Ethical issues

IPEJM Board addressed the following Ethical Norms to Editors and Co-Editors, Reviewers and Authors.

As regards the Editors and Co-Editors

Editor and Co-Editors will assure that selection and reviewing processes of submitted articles are carried out:

• in observance of any legal requirements such as those concerning libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism;
• ensuring selection and evaluation processes are not biased by race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship or political philosophy of the Authors;
• without disclosing any information about a submitted article to anyone other than the corresponding Author, Reviewers, potential Reviewers, other editorial advisers and the publisher as appropriate;
• taking privileged information or ideas from submitted articles as confidential and not using them for personal advantage;
• ensuring selection and reviewing processes are not biased by conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the Authors, companies or institutions connected with the papers.

As regards the Reviewers

Reviewers will evaluate submitted articles:

• treating articles received for review as confidential documents and not showing or discussing them with others except as authorized by the Editor;
• acting objectively, without any bias by personal criticism of the Authors or by race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship or political philosophy of the Authors;
• calling to the Editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge;
• taking privileged information or ideas from reviewed articles as confidential and not using them for personal advantage;
• notifying the Editor of any conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections they have with any of the Authors, companies or institutions connected with the papers.

As regards the Authors

• they will not submit articles previously published in their current or substantially similar form;
• they will not submit articles under consideration with another journal;
• they are required to appropriately quote every source they used;
• redundant publication (dual publication or self-plagiarism) is only acceptable if it leads to different or new conclusions, or if it contains comparisons with new data; anyway it is important to reference the previously published work and ensure that the scope of the paper and its conclusions differ from the previous research;
• they will ensure that no fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements is included;
• where applicable, they will provide the raw data relation with the paper under review and will be prepared to provide public access to such data, and will in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication;
• they must include the necessary permission of copyright released with the tacit/explicit assent of the authorities responsible; such permission is necessary to reproduce in the article, in all media and in all countries any included materials, tables and figures that are not owned;
• all those who have made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution of the article should be listed as Co-Authors; those who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project should be acknowledged or listed as contributors;
• they have to declare any potential conflicts of interest in the research; in particular, conflicts of interest include: a) a financial or personal interest in the outcomes of the study; b) undisclosed financial support for the research by an interested third party;
• a note that disclosures the financial support received from third parties for the research, or any other possible conflicts of interest, must be provided prior to review and published on the first page of the article.