Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice

The journal adopts a Code of Ethics inspired by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct. All parties involved in the publication process must be aware of the Code of Ethics and agree with it.

Journal Editors

Editors must act if they suspect misconduct or if an allegation of misconduct is brought to them.

In the event that a journal’s publisher or editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct relating to a published article in their journal, the publisher or editor shall follow COPE’s guidelines in dealing with allegations. This duty extends to both published and unpublished papers.

Editors have a system for managing their own conflicts of interest as well as those of the staff, authors, reviewers and Editorial Board members.

Editors have a process for handling submissions from the editors, employees or members of the editorial board to ensure unbiased review.

Editors encourage study and research into peer review and publishing, and reassess the journal’s processes in the light of new findings.

Editors guarantee that errors and inaccurate or misleading statements are corrected promptly and with due prominence.

Editors will publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Editors will respond promptly to complaints and will ensure there is a way for dissatisfied complainants to take complaints further. Complaints and appeals may be sent to: redazione.educazioneaperta@gmail.com

Editors ensure that contents are published on a timely basis, following the stated frequency.

Editors take all reasonable steps to guarantee that the published material is securely preserved and that all articles are published in open access and freely downloadable. Permanent identifiers such as DOI guarantee the tracking and preservation of articles in the long term.

Editorial Board

The Editorial Board of “Educazione Aperta” is responsible for the decision to publish the proposed articles. To make this decision, the Board relies on the assessment of at least one external and qualified reviewer (double-blind peer review).

The Editorial Board refers to this Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice

Guidelines and the legal provisions in force concerning defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication.

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 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.

The Editorial Board, with the contribution of reviewers, evaluates articles proposed for publication based on 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’s decision may be constrained by legal requirements such as those regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

The Editorial Board provides guidance to authors that encourage accuracy, completeness and clarity of research reporting, including technical editing and the use of appropriate guidelines and checklists.

The Editorial Board has a system to ensure that material submitted to the Journal remains confidential while under review. Confidentiality of individual information obtained in the course of research or professional interactions is guaranteed.

Authors

Authors are responsible for the articles they submit: they must ensure the originality of their works, and be aware of the consequences of misconduct.

Authors should always acknowledge their sources and provide relevant citation details for all publications that have influenced their work.

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

Authors are asked to follow the Author’s Guidelines published by the Journal, therefore ensuring accuracy, completeness and clarity of research reporting, including technical editing.

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 about other publications. Authors are required to follow the guidelines available at: https://www.educazioneaperta.it/guidelines_en.html

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 significantly 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.

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 concerning 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.

Publication Fees

The Journal has neither article processing charges nor submission processing fees.

Archiving Policy

Starting in 2021, Educazione Aperta articles have a DOI with Zenodo.