The EPJ journals are committed to the highest standards of publishing integrity and academic honesty. We recognize the important role we play as publishers of scientific record. All published articles are subjected to rigorous peer review. Authors are expected to pursue objectiveness and rigour in all aspects of their work. Referees are requested to provide unbiased and constructive comments aimed, whenever possible, at improving the work.

Incidents of potential misconduct should be brought to the attention of the relevant editorial office or Editor-in-Chief, and will be handled with care and deliberation in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE).

The following advice cover some areas where unethical behavior could potentially arise.

Competing interests statements

Editors, authors and referees should declare competing professional or personal interests that might interfere (or be perceived as interfering) with an objective presentation, interpretation or judgment of a submitted paper.

Authorship

Corresponding authors are requested to ensure that all contributors to the work are listed as authors and are aware of the paper, from submission through publication.

Plagiarism/self-plagiarism/duplicate submissions

Publishing papers that in part or fully reproduce previously published work is an act of misconduct, whether it involves own or other people’s work. Authors must always reference all relevant sources and clearly identify if they are re-using text or materials previously published by themselves or other. Permission should be sought and disclosed whenever other people’s materials is used. It is highly unethical to submit the same or substantially similar work simultaneously to more than one journal.

Falsification/fabrication of data

Reporting manipulated or fabricated research data is the most extreme cases of misconduct in scientific publishing.

EPJ reserves the right not to work with authors who are abusive to staff, referees or editors.

EPJ follows the Policies on Publishing Integrity of its co-publishers:
Springer, EDPS, and SIF. These publishers are all participating members of the non-profit international Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE). All journals in the EPJ family, and the Editors-in-Chief of the journals, are also registered members of COPE.

We encourage journal editors, reviewers, and authors to use the following documents for reference.

Resources

The Springer Policy on Publishing Integrity

The Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE)

• International Standards for Authors and Editors
• Codes of Conduct for Journal Editors and Publishers
• Other Guidelines and How-tos