Publication ethics

The journal follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Conflict of interest

An editor or Board member with a competing interest in a manuscript takes no part in handling it — neither deciding whether it goes to review, nor choosing its reviewers, nor taking the decision. Another member handles it, and the recusal is recorded.

Competing interest includes being an author or co-author, being at the same institution as an author, having supervised or been supervised by an author, and having a stake in the outcome through one's employer.

These three steps are named deliberately. Reviewers are external, so the conflict does not lie in the reviewing: it lies in deciding whether a paper is reviewed at all, in choosing who reviews it, and in what is done with the reports.

The limit on work by the journal's own people

Originality

Every manuscript is screened for similarity before review. Work already published elsewhere is not accepted, and that includes conference proceedings. Where plagiarism is found after publication, the article is retracted and the retraction is left in place permanently.

Corrections

When we get something wrong we correct it in public, with a dated note attached to the article saying what was wrong and what changed. Nothing is silently altered after publication.

Editorial independence

Editorial decisions rest with the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board. The publishers do not intervene in the acceptance or rejection of any manuscript and have no power to require the publication of any article. Neither publisher holds an editorial post.