RJAP

Duties of the authors

Authors are encouraged to comply with the following ethical standards:

Authors should ensure that their work is entirely original and that no text or data is presented without acknowledging the source. Any form of plagiarism constitutes an unethical behavior and is considered unacceptable. All manuscripts are verified for similarity before entering the review process. A similarity percent higher than 10% (excluding references) with other online sources will result in the paper being sent back to the corresponding author.

Authors should not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. In addition, authors should refrain from submitting a manuscript which is either a partial or a full copy of previously published material (to avoid self-plagiarism).

Authors should disclose any potential conflicts of interest concerning their paper. All funding sources of the research should be listed in the Acknowledgement section. Any involvement of the funding organizations in the study design, data collection or interpretation of the findings should be mentioned. If no such involvement existed, than this should be stated.

Authors should ensure that any research involving human or animal subjects was conducted in compliance with relevant institutional guidelines. Informed consent should be obtained from participants prior to their inclusion in the study. Authors should include in the manuscript a statement regarding the procedure for obtaining participants’ informed consent.

Duties of the editors

Editors are encouraged to comply with the following ethical standards:

Editors are under the obligation to ensure that each peer review process is conducted fairly and is unbiased. Editors are also required to evaluate a manuscript based on its contribution to the field and its content, without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious beliefs, political/philosophical views and institutional affiliation of the authors.

Editors should ensure that all manuscripts (that enter the review process) are reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. If needed, the editors can request additional opinions in order to make an informed and fair editorial decision.

Editors are responsible for ensuring the confidentiality of all materials submitted for review. Editors will not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers and other editorial advisers, as appropriate.

Editors have the obligation to respond to and investigate any allegations of suspected misconduct. Every reported act of unethical publishing behavior will be looked into, even if it is discovered years after publication. If convincing evidence of misconduct is presented, a correction, retraction, expression of concern or other note (as may be relevant) will be published in the journal.

Duties of the reviewers

Reviewers are encouraged to comply with the following ethical standards:

The peer review process assists editors in making editorial decisions and may assist authors in improving their manuscripts. Reviewers are required to participate in this process in a fair and unbiased manner.

Any manuscripts received for review represent confidential documents and must be treated as such. Reviewers are not allowed to share information obtained during the peer review process with anyone. This applies also to invited reviewers who decline the review invitation.

Reviews should be conducted objectively and reviewers should consider any personal bias or conflict of interest before accepting to review a paper. Reviewers are required to express their observations clearly, with supporting arguments, so that authors can use them for improving their manuscript. Personal criticism of the authors is inappropriate.

Any invited reviewer who feels that prompt reviewing will be impossible should immediately notify the editors and decline the invitation. Also, if a selected reviewer feels unqualified to review the manuscript, he is advised to decline the invitation.

Duties of the publisher

In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the publisher (in close collaboration with the editors) will take appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question. This includes publication of an erratum or (in the most severe case) the retraction of the affected work.

Romanian Journal of Applied Psychology is an Open Access peer-reviewed publication. The publisher is committed to the idea of disseminating published papers as widely as possible. Therefore, articles are made freely available online on publication and the authors may post a copy of the final typeset PDF on their personal or institutional website.

This journal subscribes to the principles and international standards for editors, reviewers, and authors of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)