Ethical code

Specula Iuris is a scientific journal with double-blind peer review. The Journal’s Code of Conduct is inspired by the ethical rules of conduct and standards indicated by COPE in the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors at the following web page: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines. The Journal takes all the necessary decisions relating to any anomalies that may occur during the publication of a work in the journal itself. The parties involved – authors, peer reviewers, bodies of the Journal – must know and share the following rules.

Decision to publish

The Journal accepts only original works, written in compliance with copyright and not subjected to evaluation by other journals at the same time. The Journal uses peer review as the main method of selection of articles, which can be waived only in exceptional cases and giving notice of it at the time of publication. The rules relating to the review process are available at the following address: xxxx

The Journal promotes research independence, condemns plagiarism and copyright infringement, requests and promotes the publication of original contributions based on rigorous data, takes action to correct of errors in published articles and may, in severe cases, proceed with the withdrawal of papers by giving also public notice of the retraction.

Duties of the Editors and of the Journal’s bodies.

The Editors and the other editorial bodies of the Journal are required to comply with what is indicated in the COPE guidelines.

The organs of the Journal comply with the provisions in force on defamation, violation of copyright and plagiarism.

Editorial bodies avoid any conflict of interest and discrimination.

The Editors, the Editorial Committee and the Scientific Committee evaluate the manuscripts on the basis of the scientific content, without distinction of gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, as well as the scientific, academic or political orientation of the authors.

The editorial bodies of the Journal will not disclose information on manuscripts sent to anyone other than the authors, reviewers, and potential reviewers. Members of the organs of the Journal are prohibited from using the unpublished material contained in the manuscripts submitted to the Journal for their own research.

If the Editors or the Editorial Committee of the Journal detects or receives a report of a significant issue regarding serious errors, conflict of interest, plagiarism in a published article, they will promptly notify the author and take the necessary actions to clarify the issue. If necessary, the article will be withdrawn and a retraction or Erratum will be published, according to COPE guidelines.

Duties of peer reviewers

To evaluate the writings sent to the journal for publication, the Journal may ask, in a double-blind peer review procedure, for the collaboration of scholars external to the organs of the Journal itself.

The reviewers help the Editors and the Editorial Committee in reaching a final editorial decision; through the communications conveyed by the Editors and the Editorial Committee, they can help the author to improve his manuscript.

An appointed reviewer, who feels unqualified to review the assigned manuscript, or who knows he will be unable to perform the review within the required timeframe, must promptly communicate his decision, renouncing to participate in the review process. The review must be conducted objectively. The reviewer does not accept manuscripts if he is in a conflict of interest. Manuscripts received for review should be treated as confidential documents. They will not be shown or discussed with anyone not previously authorized by the Editors or the Editorial Committee.

A reviewer must comply to the following ethical principles: constructively contribute to the decision of the editorial bodies; respect for deadlines; confidentiality.

If there are any bibliographic or documentary deficiencies in the evaluated contribution, the reviewer is required to indicate them to the author. The reviewer must promptly report any overlap or similarity of the evaluated text with other already published works to the editorial bodies of the Journal.

Authors’s duties

The authors must respect the following ethical principles: originality and prohibition of plagiarism; absence of conflict of interest; disclosure of any research funding linked to the submitted materials; the submission of the same contribution to other journals during the evaluation phase is prohibited; the submission of already published materials to the Journal is not allowed unless authorized by the Editors or the Editorial Committee; timely reporting of errors in submitted contributions; correct indication of sources; veracity of submitted data.

Authors must cite all publications that had a significant influence in the elaboration of the submitted work. Manuscripts must contain sufficient details and references to allow others to reply to the submitted paper.

The author must comply with the editorial rules developed by the Editors of the Journal and respect the deadline indicated for the delivery of the contribution.

All those who have substantially collaborated in the drafting of the contribution must be included as co-authors or in any case be mentioned in the writing.

The submitted manuscripts must not have been published as copyrighted material in other journals or volumes. Manuscripts under review in the journal should not be submitted to other journals for publication.

If an author identifies relevant errors or inaccuracies in one of his published contributions, he must communicate them to the editorial staff, providing them with all the information necessary for the publication of an errata.

Conflict of interest

A conflict of interest may exist when a referee or one of the Editors, one of the members of the Editorial Committee or the other editorial bodies of the Journal has personal or economic relationships such as to inappropriately influence their assessments and decisions. Anyone who is in a situation of conflict of interest cannot participate in the review process or in the procedures intended for dispute management.

In case of dispute

Anyone who finds violations of the above rules can raise the issue with the Editors of the Journal. The Editors, with the contribution of the Editorial Committee, will respond to the request within 30 days. Where necessary, the Editors and the Editorial Committee may avail themselves of the opinion of specially qualified external individuals. The decisions of the Editors and the Editorial Committee will always be motivated. Any retraction of a publication will be accompanied by a complete and public motivation of the action taken.