THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL RESEARCHES IN URBAN MANAGEMENT adheres to the policies and good publishing practice of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
All papers are published open access under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence. This ensures that they receive the maximum dissemination because there are no barriers to access. This licence allows readers to distribute and reuse the paper, as long as proper attribution is given to the original authors and the source of first publication. The authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions.
It is necessary that all parties participating in the process of publication (authors, reviewers, publisher and editorial team) to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior.
PUBLISHER
The publisher is committed to ensuring that editorial decisions are independent of commercial interests. The publisher works closely with editors to ensure ethical publishing standards are maintained. The publisher supports the investigation of suspected publication malpractice and will cooperate with editors to retract or correct articles when necessary.
The publisher will focus on ensuring integrity, transparency, and quality in the publication process. Essential duties include:
- Editorial Independence: Publishing decisions must be based solely on quality and merit, free from interference by advertisers, funders, or commercial interests.
- Transparency and Accountability: Publishers must be accountable for all published content, including clear policies for peer review, author guidelines, and managing conflicts of interest.
- Integrity in Research: Implement strict policies to prevent, detect, and address misconduct such as plagiarism, data fabrication, and falsification.
- Fair and Confidential Review: Ensure peer review is objective, unbiased, and confidential. Reviewers must disclose potential conflicts of interest and not use manuscript information for personal gain.
- Prompt Corrections and Retractions: Publishers must be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when errors or unethical behavior are discovered.
- Diversity and Inclusivity: Actively promote diversity, equity, and inclusivity among authors, reviewers, and editorial boards.
- Ethical Handling of Data: Ensure proper informed consent for human subject research and ethical handling of animal research data.
- Intellectual Property Protection: Use clear licensing terms (e.g., Creative Commons) to ensure authors retain appropriate rights.
EDITORS
The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board of [Journal Name] are responsible for ensuring the quality, integrity, and ethical standards of the journal. Editors are accountable for all editorial decisions and must work to maintain the credibility of the academic record. Editors evaluate manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic merit, originality, clarity, and relevance to the journal’s scope.
Essential duties include:
- The editors will use various measures to maintain ethical standards.
- Editors are responsible for maintaining the integrity of the published record by thoroughly reviewing and investigating any reported or suspected misconduct, whether it is related to research, publication, reviewer, or editorial activities. They will work closely with the publisher to address any complaints or concerns and ensure that appropriate measures are taken.
- The editors will use a plagiarism program (antiplagiat.ro) to screen for plagiarism prior to peer-review, monitoring ethical policies, ensuring confidentiality throughout the review process, and communicating professionally with authors.
- Editors are responsible for ensuring a fair, unbiased, and timely peer review process. Editors must: Select qualified and appropriate reviewers with relevant expertise; Avoid reviewers with conflicts of interest; Ensure reviewer anonymity; Ensure that peer review is conducted objectively and ethically
- Editors must evaluate reviewer recommendations critically and independently.
- The editors retain the right to make minor revisions to the text or return it to the author for further revision. In case a manuscript fails to meet the necessary quality research standards, is not within the journal's scope and specificity, or violates legal requirements like plagiarism or copyright infringement, the editors may refuse it without review.
- The Editors are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal will be published.
- The Editor should preserve the anonymity of reviewers and authors.
- The Editor should not allow any conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers and board members.
- The Editors must ensure that information regarding the manuscript is kept confidential
AUTHORS
Authors must ensure that their submitted work is entirely original. Any use of the work, ideas, data, or words of others must be properly cited and referenced. Plagiarism in any form, including self-plagiarism, constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
Essential duties include:
- When submitting a paper, authors will provide the research data that supports their work. This request may be made by the editorial team for review or for compliance with the open data requirements of the journal. If possible, authors should make the data publicly accessible and be prepared to keep it for a reasonable number of years after publication.
- It is crucial to ensure that any written work is entirely original. If the authors have used the work or words of others, they must provide proper citations and obtain permission where necessary. Proper acknowledgment of the work of others is essential, and publications that have influenced the reported work must be cited to give the work appropriate context within the larger scholarly record. It is not acceptable to use or report information obtained privately, such as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, without explicit, written permission from the source. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.
- Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, or personal relationships that could influence the results or interpretation of their work. All sources of financial support must be clearly identified in the manuscript.
- The use of an Large Language Models should be properly documented in the Research Methods section of the article. Generally, AI is acceptable for editing, language polishing, and formatting, but not for generating original research data, findings, or literature reviews
- The responsibility for the opinions expressed in articles belongs to authors.
- Authors must certify that:
- The paper represents an original work;
- The paper has not previously been published elsewhere;
- The paper is not being considered for publication elsewhere;
- The paper contains real and authentic data;
- All sources used in the creation of the manuscript are presented or cited;
- When it comes to the authorship of a paper, it should only be given to those who have contributed significantly to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study being reported. All co-authors who have made substantial contributions must be listed as such. If others have participated in certain aspects of the paper such as language editing or else, they should be acknowledged in the acknowledgment section.
- The corresponding author has the responsibility of ensuring that all appropriate co-authors are included, while also making sure that no inappropriate co-authors are included. Further, the corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. Before submitting the manuscript, authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission.
- In cases where the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors is necessary after the manuscript has been submitted, the author must clearly inform the editor. However, such requests will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and must be agreed upon by all authors. Finally, all authors must take collective responsibility for the work and each individual author is accountable for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
- All authors are collectively responsible for the work, and each individual author is accountable for ensuring that any questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
- Authors must notify the journal editor if they find errors or inaccuracy in their work after submission.
- Before publication, authors of accepted manuscripts must sign a Open Access Publication Agreement Form.
REVIEWERS
Peer reviewers assist the editors in making editorial decisions and contribute to improving the quality of submitted manuscripts. Reviewers provide objective, constructive, and timely evaluations of the scholarly merit, originality, and relevance of the manuscript. Reviewers must provide clear, well-supported, and professional feedback to authors and editors.
Essential duties include:
- Review only articles that matches the reviewer's expertise. If the reviewer feels that it is not possible to complete the review process, must inform the Editor in Chief immediately, so the manuscript could be send to any other reviewer
- Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest arising from: personal relationships with the authors, institutional affiliations, financial interests, competitive or collaborative relationships. If a conflict of interest is identified, the reviewer must promptly inform the editor and withdraw from the review process.
- Reviewers must complete their reviews within the agreed timeframe. If a reviewer cannot complete the review on time, they must promptly inform the editor
- Reviewers should keep confidential all information regarding the reviewing proccess;
- Reviewers should allocate enough time for the review process in order to meet the deadline stated in the invitation to review;
- Reviewers must ensure that authors have acknowledged all sources used in the research;
- Any kind of similarity between the manuscript and other published paper, must be immediately noticed to the Editor in Chief
- Reviewer should express their views clearly with the supporting arguments.
- Reviewers are forbidden to upload manuscripts into generative AI tools to generate reports, as this violates confidentiality
ETHIC STATEMENT FOR HUMAN SUBJECTS
- When conducting research involving human subjects, it is the author's responsibility to ensure that all procedures are carried out in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines, and approved by the appropriate institutional committee(s). The manuscript should include a statement that informed consent was obtained from the human subjects for experimentation, and that their privacy rights must always be respected.
- For studies involving human subjects, the author must ensure that the research is conducted in accordance with The Code of Ethics (Declaration of Helsinki).
- If an author wants to include case details or personal information or images of any other individuals, appropriate consents, permissions, and releases must be obtained.