Code of Ethics
The RUNAS Editorial Team is committed, together with the Scientific Community, to ensure and safeguard the ethical standards and quality of the articles published in the journal.
RUNAS subscribes to the Ethical Standards of the American Psychological Association. In addition, the journal has as a reference the "Code of Conduct and Best Practices for Scientific Journals of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as well as the legal framework of the country where the published research has been developed.
Research published in the RUNAS journal must comply with Standard 8 of the Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association. The authors should have read the COPE recommendations and stated that they conform to these principles. Any work that does not conform to these recommendations and is considered malpractice will be removed or retracted, depending on the status of the manuscript at the time the ethical misconduct is detected.
Authorship and publication credits. Authors of articles published in RUNAS must have contributed significantly to the published research and must be able to certify and credit their contribution to the research and to the preparation of the article if requested to do so. All persons listed as authors must have participated in the research, and all persons who have participated in the research must be listed in the article. All authors must have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for its content.
Duplicity of submission. Articles submitted to RUNAS should be original work and should not have been submitted simultaneously to other publications in any form or version.
Compliance with ethical standards. In order to ensure objectivity and transparency in the research and to confirm that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed, information on sources of funding, conflicts of interest (financial or otherwise), as well as informed consent if the research involves individuals should be included.
Declaration of interests. Authors should have no conflict of interest or competition that would prevent them from presenting their research in an unbiased manner. They must disclose any and all potential conflicts of interest, financial and personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias), upon submission of their article for publication. In addition, they must disclose and detail any conflicts of interest in the appropriate section of the journal article submission form, through the Editorial Manager.
Humane treatment of human subjects in research. The activities described in published articles should comply with ethical standards regarding studies involving human subjects. Authors will be responsible for being able to provide, if requested, copies of raw data, procedure manuals, informed consents, or any experimental material considered relevant to their research, (see Standard 8 -8.09 Humane Care and Use of Animals in Research- of Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association).
Third-Party Material. Authors must have obtained the necessary reproduction rights and/or permissions for any images, photos, figures, data, databases, tables or any other material that is authored by a third party and is not self-produced and has been included in the article (take into account Spanish copyright legislation).
The journal expects compliance with all good scientific publication practices, particularly with respect to authorship, compliance with research ethics standards, conflict of interest, redundant publication, manipulation of figures, plagiarism, and duplicate submissions.
Privacy Statement. The names, email addresses, and any other personal data sent to RUNAS will be used exclusively for purposes related to the possible publication of a paper, will never be given to third parties, nor will they be used for commercial purposes.
CORRECTION, RETRACTION AND EXPRESSION OF CONCERN POLICY
RUNAS journal as an international scientific journal of excellence follows the Code of Publication Ethics of the American Psychological Association (Section 8) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Formal notifications will be published on the RUNAS journal website, in one of the following four categories:
Erratum: When the Editor submits an error that affects the integrity of the reputation of the authorship of the article or the journal.
Correction: When the Editor OR the authorship (and this will be specified in an explanatory text) presents an error that affects the reputation of the authorship, or the journal (the "correction" in this journal covers both elements traditionally called "corrigendum" or "erratum").
Retraction: Withdrawal of a published article due to invalid results or conclusions. All authors of an article must sign a retraction request, indicating the error and describing how it affects the conclusions of the article. If they are not in unanimous agreement in requesting a retraction, the relevant Senior Editor will consult with the Management Team or, if necessary, external reviewers and apply the category of an amendment that seems most appropriate, indicating in the text of the published amendment those authors who do not agree.
The RUNAS Editorial Team will consider a retraction in a publication if:
- They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either because of major error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error), or as a result of fabrication (e.g., of data) or falsification (e.g., image manipulation).
- It constitutes plagiarism.
- The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper attribution to previous sources or disclosure to the editor, permission to republish, or justification (i.e., cases of redundant publication).
- It contains material or data without authorization for use.
- Copyright has been infringed or there is some other serious legal issue (e.g., libel, privacy).
- It reports unethical research.
- It has been published solely based on a compromised or manipulated peer review process.
- The author(s) failed to disclose a major competing interest (a.k.a. conflict of interest) that, in the view of the editor, would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.
Manifestation of Concern: While the editorial community's opinion on the use of a Manifestation of Concern is still under discussion (see here for the latest information), the journal reserves the right to consider its use on a case-by-case basis but is not limited to: 1) material but inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct, which may or may not still be under investigation; 2) evidence of unreliable findings, but with no institution or other organization willing or able to investigate the case; 3) evidence of an error, or omission of pertinent information, in the article or in linked open data/materials, which must be corrected but has not been due to the author's unwillingness or lack of response. In most cases, an expression of concern will lead to a positive resolution (through notification) OR a retraction.
RUNAS editors will consider issuing an expression of concern if:
- They have inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct on the part of the authors.
- There is evidence that the findings are unreliable, but the authoring institution will not investigate the case.
- They believe that an investigation into the alleged publication-related misconduct has not been, or would not be, fair and impartial, or conclusive.
- An investigation is ongoing, but a judgment will not be available for a considerable time.
Conflict resolution
Corrections: when errors are detected in an article published in RUNAS that affect the interpretation of the results, it will be the duty of readers, authors, and/or editors to notify the editorial body of RUNAS through a Letter to the Editor. The Editorial Board will have the obligation to verify the information and contrast it with the author and the corresponding evidence. If the truthfulness of the report is confirmed, corrections will be published. If the errors detected are sufficiently relevant to invalidate the work, the possibility of retracting the published manuscript will be considered.
Retraction of a manuscript: Retraction of an article is one of the most serious sanctions that can be taken by the Editorial Board of Religion in relation to an article published in the journal. This extreme measure is taken when the errors reported may affect the interpretation of the data. This measure is even more serious when the information presented in the paper is fraudulent or falsified; when the data are fictitious; when the study cannot be reproduced, or in cases of serious ethical misconduct.
Withdrawal of a manuscript: the elimination, suppression, or concealment of an article is only allowed when there is a case involving legal violations, defamation, or other legal limitations, as well as when there is false or inaccurate data. In such cases, a withdrawal statement will be published. Another particular case of withdrawal is when proven ethical misconduct has been committed but the article has not yet been published; in this case, authors are only informed of the withdrawal of their manuscript from the review process.