Code of Ethics for publication

Foreword

Publishing the outcomes and results of a research investigation can be a delicate and challenging task, which requires all involved stakeholders (Editor & Managing Director, Scientific Director, Scientific Committee, External Reviewers, Authors) to comply with and maitain rigour, transparency, accuracy, and care.

Our Code of Ethics at Aequitas Magazine (ISSN 3035-0271) follows the current guidelines (Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors) outlined by the “Committee on Publication Ethics” (COPE) for ethical approaches to the publication of scientific works. The editorial policies of our Journal are in line with COPE’s recommendations to take all possible measures against negligence and bad conduct, ensuring good practice, from an ethical point of view, in the research publication process.

The publications – in Italian or English – in line with the double-blind review process (double blind peer-review and antiplagiarism checks), support and epitomise at the same time the scientific method. It is therefore important to establish ethical standards of conduct for all parties – Editor and Managing Director, Scientific Director and Scientific Committee, External Reviewers, Authors – who act as partners in the complex publication process.

1. Duties and functions of the Editor and the Director in charge of the journal

The Publisher, Aequitas Magazine (tax code 93089850635), Cultural Association of Research and Legal studies, based in Italy, shall provide the Journal with adequate resources, curates its publication and, together with the Director, shall promote editorial integrity and the adoption of international best practices while ensuring their application; they shall require original publications – written in compliance with copyright and not submitted, at the same time, to be evaluated by other journals – to guarantee high standards in editorial and scientific quality, with contributions that meet care, originality, depth, critical analysis and methodological rigour.

The Director shall ensure the use of double-blind peer review as a method for selecting articles and monographs, with the aim to publish and maximize their scientific potential; they are required to monitor compliance with endogeny; they shall promote the independence of research; they shall condemn without reservation copyright infringement and any practice of plagiarism, by utilising systems of antiplagiarism checks; they shall call for and promote original and in-depth contributions, based on rigorous data, by committing to publishing corrections of errors in published works.

The Director is expected to promote reflections on the evolution of research publishing, to hold conversations with the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research, the Ministry of Culture, the National Research Council, the University Association and the University Institutes; they are to interact with Directories, Libraries and catalogues, national and international, research centres and laboratories, other cultural and/or scientific institutions, in order to disseminate and enhance research, with particular emphasis on Open Access.

The Director shall aim to respond to queries and complaints swiftly by assuring that dissatisfied claimants can refer to the relevant procedure in flowchart published on COPE’s website to further protect their rights and interests.

Last but not least, the Director shall overview the content of the Journal to prevent any criminal conduct being committed in relation to its publication.

2. Duties and functions of the Scientific Director and the Scientific Committee of the Journal, and of the External Reviewers

The Scientific Director, in line with the editorial and scientific policies of the Journal, shall appoint and remove the members of the Scientific Committee (of which they are a coordinator and a member by right). They are also to ensure the correctness, the objectivity, and the analyticity of the critical review mechanisms used to examine, accept (with or without corrections) or reject contributions submitted by the Authors.

In particular, the Scientific Committee shall make use of the double blind peer-review process methodically, by submitting all proposed contributions to at least two internal reviewers (chosen from among its members). At the same time, the Scientific Director is to carry out a preliminary sifting of the contributions selected for peer review, and to assign the selected papers based on expertise and competence in the specific thematic area.

The review/evaluation shall be conducted in an objective manner and shall be carried out solely on the basis of scientific merit, care, methodological rigour, in-depth examination, consistency, the logic, relevance and originality of the content submitted for examination.

The Reviewer (internal or external) shall not accept manuscripts with which they may have any conflict of interest or return those for which they do not feel adequately qualified for or are not able to perform the revision within the required time.

The Reviewer is also expected to signpost the Authors to possible improvements and/or additions, useful for the publication and scientific maximization of the contents presented, reserving the right to make editorial changes with a view to the homogeneity of the publication of the Journal.

The Reviewer is also required to contrast any form of conflict of interest and discrimination. Therefore, contributions are to be evaluated exclusively on the basis of scientific value, relevance and content, without discrimination of gender or gender identity, health, ethnic origin, geographical origin, citizenship, sexual or religious orientation, political beliefs, age and any other personal or social condition. Failure to comply with this provision will result in the referee being removed from the list of evaluators.

The Reviewer is to flag, without delay, potential cases of plagiarism, defamation and/or potential violations of copyright to the Editor and the Managing Director that they shall identify in the contributions under consideration. If serious errors, conflicts of interest, plagiarism, defamation or copyright infringement are identified in a published article, the Reviewer must the Editor and the Managing Director immediately. In these cases, the Journal reserves the right to withdraw the publication and is to give full publicity in the most appropriate form.

The Scientific Committee and the External Reviewers, while preserving their scientific autonomy, are subject to the editorial policies of the Journal and bound to respect the legal provisions in force regarding plagiarism, defamation and copyright infringement.

They are bound to confidentiality, and are expected not to disclose any information on scientific contributions submitted for publication purposes except to the Authors themselves or to the Editor and the Managing Director. The unpublished material contained in the contributions submitted to the Journal shall not be used by members of the Scientific Committee nor by external reviewers, for their own studies or research, without having obtained the consent of the author expressly in writing.

3. Duties and guidelines for the Authors
The Author shall observe the indications and editorial rules (Collaborate) and shall ensure that the contribution, written in Italian or English, submitted for evaluation, is accurately presented, original, unpublished and not submitted simultaneously to other journals for publication. They are expected to accept the evaluation and selection procedures, in particular the prescribed double blind peer-review and antiplagiarism check mechanisms.

If the proposed contribution has been accepted, the Author shall grant the Publisher the right of first publication, authorizing all modes of open access use, according to the editorial guidelines of the Journal and under license Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

The Author is to guarantee consistency with the contents of the Journal, originality, clarity of presentation, coherence and logic, terminology accuracy, accuracy in bibliographical research and sources, depth, relevance, critical analysis and scientific rigour, the quality of the method, the validity of the results, the truthfulness of the data contained in the work and the objectivity of their interpretations. The data is to be reported accurately and in detail to allow others to offer replicas for study or research, and possibly to make the controversies of the case.

All those who have contributed to the final drafting of the text shall be included in the submitted contribution, appearing as Authors or Co-Autors.

The author shall also identify the sources, citing any publication and any source that has influenced the nature of the study and research present in the work.

Should the Author find significant errors or inaccuracies in the published contribution, they are required to inform the Journal promptly and provide appropriate corrections so that the necessary changes can be implemented without delay.

No fees are payable to the Authors, nor are any financial contributions required from the Authors for publication (APC, Article Processing Charges) or other costs (for example, for editorial processing, language editing, color and images, membership fees, other additional expenses). All costs of publishing are entirely covered by the Publisher.

Finally, the percentage of publications in the Journal, where at least one of the Authors is a member of the Scientific Committee or external Reviewer (endogeny), shall not exceed 20% of the total number of publications in the Journal in any calendar year.

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