The journal is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity and editorial independence. Editorial procedures are informed by the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and by other recognised international standards relevant to particular types of research.

Authors, reviewers, editors and other participants in the publication process are expected to act responsibly, transparently and in accordance with applicable ethical, professional and legal requirements.

 

Core Ethical Principles

The journal is committed to:

• maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record;
• ensuring fair and independent editorial assessment;
• protecting the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts;
• appropriately managing conflict of interest;
• preventing and addressing plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, data fabrication, data falsification, citation manipulation, inappropriate authorship and other forms of research or publication misconduct;
• ensuring appropriate ethical oversight of research involving humans, animals or biological materials; and
• correcting the scholarly record where necessary through corrections, expressions of concern or retractions.

Allegations of research or publication misconduct are assessed on their merits and handled in accordance with the journal’s procedures and relevant COPE guidance.

 

Data Sharing and Research Transparency

Authors are encouraged to make the data and other materials supporting their findings available wherever this is ethically, legally and practically possible.

Where supporting data are publicly available, authors should provide sufficient information to enable readers to locate them. Where access is restricted because of participant confidentiality, data-protection requirements, legal restrictions, third-party agreements or other legitimate considerations, these restrictions should be clearly stated.

Authors remain responsible for ensuring that research data are reported accurately and that data sharing does not breach consent arrangements, confidentiality obligations, intellectual property rights or applicable data-protection legislation.

 

Editorial Decision-Making

Editorial decisions are based on the scholarly quality, originality, methodological soundness, relevance and ethical integrity of the manuscript and its suitability for the journal’s aims and scope.

Decisions must not be influenced by the authors’ nationality, institutional affiliation, personal characteristics, beliefs or other factors unrelated to the scholarly assessment of the manuscript.

The Editor-in-Chief, or an authorised independent editor where the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict of interest, is responsible for the final editorial decision. Reviewer recommendations inform the decision but do not, by themselves, determine whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected.

 

Confidentiality and Data Protection

Submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents throughout the editorial and peer-review process.

Information concerning a submission may be shared only with individuals or service providers whose involvement is reasonably necessary for editorial assessment, peer review, production, publication, investigation of ethical concerns or compliance with legal or regulatory obligations.

Editors, reviewers and editorial staff must not disclose information obtained through the peer-review process for purposes unrelated to the legitimate handling of the manuscript.

Personal information collected during submission and publication is processed only for legitimate editorial, publishing and administrative purposes and must be handled in accordance with applicable data-protection requirements.

 

Use of Unpublished Materials

Editors and reviewers must not use unpublished data, arguments, ideas, interpretations or other confidential information obtained through a submitted manuscript for their own research, professional advantage or the benefit of another person or organisation without appropriate authorisation.

This duty of confidentiality continues after the manuscript has been accepted, rejected or withdrawn, subject to any disclosure required for the investigation of publication ethics concerns or by applicable law.

 

Conflict of Interest

Authors, reviewers and editors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, academic or personal interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their responsibilities in the publication process.

Reviewers or editors who have a conflict that may compromise their impartiality should not participate in the assessment of the manuscript concerned.

Where an editor has a relevant conflict of interest, the manuscript must be transferred to another appropriately qualified and independent editor. Conflict involving the Editor-in-Chief is handled without their participation in reviewer selection, manuscript assessment or the final editorial decision.

Authors must disclose relevant competing interests in the manuscript or accompanying declaration. The existence of a competing interest does not necessarily prevent publication, but transparency is required so that editors and readers can assess its potential relevance.

 

Post-Publication Discussion and Correction of the Scholarly Record

The journal welcomes legitimate scholarly discussion and critical evaluation of published research, including discussion conducted through independent post-publication platforms such as PubPeer.

Concerns about published articles that are brought to the attention of the journal will be assessed objectively and, where appropriate, investigated in accordance with the journal’s publication ethics procedures and relevant COPE guidance.

Where the scholarly record requires amendment, the journal may publish an author correction, editorial correction, expression of concern or retraction, depending on the nature and severity of the issue.

Post-publication notices should be clearly linked to the original article and should explain the reason for the amendment sufficiently to preserve the transparency and integrity of the scholarly record.

 

Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants, identifiable human data or human biological materials must comply with applicable institutional, national and international ethical and legal requirements.

Where ethical approval is required, authors must obtain approval from an appropriately constituted research ethics committee or institutional review board before commencing the relevant research. The manuscript should state the name of the approving body and, where applicable, the approval or reference number.

Where a study is exempt from formal ethical review under applicable institutional or national requirements, this should be stated and, where appropriate, supported by documentation.

Participants must provide free and informed consent where required. If informed consent has been waived by an authorised ethics body, the basis for the waiver should be reported. Additional consent for publication must be obtained where identifiable personal information, photographs or other identifiable materials are published.

Particular care must be taken when research involves children, young people, vulnerable individuals or other participants whose ability to provide fully informed and voluntary consent may be limited.

For social, behavioural, opinion and related research, authors should follow relevant professional ethical standards, where applicable, such as the American Sociological Association Code of Ethics and the ICC/ESOMAR International Code on Market, Opinion and Social Research and Data Analytics, together with applicable institutional and legal requirements.

 

Ethics of Animal Research

Research involving live vertebrate animals or other animals subject to ethical oversight must comply with applicable institutional, national and international standards for animal welfare and research ethics.

Where ethical approval is required, the manuscript must identify the relevant ethics committee or competent authority and provide the approval or licence number where available.

Authors must describe measures taken to minimise animal suffering and to justify the experimental procedures and use of animals.

Reports of in vivo animal research should be prepared in accordance with the ARRIVE Guidelines 2.0. ARRIVE constitutes a reporting framework and does not replace the requirement to obtain appropriate ethical approval or comply with applicable animal-welfare legislation.

 

Research Involving Plants

Research involving cultivated or wild plants must comply with applicable institutional, national and international requirements, including requirements governing the collection, use, transport and conservation of plant material.

Authors must obtain any permits or permissions required for the collection or use of plant specimens and should provide sufficient taxonomic information to enable the plant material to be reliably identified. Voucher specimens and information on their deposition should be reported where appropriate to the type of study.

Where research involves access to or utilisation of genetic resources, authors must comply, where applicable, with relevant access and benefit-sharing requirements, including those arising under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol.

Requirements under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) apply where the research involves international trade or movement of specimens of species covered by the Convention.

 

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for:

• ensuring fair and independent consideration of submitted manuscripts;
• selecting suitably qualified and independent reviewers;
• maintaining the confidentiality of submissions;
• identifying and managing conflict of interest;
• assessing allegations of research and publication misconduct;
• safeguarding the integrity of the peer-review and decision-making processes; and
• taking appropriate action to correct the scholarly record where reliable evidence indicates that correction, expression of concern or retraction is warranted.

Editors must not use their position to obtain personal, professional or financial advantage from unpublished material submitted to the journal.

 

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to:

• provide objective, constructive and evidence-based assessments;
• evaluate manuscripts within their area of expertise;
• maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and peer-review communications;
• disclose relevant conflict of interest;
• draw the editor’s attention to suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data irregularities or other ethical concerns where identified; and
• refrain from using unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal, professional or financial advantage.

Reviewers should decline an invitation where they lack sufficient expertise, cannot provide an impartial assessment or cannot complete the review within an appropriate timeframe.

 

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, transparency and integrity of their submitted work.

Authors must:

• present research methods, data, results and conclusions accurately;
• appropriately acknowledge and cite the work of others;
• disclose relevant sources of funding and competing interests;
• obtain all required research ethics approvals, permissions and participant consents;
• avoid plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication and inappropriate manipulation of citations or data;
• ensure that all individuals listed as authors satisfy the journal’s authorship requirements;
• acknowledge contributors who do not qualify for authorship where appropriate; and
• cooperate with reasonable editorial requests relating to clarification, correction or investigation of the submitted or published work.

Authors should retain relevant research records and supporting documentation for an appropriate period in accordance with disciplinary, institutional and legal requirements.

 

Authorship and Submission

Submission of a manuscript confirms that all listed authors have approved the submitted version, agree to its submission to the journal, and accept responsibility for their respective contributions to the work.

The final list of authors and the order of authorship must be agreed by all authors before submission. Authors are responsible for ensuring that all individuals who meet the journal’s authorship criteria are included at the time of submission and that no individual who does not qualify for authorship is listed.

The addition or removal of authors after manuscript submission is not permitted. Changes to the order of authors after submission are likewise not permitted.

Guest, gift and ghost authorship are not acceptable. Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.

 

Advertising, Funding and Editorial Independence

Advertising, sponsorship or other commercial relationships must not influence editorial assessment, peer review or decisions regarding individual manuscripts.

The journal’s owners, sponsors and funding bodies must not interfere with editorial decisions concerning individual submissions.

Authors must disclose all sources of financial and material support relevant to the research. Where a research funder or sponsor has had a role in study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation, preparation of the manuscript or the decision to submit the work for publication, this role must be disclosed.

Where the funder had no such role, authors may state this explicitly.

Editorial decisions are made independently on the basis of the scholarly merits of the manuscript and its compliance with the journal’s editorial and ethical requirements.