Review of Communication Research expects that all authors submitting a manuscript adhere to the ethical guidelines set by the International Communication Association (ICA) in the Publication Policies and Procedures. In this sense, all manuscripts submitted to RCR must be original works that:

(a) credit all authors,

(b) acknowledge sources and supporting material, and

(c) identify previous publication of the manuscript in an earlier form. The place, time, and form of the previous publication, and whether the present material duplicates or is substantially different than the earlier presentation, must be made explicit in a cover letter accompanying the manuscript submission. RCR does not publish articles that have been previously published in substantially the same form.

According to ICA policies and procedures, any manuscript submitted to RCR must not be simultaneously considered by another publication. If extraordinary circumstances call for simultaneous submission, RCR editor should be informed by the author(s). Decisions regarding the originality of and/or appropriateness of a submitted manuscript will be rendered by the editor. Submitting a manuscript to two journals at once duplicates the efforts of editors and peer reviewers to review the manuscript and any subsequent revisions that they request. If the manuscript is accepted in one journal the author will have to withdraw the paper from the second journal, wasting the time of the editors and peer reviewers who reviewed the manuscript.

The editorial office will provide no information regarding the status of a submission to anyone other than the author (or a person the author designates in writing) of a manuscript, book review, or other material submitted to RCR for publication.

Moreover, authors submitting a manuscript to RCR for publication adhere to the following ethical guidelines mostly copied from or inspired by APA Manual 6th Ed., Taylor and Francis Publisher ethical code, Elsevier’s Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK), and from Code of conduct and best practice guidelines for journal editors by COPE :

- Ethical Reporting of Research Results. Scholars do not fabricate or falsify data because science is build on previous research. Sometimes scientists make mistakes that are not identified during the reviewing process. It takes time and effort to correct a wrong result. It is not acceptable that a scholar misleads others on purpose, for personal benefit. In this sense, “omitting troublesome observations from reports to present a more convincing story is also prohibited” and “authors are responsible for making such errors public if the errors are discovered after publication” (APA, 6th: 12).

- All authors must declare that the article they submit to RCR is their own original work, which does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any other person or entity, and cannot be considered as plagiarizing any other published work. If an author is submitting a manuscript which includes his or her own previously published work, new content has to be more than 50% of the manuscript.

- If the manuscript incorporates any previously copyrighted material (e.g. graphs, images) which is not in the public domain, author/s shall obtain written permission from the copyright owner of such material to be published in RCR, and shall deliver such written permission to RCR prior to the submission of the Article Proposal if the copyrighted material is their own writing, or prior to the publication if the copyrighted material is a graph, image, table or text with more than 400 words.

- All authors named on the paper are equally held accountable for the content of a submitted manuscript or published paper.

- The corresponding author must ensure all named co-authors consent to publication and to being named as a co-author. All persons who have made significant scientific or literary contributions and who shares responsibility and accountability for the results to the work reported should be named as co-authors.

- Authors must appropriately cite all relevant publications. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, should not be used or reported in the author's work unless fully cited, and with the permission of that third party.

- Authors must avoid making defamatory statements in submitted articles which could be construed as impugning any person's reputation.

- Authors must declare any potential conflict of interest – be it professional or financial – which could be held to arise with respect to the article.

- Authors must disclose all sources of funding for the research reported in the paper.

 

Editor

editor@rcommunicationr.org

Approved, April 2014