PUBLICATION ETHICS
PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT
Environmental and Agriculture Management (EAM) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that publishes original research, reviews, case studies, and short communications in environmental and agricultural management. EAM is committed to maintaining high standards of research integrity and publication ethics throughout the editorial, peer-review, and publication processes.
This statement outlines the ethical responsibilities of all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, editorial board members, peer reviewers, and the publisher. The principles described below are intended to promote responsible research and publication practices, ensure the integrity and reliability of the scholarly record, and maintain fairness, transparency, confidentiality, and accountability in the publication process.
Ethical Guidelines for Journal Publication
The publication of peer-reviewed research is essential to the development and dissemination of reliable scientific knowledge. EAM recognizes that the integrity of the scientific record depends on responsible conduct by authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher.
EAM is committed to ensuring that editorial decisions are based on the scientific quality, originality, relevance, methodological rigor, and contribution of submitted manuscripts. Editorial decisions must not be influenced by race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, political beliefs, institutional affiliation, or other personal characteristics of authors.
EAM also recognizes the importance of transparency regarding authorship, funding, competing interests, research data, ethical approval, use of artificial intelligence, and prior dissemination of research through preprints.
Responsibilities of Editors and Editorial Board
Publication Decisions
The editors of EAM are responsible for making decisions regarding the publication of submitted manuscripts. Editorial decisions should be based primarily on the manuscript's scientific quality, originality, methodological soundness, relevance to the journal's aims and scope, and potential contribution to the field.
Editors may consult members of the Editorial Board and peer reviewers when making editorial decisions. Manuscripts may be rejected when they fall outside the journal's scope, fail to meet scientific or ethical standards, or do not provide sufficient evidence to support their conclusions.
Editors shall also consider relevant legal and ethical requirements concerning plagiarism, copyright infringement, research misconduct, and other matters affecting the integrity of scholarly publishing.
Fair Play and Non-discrimination
Editors shall evaluate manuscripts solely on their intellectual and scientific merit. Editorial decisions shall not be influenced by the author's race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, nationality, institutional affiliation, political beliefs, or other personal characteristics.
Confidentiality
Editors and editorial staff must maintain the confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts and related information. Information concerning a submitted manuscript must not be disclosed to anyone other than the corresponding author, appropriate reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers, members of the Editorial Board, and the publisher, as necessary for the editorial process.
Editors must not use unpublished information contained in submitted manuscripts for their own research or personal advantage without the explicit written permission of the authors.
Editorial Independence and Conflict of Interest
Editors must make editorial decisions independently and must declare and appropriately manage any personal, professional, financial, or academic conflicts of interest that could affect their judgment.
Editors should not handle manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest arising from personal, professional, collaborative, competitive, or institutional relationships with any of the authors.
Handling Ethical Concerns
Editors are responsible for responding appropriately to allegations or evidence of research and publication misconduct. Where necessary, the editor may request clarification, supporting documentation, or additional information from authors, reviewers, institutions, or other relevant parties.
When a significant ethical concern is identified, EAM may take appropriate editorial action, including rejection, correction, retraction, or publication of an expression of concern, depending on the nature and severity of the issue.
Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers
Contribution to Editorial Decisions
Peer review assists editors in assessing the scientific quality, originality, methodological rigor, relevance, and clarity of manuscripts. Reviewers may also provide constructive recommendations that help authors improve their manuscripts.
Promptness
Reviewers who are unable to provide a review within the requested period or who feel insufficiently qualified to evaluate a manuscript should promptly notify the editor and decline the review.
Confidentiality
Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not disclose, share, copy, distribute, or discuss manuscripts or their contents with others without authorization from the editor.
Standards of Objectivity
Reviews should be conducted objectively, fairly, and constructively. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate. Reviewers should clearly explain their evaluations and provide evidence or reasoned arguments to support substantive criticisms and recommendations.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately cited by the authors. Reviewers should also notify the editor of substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and other published work of which they are aware.
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
Reviewers must disclose any personal, professional, financial, academic, or other conflicts of interest that could affect their ability to provide an impartial assessment.
Reviewers should decline to review manuscripts when their relationship with the authors, institutions, or organizations involved in the research could compromise their objectivity.
Information, ideas, methods, data, or other privileged material obtained during peer review must remain confidential and must not be used for personal or professional advantage.
Responsibilities of Authors
Reporting Standards
Authors of original research must provide an accurate and transparent account of the research conducted. The manuscript should describe the methods, materials, data, analyses, and results sufficiently to allow readers to understand and, where practicable, reproduce or assess the research.
Authors must not fabricate, falsify, manipulate, selectively omit, or otherwise misrepresent research data or results.
Interpretations and conclusions should be supported by the evidence presented in the manuscript, and limitations of the study should be appropriately acknowledged.
Research Data and Data Availability
Authors should maintain accurate research records and underlying data supporting their published findings.
Authors may be requested to provide relevant underlying data, methodological information, or supporting documentation to the editor during the editorial process when necessary to verify the integrity of the research.
Where appropriate and practicable, authors are encouraged to make research data available in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and confidentiality requirements.
Originality and Plagiarism
Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts represent original work. All sources, ideas, methods, findings, text, figures, tables, and other material derived from the work of others must be appropriately acknowledged and cited.
Plagiarism, including substantial copying of text, ideas, data, figures, or other intellectual contributions without appropriate attribution, is unacceptable.
EAM may use similarity-detection tools to assess the originality of submitted manuscripts. Similarity reports may be considered together with editorial assessment and the context of the identified overlap.
Preprints and Prior Dissemination
EAM permits the submission of manuscripts that have previously been posted as preprints. Authors must disclose any preprint posting at the time of submission, including the preprint DOI and licensing information where applicable.
Posting a manuscript as a preprint does not constitute prior publication for the purposes of submission to EAM.
Once the article has been published by EAM, authors are responsible for ensuring that the preprint record is updated with a reference to the published article, including the DOI and a link to the final published version on the EAM website.
Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication
Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal.
Authors should not publish substantially overlapping research in multiple journals or publications without appropriate justification, disclosure, and reference to the previous publication.
Where a manuscript contains material that substantially overlaps with previously published or submitted work, authors must clearly disclose this to the editor.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Authors must properly acknowledge publications, datasets, methods, software, and other sources that have contributed significantly to the research.
Authors should cite relevant and influential literature accurately and should not manipulate citations to artificially increase citation counts or provide inappropriate citation advantages.
Authorship and Contributions
Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, methodology, investigation, analysis, interpretation, or other substantive aspects of the research and manuscript.
All individuals who meet the criteria for authorship should be appropriately included as authors. Individuals who have contributed to specific aspects of the work but do not meet authorship criteria should be appropriately acknowledged.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that:
- all appropriate authors are included;
- no inappropriate authors are included;
- all authors have approved the final manuscript;
- all authors have agreed to its submission to EAM; and
- author contributions are accurately reported.
Changes to Authorship
Authors should carefully determine the authorship list and order before submission. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors after submission must be justified and approved by the editor.
Requests for authorship changes should be submitted by the corresponding author and must include the reason for the requested change and written agreement from all authors concerned.
Authorship changes after acceptance will only be considered in exceptional circumstances. If an authorship change is approved after publication, an appropriate correction may be issued.
Research Involving Human or Animal Subjects
Research involving human participants or animals must comply with applicable ethical standards, institutional requirements, and relevant laws and regulations.
Where ethical approval is required, authors must provide an appropriate ethics statement and identify the approving institution or committee.
Authors must ensure that research involving human or animal subjects is conducted responsibly and that relevant welfare, consent, privacy, and ethical considerations are appropriately addressed.
Disclosure of Competing Interests
Authors must disclose financial and personal relationships or other circumstances that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, analysis, interpretation, or publication of their work.
Potential competing interests may include employment, consultancy, financial interests, grants, honoraria, patents, commercial relationships, or other professional or personal relationships.
A competing interest statement must be provided even when the authors have no competing interests to declare.
Funding Disclosure
Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the research and/or preparation of the manuscript.
Where applicable, authors should describe the role of the funding organization in study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
If the funder had no involvement in these activities, this should be explicitly stated.
Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies
EAM recognizes that artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies may be used responsibly in manuscript preparation.
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical acceptability of all material submitted to EAM, regardless of whether AI technologies were used in its preparation.
AI technologies must not be credited as authors. Authors should disclose the use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in accordance with the journal's Author Guidance on Generative AI Tools.
Authors remain responsible for verifying information, citations, data, interpretations, and other content generated or assisted by AI technologies.
Fundamental Errors in Published Articles
If authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article, they must promptly notify the EAM editorial office and cooperate with the editor in evaluating and correcting the published record.
Depending on the nature and significance of the error, EAM may publish a correction, corrigendum, retraction, or other appropriate editorial notice.
Publisher's Responsibilities
The publisher of EAM supports the editors and Editorial Board in maintaining the integrity, transparency, and quality of the journal's publication process.
The publisher shall not interfere with editorial decisions based on the scientific or academic assessment of manuscripts.
The publisher and Editorial Board shall support appropriate procedures for addressing suspected plagiarism, research misconduct, conflicts of interest, authorship disputes, corrections, retractions, and other ethical concerns.
Commercial activities, advertising, sponsorship, or other sources of revenue, where applicable, must not influence editorial decisions.
Plagiarism and Similarity Checking
EAM is committed to preventing plagiarism and other forms of inappropriate text or content reuse.
Submitted manuscripts may be screened using an originality or similarity-detection service.
A similarity report is not, by itself, evidence of plagiarism. The editorial team will evaluate the nature, extent, location, and context of identified similarities before making an editorial decision.
Manuscripts found to contain plagiarism, substantial unattributed overlap, fabricated or falsified content, or other forms of serious publication misconduct may be rejected or subjected to further investigation.
