CAET

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Contents
  • Authorship 
  • Research Involving Human Subjects
  • Conflict of Interest Policy
  • Management of conflicts of interest
  • Misconduct Handling Policy
  • Special Issues
Authorship 

It is important that appropriate credit is awarded to the authors of a manuscript. In accordance with ICMJE guidelines to qualify as an author, a researcher should make substantive intellectual contributions to each of the following aspects:

  1. Concept and design of the study, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
  2. Critically drafting or revising of the manuscript for important intellectual content.
  3. Final approval of the version to be published. Each author should participate sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not justify authorship.
  4. Be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Each author listed on the manuscript should be limited to only those who have made a significant contribution to the concept, design, execution, or interpretation of the research or study. Every person who has made a significant contribution to the paper should be listed as co-author. If there are others who have participated in a significant way to the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as a contributor. The corresponding author should review and confirm that co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved and agreed to submit the final version of the paper.

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be understood to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the research project should also be properly acknowledged.

Authors of papers reporting on original research must provide an accurate description of the artistic inquiry/ art-based research/ research/ artistic expression and an objective discussion of its importance to the field. All evidence and supporting data should be represented accurately in the paper. Each manuscript should also include references that allow others the ability to reconstruct the argument. It is unacceptable to intentionally include inaccurate statements or fabricated data in the manuscript, which is considered unethical behavior.

Authors must guarantee that their submitted work contains no content that may be considered libelous or infringing in any way on the copyright of another party. If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, it has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Authors are asked to provide the raw evidence and data in connection with a paper for editorial review and should be prepared to provide access to such evidence and should be prepared to retain such evidence and data for a reasonable time after publication.

Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. The journal editor will make every effort to process and evaluate submissions in a timely fashion. Should an author decide to submit the manuscript to another journal, they must request the journal editor to withdraw their manuscript from consideration.

Authors must properly acknowledge the work of others and should cite all publications that have been influential in determining their scholarly understanding of the subject of their paper.

Research Involving Human Subjects

All research involving human subjects needs to be approved or exempted by the appropriate institutional human subject review committee, or if no formal ethics committee is available, are in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. This approval or exemption should be stated in the Methods section of the article.

Informed Consent

All authors must declare that informed consent has been obtained (or the permission consent of their parent or guardian in the case of children under 16 and the child has provided assent), that participation is completely voluntary, and that all reasonable steps have been taken to maintain subject’s confidentiality, including artistic artifacts, music, illustrations, which should be de-identified and anonymized. It is the responsibility of the author, not the journal, to acquire all relevant consents, and formalities, permissions related to the human subjects research.

Clinical Trials Registration

The journal adheres to ICMJE’s Clinical Trials Registration Statement. All clinical trials published in the journal must be registered in a public trial’s registry at or before the onset of participant enrolment. Manuscripts should include the exact URL and unique identification number for the trial registration at the time of submission. This information will be published in the article, and we ask that you include the URL and identification number on the title page of your manuscript.

For any clinical trials commencing prior to 2008, retrospective registration will be accepted. A list of recommended registries can be found on the ICMJE website. Results posted in the same clinical trials registry in which the primary registration resides will not be considered prior publication if they are presented in the form of a brief abstract (500 words or less) or a table.

Clinical trials must be reported according to the relevant reporting guidelines, i.e. CONSORT for randomized controlled trials, TREND for non-randomized trials, and other specialized guidelines as appropriate. The intervention should be described according to the requirements of the TIDieR checklist and guide. Submissions must also include the study protocol as supporting information, which will be published with the manuscript if accepted.

Authors of manuscripts describing the results of clinical trials must adhere to the CONSORT reporting guidelines appropriate to their trial design, available on the CONSORT Statement web site. Any deviation from the trial protocol must be explained in the paper. Authors must explicitly discuss informed consent in their paper, and we reserve the right to ask for a copy of the patient consent form.

Research published in CAET include empirically based research (arts-based, mixed-methods, quantitative, qualitative, theoretical (literature), and historical.

It is not required, but recommended that authors consider the following format for any empirical research:

Title: No more than 12 words

Introduction Section: Introduce the topic, Identify the problem being investigated and the compelling rationale and reasons for investigating it, and how this project might solve that problem. Include a review of the literature pertinent to the topic.

Method Section: Provide the description of the design (interview, arts technique), details of the steps and procedures being followed, as well as equipment, tools, instruments being used.

Results section: Offer a clear presentation of the findings from the study of the empirical data. Present the results in as clear and sensible way as possible for readers to be able to understand and infer their own perspectives.

Discussion Section: Provide a clear, organized discussion of the key findings from the study, and highlight any surprises, or stand-out results that generate a broader dialogue. Provide a summary of the impact of the research, including the limitations of the study, and how findings will be transferred into practice and/or teaching. Provide recommendations based on the findings for future research.

Conflict of Interest Policy

CAET’s COI policy generally follows those of the COPE recommendations. Conflicts of interest (sometimes referred to as competing interests or dual loyalties) are common, some would say almost inevitable. Conflicts of interest are secondary interests (e.g. personal, commercial, political, academic or financial) that may influence judgements on a primary decision, in this case what is published. They have been described as those which, when revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived. Financial interests may include employment, research funding, sponsorship, stock or share ownership, payment for lectures or travel, consultancies, company support for staff commissioning/ funding/sponsoring of any element of the paper, any financial or potential financial benefit, or PR firm involvement.

Management of conflicts of interest

CAET takes the view that any potential conflicts of interest must be recognised and stated. If there is doubt about the existence of a conflict, it is preferable to err on the side of disclosure. Most conflicts of interest can be managed, as per the following procedures; however, there may be occasions when the conflict of interest is so extreme as to make publication impossible.

This is not an exhaustive list of potential conflicts, rather an indication of the range of potential conflicts of interest:

  1. Potential Author COIs

Authors are asked to consider conflicts of interest in both the instructions to authors and then to declare in writing on a form.

  • Instructions to authors – includes the following: ‘Authors must declare any competing interests by completing our standard form. Conflict of interests/competing interests can be defined as factors which could influence the judgment of an author, reviewer or editors, and may be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial in nature. Put simply, they are interests which, if revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived’.
  • Conflict of interest form – requires authors to disclose any potential conflicts of interest relevant to the publication of the manuscript.
  1. Potential Reviewer COIs

The journal employs a single-blind review process, however, editors will still try to avoid inviting individuals to review who have potential COIs. Editors will also attempt to honor authors’ requests to exclude potential reviewers, provided that the reason for exclusion is a true COI and that rigorous and comprehensive review is possible if these individuals are excluded. At the time they are invited to review, individuals must disclose any COIs that could bias their opinions, and they must disqualify themselves from reviewing when appropriate. If a COI becomes apparent during the review process, the reviewer must contact the journal office and, when appropriate, ask to be recused. The following situations are considered conflicts and should be avoided:

  • Co-authoring publications with at least one of the authors in the past 3 years
  • Being colleagues within the same section/department or similar organisational unit in the past 3 years
  • Supervising/having supervised the doctoral work of the author (s) or being supervised/having been supervised by the author(s)
  • Receiving professional or personal benefit resulting from the review
  • Having a personal relationship (e.g. family, close friend) with the author(s)
  • Having a direct or indirect financial interest in the paper being reviewed

It is not considered a Conflict of Interest if the reviewers have worked together with the authors in a collaborative project (e.g. EU) or if they have co-organized an event.

Editorial Board Member COIs

Articles by Editorial Board members will be treated as usual for that category of article and undergo the same peer review process. In this case another editor would be appointed to manage the peer review process. If no editor can be identified who does not have a conflict of interest then a guest editor may be invited to manage the manuscript. Any guest editor must have a good understanding of the journal.

  1. Potential Editor COIs

Editors will not act as the decision maker in articles with which they feel they have a conflict of interest, such as working with the authors or performing competing research. If the editor has not worked with the author for more than six months, then they may be eligible to edit an article. Some conflicts will be insurmountable for editors, for example personal friendships, which will not have a time expiry. Knowledge of an author or being an acquaintance is not enough on its own to mean that the editor cannot manage the article. Editors should err on the side of not taking articles with which they may have a conflict of interest and discuss with the Editor-in-Chief any concerns about their own conflicts, so a decision can be made about the most suitable editor for the article.

Misconduct Handling Policy

CAET is aware of the potential impact an allegation of ethical misconduct can have upon a researcher’s career. All allegations of ethical misconduct are taken seriously, and a full investigation will take place.

  • The Editor-in-Chief should always be the first point of contact, and will seek clarification from all affected parties, in accordance with COPE
  • Where the allegation is made against the Editor-in-Chief, this should be sent to the Publisher for further investigation.
  • If XPGJ is approached by a third party with an allegation of plagiarism, the Editor-in-Chief will always seek a response from the original author(s) or copyright holder(s) before a recommendation is made.
  • The Editor-in-Chief will adhere to COPE flowcharts, and will not be influenced by other parties. Any decisions made will be formed in an unbiased and objective manner. At all times, the Editor-in-Chief will remain neutral in tone, acting with integrity, and educating where possible.
  • The Publisher is not obliged to discuss individual cases of alleged plagiarism with third parties.
  • The Publisher reserves the right not to proceed with a case if the complainant presents a false name or affiliation, or acts in an inappropriate or threatening manner towards the journals editors and staff.

Please refer to the guidelines below and COPE flowcharts for the processes that the journal follows in cases of alleged plagiarism in submitted or published articles.

Guidelines

CAET welcomes submissions which are original, not under consideration by any other publication at the same time, and which contribute to the existing body of knowledge. All authors should be aware of the importance of presenting content that is based on their own research and expressed in their own words. Plagiarism is bad practice and unethical.

The following types of ethical misconduct should be avoided:

Verbatim copying

Verbatim copying of significant passages, or streams of text of another person’s work without acknowledgement, references or the use of quotation marks.

Paraphrasing

Improper paraphrasing of another person’s work is where sentences within a paragraph or a section of text has been rearranged without appropriate attribution. Significant improper paraphrasing without appropriate attribution is treated as seriously as verbatim copying.

Re-using parts of a work without attribution

Reuse of elements of another person’s work, for example a figure, table or paragraphs, without acknowledgement, references or the use of quotation marks. It is incumbent on the author to obtain the necessary permission to reuse elements of another person’s work from the copyright holder.

Self-plagiarism

CAET requires that all authors sign a copyright form that clearly states that their submitted work has not been published before. If elements of a work have been previously published in another publication, the author is required to acknowledge the earlier work and indicate how the subsequent work differs and builds upon the research and conclusions contained in the previous work. Verbatim copying of an author’s own work and paraphrasing is not acceptable, and we recommend that research should only be reused to support new conclusions. Authors should cite all previous stages of publication and presentation of their ideas, that have culminated in the final work, including conference papers, workshop presentations and listserv communications. This will ensure that a complete record of all communication relating to the work is documented.

Republication of original work

Exceptions to the publication of original work includes conference papers, archival papers that are republished in an anniversary or commemorative issue, papers that are of particular merit and that have received only limited circulation (for example through a company newsletter). These papers are republished at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. The original work should be fully and correctly attributed and permission from the appropriate copyright holder obtained.

Special Issues

Special Issues (SIs) are collections of papers centered around a subject of special interest and are organized and led by subject experts who take on the role of Guest Editor of the Special Issue. Guest Editor(s) can come from Editorial Board or externally out of the board.  All submissions follow the same peer review process as regular papers. All papers will be submitted through the journals on-line submission system and Guest Editors and invited authors must follow all journal Editorial Policies carefully.