The PCDP journal is committed to following best practices on publication ethics. These policies are based on the Core Practices from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). These policies must be read in conjunction with the PCDP’s Author and Reviewer Guides which can be found through the website homepage.
Publication and Authorship
- All submitted manuscripts are subject to a strict peer-review process by international reviewers who are experts in the area of the particular paper. Reviewers are being selected by Associate Editors and Editor in Chief. The author also can suggest reviewers for their manuscript.
- Originality, relevance, readability, statistical validity, and language are the main factors that are taken into account in the review process.
- The possible decisions include rejection, major revision, minor revisions, acceptance with minor revision, or final acceptance.
- Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed.
- If authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted.
- The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.
- No paper can be included in more than one publication, whether within the same journal, in another journal, or conference.
Authors' Responsibilities
- Authors should guarantee that their manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere, or even submitted and been reviewed in another journal or conference.
- Authors must guarantee that their manuscript is their original work.
- All Authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research. The level of their contribution must also be determined in the “Authors’ Contributions” section of the article.
- Authors are forced to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
- Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript.
- Authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest.
- Authors must guarantee that all data in the paper are real and authentic.
- Authors must not use irrelevant sources that may help other researches/journals.
- Authors must participate in the peer review.
- Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the Editors.
- Authors cannot withdraw their articles after acceptance or publishing.
Responsibility for the Reviewers in Peer Review
- Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information.
- Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments in minimum 500 words.
- Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author. No self-knowledge of the author(s) must affect their comments and decision.
- Reviewers may identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
- Reviewers should not review 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 connected to the papers.
- Reviewers should also call to the Editor in Chief's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
Editorial Responsibilities
- Associate Editors and Editor in Chief have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept a paper in The PCDP.
- Editors guarantee that all research material they publish conforms to international accepted ethical guidelines.
- Editors guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record.
- Editors have a clear picture of a research's funding sources.
- Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication in the PCDP.
- Editors publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
- Editors act if they suspect misconduct, whether a paper is published or unpublished, and make all reasonable attempts to persist in obtaining a resolution to the problem.
- Editors only accept a paper when reasonably certain.
- Editors do not change their decision after submitting a decision (especially after reject or accept) unless they have an important reason.
- Editors do not reject papers based on suspicions; they should have proof of misconduct.
- Editors base their decisions solely one the papers' importance, clarity, relevance and originality to publication's scope.
- Editors do not reverse their decisions nor overturn the ones of previous editors without serious reason.
- Editors always consider the needs of the authors and the readers when attempting to improve the publication.
- Editors do not allow any conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers and board members.
Publishing Ethics Issues
- All editorial members and authors must publish any kind of correction honestly and completely.
- Authors cannot make major changes in the article after acceptance without a serious reason.
- Corresponding author is the main owner of the paper so she/he can withdraw the paper before acceptance or publishing.
