promptly inform the Editors, Editorial Board or Guest Editors of his (or her) decision.
Duties of the Authors
Authors must assure that manuscripts are original and that, whenever the ideas or passages from the works of other authors are used, these are appropriately paraphrased or quoted. In any case, the source must be duly mentioned.
Authors must cite all the publications that contributed to determine the nature of their manuscripts.
Authors must make available, even if requested after publication, the data and sources on which their research is based, or indicate clearly where they can be found and consulted.
Author guarantees that each article evaluated is original, unpublished and not submitted simultaneously for evaluation or publication to other Journals. Any exceptions must be agreed with the Editors. Manuscripts under review by the Journal should not be submitted to other Journals for publication purposes.
Authorship credit is given uniquely to those that contributed in substantive ways to the ideation, planning, execution or interpretation of the research. All those who contributed in substantive ways must be named as co-authors. The corresponding author must guarantee that all co-authors are mentioned in the manuscript, that they have seen and approved its final version and that they have consented to its submission.
By sending the material, the authors agree that, in case of acceptance for publication, all the rights of economic exploitation, without limits of space and with all the modalities and technologies currently and in the future available, will be transferred to the Journal.
Should an author detect any significant mistakes or inaccuracies in the published manuscript, he (or she) must promptly inform the Editors and Editorial Board and collaborate with him to retract or rectify the manuscript.
When the author submits an article for evaluation, she/he must declare any possible conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the content of his/her manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project shall be disclosed.