Confirm that the submitted manuscript is not under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere.
Maintain accurate records of data associated with their manuscript, and to supply or provide access to these data should this be requested. If appropriate and allowed by an employer or funding body, to deposit data in a suitable storage location for sharing and further use by others.
Where portions of the content overlap with published or submitted content, to acknowledge and cite the original source.
Confirm that all work in the submitted manuscript is original, and to acknowledge and cite content reproduced from other sources.
Obtain permission to reproduce any content from other sources.
Declare any potential conflicts of interest (i.e. where the author has a competing interest that could be viewed as exerting an undue influence on his / her duties at any stage during the publication process).
Notify the Editor or publisher if a significant error in their publication is identified, and then to cooperate with the publisher to publish an erratum, or addendum, or to retract the paper, where this is thought necessary.
It is the responsibility of the Editor to:
Act in an objective and fair way while carrying out their duties, and not discriminate on grounds of the gender, religion, sexual orientation, political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors;
Follow clear and defined procedures in the event of complaints of an ethical or conflict nature, in accordance with policies and procedures of the community where appropriate. Authors should be given a reasonable opportunity to respond to complaints. All complaints should be investigated and documentation related to any such complaints must be retained.
Handle submissions for sponsored supplements or special issues in the same way as other submissions, so that articles are considered and accepted solely on their academic merit and without commercial influence.
It is the responsibility of the Reviewer to:
Assist in the decision-making process.
Assist in improving the quality of the published paper by reviewing the manuscript objectively, and in a timely manner.
Act in a confidential manner to information supplied by an Editor or Author.
Inform the Editor to any content that is substantially similar to that under review.
Be aware of potential conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, or collaborative between the reviewer and author), and to alert the Editor to these.
