Social Behavior and Personality (SBP Journal) Publication Ethics Policy 

Editor responsibilities

  • Process manuscript submissions in a timely fashion, approving those that meet journal standards for content, structure, presentation, and relevance. 
  • Invite suitable peer reviewers to comment on the manuscript, based on their expertise in the subject areas.
  • Provide authors with ongoing information about the manuscript submission, review, and production processes. 
  • Use reviewer feedback along with editorial consultation to make a fair, unbiased decision, and provide clear feedback to potential authors about required revisions to reach acceptance, or the reasons for rejection. 
  • Accept manuscripts of high quality and relevance in a timely and responsible manner.
  • Follow the ethics policy of the journal, in line with COPE guidelines and processes for dealing with questions of ethical conduct. 
  • Maintain good communication with authors, reviewers, and interested third parties. 

Author responsibilities

  • Submit work that is original, fully referenced, and that accurately reflects the contribution of all authors, including their names, affiliations, and contact information. 
  • Submit work that they believe reaches the SBP Journal standards for submission, in terms of content, structure, presentation, and relevance.
  • Ensure that research is conducted in line with the Declaration of Helsinki for research involving human subjects and give confirmation in the cover letter and in the manuscript text that consent was obtained from participants if required. 
  • At the time of submission, disclose any conflicts of interest and provide full funding information.
  • Understand that authors will hand over copyright to SBP Journal at the time of acceptance, and show agreement by means of the check box in the submission process.
  • Accept the final decisions of the editors regarding necessary revisions or rejection of a manuscript, although authors have the right to appeal a decision to the managing editor.
  • Maintain good communication with editors, copyeditors, and coauthors.  
  • The corresponding author is responsible for passing on all communication between the editor and the paper’s authors. He or she will ensure that before submission the author list is accurate, complete, and that all coauthors approve the submission. 

Authorship

  • Authorship definition (according to ICMJE, see below for reference): 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. 
  • All authors should be fully acknowledged, and no person should be included as an author who did not contribute meaningfully (as defined above).  
  • At the time of submission, all authors must be named and their specific contributions to the study and manuscript described.
  • Those who contributed to the manuscript but do not qualify as authors should be acknowledged in a note that will be published in the footnote to the article’s first page.
  • Any change to the authorship after submission, whether the addition or deletion of an author or a change in the order of authors, must be confirmed in writing, with every author signing the document to affirm their agreement.  

Duplicate publication/Plagiarism 

  • All accepted manuscripts will be checked for originality using the CrossCheck (powered by iThenticate) plagiarism software. At the editor’s discretion, manuscripts will be rejected if they score highly on copied materials from published work. Authors may be required to perform major revisions if the manuscript has concerning sections of copied text. Some minor instances of copied text (perhaps from the author’s own previous work) may be allowed, at the discretion of the editors.
  • When CrossCheck iThenticate reveals significant self-plagiarism, the authors will be required to remove these copied passages. Duplicate publication is not permitted in SBP Journal. We will not publish work that already appears in the scholarly record. When a paper has appeared in conference proceedings or has been published in a draft form in another language, we will allow for a revised and strengthened paper to be submitted, as long as there is acknowledgement of the earlier version, and significant difference between versions. 

Issues of Ethical Misconduct

  • In cases of suspected misconduct, SBP Journal will follow the processes laid out by COPE in its “Publication Code of Conduct flowcharts.” http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts 
  • When a concern comes to light during the course of a manuscript review, the review will be suspended while the editors conduct a brief investigation. 
  • When problems of plagiarism in published papers are discovered, SBP Journal will follow COPE guidelines to resolve issues, and publish errata or retractions as required. 
  • In other cases of ethical misconduct, such as authorship inconsistencies, funding concerns, or conflicts of interest, COPE guidelines will also be followed. 
  • Authors will always be given an opportunity to respond to any concern, and no action will be taken without serious investigation. 
  • In extreme cases of ethical misconduct, the author’s institution may be informed, future submissions banned for some period of time, and the public record corrected to show that the published work was unethical.  

Journal Disclaimer

  • Social Behavior and Personality maintains an open editorial policy and may or may not endorse the conclusions made in its published articles. Neither the journal nor its publisher, editors or staff assume any responsibility for any material considered to be offensive or defamatory, or for obtaining any copyright permissions necessary for publication of articles.

References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Committee on Publication Ethics. (n.d.). Committee on Publication Ethics resources. Retrieved from http://publicationethics.org/resources/


Council of Science Editors. (2011–2012). Promoting integrity in scientific journal publications: 2012 update [white paper]. Retrieved from http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/wp-content/uploads/entire_whitepaper.pdf


Graf, C., Wager, E., Bowman, A., Fiack, S., Scott-Lichter, D., & Robinson. A. (2007). Best practice guidelines on publication ethics: A publisher’s perspective.

International Journal of Clinical Practice, 61, 1–26. http://doi.org/c4f9m5

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (n.d.). Defining the role of authors and contributors. Retrieved from http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

Palgrave Macmillan. (2012, November). 
Palgrave Macmillan journals: Ethics policy. Retrieved from https://resource-cms.springernature.com/springer-cms/rest/v1/content/10052728/data/v1

World Medical Association, Inc. (2013). WMA Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects: 2012–2013 update. Retrieved from https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/