The following Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement aligns with the recommendations of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics): Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers.

Editor’s duties and responsibilities

Publication decisions

The editor-in-chief is responsible for the selection of the articles to be published in the journal, based on the recommendations and comments received from the peer reviewers, at the end of the double-blind peer review process. The editor-in-chief consults the other editors and guest-editors, as appropriate, in making the selection and in deciding the timing of publication for each submission. The manuscripts submitted for publication shall be evaluated and selected for publication based exclusively on the quality of the manuscript, the policies of the journal’s editorial board, and the legal provisions in force regarding libel, copyright, and plagiarism, without taking into consideration the author’s age, career status, race, gender, sexual orientation, religious and political beliefs, ethnicity, national origin or citizenship.

Conflict of interest

Editors who find themselves in a situation of conflict of interests should notify the editor-in-chief and recuse themselves from handling a particular manuscript. The conflict of interests may include personal, commercial, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious considerations.

Confidentiality

The editorial staff shall only disclose information about a journal submission to the people directly involved in the peer review and publication process, as required and appropriate. Exception to this provision is the allegation of plagiarism and/other fraudulent behaviour, when the content of the manuscript shall be disclosed to third parties, as described below, under Prevention and Fight Against Plagiarism. The editors shall not disclose any information about ongoing processes of editorial decisions to any unauthorised third parties. Exception to this is the case of unethical editorial behaviour. Since the journal uses a double-blind peer reviewprocess, the identity of the author shall not be disclosed to the peer reviewers during the peer-review process, nor should the identity of the reviewers be divulged to the author or any third parties. The identity of the reviewer can be made public, with the reviewer’s express permission, at the end of the peer-review process, in the journal’s yearly reviewers acknowledgement list, which does not link the reviewers to the manuscript they had reviewed, nor with the specific issue in which the manuscript might have been published. The editorial staff shall not use the information in an unpublished manuscript for their own professional gain, nor to the advantage of colleagues or associates, without the author(s)’s explicit written consent.

Prevention and Fight against Plagiarism and other forms of fraudulent conduct

Authors of the journal must be aware and understand that Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai intends to prevent, and also sanctions attempts and acts of plagiarism and other forms of fraudulent conduct, including but not limited to the fabrication and/or falsification of data. Therefore, authors are hereby advised that:

– Plagiarism attempts or other fraudulent actions discovered and documented during the review process (Editorial Office, peer review) may lead to:a) rejection of the manuscript for publication; b) official information of the higher education or research institution of the author’s affiliation; and c) information of the scholarly community and public opinion.

– Upon notification on allegation of plagiarism or other fraudulent actions for any article that has been already published in Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai, and following the thorough verification of the notification, the Editorial Office may take the following steps: a) contact the Index of allegations of plagiarized works in Romania; b) follow the procedure in place for plagiarism attempts or other fraudulent actions discovered and documented during the review process; c) officially inform the higher education or research institution of the author’s affiliation, making available all necessary documents (including the author’s responsible declaration of originality); d) advise the most important international databases about the allegation of plagiarism; and e) publish (on the site, etc.) its official position on the matter. As conceptual and general guidelines on plagiarism, the journal Studia UBB refers to: “What Constitutes Plagiarism?”, in “Harvard Guide to Using Sources”, available here: https://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/what-constitutes-plagiarism

See also: https://researcheracademy.elsevier.com/uploads/2020-06/RA_HEADT%20Centre%20Webinar%20on%20Plagiarism_FINAL.pdf

Author’s duties and responsibilities

Reporting standards

The author(s) should submit original manuscripts derived from their own research. The paper should be objective and accurate and should not contain libellous, discriminatory, illegal or confidential content. All sources used in the paper must be referenced appropriately. The misrepresentation and/or distortion of the cited sources is unacceptable. The author(s) is/are solely responsible and accountable for the content of the manuscript. Before submission, the author(s) should make sure that they respect the journal’s guidelines for authors, available on the journal website.

Authorship

Authorship of the manuscript includes the person or people who was/were actively and creatively involved in generating the idea of the manuscript, in the research from which the manuscript derives, in building the argumentation, in the design, writing, interpretation, development of the paper, and who take(s) responsibility for the entire content of the manuscript. The author(s) can list in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript the name of all parties who might have contributed to the completion of the article (by funding the research project, supervising or mentoring the research, making comments and suggestions for the draft, contributing to an intellectual debate on the topic etc.), but who cannot claim authorship. Disputes referring to authorship should be solved between/among the authors. The editorial staff will not investigate, judge, nor mediate such disputes. The resolutions should, however, be communicated to the editors, if such disputes emerge post-publication and in case a correction has to be made public. “Ghost”, “Gift”, or “Guest” authorship is considered unacceptable. More information on the terms is available here: https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts-new/changes-authorship

Copyright

If the manuscript includes copyrighted materials, the author shall have obtained express written permission for their use from the copyright owner before submitting the manuscript to Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai.

Multiple, redundant or parallel publication

The authors should not simultaneously submit the manuscript to other journals while under consideration by Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai. Re-publishing the same research with another journal is considered unacceptable conduct. Translated versions of the articles published in Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai can be published elsewhere only if the author(s) acknowledge(s) the journal as the first venue of publication, in a complete bibliographical entry, published with the translation. When submitting a manuscript, the author(s) must present to the editor all related papers, such as conference presentations, drafts on preprint servers etc.

Errors in published works

If the author or a third party discovers a serious error in a published paper, they should immediately contact the journal and present relevant evidence. In such cases, the author and the editor shall work together for the retraction or correction of the paper, as appropriate.

Conflict of interests

The author(s) shall disclose any situation of conflict of interests in which they might find themselves, if relevant to the content of the manuscript or its publication. The conflict of interests may derive from personal, commercial, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious considerations.

Copyright

The editors shall do everything in their power to protect the rights of the author by addressing the relevant copyright regulations.

Transfer of copyright

1. By agreeing to publish with Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai, the author grants the Journal the right to: • publish, republish, transmit, sell, and distribute the published article, either partially or in full, in digital and printed editions, through all media used by the Journal at present or available in the future, • deposit copies of the Contribution in the journal’s archive (electronic and printed) and in the archives of third parties authorised by the journal.

2. The Journal shall be appropriately acknowledged and cited as the article’s first venue of publication in case the author decides to: • reproduce, transmit, disseminate the published article, either partially or in full, • include the published article in a thesis or dissertation, either partially or in full, • expand the published article in book-length form or include it in a future volume by the author, either partially or in full, • translate the contribution and publish the respective translation elsewhere, • read the contribution and disseminate copies thereof at conferences or other professional meetings.

3. The author is entitled to use the published article as follows: • to make printed or electronic copies for their own personal and professional use, • to distribute printed or electronic copies of the published article to research associates and colleagues, for their personal and professional use, • to retain patent rights and other similar rights deriving from the published article.

The author does not need the journal’s express permission for any of the situations detailed in sections 2 and 3.

4. The author shall not republish the article or fragments thereof in any other journal or in conference proceedings. Translated versions can be published, as long as the author respects the relevant provisions in section 2.

Peer Reviewer’s duties and responsibilities

Professional responsibility

The reviewer assists the editor in selecting the manuscripts for publication. The reviewer should accept the invitation to review a manuscript only if they have the required expertise and can perform an unbiased evaluation. The peer review shall be done using the peer-reviewsheet made available by the editor. The reviewer anonymously assists the author in improving his/her manuscript by making pertinent recommendations and giving clear explanations and instructions, even if they do not recommend the publication. The reviewer’s feedback shall be constructive and respectful. The reviewer can suggest the consideration of bibliographical sources, initially omitted by the author, with a view to improving the scientific standing of the manuscript, but shall refrain from recommendations to include references to their own work (or the work of an associate) solely with a view to increasing their own (or their associate’s) visibility. Such suggestions shall be made exclusively on legitimate scientific reasons. The reviewer shall recommend the rejection of/ notify the editor if the manuscript includes slanderous, discriminatory or illegal content. Conflict of interest If the reviewer suspects the identify the author of the article received for evaluation and they believe they might be or find themselves in a situation of competing interests, they should notify the editor and refuse the invitation to review the article. The conflict of interests may include personal, commercial, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious considerations.

Confidentiality

Since the journal uses a double-blind peer reviewprocess, the reviewer shall not attempt to find the identity of the author, nor shall he/she disclose their own identity as the manuscript’s reviewer. The reviewer can authorize the editor to disclose their identity as a reviewer for the journal, without any mention of the manuscript they have reviewed, nor the issue for which the manuscript was submitted or in which it might have been published. Alternatively, the reviewer can choose to remain anonymous at all time. The reviewer is not authorised to use or disseminate the manuscript or fragments thereof, to their own advantage or to the advantage of a third party. In case the manuscript includes ideas, concepts, analyses relevant to the reviewer’s professional activity, these can be used with proper acknowledgement after the publication of the manuscript. The reviewer shall not use, nor disclose the information obtained during the peer review process, without the express permission of the editor or author, as appropriate. The reviewer shall evaluate the manuscript on his own/ her own, without including anyone else in the peer-review process. In case additional expertise is required, the reviewer shall notify the editor and they shall decide together on the best course of action. If a third party becomes involved in the peer review process, with the express permission of the editor, they become a reviewer and will comply with the provisions of the present Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

Suspicion of misconduct and unethical behaviour

If the text of the manuscript submitted for review or any step related to the peer review process raises questions of misconduct (e.g., considerable similarity between the manuscript and other published or unpublished work that the reviewer might be familiar with; suspicion of fabrication or falsification of data; attempts to influence the reviewer towards a particular publication decision), the reviewer shall immediately notify the editor.

Promptness

The reviewer shall respect the deadline for the review. In the event the reviewer is no longer able to meet the deadline (or requires an extension), he/she should contact the editor as soon as possible.

Ownership of the review

The review belongs to the journal and shall only be used as part of the peer review process, with a view to selecting manuscripts for publication and assisting the authors in improving their work.