Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

General

In its editorial policy the "ACCESS: Access to science, business, innovation in digital economy" journal complies with the international standards for publication ethics.

The publisher of the journal follows the recommendations and core practices regarding ethical policies and dealing with misconduct of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, https://publicationethics.org/core-practices).

Elsevier publishing house: Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK).
https://www.elsevier.com/editors/perk

The code of ethics refers to all participants in the publication process: publishers, editors, authors and reviewers. The rules concern ethical issues like: objectivity of reviewers and equal treatment of all articles and authors, originality and plagiarism, confidentiality, fraudulent citation and data, possible conflict of interest.

"ACCESS: Access to science, business, innovation in digital economy" is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against publication malpractice.

Authors who submit papers to "ACCESS: Access to science, business, innovation in digital economy" attest that their work is original and unpublished, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Editors’ responsibilities

Publication decisions
The Editor-in-chief decides which of the papers, submitted to the journal, are published.
The decision to accept or reject a manuscript is based on the importance, originality and clarity of the paper and its relevance to the scope of the journal as stated.
Manuscripts will be evaluated without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.
When making a decision, an editor may consult other editors or peer reviewers.

Confidentiality
The Editor-in-chief and the editorial board members must not disclose any information concerning the submitted manuscript except to its author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisors and the publisher, if necessary.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Submitted unpublished materials must not be used by Editor-in-chief or the members of the editorial board in their own scientific research work without the explicit written consent of the author. Any confidential information or ideas generated in the reviewing process must be kept secret and must not be used to the editors’ personal gain.

Reviewers’ responsibilities

Contribution to Editorial decisions
Peer-reviewing process helps editors in their decision-making processes and may also serve the authors in improving their papers. The peer reviewers’ responsibility is to honestly review each manuscript before it is published.

Promptness
Any selected reviewer, who feels unqualified to review a submitted manuscript or is aware that its prompt review would be impossible, should inform the editor and withdraw from the peer review process.

Confidentiality
All manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be disclosed to or discussed with third parties, except for those authorized by the Editor-in-chief.

Standards of objectivity
Manuscripts must be reviewed objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers must express their views clearly with sufficient supporting arguments.

Referencing
Reviewers should identify cases in which relevant published work referred to in the paper has not been cited in the reference section. They should point out whether observations or arguments derived from other publications are accompanied by the respective source. Reviewers will notify the editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the papers.
When a reviewer doubts the integrity of an author, they must inform the Editor-in-chief about it confidentially.

Authors’ responsibilities

Publishing standards
Authors of original research reports 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 paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data access, sharing and reproducibility

Authors may be asked to provide unprocessed data related to the manuscript under review. They must also store such data for a certain period of time after the publication of their work.
Authors are encouraged to share original datasets and methodologies to improve the openness and reproducibility of their research.
Upon publishing, authors must disclose where the data is stored and how it can be accessed, ensuring it adheres to norms of privacy and confidentiality.
Papers should comprehensively describe the experimental methods and analytical processes to facilitate the reproduction of results by other researches.
Authors are required to guarantee the authenticity and integrity of their data, in alignment with the academic integrity standards.

Originality, plagiarism and acknowledgement of sources
Plagiarism is an intentional appropriation of authorship of somebody’s science or art works, ideas or inventions. Plagiarism may be a violation of copyright law and patent law and may entail legal liability. The journal is committed to publishing only original material, i.e. material that has neither been published elsewhere, nor is under review elsewhere.

Authors will submit only entirely original works, and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited. Plagiarism in all its forms is unethical and therefore unacceptable.
The journal will check articles for plagiarism (i.e. reproducing any content without attribution and permission) and considers the inclusion of plagiarised content to be misconduct by the authors.
The "ACCESS: Access to science, business, innovation in digital economy" journal uses Crossref Similarity Check Powered by iThenticate to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts.
Authors should note that their manuscript could be submitted to CrossRef at any stage from submission through to publication. Any claims of plagiarism received by the journal will undergo thorough investigation. Should these claims seem valid, we will ask all listed authors of the manuscript to provide clarification on the duplicated content. If the response is not satisfactory, the manuscript will be rejected, and future submissions may also be rejected.
Should plagiarism be identified after publication, the journal may correct or retract the original publication depending on the degree of plagiarism, its context within the article, and its effect on the integrity of the published study. We rely on our community of readers, reviewers, and editors to alert us to potential plagiarism, either through direct communication with the concerned editor or by emailing the Editor-in-Chief, or contacting us via the official Contact Us Form on the journal's website.

Image Manipulation, Falsification and Fabrication
Data presented and used in the research endeavor must be original and not any how fabricated. Image files must not be modified in any way that could cause misinterpretation of the information provided by the original image. In case such modification is detected, the manuscript is rejected. Authors should only use images and figures in their articles if they are relevant and valuable to the scholarly work reported.

Copyright
All published articles are licensed under a CC-BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which means that while authors maintain full copyright of their work, they allow others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon their work, even for commercial purposes, as long as the original creation is properly credited. Users are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles for any lawful purpose without needing prior permission from the publisher or the author. By submitting an article to the journal, whether by email or through the online submission system, authors acknowledge and agree to adhere to the current copyright policy.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication
In general, papers describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Manuscripts which have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. In addition, manuscripts under review by the journal should not be resubmitted to copyrighted publications.

Authorship of publications
Authorship should 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. The corresponding author ensures that all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved persons are included in the author list. The corresponding author will also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
All authors should include a statement disclosing any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that may be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Research involving questionnaires / surveys

Research questions should be clear and objective. Leading questions, which prompt an answer through word choice or an inadequate range of response, should be omitted. Surveys should not contain hypothetical questions or such designed to embarrass respondents.
Participation in surveys should be on the basis of fully-informed, freely-given consent. Respondents cannot be tricked or forced into participating into questionnaire-based research. Respondents should be told the nature and purpose of the research and any anticipated drawbacks of participation. In addition, explanations must be given in audience-appropriate language. Participants must be allowed to ask questions, and, if they choose, to quit the study.
Unless there are specific reasons, participants should be guaranteed that they will remain anonymous. If personally identifying data are required, they should generally be guaranteed that nothing in a research report will render them identifiable.
Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

Procedures for dealing with unethical behavior

Handling complaints and appeals

Complaints regarding journal content and processes must be submitted via the official Contact Us Form on the journal's website or via email to the Editor-in-chief and will be formally recorded.
When a complaint is received, the Editor-in-chief of the journal will evaluate it. Should further inquiry be warranted, a dedicated team will be established, which may reach out to involved parties for more information.
Following the inquiry, the editorial board will reach a decision that is both evidence-based and in alignment with established standards, and will then notify the person who lodged the complaint about the outcome
Individuals who are not satisfied with the decision have the opportunity to appeal within a 30-day period. This appeal will be considered by an independent committee, which will then make the final judgement.

Research misconduct
Should an author be found to have engaged in research fraud or misconduct, we will initiate an investigation in collaboration with the relevant institutions or bodies. Publications found to contain fraudulent results will be retracted, or a suitable correction will be made.

Corrections and retractions
In instances of suspected misconduct or fraud on a published article, the team of the journal will initiate an investigation according to the policy for Handling complaints and appeals. Based on the circumstances, the outcome might involve one or more of the following actions, but not limited to:

Placing an erratum/correction with the article
Placing an editor’s note or editorial expression of concern with the article
In severe cases, the article may be retracted

The rationale will be detailed in the published erratum/correction, editor's note, editorial expression of concern, or retraction notice. It's important to note that a retraction means that the article remains available for readers on the platform, but is marked as "retracted", and contains the reason detailed in a note.

The team of the journal performs ethical evaluations on all research submitted to the journal to verify adherence to ethical standards. All members of the team are trained in order to be aware of the ethical standards and methodologies of the journal.

Latest issue

Our latest issues

Need help?

Access Journal