Ethical charter

Originality

Authors guarantee that their article proposal is original, does not infringe upon the moral rights or intellectual property rights of any other person or entity. The journal employs British English as its language standard.

Authors guarantee that their article proposal has not been previously published and does not rely, in part or in whole, on previously published work.

Authors commit to not simultaneously submitting the proposal to another publication.

Evaluation Process

The evaluation process relies on single-blind peer review (only the names of the authors are known), with an annual publication of the list of reviewers. Each article is reviewed by at least two individuals. In case of contradictory reviews, the associate editor may request a third review or conduct the additional review him or herself.

Human and Animal Rights

For research studies involving human or animal subjects, the trial’s design, conduct, and reporting of results must conform to Good Clinical Practice guidelines.

Humans: When reporting experiments involving human subjects, authors must indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2013. If there is any doubt as to whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the author(s) must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review board explicitly approved any questionable aspects of the study.

Animals: When reporting experiments involving animals, authors must indicate whether the institu­tional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines. Where available, the study should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The manuscript must include a statement confirming compliance with guidelines and/or ethical approval. For studies involving client-owned animals, author(s) must document informed client consent and ensure adherence to a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care.

Informed Consent Requirements

Conflicts of Interest

Authors declare during the submission process any potential conflict of interest, whether professional, financial, or otherwise, that could be interpreted as having influenced their approach.

Peer review committee members are requested to declare when they are in conflict of interest with one of the authors to the editorial board. In such cases, a reviewer in conflict of interest must withdraw themselves from the review process. A reviewer is in conflict of interest with an author in case they are: a family member or close friend; a current or past PhD advisor/advisee; a postdoctoral mentor/mentee within the last five years; a person with the same affiliation; a frequent or recent collaborator.

Regarding the editorial board, if any conflict of interest with one of the authors (see definition above) is declared, an associate editor must withdraw from the reviewing process only if contradictory reviews are performed by the peer review committee, leading the associate editor to review themselves the submitted article.

Adverstising

Ads are entirely prohibited. Editorial descisions remain independent, with no sponsored content

Plagiarism

Any form of plagiarism implies rejection of the article; this includes but is not limited to:

• outright plagiarism (presenting the work of other researchers, whole or in part, as one's own, either verbatim or rephrased);
• self-plagiarism (presenting one's own previously published work, whole or in part, as a novel);
• deliberate replication of already known results and concepts, whole or in part, under new names or in new notation, without an appropriate reference and justification.

All submitted articles are checked for plagiarism using Compilatio software.

Impartiality

Each article submission is considered impartially, and its merits are judged without distinction of gender, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnic origin, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the authors.

Funding

The funding sources that authors have received to conduct the research valorized in the scientific production are explicitly mentioned in the article.

Submission and publication fees

The journal does not require any submission or publication fees.

Defamatory Statements and Scientific Integrity

Authors guarantee that their article proposal does not contain defamatory, hateful, fraudulent, or knowingly inaccurate statements.

References

Authors guarantee that they appropriately cite all publications used in their work.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process is only permitted to enhance readability and language. The application of technology must be done under human supervision and control, and authors must carefully review and edit the output, as AI can generate incorrect, incomplete, or biased output. AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, nor cited as an author.

Appeal Procedure

An appeal of an editorial decision will only be considered if it is based on evidence that either (1) an editor or reviewer made a significant factual error/a major misunderstanding of a manuscript, or (2) the integrity of the editorial decision-making process was compromised. To appeal a decision, the author is invited to directly contact the Editor in Chief.

Post Publication Discussions and Corrections

If the authors discover an error in your published article, please contact the Editor in Chief immediately. Together with the Handling Editor, they will determine whether a correction should be made and what form it should take.

Allegations of misconduct

Where an allegation of research misconduct is made to the journal, the journal’s first concern is the integrity of content it has published. Any publication found to include fraudulent or unethical research or research which violates the journal’s policies may be retracted or have an appropriate correction or expression of concern issued.

Date: 02/05/2024