Ethics

Code of Ethics RELIEVE Journal

Taking as a model the criteria proposed by the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2014), the RELIEVE journal adheres to rigorous ethical norms with regards to its handling and publication of articles. In this regard, it firmly rejects and strongly intends to prevent inappropriate conduct in the ambit of editorial practice and scientific dissemination. With this purpose, it establishes this code of ethics for the duties of publishing, evaluation and authorship in the RELIEVE journal. This code of ethics was approved on 26/01/2024 by the journal editorial team.

A) The RELIEVE journal EDITORIAL TEAM accepts and commits to adhere to the following guidelines of good conduct:

Responsibility

The editorial team is responsible for all decisions regarding the publication of articles received by the journal. It will adhere to the pertinent policies and procedures for guaranteeing quality and conserving the integrity of that published. The journal’s editor in chief will ultimately decide on whether received work is published or rejected and will coordinate the editorial process in order to guarantee that all content is impartial, honest and maintains its integrity. The decision to publish an article will be based on the importance of the article itself, its originality and clarity, its methodological suitability, and its validity and pertinence to both policy and the journal’s scope.

Confidentiality

Each individual journal editor will propose a number of specialists to evaluate a given manuscript, in consideration of their willingness, quality and professional competence. As required by double-blinded review processes, care will be taken to keep identities hidden and anonymity of both authors and reviewers will be guaranteed. For this reason, information will only be provided to authors regarding the review status of the manuscript.

The RELIEVE editorial team will never disseminate or share, with other journals, information pertaining to articles rejected during the editorial process.

Honesty

The editorial team is responsible for guaranteeing that all articles published in RELIEVE make a meaningful and novel contribution to the field of research and educational evaluation, avoiding repetitions and duplicities.

All editors will explain in a courteous and honest way editorial decisions to reject a manuscript, with decisions mandatorily including reviewer comments and, in cases of rejection, proposals for improvement.

It is the duty of the editorial team to ensure that time-frames are met for the evaluation of manuscripts and, also, that reviewer suggestions are sent out, enabling authors to perform the required modifications.

The editorial team will perform an exhaustive review in order to prevent plagiarism in all manuscripts received by RELIEVE, in addition to guaranteeing their originality and impeding dishonest editorial practices. This task will be performed using officially licensed plagiarism detection software. In cases in which plagiarism is detected, the editorial team will take relevant measures, in line with Spanish and European legal frameworks, in order to resolve the situation, taking steps to withdraw the article from the journal’s editorial process or retract it should it already have been published.

B) Articles submitted to RELIEVE, following positive evaluation by the editorial team of their suitability to the journal’s editorial policy, will be subjected to double-blinded peer review The EVALUATION OF ARTICLES will be guided by the following ethical guidelines which strive to ensure that the review process is characterised by maximum rigour and objectivity according to international standards.

Responsibility

Individuals invited to evaluate an article must be denied to do so should they not possess competencies relevant to the material proposed for evaluation or should they be unable to provide a response within the stipulated time-frame. In such cases, the relevant editorial committee must be immediately notified regarding the lack of competence or availability. Following this, steps will be taken to invite another reviewer to review the article. Should one’s unavailability by transitory, the individual invited to evaluate an article will be able to inform the editorial committee in order to agree an alternative date should timetabled editorial duties allow for this.

Evaluation tasks will be exercised with professionalism, exhibiting behaviour grounded in honesty, objectivity and scientific competence; communicating courteously, accurately and clearly all corrections or suggestions that are considered to contribute towards article publication, improvement or rejection. As a supportive or guiding element in this process, a review form is available, which guarantees homogenous application of a series of evaluation criteria to submitted articles.

Confidentiality

Individuals invited to assess article suitability should not perform the review in cases in which it is possible to detect authorship or is authors are explicitly stated. In such cases, the relevant editorial committee must be immediately informed in order to remove any reference to authors and reassign the review to another individual.

Under no circumstances can the content of a manuscript under review or data pertaining to an individual be shared, except with the editorial committee involved in the process, due to this being the team responsible for and authorised to attend to any question or resolve any issue that may arise.

Conflict of interest

Responsibility for reviewing a manuscript must be rejected should it give rise to any potential or real conflict of interest, whether due to animosity towards an author, family relationship, academic proximity, professional proximity or any other type of relevant conflict. Such decisions must be immediately communicated with the corresponding editorial committee so that it can act accordingly.

Information gathered during article evaluation will be handled with confidentiality and, therefore, no type of personal or professional use is permitted outside of evaluative duties.

C) Ethical norms that must be mandatorily followed by ALL LISTED AUTHORS of articles submitted to RELIEVE

Responsibility

Articles must be submitted in English or in Spanish, with academic and professional suitability, stating bibliographic citations and references from all sources read and worked on. Any false, or intentionally inaccurate statement, will be deemed to represent an ethical misdemeanour and will provide motive for article exclusion.

The full set of data, statements and allusions made in the text must be supported by scientific process and are the exclusive responsibility of all authors.

In the case of empirical studies involving the participation of individuals (teaching staff, students, relatives, etc.), authors must guarantee anonymity of all participants, in addition to ensuring receipt of permission or authorisation to participate in the study.

Together with the text of the article itself, all metadata (personal data, contact and affiliation information, ORCID reference, biographical summary, social and academic networks, study funding) must also be submitted; whilst also providing, where relevant, supplementary material corresponding to the study or access to it via institutional repositories or those recognised by the scientific community in education.

All support received during elaboration of the article must be mentioned, in addition to access to resources, whether public or private. This includes any type of funding, specific material or equipment necessary to carry out the research. Further, it is expected that authors disclose support received in terms of data, statistical handling and technical support for translation and redaction. Consequently, it is imperative that sources of funding supporting the work be stated in detail and that authors strive to avoid any conflict of interest that could affect outcomes, interpretation of findings or study conclusions.

In cases in which the decision is made to withdraw an article prior to its review or publication, this must be communicated to the corresponding editorial committee.

When submitting an article to RELIEVE, it is accepted that “double blinded” review processes with be used, which implies anonymity throughout evaluation and in terms of authorship. Thus, this makes it necessary to remove any references to identifying data from submitted texts.

Throughout the review process, all listed authors must respond to reviewer suggestions regarding their work within a reasonable time-frame and in a clear, straightforward and courteous manner.

Compliance with suitability assessment outcomes and final decisions of the journal’s editorial team regarding the acceptance or rejection of articles submitted for publication is mandatory.

Following acceptance of an article for its publication in RELIEVE, listed authors commit to sending, within the indicated time-frame, a translated version of the article in a second language (in English or, in cases in which the original language differs from Spanish, in Spanish) alongside a guaranty or endorsement that the translation has been performed by qualified professional personnel.

In the final stage of the editorial process, following acceptance of an article for publication, a draft of the document will be produced that is adapted to the style and format of the journal (mock-up and/or proof), providing authors with a determined time-frame as decided by the editorial team to review the article and submit a list of detected typos.

In cases in which mistakes or meaningful inaccuracies are detected in the published work, all authors are duty-bound to diligently bring them to the attention of the editorial team and collaboration in the correction or, where relevant, rectification of that published.

Authorship and co-authorship

Authorship on articles will be limited to individuals who have made an important contribution to the conception, elaboration or interpretation of the work. As a form of guidance, the CreDiT taxonomy (https://credit.niso.org/) can be used to define the contribution of each co-author to the article. All individuals to whom this applies must appear as co-authors.

In cases of texts with shared authorship, all individuals will grant their consent for publication through the representation of the corresponding author.

Originality, plagiarism and honesty

Submitted articles must be original, totally novel and of exclusive authorship; not previously published, either partially or in its entirety, and must not be under consideration by any other journal, means of dissemination or scientific communication.

Parts of articles based on unrelated work must be specifically identified, always citing authors of the original work. Self-citations in the body of the text will be anonymised using the term “author”, either as author/s (xxxx) or (Author/s, xxxx) in order to allow for a blinded review. Self-plagiarism and redundancy must also be avoided.

RELIEVE will use anti-plagiarism programs to guarantee compliance with ethical and originality norms. In cases in which possible plagiarism is detected, all involved authors will be informed and a review process will be initiated with the aim of clarifying the matter, with decisions being made in accordance with the detected situation.

Research studies should be presented with integrity and sincerity, avoiding data manipulation. As a consequence, study methods, outcomes and conclusions must be described in detail, avoiding ambiguity and omittance. Where necessary, supplementary evidence or material will be provided regarding such aspects.

Key requisites regarding the use of generative AI

In accordance with authorship criteria outlined by the RELIEVE journal, all individuals listed as authors are held responsible for the work and for attesting to its accuracy, integrity and validity. To ensure this:

It is not permitted to copy any part of an article using generative AI/LLM tools, this includes the elaboration of the abstract or literature review.
The generation or communication of findings via generative AI/LLM tools is not permitted.
The presentation of statistics in the text using generative AI/LLM tools is not permitted, due to the need for caution regarding the authenticity, integrity and validity of produced data, however, such tools may be used to assist with study analysis.
The use of generative AI/LLM tools is permitted for the correction of articles with the aim of improving language and legibility, given that such tools already form part of the standard toolkit already employed to improve spelling and grammar. In this sense, existing original material is used that was conceived and endorsed with responsible authorship, instead of generating totally new content.