Ethics

International Journal of Racket Sports Science takes reasonable measures to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. Under no circumstances will IJRSS and/or its editors encourage such misconduct, nor knowingly allow such misconduct to take place. In the event that a journal editor or the editors of IJRSS become aware of any allegation of research misconduct related to a published article in our journal, IJRSS shall follow COPE guidelines to address the allegations.

International Journal of Racket Sports Science submits all its articles to Turnitin plagiarism detection and prevention software.

IJRSS follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) on Publication Ethics to prevent publication misconduct and to ensure that procedures and articles meet the expected quality criteria.

 

 Misconduct

The following are considered misconduct and grounds for manuscript rejection at any stage of the publication process:

  • Redundant publication
  • Plagiarism
  • Falsification of data (photographs, statistics, graphs, etc.)
  • Falsification of information (author affiliations, signatures, etc.)
  • Identity theft and falsification of authorship

 

 Duties and Responsibilities of Authors

  1. Ensure the originality and novelty of works submitted to the journal. Authors must acknowledge and properly cite all sources used in their research.
  2. Submit manuscripts exclusively through the Open Journal System (OJS) platform, by accessing the link https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/IJRSS/user/register if not registered, or logging in at https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/IJRSS/user/login
  3. Review and strictly comply with the guidelines established in the author guidelines, available at: https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/IJRSS/about/submissions#authorGuidelines.
  4. Obtain official permissions to reproduce third-party materials (e.g., graphs, images, diagrams, maps, etc.) that are not of their authorship.
  5. Submit only unpublished and original texts, that are not under evaluation in other journals or subject to prior editorial agreements.
  6. Specify the project funding sources and declare potential conflicts of interest related to the research.
  7. Detail the specific contribution of each author to the work, including only those who actively participated in its development.
  8. Make public corrections or retractions if errors or inconsistencies are identified in the published manuscript.
  9. Include a full bibliography of all references cited or mentioned in the text.
  10. Attach approval from the research ethics committee and informed consent from participants, when applicable.

It is recommended to verify compliance with each requirement before submitting the manuscript.

 

 Duties and Responsibilities of the Editor:

  1. Provide clear and timely information about the journal, its editorial policy, and procedures to authors, reviewers, and readers.
  2. Determine the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript exclusively based on criteria of quality, originality, thematic relevance, and academic significance.
  3. Supervise the overall quality of articles and documents approved for publication.
  4. Diligently address complaints, requests for retraction, corrections, or clarifications related to published content.
  5. Publish amendments, clarifications, or retractions in a timely manner when errors or inconsistencies are detected.
  6. Guarantee an impartial and confidential evaluation system for received manuscripts.
  7. Declare and manage potential conflicts of interest among the editorial team, authors, reviewers, or linked institutions.
  8. Refrain from using information or content from manuscripts for personal or third-party benefit before publication.
  9. Verify that research has approval from an ethics committee, as applicable. Additionally, independently evaluate compliance with ethical standards in studies, even if they already have institutional approval.
  10. Safeguard data confidentiality of authors, reviewers, and readers throughout the entire editorial process.
  11. Keep guidelines, regulations, and resources updated for authors and reviewers, which are available on the journal's website.

The editor must ensure transparency, integrity, and ethics at all stages of the editorial process.

 

 Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers:

  1. Promptly notify the editorial team whether they accept or decline the invitation to evaluate a manuscript.
  2. Declare personal, academic, or professional conflicts of interest that may affect their impartiality.
  3. Conduct objective and rigorous evaluations, based on the methodological and ethical criteria established by the journal.
  4. Preserve anonymity and confidentiality of manuscripts during and after the review process.
  5. Avoid taking advantage of information or content from evaluated works for personal or third-party benefit before publication.
  6. Support with clear and specific arguments all observations, corrections, or suggestions made to the manuscript.
  7. Alert the editor to potential irregularities, such as plagiarism, data manipulation, or duplicate publication.
  8. Issue a reasoned recommendation (accept, reject, or accept with revisions) and submit it through the OJS platform within established deadlines.
  9. In case of using generative AI tools, do so responsibly, transparently, and document their use in the review report.

Reviewers must commit to academic integrity, confidentiality, and adherence to deadlines in every evaluation.

 

 Data Sharing and Reproducibility

We actively promote data sharing and the reproducibility of published results. Authors are encouraged to share underlying research data so that it is accessible to other researchers to verify information in published articles.

In cases of sensitive data or ethical restrictions, authors must provide a clear explanation of these limitations.

 

 Requests for Clarification

Both authors and readers may request clarifications regarding the editorial process.

Authors and readers can request clarifications related to the editorial process. These should be sent to the email address info@journal.racketsportscience.org.

 

 Retractions

In case of detecting significant errors or scientific misconduct, International Journal of Racket Sports Science (IJRSS) has a retraction and article correction procedure following COPE guidelines to ensure editorial transparency and rigor. Retraction processes are actions aimed at correcting and improving published scientific literature. They are not viewed as instruments to penalize authors; on the contrary, they seek to contribute to improving their work in the academic field.

In these cases, retraction of published articles is justified due to:

  • Methodological defects: errors in methodological design, data analysis contradicting conclusions, insufficient sample size, inappropriate application of methodology, issues in data presentation.
  • Fabrication or falsification of data: deliberate manipulation of collected information to show other results, falsifying images, excluding results that contradict stated hypotheses.
  • Plagiarism: using the work, information, and ideas of other people without crediting them. This includes verbatim plagiarism or paraphrasing without proper citation and referencing.
  • Duplicate publication: when the same research results are published in multiple journals.
  • Ethical violations: breaching ethical research protocols related to informed consent, conflict of interest, or any ethical standard within the research framework.

 

Retraction processes will be conducted using official procedures guaranteeing due process for involved parties.

Information on potential cases meriting retraction of a published article should be sent directly to info@journal.racketsportscience.org, including a description of the report, a copy of the problematic article, evidence of plagiarism, and other elements deemed relevant to substantiate the claim.

 

 OTHER JOURNAL POLICIES: