Publication Ethics and Malpractice

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Catallaxy is committed to maintaining the integrity, transparency, and reliability of the scholarly record. The journal follows the Core Practices and relevant guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in addressing publication ethics and research-integrity issues.

Editors, reviewers, authors, and the publisher share responsibility for upholding high ethical and professional standards throughout the submission, review, publication, and post-publication process. Allegations of misconduct are assessed on the basis of available evidence and with appropriate regard for confidentiality, fairness, and due process.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF EDITORS

Editors evaluate manuscripts on the basis of scholarly merit, originality, clarity, methodological or analytical quality, relevance to the journal’s aims and scope, and compliance with ethical and editorial standards. Editorial decisions must not be influenced by an author’s nationality, gender, institutional affiliation, political or religious beliefs, or other characteristics unrelated to the scholarly content of the manuscript.

Editors must preserve the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and information obtained during peer review. Unpublished material may not be used for an editor’s own research or other purposes without the author’s permission.

Editors should avoid handling manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest. Where a conflict exists, editorial responsibility should be transferred to another suitably independent editor.

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision on publication. Decisions are informed by peer review and editorial assessment but are not determined mechanically by reviewer recommendations. The journal may seek an additional opinion when reviews are contradictory or when further expertise is required.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF AUTHORS

Authors must submit original work and must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to another journal. Previously published material, data, ideas, and wording must be appropriately acknowledged and cited.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and reproducibility of the work they submit. Fabrication, falsification, manipulation of data or images, citation manipulation, plagiarism, and other forms of research misconduct are unacceptable.

Authors must provide accurate information on authorship, affiliation, funding, conflicts of interest, data availability, and any other declarations required by the journal. Authors must cooperate with editors in responding to questions about the integrity of a submitted or published article and should promptly report significant errors discovered after publication.

AUTHORSHIP AND CONTRIBUTORSHIP

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the conception or design of the work; acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data or evidence; drafting of the manuscript; or substantial intellectual revision of the manuscript, and who accept responsibility for the submitted work.

All listed authors must approve the submitted and final versions of the manuscript. Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged where appropriate. Ghostwriting, guest authorship, and honorary authorship are not permitted.

Requests to add, remove, or change the order of authors after submission must be explained and agreed by all affected authors. The editors may request supporting information and may decline changes that cannot be adequately justified.

ORIGINALITY, PLAGIARISM, DUPLICATE PUBLICATION AND TEXT RECYCLING

Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable. Authors must distinguish clearly between their own contribution and material derived from other sources. Quotations, paraphrases, data, tables, figures, and ideas originating elsewhere must be appropriately attributed.

Substantial overlap with the authors’ own previously published work must be disclosed and cited. Redundant or duplicate publication, including submission of substantially the same work to more than one journal, is not permitted.

The journal may use similarity-detection tools and other methods to assess originality. Similarity reports are interpreted by editors in context and are not treated as an automatic determination of plagiarism.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST AND FUNDING

Authors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other relationship that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, interpretation, or publication of the manuscript. If no relevant conflict exists, authors should state this explicitly.

All sources of funding and material support relevant to the research or preparation of the manuscript must be disclosed. The role of the funder, where relevant, should also be stated.

Reviewers and editors must disclose conflicts of interest that could affect, or reasonably be perceived to affect, their judgement and should withdraw from the evaluation or decision-making process when appropriate.

PEER-REVIEW ETHICS

Peer review is conducted in accordance with the journal’s Reviewing policy. Reviewers must treat manuscripts and review materials as confidential, assess submissions objectively and respectfully, identify relevant uncited work where appropriate, and alert the editor to suspected substantial overlap, plagiarism, fabrication, or other integrity concerns.

Reviewers should decline an invitation when they lack the necessary expertise, cannot complete the review within a reasonable period, or have a conflict of interest. Information obtained through peer review must not be used for personal or professional advantage.

RESEARCH DATA, TRANSPARENCY AND REPRODUCIBILITY

Authors should present methods, data sources, analytical procedures, and limitations with sufficient transparency to allow readers to understand how the conclusions were reached. Empirical manuscripts should include a Data Availability Statement in accordance with the Instructions for Authors.

Where data, code, instruments, or other materials can be shared, authors are encouraged to deposit them in an appropriate repository and provide a persistent link or identifier. Where sharing is restricted for legal, ethical, contractual, confidentiality, or data-protection reasons, the restriction should be explained.

ETHICAL OVERSIGHT AND RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN PARTICIPANTS

Research involving human participants, personal or sensitive data, experiments, surveys, interviews, or other activities requiring ethical oversight must comply with applicable law, institutional requirements, and recognised disciplinary standards.

Where ethical approval is required, authors should identify the approving body and provide the approval or reference number where available. Where informed consent is required, authors must confirm that it was obtained. If formal ethical approval was not required, authors should be prepared to explain the basis for that determination when requested by the editors.

GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Generative AI and AI-assisted tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the integrity, originality, or accuracy of scholarly work. Authors remain fully responsible for all content submitted to the journal, including text, data analysis, code, images, references, and conclusions produced or modified with the assistance of AI tools.

Authors must disclose substantive use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in drafting text, analysing data, coding, creating or modifying images, or performing other research tasks. The disclosure should identify the tool and describe the purpose and scope of its use. Routine spelling, grammar, and language correction that does not generate substantive scholarly content does not normally require disclosure.

Editors and reviewers must protect the confidentiality of unpublished manuscripts. They should not upload manuscripts, review reports, or confidential editorial material to external generative-AI systems when doing so could result in retention, reuse, disclosure, or processing of confidential content. AI tools must not replace independent editorial or reviewer judgement.

ALLEGATIONS OF RESEARCH OR PUBLICATION MISCONDUCT

Concerns about suspected misconduct may be raised before or after publication. The journal considers allegations seriously and will assess them in accordance with COPE guidance. Depending on the circumstances, the editors may request explanations or source materials from the authors, seek additional expert advice, contact relevant institutions, or take other appropriate steps.

The journal does not make findings of personal guilt or intent when these properly fall within the responsibility of an employer, university, research institution, funder, or other competent body. Editorial action is focused on the integrity and reliability of the scholarly record.

CORRECTIONS, RETRACTIONS AND EXPRESSIONS OF CONCERN

Catallaxy is committed to correcting the scholarly record when significant errors or integrity concerns are identified after publication. Minor errors that do not affect the interpretation or reliability of the article may be corrected through an appropriate correction notice.

An article may be retracted when there is clear evidence that its findings are unreliable, when it contains serious misconduct or major ethical breaches, when it constitutes redundant publication or plagiarism that materially affects the work, or in other circumstances in which retraction is necessary to protect the integrity of the literature.

Retraction notices should state the reason for the retraction and remain linked to the original article. The original published record should normally remain accessible and be clearly marked as retracted. Content will be removed only in exceptional circumstances, for example where continued availability would create a serious legal, privacy, or safety risk.

Where serious concerns are unresolved and an investigation is ongoing, the journal may publish an Expression of Concern. Corrections, retractions, and other post-publication updates will be made transparently and, where applicable, reflected through CrossMark.

COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other parties may submit complaints or appeals concerning editorial procedure, publication ethics, or decisions to the editorial office at catallaxy@catallaxy.pl. Complaints should identify the manuscript or article concerned and explain the grounds for the request.

Appeals against editorial decisions should be based on a substantive argument concerning the review or decision process rather than disagreement with the outcome alone. Where reasonably possible, a complaint or appeal will be considered by an editor who was not directly responsible for the disputed decision. If the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict of interest, the matter should be handled by another senior editor or the publisher.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, OPEN ACCESS AND THIRD-PARTY MATERIAL

Catallaxy publishes articles in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). Authors are responsible for ensuring that they have the right to reproduce any third-party material included in their manuscript and for obtaining permission where required.

Copyright and licensing arrangements applicable to accepted manuscripts are specified in the publication agreement. Authors must disclose any prior publication or licensing arrangement that may affect the journal’s ability to publish the submitted work.

POST-PUBLICATION DISCUSSION

Readers are encouraged to bring significant errors, methodological concerns, ethical issues, or other matters affecting the reliability of a published article to the attention of the editors. Where appropriate, the journal may invite the authors to respond and may publish a correction, clarification, response, Expression of Concern, or retraction.

Scientific disagreement that does not involve misconduct may be addressed through correspondence, commentary, or other forms of post-publication discussion at the editors’ discretion.

PRIVACY AND PERSONAL DATA

Personal data collected during submission, peer review, and publication are processed for editorial and publishing purposes in accordance with applicable data-protection law and the journal’s Privacy Statement.