Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Publication ethics of AUCI specifies the duties of authors, editors and reviewers.

AUCI is a peer-reviewed journal. All manuscripts received are evaluated by editors (members of the Editorial board of AUCI) and by two anonymous external referees. AUCI publishes scientific articles whose high quality is assured by an anonymous peer-review process. The editors therefore ensure that the review process and the assessment of manuscripts is thorough, objective and fair.

The need for a balance of topics, the Journal's particular areas of interest, which may change over time, the fact that something similar has already been published, etc., may also influence the final decision. Therefore, a rejection does not necessarily reflect upon the quality of a piece. AUCI welcomes submissions of the following types of manuscript: original articles, short notes and commentaries. In addition, AUCI also commissions book reviews and ‘discussion’ papers.

This Ethical Code describes the principles of ethical conduct for all participants in the review and assessment of manuscripts. Authors, editors, and reviewers are required to follow the rules outlined in this Ethical Code.

AUTHORS

Each manuscript submitted for peer review by AUCI has to be an original paper.
The manuscript must not have been previously published or accepted for publication in another journal or publishing house.
Exceptions to the "originality" rule apply to the following works: 1) conference papers published on the relevant conference website; 2) papers published in part as part of a master's thesis, rigorous thesis, dissertation, or habilitation, which must be notified to the editors in advance by the author.
The author may not send a manuscript to AUCI for review that is under review by another journal or send a manuscript to another journal that is currently under review by AUCI.
The manuscript must not contain plagiarism, falsification, fabrication, or serious misrepresentations.
Authors are required to refer to the works of other authors when quoting them verbatim or paraphrasing their ideas. In case of plagiarism or self-plagiarism (republication of one's own works), the manuscript will be rejected.
Autoplagiarism (duplicate publication of one's own work) is in principle not allowed. If the manuscript draws on another author's work that has already been published, is in press or is being considered for publication, the author must refer to that work.
The author shall ensure that his/her manuscript does not infringe copyright. If the author uses other works (graphics, tables) whose use requires the permission of the author, he/she will ensure that the necessary permissions are obtained before submitting the manuscript.

EDITORS

The editors (members of the Editorial board of AUCI) retain their independence.
The editors do not abuse their position and approach authors objectively, discreetly, constructively and impartially.
The editors judge manuscripts only on the basis of their professional qualities, relying on peer review.
While the editors strive for theoretical and methodological pluralism, they expect manuscripts to be of an appropriate professional standard and to be useful and accessible to the reader.
The editors do not provide input to anyone other than reviewers, authors, co-authors, or editorial board members, while always maintaining the anonymity of authors and reviewers.
Responsibility for accepting or rejecting manuscripts rests with the editors, who respect the reviewers' recommendations. The editorial board informs the reviewers of the results of the review process and of the final decision to accept or reject the manuscript.
The editors (and publishers) shall take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred.
In no case shall a journal or its editors encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.
In the event that the editors (or journal's publisher) are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct the publisher or editor shall deal with allegations appropriately.
According to the Journal’s guidelines, the editors (and publisher) should always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

REVIEWERS

Reviewers are usually two renowned experts in the field, but not from the same department as the author of the paper under review.
Reviewers must decline to review a manuscript in which they believe they have an actual or potential conflict of interest. In case of doubt as to whether there is a conflict of interest, reviewers shall inform the editors of this fact.
Reviewers shall evaluate manuscripts in an unbiased, objective, fair and professional manner. Reviewers are honest with the author if they have doubts about the quality of the manuscript. Reviewers are expected to adequately justify their recommendations to the editors and to provide the author with an appropriate amount of commentary and, where appropriate, recommendations. Reviewers will produce their review in a timely manner according to the agreed deadline, normally within 30 days.

Publication ethics of AUCI is primarily based on the Ethical Code of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), available at www.publicationethics.org (Guide for new researchers: https://publicationethics.org/files/2003pdf12_0.pdf; COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers: https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/cope-ethical-guidelines-peer-reviewers; COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors: https://publicationethics.org/files/u2/Best_Practice.pdf).