The Book Series Mediterranean, Knowledge, Culture and Heritagemaintains a high standard of quality and transparency during the whole the process of review and publication. The responsibility belongs to all concerned actors: editors, editorial board, scientific committee, referees and authors.

The book series follows the guidelines provided by the COPE - Code of conduct and best practice guidelines for journal editors. More specifically, the book series requires that Editors, Authors and Referees comply with the following rules.

 

Editors’ Duties 

• Manage the book series with the support of the editorial board;
• Encourage the members of the editorial board to promote the book series as a tool for the dissemination of research results;
• Select the referees for the evaluation of each manuscript, with the support of the editorial board,
• Establish the guidelines for referees, with clear and exact criteria;
• Monitor and improve the review process;
• Evaluate  all submitted manuscripts quickly and fairly, respecting the intellectual independence of authors, without any discrimination related to sex, gender, religion, ethnicity or nationality. The Editors have the exclusive responsibility for accepting or refusing a manuscript. The contributions can be refused only for specific reasons (contents not relevant for the book series; low scientific quality; contents already published elsewhere, use of a discriminatory language, etc.)
• Refuse manuscripts containing data, comments, interpretations and conclusions influenced by the commissioner of the study;
• Ensure that all the books have been submitted to double-blind peer review (including the books written by members of the board);
• Ensure that referees have no kinship or professional ties with the authors of the manuscript;
• Enable authors, whose contribution has been plagiarized by other scholars, to publish a note on the next ICSR Mediterranean Knowledge website and/or in the next book of the series;
• Allow or invite authors to make the necessary amendments, in case of wrong information voluntarily or involuntarily published in the book series and not detected by referees;
• Ensure that all communications remain confidential among the concerned persons: editorial board, referees, and authors;
• Ensure that no member of the editorial board and/or other users may use data, theories or interpretations of manuscripts until their publication, except with the explicit consent of the author.

 

Authors’ Duties

• Submit only manuscripts containing original material, new results, elaboration of data, ideas and/or interpretations not published or submitted for consideration elsewhere (including databases);
• Identify and signal references, methodology, hypothesis and interpretations relevant for the book;
• Disclose all sources of funding (for example, governmental agencies, foundations, private companies, universities);
• If the manuscript is written by more than one author, draw up a list of all co-authors, with names, surnames and affiliations, specifying who is the responsible person. The intellectual property of the book is granted to those who have played a significant role in the study; only an acknowledgment is granted to other contributors (layout, graphics, etc.);
• Ensure that all authors have read the final version of the manuscript before submitting it to the book series;
• Inform the Editors, before the publication, about changes of property or in the list of the co-authors, with a letter signed by all concerned parties;
• Correctly cite works of other authors, particularly the publications related to hypothesis, ideas and/or original data underpinning the manuscript;
• Avoid any kind of plagiarism. Plagiarizing other authors, without disclosing the intellectual property of ideas, data, interpretations and evaluations, is an ethically unfair behaviour and is punishable by law. The insertion of portions of the author’s already published works (self-plagiarism), without mentioning the source, impoverishes the originality of the book.
• Notify the Editors of any potential conflict of interest with societies or other entities (for example, consulting firms or financial interest in a company) that could benefit from the publication of the results contained in the manuscript;
• Guarantee the absence of contractual or property rights on data and information contained in the manuscript;
• Claim, with valid reasons, that the manuscript is not be submitted to referees not neutral towards the author;
• Comply with the editorial guidelines of the book series, using a language and a style that guarantee reliability and quality of the scientific work;
• Use a non-discriminatory language.

 

Referees' Duties

Review of manuscripts submitted to academic journals and bookseries is an essential part of scientific research. The whole scientific community is called to participate in the process. The Book Series Mediterranean, Knowledge, Culture and Heritageuses the double-blind method: each book is submitted to two referees, the reviewers remain anonymous and the author has to take their feedback into account for the final version of his/her manuscript, if accepted. In case of mutually-contradictory reviews, the manuscript is submitted to a third referee; its publication will be determined by the majority. The referees’ responsibilities are the following:

• Evaluate objectively the quality of each manuscript, respecting the intellectual independence of the authors; criticism on a personal level is not accepted;
• Refuse to review manuscripts on subjects outside of his/her own specific expertise;
• Inform the Editors about any conflict of interest, due to direct competition or cooperation with one of the authors, and refuse to review a manuscript if an objective evaluation is not possible;
• Ask the Editors’ permission to discuss the contents of the manuscript with other scholars, providing names and reasons of the consultation;
• Abstain from submitting the manuscript to other scholars without the permission of the Editors;
• Clearly explain the reasons of the evaluation, allowing editors and authors to easily understand them;
• Inform authors and editors of methodological errors or wrong data included in the manuscript;
• Highlight the existence of relevant scientific works, not mentioned by the authors without appropriate reasons;
• Highlight the lack of explicit references to authors and works used in the manuscript and not mentioned without valid reasons;
• Report any similarity between the manuscript and other books or manuscripts simultaneously submitted to other publishers;
• Abstain from using non-published information, data or interpretations, contained in the manuscript, except with the explicit consent of the author.