Code Of Ethics

Mycosphere – code of ethics in publishing
Scientists should follow the desired code of ethics in publishing and sharing knowledge, which may sometimes mean foregoing personal advantage. The publication of scientific research in journals is fundamental. Thus editors, authors and referees must maintain high ethical standards relating to the publication of manuscripts published by Mycosphere. In cases where ethical standards are breached, Mycosphere will consult the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines of the Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE) and act accordingly.

Editors have the following responsibilities:

• To acknowledge receipt of manuscripts in a timely manner, arrange fair and timely reviews, handle manuscripts confidentially and make the final decision concerning acceptance or rejection.
• To accept or reject a manuscript for publication concerning only the manuscript's importance, originality and relevance.
• To respect the intellectual independence of authors.
• To make known any conflicts of interest that might arise. Where an editor is an author of a manuscript, it should be passed to another editor for independent peer review.
• Not to use for their own research, work reported in unpublished or submitted articles.
• To not use referees which an author has requested are not to be consulted.
• To ensure the confidentiality of referees; adjudication and appeal referees.
• To deal fairly with appeals against rejection of a manuscript.
• To comply with data protection regulations, as appropriate.

Authors have the following responsibilities:

• To gather and interpret data in an honest way, not breach any copyright and seek appropriate permission from the relevant publishers to published previously published data.
• To present a concise and accurate report of their research and an objective discussion.
• To give due recognition to published work relating to their submitted manuscript by way of correct reference and citation.
• To avoid undue fragmentation of their work into multiple manuscripts.
• To consider publishing related manuscripts in the same journal or a small group of journals, as this can be of benefit to readers.
• To inform the editor of related manuscripts under consideration for publication by the same author in any journal, on submission of their current manuscript. Authors should provide copies of these related manuscripts, and details of their present status.
• To ensure that a manuscript is submitted for publication in only one journal at a time.
• To ensure that their submitted articles contain no personal criticism of other scientists.
• To give due acknowledgement to all workers contributing to the work.
• To declare all sources of funding for the work.

Referees have the following responsibilities:

• To treat the manuscript as confidential.
• To destroy/erase the manuscript and to inform the editor should they be unqualified to review the manuscript.
• To judge the manuscript objectively and in a timely fashion.
• To inform the editor if there is a conflict of interest.
• To explain and support their decisions so that editors and authors can understand the basis of their comments, and to provide reference to published work, where appropriate.
• To inform the editor of any similarity between the submitted manuscript and another either published.
• To ensure that all unpublished data, information, interpretation and discussion remain confidential and not to use reported work in unpublished, submitted articles for their own research.
• To alert the editor if a manuscript contains plagiarized material.
• Not to retain the submitted manuscript in any form; to comply with data protection regulations.
• To make known any conflicts of interest that might arise

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