Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice

"Educazione Aperta" is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The journal adopts a code of ethics in accordance with the guidelines of the Committe on Publication Ethics (COPE). All parties involved in the publication process must be aware of the code of ethics and agree to it.

Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

The Editorial Board of “Educazione Aperta” is responsible for the decision to publish the proposed articles. In order to make this decision, it relies on the assessment of at least one independent and qualified reviewer (double-blind peer review). In addition, the Editorial Board refers to the journal’s Guidelines expressed in the presentation (http://educazioneaperta.it/presentazione) and to the legal provisions in force concerning defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

The Editorial Board ensures the proper selection of reviewers and provides them with guidelines, striving to ensure that peer review is fair, unbiased and timely.

The Editorial Board, with the contribution of reviewers, evaluates articles proposed for publication on the basis of relevance, originality and clarity of content, without discrimination on grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, citizenship and political orientation.

The Editorial Board is committed to not disclosing information about the proposed articles to anyone other than the author and reviewers.

Editorial Board members undertake not to use the contents of an article proposed for publication in their own research without the written consent of the author.

Responsibilities of reviewers

Reviewers play a key role in the decision-making process regarding the publication of proposed contributions, although the final decision is taken by the Editorial Board.

Any reviewer who does not feel adequate for the proposed task or who knows that he or she will not be able to carry out the reading in the required timeframe is expected to notify the Editorial Board without delay.

Information obtained during the peer review process must remain confidential and may not be used for personal purposes.

Reviewers are requested to justify their assessments with reference to objective criteria, free from bias.

The peer review procedure helps authors to improve their contribution. Therefore, reviewers are requested to provide indications and comments, which encourage clarity, completeness and accuracy of the reported research. Reviewers also undertake to indicate bibliographical references of fundamental works that may have been overlooked by the authors.

Reviewers are required to pay attention to ethical issues, to ensure the originality of published contributions, and to point out any redundancies, overlaps or plagiarism.

Reviewers are required not to accept to evaluate  articles for which they have a conflict of interest due to previous collaborative or competitive relationships with the authors and/or their institution.

Responsibility of the authors

No financial contribution is required either to publish an article or to download it.

By submitting a contribution to “Educazione Aperta”, the author agrees to publish it under a Creative Commons 4.0 licence.

Authors shall ensure that contributions submitted to the journal are unpublished and have not been simultaneously submitted to other journals. In addition, they must not present repetitive or redundant parts in relation to other publications. Authors are required to follow the guidelines available at: http://educazioneaperta.it/guidelines.

The work must be presented with precision, accuracy and clarity, so that the research can be replicated.

If the Editorial Board considers it appropriate, the authors of articles should make the sources or data on which the research is based available. These sources and data should then be retained by the authors for a reasonable time even after publication of the article.

Authors are required to properly cite parts from other works. They may not present the work of another author as their own, nor may they copy or paraphrase parts of other works without appropriate citations.

Those who have actually and concretely contributed to the conception, design, implementation or interpretation of the research will be indicated as authors of the contribution. In the case of co-authored contributions, all co-authors must contribute to the drafting of the contribution, agree on its publication and approve the final version. If other persons have significantly participated in certain stages of the research, their contribution must be explicitly acknowledged.

All authors are required to explicitly declare that there are no conflicts of interest that could have influenced their results or proposed interpretations. Authors must indicate the funding institutions, if any, of the research from which the article stems.

If the author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in the published work, they  must promptly notify the Editorial Board and cooperate in its correction. Similarly, if the Editorial Board becomes aware of a significant error or inaccuracy in an already published work, it will contact the authors who will take care to make the necessary corrections as soon as possible.