Editors

Peer Review and Publication Decisions

Each manuscript passes through internal editorial review, internal faculty review, and a minimum of two independent peer reviewers (except for book reviews) before being considered for publication. We follow a strictly double-anonymous peer review model. This means that the identities of both the peer reviewers and the authors are kept hidden at all times. The final publication decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the editorial board. Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit and not affected by the origins of the manuscript, including the nationality, ethnicity, gender, political beliefs, race, or religion of the authors.

Confidentiality

We maintain utmost confidentiality for all manuscripts received for consideration in the journal. The editorial board does not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, the faculty board, potential reviewers, and the publisher, as appropriate. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript may not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.

Conflict of Interest

The editors shall disclose all relationships that may cause a potential conflict of interest to the Editor-in-Chief, and request a recusal from editorial decisions in which they have or are perceived to have conflicts of interests. A member currently serving on the editorial board shall not be allowed to make a submission for consideration in the Journal.

Authors

Authorship

The Journal encourages collaboration and thus, co-authorship. All those who have made significant contributions to an article should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged appropriately. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Legal Violations

All authors undertake that their submission does not infringe on the copyright or any other rights of any third person, nor does it contain anything defamatory, slanderous, libelous, obscene or any other unlawful content. All authors agree that they shall be solely responsible in case of any legal violations.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism in all its forms is unethical and is unacceptable. We do not tolerate plagiarism in any of our publications, and we reserve the right to check all submissions through appropriate plagiarism checking tools. Submissions containing suspected plagiarism, in whole or part, will be rejected. We also do not support duplicate and redundant publication of previous work, including text recycling, without appropriate cross-referencing or justification for the overlap. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to acknowledge their sources and provide appropriate references in the manner prescribed.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interests

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Further, any article affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved.

Research Transparency

This journal believes in the importance of transparent and reproducible research. We encourage authors to follow best practices in reporting their methodology, for example describing details of study design, sources used and their provenance, and selection procedures used. Where possible we encourage authors to make the evidence underpinning their findings, which may include quantitative data or qualitative materials, available to readers. We also encourage authors to cite materials and data they have used in their research, alongside literature citations, to recognise the importance of all kinds of research outputs.

Potential Issues

Corrections and Retractions

The journal handles different kinds of error in accordance with guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) where applicable. All articles have their proofs checked prior to publication by the author/editor, which should ensure that content errors are not present. Please contact the journal if you believe an article needs correcting. Post-publication changes are not permitted to the publication, unless in exceptional circumstances. If an error is discovered in a published article then the journal will assess whether a correction or a retraction is required. This ensures that the error can be appropriately corrected, whilst the integrity of the publication record is not broken. Any publication found to include fraudulent or unethical research or research which violates the journal’s policies may be retracted.

Misconduct and Complaints

Allegations of misconduct will be taken with utmost seriousness, regardless of whether those involved are internal or external to the journal, or whether the submission in question is pre- or post-publication. All reasonable steps will be taken to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication. Every reported act of unethical behaviour or malpractice shall be investigated and responded to by the current Editorial Board, irrespective of when the concerned issue was published. In case such a complaint or report involves a member of the Editorial Board, the appropriate investigation and decision will be taken by the Faculty Board.