Ethikrichtlinien

The editor or the editorial board of a journal or book series is responsible for deciding on the admission and publication of submitted contributions.

Their decision is based on the recommendation of the reviewers. Any selected reviewer who does not consider themself qualified to review the research reported in a manuscript, or knows that an immediate review will be impossible, should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.

The guidelines of the journal or book series serve as reference. The editor or the editorial board must comply with the legal provisions regarding defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism in their respective jurisdiction at the time of submission.

The editor agrees to provide timely reviews to the authors. The editor may also assist the author in improving the quality of the work through editorial communication with them.

The editors and reviewers evaluate papers based on their content.

Reviews are to be conducted objectively and neutrally. Personal criticism of the contributor is inappropriate. The reviewers should formulate their assessments clearly and based on arguments.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the author.

A reviewer should inform the editor or the editorial board if there is a considerable similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and another published work known to them.

Under all circumstances, the editor or the editorial board will ensure that manuscripts are reviewed on the grounds of their intellectual value, notwithstanding the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, nationality, or political views of the author.

Submitted manuscripts are to be treated as confidential documents.

The editor, reviewers and any editorial staff 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.

Information or ideas to be obtained exclusively through peer review must be handled confidentially and must not be used for personal profit.Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author.

Reviewers shall not evaluate manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest, be it a competitive, collaborative or any other type of relationship or connection with the contributor of the respective work and/or companies or institutions associated with it.

Authors are obliged to submit a meaningful and truthful synopsis of the work presented to the editorial board upon request. The synopsis must include a discussion of the current research situation as well as a statement of the methodology and the sources on which the work is based. In addition, the results achieved should be summarized in the synopsis.

Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

If an author identifies a significant error or fundamental mistake in their published work, they are obliged to inform the editor or publisher immediately.