The Editorial Board of the journal Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Geografia has assumed a firm commitment with the scientific community to ensure compliance with the highest standards of ethics and quality in the papers it publishes. In order to regulate these aspects, it takes as a reference, and abides by, the Code of Conduct and Best Practices defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics [COPE] (Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors; Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers).

In compliance with this code, the journal emphasizes a series of basic principles:

 

JOURNAL:

• The journal strives to satisfy the needs of all those involved in the editorial process, as honorably and ethically as possible, establishing mechanisms, reassessed on a regular basis, to ensure the quality of the material published.
• The review system used for the articles is external and anonymous (peer review) using systems that safeguard the confidentiality of the process and protect the identities of authors and reviewers, as well as the contents dealt with during the whole editorial process. Furthermore, only qualified, responsible individuals will be selected, experts in the subject matter of the paper, who have no competing interests and are able to provide fair, impartial and constructive assessments.
• Editorial decisions, which must be reasoned, are based on the paper’s importance, originality and validity, its relevance to the remit of the journal and its compliance with the guidelines for authors and will not be affected by reasons of nationality, ethnic origin, political beliefs, race, religion or institutional affiliation of the authors.
• The journal declares its strict respect for gender equality and, as a consequence, will ensure the use of non-sexist language in the papers published.
• An agile and efficient communication system is in place, by means of e-mail, this being the mechanism to be used by authors who wish to appeal against editorial decisions. Furthermore, all those who wish to do so may communicate with the Editorial Board and present congratulations, a complaint, suggestion, correction, clarification, etc. Replies will be sent with all due respect and as quickly as possible.
• Routinely and demonstrably uses systems to detect possible plagiarism in the texts it receives. Should any case or indication of plagiarism, covert redundant publication, fraudulent material, undue conduct, misconduct, etc. be detected this will be taken into consideration and the appropriate measures will be taken including, inter alia, elimination of papers already published.

 AUTHORS:

• Authors are required to adopt the same honorable, ethical and responsible conduct as that which is declared and sought by the publication.
• Any authors interested in publishing in our journal must certify their express compliance with this “Declaration of ethical publication conduct and rejection of misconduct” by marking the last box of the checklist for preparation of submissions.
• They must ensure that they submit original texts, adapted to the guidelines for authors of the journal and they undertake to adopt the necessary measures to ensure a double blind peer review.
• They will declare that their submissions have not been published previously and that they have not been submitted, are not currently being submitted and shall not be submitted for consideration by any other journal whilst under review at Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Geografia.
• They will ensure that they do not breach the intellectual property rights of any material that may be used in their texts and which has not been created by them. They shall, moreover, be responsible to all intents for the opinions reflected in their work.

 REVIEWERS:

• Reviewers must perform the assessment requested of them in an honest, constructive manner and to a high standard, within the deadlines stipulated, ensuring that they treat the submitted material in confidence.
• They will not make undue use of the unpublished material that they receive.
• They will reveal whatsoever possible competing interests prior to reviewing a paper.
• They will report on any information relating to the originality, plagiarism, redundant publication, etc. of the material received and/or possible misconduct in relationship with the research described in the material.