Ethics & Integrity (COPE)

Publication Ethics (COPE)

Ethics, transparency, and reproducibility are the foundation of every ESS Press publication.

We follow COPE principles and international standards of scholarly communication. We prevent plagiarism, duplicate publication, data manipulation, unethical authorship, and undisclosed conflicts of interest. Any concerns are handled through a formal procedure with documented steps and proportionate measures.

Note on journals: rules for journal articles (APCs, data policy, peer review) are published on the journals’ own websites. This page applies to ESS Press books, monographs, and conference proceedings.

1) Scope and principles

Applies to all book-line projects: books, monographs, chapters, conference proceedings (including forewords/supplementary materials).

Core principles: integrity, objectivity, transparency, respect for rights/data, and reproducibility.

Equal treatment regardless of country, institution, funding, or author status.

2) Roles and responsibilities

Authors

• Submit original and accurate work; describe methods with sufficient detail for verification.
• Ensure availability of data/materials (where applicable) and correct citation of sources/third-party components.
• Disclose contributions (CRediT), funding, and conflicts of interest (COI).
• Guarantee absence of simultaneous submission or duplicate publication.

Editorial team / Publisher

• Ensure independence of decisions, confidentiality of materials, and proper, impartial peer review.
• Receive and document complaints/appeals, conduct investigations, and publish corrections/retractions where necessary.

Reviewers

• Provide confidential, objective, and timely assessments; report potential misconduct; declare COI.

3) What constitutes misconduct

• Plagiarism: use of text/ideas/figures without proper attribution; includes self-plagiarism/excessive text reuse (text recycling).
• Duplicate publication / parallel submission: publishing substantially overlapping material elsewhere without disclosure.
• Data fabrication/falsification: creating/substituting/selectively withholding data in a way that changes conclusions.
• Unethical authorship: guest/honorary authorship, ghost authors, disputes over author order without actual contribution.
• Undisclosed COI: financial/personal/academic ties that may affect interpretation/decision-making.
• Image manipulation: improper processing that alters meaning (removal/addition of elements, scale inconsistencies, etc.).

4) How we screen (before and after peer review)

• Text screening: similarity-check systems (iThenticate), manual assessment of citation context.
• Figure screening: basic metadata/duplicate checks; where concerns arise, request originals/processing logs.
• Reused content policy: short methodological fragments are acceptable with clear citation; substantial reuse must be disclosed and justified.

5) Investigation procedure (based on COPE flowcharts)

Steps:

Initial editorial assessment (≤10 business days): log the case, verify facts, determine risk level.

Request for author explanation (typically ≤14 days): describe the issue, provide materials (e.g., overlap excerpts), request a response/source files.

Independent assessment (if needed): external expert/reviewer in methodology/statistics/images.

Editorial decision with a protocol:

• no misconduct / minor issue — notification and preventive edits;
• minor: edits to text/citations/captions; corrigendum/erratum upon publication;
• major: revision of sections/data, re-review;
• serious: rejection of the manuscript / retraction of the published material.

Communication: reasoned letter to the author; in case of retraction—notify indexing/bibliographic services and label the version of record.

Case register: maintain an incident register for internal reporting and training.

Principles: presumption of good faith, proportionality, documentation, respect for confidentiality.

6) Actions and notifications

• Pre-publication edits: correction of references/captions, rephrasing, adding statements (data, COI, ethics).
• Erratum/Corrigendum: correction of errors that do not affect the validity of conclusions.
• Expression of Concern: if substantial doubts exist and the investigation is ongoing.
• Retraction: for confirmed serious misconduct (a notice with reasons is published; the PDF is labeled; metadata are updated).
• Temporary refusal to consider future submissions in case of repeated violations; notifying the affiliation/sponsor only where required by ethical norms and after internal verification.

7) Special issues

7.1 Authorship and contributions (CRediT)

Authorship is assigned to those who made a substantial contribution: conception/methodology, analysis/validation, writing/editing, supervision, funding, etc.

A CRediT matrix is included in the book/chapter/proceedings.

Changes to authorship after peer review are allowed only with written consent of all co-authors (including those added/removed).

CRediT template (insert):
Author Name — Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft; Author 2 Name — Data curation, Formal analysis; Author 3 — Supervision, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing.

7.2 Conflicts of interest (COI)

Disclose financial (grants, consulting, equity stakes) and academic (competing schools of thought) interests.

If an editor has a COI, the manuscript is reassigned to another editor/external coordinator.

COI statement template:
Authors declare no competing interests. / Author N received grant No. …; there was no influence on study design/analysis/publication decision.

7.3 Data, materials, code

Where possible, deposit data/code in recognized repositories (with persistent identifiers).

Include a Data Availability Statement in the text with links/access conditions (restrictions must be justified).

DAS template:
Data are available in the [repository name] repository under identifier [DOI/URL]. Access: open / upon request (due to confidentiality/third-party rights constraints).

7.4 Research involving humans/animals

IRB/Ethics Committee / IACUC approval numbers are required; describe informed consent and confidentiality safeguards.

For vulnerable groups, additional safeguards and risk minimization are required.

7.5 Artificial intelligence (AI)

Permitted: language editing/paraphrasing with explicit disclosure.

Not permitted: generating data/images/references without labeling and verification; concealing AI involvement.

Authors bear full responsibility for content; AI cannot be an author.

AI disclosure template:
A [tool name] was used for language refinement; the final version was verified by the authors.

7.6 Images and illustrations

Original files (TIFF/PNG, ≥300 DPI) may be requested upon demand.

Basic brightness/contrast correction is allowed without altering the substance of the data; composites only with explicit labeling.

7.7 Prepublication / preprints / abstracts

Preprints are allowed with disclosure of the link and version; extended versions of abstracts are allowed with explicit reference to the original source and substantial revision.

7.8 Duplication and textual reuse

Strict with results/data/illustrations; for text, methodological reuse is permissible with citation.

As a guideline: text overlap >20–25% without citations is a problem; outcomes range from edits to rejection.

8) Complaints and appeals

Submit complaints about process/timelines/ethics to info@ess.press, specifying the project/chapter, substance, dates, and supporting materials.

Appeals of editorial decisions must be filed within 30 days of notification; in writing, with arguments on methodology/factual errors.

Appeals are reviewed by an independent editor/expert; the outcome is communicated in writing with justification.

9) Confidentiality and data processing

Manuscripts/reviews are confidential; personal data are used solely for editorial purposes (see Privacy Policy).

Sharing manuscripts with third parties without editorial permission is prohibited.

10) Publication of corrections/retractions (version of record)

All changes are reflected in the version of record with dates/links (erratum/corrigendum/retraction).

The goal is to preserve and improve the integrity of the scholarly record, not to punish the author.

Ethics contacts

policies@ess.press — questions on COPE procedures, consultations during manuscript preparation, and reporting potential misconduct.