Qurtuba university publishing interface for all its journals is having the authors, the journal editor(s), the reviewer and the publisher. It is mandatory for all the stakeholders to be agreed upon the standards of ethical behaviour, described in this statement which is mainly based on the “Guidelines for Journal (Approved in the meeting of the “Board of Governors, Held, Month, and Year). This document describes the ethical responsibilities of all three main stakeholders of the QUSIT journals i.e., the editors, the reviewers, the publisher and the authors.

A.       Editors' responsibilities:

1.       Publication decisions

        The editorial board is responsible for deciding which of the papers submitted to the journal will be published. The decision will be based on the paper’s novelty, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the journal's scope. The editorial board will evaluate manuscripts regardless of the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. The editorial board will have the decision authority not to include papers having negative critical orientation based on authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. Current legal requirements regarding defamation, copyright breach, and plagiarism should also be considered.

2.       Confidentiality

     The editorial board and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

3.       Disclosure and conflicts of interest

     Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or the members of the editorial board for their own research purposes without the author's explicit written consent of the author(s).

4.       Publication decisions

     The handling Editor-in-Chief of the journal is responsible for deciding which of the submitted articles should be published. The Editor-in-Chief may be guided by the policies of the journal's Editorial Board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The Editor-in-Chief may consult with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

B.       Reviewers' responsibilities:

1.       Contribution to editorial decisions

The peer-reviewing process assists the editor and the editorial board in making editorial decisions and may also serve the author in improving the paper. 

2.       Promptness

     Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.

3.       Confidentiality

  Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the Editor-in-Chief.

4.       Standards of objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

5.       Acknowledgement of sources

     Reviewers should identify cases in which relevant published work referred to in the paper has not been cited in the reference section. They should point out whether observations or arguments derived from other publications are accompanied by the respective source. Reviewers will notify the editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

6.       Disclosure and conflict of interest

     Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the papers.

C.       Authors' responsibilities:

 

1.       Reporting standards

     Authors of original research reports should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

2.       Data access and retention

     Authors could be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the paper for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable. In any event, authors should ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data center), provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.

3.       Originality, plagiarism and acknowledgement of sources

Authors will submit only entirely original works, and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited.

4.       Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication

 In general, papers describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Manuscripts which have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. In addition, manuscripts under review by the journal should not be resubmitted to copyrighted publications. However, by submitting a manuscript, the author(s) retain the rights to the published material. In case of publication they permit the use of their work under a CC-BY license [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/], which allows others to copy, distribute and transmit the work as well as to adapt the work and to make commercial use of it.

 

5.       Authorship of the paper

     Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author ensures that all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved persons are included in the author list. The corresponding author will also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

 

6.       Disclosure and conflicts of interest

     All authors should include a statement disclosing any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that may be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

 

7.       Fundamental errors in published works

     When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and to cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper in form of an erratum.

 

D.      Publisher’s confirmation:

     In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism the publisher, in close collaboration with the Editors-in-Chief, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question. This includes the prompt publication of an erratum or, in the most severe cases, the complete retraction of the affected work. 

The Publisher and the Journal do not discriminate on the basis of age, color, religion, creed, disability, marital status, veteran status, national origin, race, gender, genetic predisposition or carrier status, or sexual orientation in its publishing programs, services and activities.