Publication Ethics

1. General provisions

Editorial policy of scientific psychological journal Reflexio is based on the ethical principles, and particularly on academic publication guidance by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (http://publicationethics.org) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) (http://www.icmje.org).

The general principles of manuscripts selections are credibility and scientific significance. Decisions of editorial board should not be influenced by commercial interests, personal relationships, or findings that are negative or that credibly challenge accepted wisdom. Scientific discussions and letter to the editorial board are also welcome.

 

2. Duties of Authors 

2.1. Authorship 

Reflexio follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines which state that, in order to qualify for authorship of a manuscript, the following criteria should be observed: 

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work;
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Provide approval for publication of the content;
4. Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. 

Contributors, who do not meet these criteria, but nonetheless provided important contributions to the final manuscript should be included in the acknowledgements section.

The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal and editorial office during the submission process, throughout peer review and during publication.

2.2. Main Criteria of Research Quality

Material submitted to Reflexio must met the following criteria: 

1. Original content and plagiarism absence: the authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted and permission has been obtained where necessary.
2. Fabrication and falsification: Reflexio opposes both the fabrication of data or the falsification of data. Authors have a responsibility to respond appropriately and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data
3. Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication: Reflexio considers as unethical the following cases: (a) multiple publications; (b) the submission of very similar articles based on the same empirical study. Reflexio considers that publishing the same intellectual material more than once is a form of scientific misconduct. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently is also unacceptable. Publication of some kinds of articles (e.g., translations) in more than one journal is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned must agree to the secondary publication. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication.

2.3. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest 

Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that could be perceived as influencing their work. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

According to ICJME, a conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, honoraria, paid expert testimony, grants or other funding.

 

3. Duties of Editors 

3.1. When deciding on publication, the editor shall be guided by reliability and scientific significance of the manuscript.

3.2. An editor should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to gender, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

3.3. The editor and any editorial staff of Reflexio 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.

3.4. Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have conflicts of interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration.

 

4. Duties of Reviewers 

4.1. According to the criteria of ICJME followed by Reflexio, reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists.

4.2. 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 of Reflexio and excuse himself from the review process.

4.3. The manuscript received for reviewing is a confidential document which cannot be passed for discussion or examination to the third parties. The manuscripts are the intellectual property of authors and should not to be disclosed.

4.4. Reviewers shall give an objective and well-reasoned assessment of the manuscript, as well as justified recommendations. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate.

4.5. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author.

4.6. Reviewers must not retain the manuscript for their personal use and should destroy paper copies of manuscripts and delete electronic copies after submitting their reviews.