Ethics

Rafael's The School of Athens; a painting that collects great minds of Classical Antiquity.

Cope and EU Standards

Isegoria aspires to uphold academic integrity and impeccable research ethics. Ourselves, our contributors, our collaborators, and our processes are driven by the standards, principles, and stipulations expressed in COPE and the EU Commission's Ethics for Researchers.

Our Commitments

Anonymity and Confidentiality during the reviewing process.
Safeguarding against Abuse, Misconduct, and Abusive Behaviour. We believe in collaborative work and constructive feedback/criticism. We have zero tolerance for any kind of offensive behaviour, from unkind comments to libel, from verbal to academic misconduct.
Professional Integrity. Isegoria will review, edit, format, lay out, and publish manuscripts timely and diligently, always and only after the authors'/editors' consent.
Open Access. Free, unrestricted access to all material for all users, without any fees or need to register.
GDPR Compliance/Protection of Personal Data. All information we store is used for record-keeping purposes and the recording of metadata. We will not sell, share, or disclose any personal information (partial or complete) to third parties without the clear consent of the individual involved.
Post-Publication Errors and Checks. Isegoria will accept contributors' or third-party notifications on errors spotted after the publication of the manuscript. If possible, simple adjustments may be made, clearly identifiable and with a clear notice to the reader, if they do not alter the layout of the published product (e.g., page numbering).

Your Responsibilities

Good Practice. Authors are expected not to submit work undergoing review or evaluation by another publisher. Equally, authors are expected not to submit their manuscript elsewhere before the evaluation process at Isegoria is completed with a Decision Letter and a Rejection outcome. The Agreement is a binding contract by law and all parties must meet their commitments.
Plagiarism. All contributors, editors, authors, and organisers must ensure to submit research that is originally theirs, as specified by academic and publishing standards and COPE. Please read below for further information.
Proper Referencing and Ethical Representation of the works of others in full compliance to statutory law, academic and publishing standards.
Post-Publication Checks and Errors. All contributors are responsible to notify the publishers if they spot errors in language, referencing, or phrasing after the publication of their manuscript.
Permissions and Copyrights. Besides text, the authors/editors/organisers/contributors must ensure that they have acquired proper licences and permission to use all research and visual materials. It is their responsibility to purchase and obtain permissions and licences to use such material, but Isegoria will try to assist.
Transparency. Authors/editors/organisers/contributors must disclose funding and potential conflict of interest to the publishers in writing as soon as possible.

The Reviewers' Responsibilities

Professional Conduct. The review process is the equivalent of collaborative work between colleagues and co-workers. As such, all interactions must be respectful, all feedback constructive, and all objections or arguments well-grounded.
Blind Peer Review. We kindly ask our reviewers to refrain from any attempt to establish the identity of the author. If during the review process the reviewer thinks that they may have surmised the author's identity, they are kindly requested to inform the publishers in writing.
Merit and Fairness. All evaluations must be grounded on scientific validity, regardless of personal or political views. Disagreeing with a viewpoint does not make that viewpoint unpublishable.
Timeliness. Peer review is a voluntary task to the benefit of the scholarly community. We expect reviewers to complete the task within the time limit agreed upon in advance. If in the process of reviewing the reviewer realises that time is an issue, they are kindly asked to notify the publishers in writing as soon as possible. If they must recuse themselves, it would be useful to recommend a replacement, with whom they have checked to confirm capacity.

Plagiarism

General Stipulations and Scope

Submissions are expected to be the authors original, previously unpublished work, not submitted elsewhere.
All submissions undergo plagiarism check via strong detection software (iThenticate®). Our team regularly performs similarity checks at all stages of the publication process and for all featuring materials (text, references, illustrations). If similarity ratio exceeds 25%, the publishers will contact the authors immediately to check and discuss.
Submissions that are reduplication of previous work published in any form, medium, or language will not be accepted, except in cases of PhD theses.
Colleagues, users, the community, and members of the public are kindly asked to notify the publishers in private and in writing if they have reasons to suspect plagiarism or any form of academic misconduct.

Plagiarism Checks and Process

The publishers perform manual and electronic checks to assure the originality of submitted material.
The publishers inform the author in writing, provide a list of reported issues, and explore solutions.
The author revises. If the issue persists, then the submitted manuscript is rejected.
If an issue emerges after the Agreement is signed, then the Editorial Board and reviewers meet to discuss based on evidence and generally accepted anti-plagiarism standards. Their findings are communicated in writing to the author.
The author revises/retracts. If not, the publication is cancelled.
If plagiarism goes undetected until after the publication, editors will revoke the publication until the issue is resolved and will submit a formal apology to the author of the original work. The author who misconducted themselves is strongly encouraged to do the same and cooperate to reach a solution. Legal penalties and repercussions apply (UK Copyright Law).

Submission of Manuscripts Deposited in Other Repositories

The author must provide proof that they hold copyrights and have permission from the Institution where they submitted their thesis to publish parts of or their entire thesis. Substantial revisions (not merely rephrasing) are expected except in extraordinary circumstances that merit immediate publication, and manual checks will be performed. If not holding the appropriate licence to use the material, when quoting directly from the thesis, the author must clearly indicate so (quotation marks and reference).