Ethics & Malpractice Policy

COPE Guidelines

The journal follows the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and generally accepted practices for setting its principles and practices.

 Plagiarism

 Authors shall submit only entirely original works, and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been significant in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited. Plagiarism includes “passing off” another’s paper as the author’s own, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is intolerable.

Generative AI

 Authors should not use GenAI tools for generating content, such as text and data, results, figures, tables, analysis, interpretations/discussions, conclusions, or any other sections of the paper.

Authors may, however, employ assistive AI (i.e. for correcting grammar in their manuscript). The use of AI tools in this manner should be minimal and appropriately disclosed at the time of submission. Editors and reviewers may use AI tools only for administrative (i.e. for writing emails) tasks, while maintaining confidentiality and academic integrity.

All submissions to the journal will be checked for AI similarity. The journal reserves the right to take appropriate action if undisclosed or inappropriate use of GenAI is identified at any stage.