Canadian Ethnic Studies

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

In this statement the editors essentially address the issues and concerns of the Committee on Publication Ethics’ Core Practices (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2017). As such the editors will work to ensure the highest possible ethical standards for publication and this includes: a fair evaluation of manuscripts; identification and management of conflicts of interest for authors, editors and reviewers; and the publication of manuscripts commensurate with the journal’s standards of excellence. All published work should be absent of falsification, fabrication and plagiarism as per the definition of such acts by the Canadian Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research (Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research, 2016). If the editors become aware of misconduct then they are ethically obliged to investigate seeking a response from authors and, if need be, their institutions.

Authors’ Duties and Responsibilities

Authors should present an accurate account of the work performed along with an objective discussion of its significance. All researchers (including students) who have contributed significantly, and no others, should be included in the list of authorship. The article should contain sufficient detail to permit others to replicate the work. Authors should submit only original work and should appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others to avoid plagiarism. Authors should disclose any substantive conflicts of interests that may be interpreted as having influence on the results, decisions, or interpretation of their manuscript. As well, all sources of financial support for the research should be disclosed. If authors discover an error or inaccuracy in their published work then they are obligated to notify the journal editors in order to retract or correct the paper in the form of an erratum.

Research that involved human participants must have been approved by the authors’ institutional ethics board and this should be noted in the article. Authors should take the necessary steps to ensure the confidentiality of sensitive data. Data used by authors should be accessible to others upon request and the editors reserve the right to retract papers if the data are not made available within a reasonable length of time when requested by a bona fide researcher for an attempt to replicate a significant finding or if that finding cannot be replicated. An exception is allowed if a statement of data unavailability has been included in a cover letter accompanying the initial submission and in the submitted versions of the paper.

Authors should not submit manuscripts that are being considered for publication in another journal and authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions.

All authors should be aware of the submission to the journal and agree to the corresponding author signing a copyright form on their behalf. Authors will assign copyright to Canadian Ethnic Studies although they are free to use their published work in other collections with appropriate citation listing where the work was first published. The authors should understand the journal has the non-exclusive right to publish the authors’ contribution and the continuing right, without limit, to include the contribution as part of any reprinting of the issue, in whole or in part. Authors who are approached directly in connection with a possible reprinting must recognize that copyright permission from Canadian Ethnic Studies will be required and that prior publication in Canadian Ethnic Studies must always be acknowledged.

Editors’ Duties and Responsibilities

The editors have the authority and are responsible for making the decisions regarding which manuscripts submitted to the journal are published. The editors should act in a timely, fair and balanced way when carrying out their editorial duties and will evaluate manuscripts without regard to the authors’ gender, race, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion, citizenship, or political beliefs. The decision to publish a manuscript will be based solely on its importance and originality of new knowledge and its validity and relevance to the journal’s ethical standards, focus and scope.

The editors should remain in good communication with the authors and reviewers with the peer review process being transparent. The editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers and authors in its use of the double-blind peer review process.

The editors should have no conflict of interest with respect to the manuscripts they accept or reject. If a conflict exists then the editor will pass the administration of the peer review process and decision making to a member of the journal’s editorial board who does not have a conflict of interest.

The editors should handle allegations of misconduct complaints with due care and attention allowing authors to respond to any allegation. If a published article must be retracted or corrected then the editors have a duty to promote the publication of a retraction or correction. Further, the editors are responsible and accountable for everything published in the journal. Commercial considerations should not affect editorial decisions particularly in regard to funded special issues. Funded special issues should be handled in the same way as regular issues whereby manuscripts should always be accepted on the basis of their scholarly and academic merit only.

Reviewers’ Duties and Responsibilities

Reviewers should disclose to the editors if they have a potential conflict of interest relating to a manuscript or author or funder. They should not review manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest resulting from a competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with the authors or institutions associated with the manuscript.

They should also inform the editors if they feel that they are not qualified and/or do not have the time to review a manuscript.

Reviewers should treat all manuscripts as confidential and treat the manuscript with fairness and objectivity. They also have a duty to inform the authors and editors if they suspect that a manuscript they are reviewing has content that is falsified, fabricated or plagiarized.

References

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2017). Core Practices. Retrieved May 11, 2020 from https://publicationethics.org/core-practices

Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research (2016). Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2020 from https://rcr.ethics.gc.ca/eng/documents/Framework2016-CadreReference2016_eng.pdf