Code of Ethics

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Sinología hispánica. China Studies Review follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (version 4, March 7, 2011) and the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers. Some key points of these COPE codes are highlighted below, but please refer to the entire documents for full details.

 (1) Duties and responsibilities of Editors

  • Editors will be accountable for everything published in the journal. They will take all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the material they publish, and the publication of such material in a timely manner. They will always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
  • The editors will ensure that all submitted manuscripts, once they are preliminary evaluated by themselves, will undergo a double blind peer-review by at least two experts in the field. Reviewers will disclose any potential competing interests before agreeing to review a submission.
  • Editors’ decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication will be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the remit of the journal.
  • Editorial decisions will not be affected by the origins of the manuscript, including the nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, or religion of the authors. Decisions to edit and publish should not be determined by the policies of governments or other agencies outside of the journal itself.
  • Editors will publish guidance to authors on everything that is expected of them. They will inform authors that, if accepted, their papers will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. They will also inform how their submissions will be checked against plagiarism.
  • Editors will provide guidance to reviewers on everything that is expected of them including the need to handle submitted material in confidence.
  • Editors will act if they suspect misconduct or if an allegation of misconduct is brought to them. They will also respond promptly to complaints and should ensure there is a way for dissatisfied complainants to take complaints further. They will follow the COPE flowcharts where applicable.

(2) Duties and responsibilities of Reviewers

  • Reviewers who accept to evaluate a manuscript should be responsible for making an independent, serious, rigorous, helpful and respectful review. They should not accept to evaluate a manuscript if it is not within the reviewer’s scope of expertise
  • Reviewers should complete the review within four weeks. If this were not possible they should inform the editors as soon as possible.
  • Reviewers should remain anonymous, as a guarantee of independence and impartiality throughout all the evaluation process.
  • Reviewers should inform any conflict of interest which may affect their objectivity in judging a manuscript.

 (3) Duties and responsibilities of Authors

  • Authors will only submit original, unpublished contributions. They must not have been sent to any other publication. The authors are responsible for the ethical, scientific and legal aspects of their manuscripts. They will disclose any conflicts of interest that might had affected their work.
  • The signing authors of a manuscript assert that they have made a significant contribution to it. Minor contributions can be cited in acknowledgements section. All authors who have made significant contributions to the manuscript should be listed as coauthors.
  • Any investigation involving humans or animals must include a statement certifying that the investigation was conducted in conformity with norms and protocols approved by their institutions.
  • Authors should follow and accept the journal guidelines and procedures regarding submission (including checking their manuscripts against plagiarism), peer review and correction of galley proofs.
  • Authors shall notify as soon as possible any errors or omissions detected in their manuscripts, even if the manuscripts have already been published.
  • Authors will allow the publisher to license their works under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. They are allowed and encouraged to disseminate electronically pre-print or post-print versions of their work before publication.

 (4) Duties and responsibilities of the Publisher

  • The publisher will provide support to the journal, especially in maintenance of the Universidad de León Open Journal System platform.
  • The publisher will provide advice and support to the editors regarding any initiative which may help to increase the journal quality, visibility and to fit to COPE standards.
  • The publisher will make the contents of the journal timely and permanently available through the Universidad de León Open Journal System platform.