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UTS ePRESS strives to achieve the highest standards in publication ethics, recognising that an important tenant of ethical publication is transparency of all process and decision-making to readers, authors, reviewers and other stakeholders.
UTS ePRESS is a publisher member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We utilise the COPE Core Practices and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing to set standards for our ethical behaviour as a publisher, and encourage our editors to follow the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Our journals are indexed with, and we are publisher members of, the Directory of Open Access Journals, further marking our commitment to rigorous standards in scholarly and open access publishing. Likewise, our books are indexed in the Directory of Open Access Books as well in the Open Access Publishing in European Networks platform or OAPEN.
UTS ePRESS publications are established with support of an appropriate governing body with recognised expertise in the discipline, area or field with which the publication is concerned.
The governing body is primarily responsible for approving staff in key roles, endorsing practices that enable efficient and ethical selection of works to be published, advising on strategies to improve the circulation and impact of the publication, and monitoring performance against strategic aims.
Further information about the governing body can be seen in Role of Editorial Board or Managing Committee.
All UTS ePRESS publications are peer reviewed by experts and scholars inthe relevant field or discipline.
UTS ePRESS publications use double blind peer review (where at least twoexpert reviewers are used and the reviewers and author are anonymous). Alternativepeer review processes (such as single blind review or editorial group review) maybe used where this is an accepted practice within a particular publication’sdiscipline or field of research and practice. The peer review process must beobjective, fair and thorough.
UTS ePRESS books are peer reviewed by at least two experts and scholarsin the relevant field or discipline, and their critique informs further criticaldevelopment of the work before final publication.
UTS ePRESS journals contain a clear statement of the peer reviewprocesses on the journal’s webpage, and clearly indicate within individualissues if any section or article deviates from these stated practices.
Peer reviewers must declare any potential conflict of interest and,unless exceptional circumstances prevail, will decline further involvement wherea conflict occurs. Conflicts of interest can include a direct knowledge of, orrelationship with, a potential author, or an overlap in roles between editor,reviewer and author.
Journal Editors will consider conflicts of interest when a manuscript issubmitted by a member of their editorial team or editorial advisory board. Insuch cases a co-editor or an external trusted expert will be asked to act aseditor for that article and oversee the peer review process.
UTS ePRESS applies appropriate technology and assessment techniques to identify publication fraud and research misconduct in submitted works, such as plagiarism, citation manipulation and falsification of data or research.
iThenticate plagiarism screening software is now used on all submissions to UTS ePRESS prior to peer review. Strict peer review and editorial processes are in place to detect plagiarism or examples of academic misconduct.
Reviewers are required to report all suspected cases of academic misconduct to the publication editor or manager. Publication editors and managers are obliged to investigate and appropriately report all cases of suspected misconduct following the COPE Guidelines.
To publish with UTS ePRESS, authors must ensure their submitted material meets specific requirements for quality scholarly publications. These include:
That the work is their original work and has not been published elsewhere.
That any work within their submission which is not their own work is appropriately cited and, where necessary, that permission has been received to include that work in the material to be published.
disclosing any interests, funding or affiliations which may impact on the research findings and impartiality of the work.
disclosing any use of AI tools in the writing of the work, including the production of images or graphical elements, or in the collection and analysis of data
In the case of shared or multiple authorship, correctly attributing the authors according to the significance or weighting of each author's contribution.Authors should also understand the licence conditions that apply to their published work. AI tools cannot be listed as authors.
As a publisher we aim to remove potential conflicts of interest and expect our editors, authors and reviewers to also be alert to such issues. Such conflicts may arise from affiliations, funding arrangements or financial holdings that may raise concerns about potential bias in research findings or editorial decisions. In particular:
PUBLICATION EDITORS/MANAGERS WILL
ensure authors and reviewers report potential conflicts of interest which may influence, or be perceived to have influenced, their research findings and conclusions
have in place processes for dealing with submissions from themselves and other members of the editorial board
ensure no commercial, advertising or sponsorship arrangements exercise any influence over editorial decisions.Where any potential conflict of interest exists publication editors and managers are required to act in accordance with the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors, including ensuring declarations of interests are made clearly available with individual publications (journal articles).
MEMBERS OF EDITORIAL TEAMS/BOARDS WILL
declare any conflict of interest before accepting a position on any editorial team or board,
at the time of article submission, declare their interest if they are seeking to publish their own work in a journal of which they are a member of the editorial team or board.
AUTHORS WILL
declare any potential conflicts of interest to Publication Editors/Managers upon submission of a manuscript.
REVIEWERS WILL
declare any potential conflicts of interest to Publication Editors/Managers prior to undertaking any review.
In the event an error or a case of academic misconduct is not detected until after publication a retraction or correction will be issued as soon as practicable.
CORRECTIONS
Authors and other interested parties are encouraged to report errors in the officially published version of UTS ePRESS articles. The Publication Editor or Manager will be responsible for adding an erratum to the article. The placement of the erratum will be at the discretion of the Publication Editor or Manager but should be prominent.
RETRACTIONS
Retractions will be issued in cases of academic misconduct, or in the case of major errors which mean a publication’s findings are not reliable. In this case the publication metadata will remain on the website with a retraction notice stating the reason for the retraction and its date.
We take seriously complaints or concerns about UTS ePRESS publications or the activities or information related to UTS ePRESS.
All concerns related to errors or suspicion of academic misconduct should be reported in the first instance to the Publication Editor or Manager who will follow the procedures outlined for Corrections above.
Authors who have concerns about the editorial or peer review process are encouraged to first discuss these issues with the Publication Editor or Manager.
In the event a satisfactory response is not received, complaints may be directed to the Editorial Board of the publication concerned, or submitted to UTS ePRESS.
Concerns about the legal status of UTS ePRESS publications, such as copyright, privacy or defamation should be submitted to UTS ePRESS.
As an open access scholarly publisher, content published by UTS ePRESS is made freely available immediately upon online publication.
All content published since 2014 is made available under Creative Commons licences. UTS ePRESS journals are uniformly available under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC-BY), that provides for liberal re-use, including the right for authors to self-archive works on their personal or institutional webpages and repositories. UTS ePRESS books are available under a range of Creative Commons licences, depending on the content and nature of the material. In all cases the most permissive licence appropriate to the content is chosen.
While all digital content is free on our website, we may in some instances charge a fee for a printed version of a publication (via print on demand services) or for enhanced digital content.
Authors do not pay any fees or charges for their work to be submitted, considered or published with UTS ePRESS. In some instances we may negotiate with book authors or editors to charge for certain additional services (such as book and cover design) on a cost recovery basis. In such cases these fees will be discussed and agreed prior to signing a publication agreement.
UTS ePRESS retains copyright over the UTS ePRESS logo, all UTS ePRESS cover designs and all UTS ePRESS webpages. Permission must be sought from UTS ePRESS for reuse or communication of those features.