Publications Committee Ethics Policy

The ethics policy of the IAMCR Publications Committee is intended to guide the Committee’s actions and offer policy guidelines regarding research integrity and authorship.

1. Ethics Statement

The IAMCR’s Publications Committee (PC) is dedicated to promoting the highest ethical standards across all IAMCR publications. The Committee members take their duties of guardianship over all stages of publishing extremely seriously. The actions of the PC will be guided by the following principles: merit, equity, equality, transparency, diversity, and accessibility to scholarly knowledge. In this sense, the PC is committed to:

evaluate proposals and support the publication of scholarly works for theiracademic merit and contribution to the building of more just, inclusive, and egalitarian societies without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the editors and/or authors;
maintain confidentiality and standards of objectivity throughout its deliberations, and members shall disclose conflicts of interest and adhere to the highest scholarly conduct;
support the publications of multilingual scholarly work into, but not limited to, any of the IAMCR’s official languages;
support timely and equitable access to knowledge, particularly through open access publishing and promotion of open access content.

2. Research Integrity and Authorship

2.1 Authors, Editors & Reviewers

Authors and editors collaborating with IAMCR’s PC are expected to demonstrate respect for the association, its principles, and its members. Both authors and editors undertake to abide by the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines.

Authors are expected to maintain the highest level of ethical scholarship. This includes declaring that their submission is original, that content from other sources is cited, that permission for reproduced content is obtained, and the manuscript is not under consideration for publication with another publisher. Any funding sources (including that for Open Access) should be clearly identified in an acknowledgment.

Editors and reviewers are expected to adhere to the highest levels of professionalism and competence. For example, editors and reviewers must act in a fair and balanced manner, handle submissions in a timely fashion, offer guidance and constructive feedback to authors. Editorial decisions should be based on a transparent review process, the quality of the submission, and its suitability for the book series or journal. In addition, they need to respect the confidentiality of authors, reviewers, and editorial deliberations. They are also expected to respect the independence of their collaborators. They are also bound to declare a conflict of interest to the PC.

2.2 Contributors

Contributors are defined as authors of chapters or articles in IAMCR sponsored, published, or co-sponsored manuscripts. When IAMCR acts as the publisher, contributors are bound by the ethical agreements under section 2 of this document or any ethical policies specified in these specific publications.

2.3 Publishers

Governed by their co-publishing agreements with IAMCR, publishers are expected to protect the integrity of manuscripts, and the reputation of authors, editors, and contributors. Publishers provide detailed descriptions and commitment to publication ethics and implementation of the same in accordance with COPE membership and their internal ethical policies. When necessary, publishers should keep IAMCR’s PC up-to-date with guidelines, policies. Also, publishers are expected to steward a transparent submission, review, and publication process with respect to contributors. In collaboration with IAMCR, publishers are expected to be attentive to the practices of extractive knowledge.

2.4 Ethical Misconduct

In the case of suspected misconduct or dispute, the IAMCR’s PC will conduct an investigation guided by scholarly norms. To ensure fairness and transparency, the IAMCR’s PC could enlist outside expertise during its investigation process.