Guidelines for Ethical Behavior in Publishing

Perspectivas – Journal of Political Science is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal. The journal is committed to guaranteeing ethics in publication and quality of articles. Conformance to standards of ethical behavior is therefore expected from Authors, Editors, Reviewers, and the Publisher.

All parties involved in publishing an article in this journal (editors, peer reviewers, authors, and publisher) must follow appropriate guidelines for ethical behavior. Editors and reviewers must maintain objectivity and confidentiality and manage potential conflicts of interest. Authors must be honest and disclose their sources and funders. More precisely, to assure high-quality publications, public trust in scientific findings, and proper credit for ideas and results, ethical standards for publication in Perspectivas- Journal of Political Science include but are not limited to the following:

Editorial Team

The Editor-in-chief is appointed by the Scientific Committee of the Research Center in Political Science (CICP). Any concerns regarding conduct of the Editor-in-chief should be directed to the Director of CICP. Editors serve at the will of the editor-in-chief, and any concerns regarding their conduct should be directed to the editor-in-chief.

Duties of the Editors

Based on the double-blind peer review of a manuscript, the Editor-in-chief and the Editorial Team are responsible for determining which manuscripts are best suited for publication.

The Editors should evaluate manuscripts on the basis of their scientific merit, without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Policies, Procedures and Integrity

The Editor-in-chief and the Editorial Team are guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The Editor-in-chief will continually assess the effects of journal policies on author and reviewer behaviour, revising policies as required, encouraging responsible behaviour and discouraging misconduct.

Decisions to accept or reject a manuscript for publication are based on importance, originality, clarity, and the study’s validity and relevance to the journal’s Editorial Statement. Perspectivas- Journal of Political Science will never consider an author’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.

Identifying information will be removed from submitted manuscripts so that reviewers cannot access any information about authors, and vice versa. Reviewer comments to the editors are strictly confidential, and reviewer comments to authors will be made anonymous. The names of the reviewers will be known only to the Editor-in-chief, Editors, and Editorial staff and will remain strictly confidential to authors and other reviewers. The names of the authors will be known only to the Editor-in-chief, Editors, and Editorial staff and will remain strictly confidential to reviewers.

The Editor-in-chief, editors, and any editorial staff will not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the authors, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher.

Conflict of Interests and Errors in Published Works

To ensure accountability and transparency, the Editor-in-chief will establish systems for managing conflicts of interest for him - or herself, staff, authors, reviewers, and editorial team members.

It is the editor-in-chief's responsibility to promptly investigate accusations of errors in published work and to ensure that corrections and retractions are published in an accurate and timely manner.

Duties of Reviewers

The reviewers should respect the confidentiality of the revision process. The reviews should be supported by objective and clear arguments that help the author to improve manuscripts. The reviewers cannot in any circumstances take advantage of privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review for personal advantage.

Private information or ideas obtained through double-blind peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Information contained in a submitted manuscript must not be shown to or discussed with others without written permission of the Editor-in-chief or Editors.

Reviews shall contain no personal criticism of authors. Reviewers should clearly express their views with supporting arguments, and reviews should be conducted objectively and constructively.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. If a reviewer finds any substantial similarity or overlap between the submitted manuscript and any other published works, the Editor-in-chief or Editors must be notified promptly. Editors will refer to policies and procedures regarding plagiarism to identify and react to accusations of plagiarism.

If a reviewer discovers a conflict of interest with an assigned manuscript (resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions) the Editor-in-chief or Editors must be notified promptly to be excused from the review process.

Any reviewer who feels unqualified to review an assigned manuscript or unable to provide a prompt review should notify the Editor-in-chief or Editors to be excused from the review process.

Duties of Authors

Authors of manuscripts of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the manuscript. A manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

Peer review is the foundation of the journal publication process. By submitting a manuscript, an author agrees to be an active and responsive participant in by responding timely and appropriately to reviewer comments.

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a manuscript for editorial review, should be prepared to provide access to such data, and should retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

It is essential that editors and reviewers be told by the authors when any portion of a manuscript is based heavily on previous work, even if this work has been written by one or more of the authors. It is the responsibility of the author not only to cite the previous work, including his or her own, but to provide an indication of the extent to which a manuscript depends on this work. The editor-in-chief will refer to policies and procedures regarding plagiarism to identify and react to accusations of plagiarism.

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Inclusion of citations in a submitted manuscript with the primary purpose of increasing the number of citations to a given author’s work or to articles published in a particular journal constitutes unethical behaviour.

Falsifying or fabricating numerical or experimental data or results in a submitted manuscript constitutes unethical behaviour.

Authorship must be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions 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 or listed as contributors.

It is the author's responsibility to promptly notify the editor-in-chief or associate editor if a significant error or inaccuracy is discovered in a published work so that the journal can retract or correct the paper as quickly as possible.

An author should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. If authors have used their own previously published work, or work that is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they are required to cite the previous work and indicate how their submitted manuscript offers novel contributions beyond those of the previous work. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical behaviour. Redundant publications involve the inappropriate division of study outcomes into several articles. Manuscripts that are found to have been published elsewhere, to be under review elsewhere, or to have been published or submitted with undisclosed redundant data will be subject to the procedures and penalties.

Corresponding Author

The name, address, and valid email address of the corresponding author must be provided. The corresponding author is the author responsible for communicating with the journal for publication. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the manuscript and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Funding Sources

Funding sources for the research reported in the manuscript should be duly acknowledged. It is the responsibility of the authors to follow any publishing mandates outlined by their funding organizations.

All sources of financial support for the project or any substantive conflict of interest that might be interpreted to influence the results must be disclosed.

Sanctions

In the event of documented violations of any of these ethical guidelines, the editor-in-chief of the Perspectivas – Journal of Political Science (acting independently or in consultation with the Perspectivas – Journal of Political Science Editorial Team) may:

  1. Immediately reject the infringing manuscript.
  2. Immediately reject every other manuscript submitted to Perspectivas – Journal of Political Science by any of the authors of the infringing manuscript.
  3. Prohibit all the authors from submitting new manuscripts to Perspectivas – Journal of Political Science, either individually or in combination with other authors of the infringing manuscript, as well as in combination with any other authors.
  4. Prohibit all authors from serving on the editorial board of Perspectivas – Journal of Political Science.
  5. In cases where the violations of the ethical guidelines are deemed particularly outrageous, Perspectivas – Journal of Political Science reserves the right to impose additional sanctions.