Ethical Principles in Culture Tourism Journal

Adhering to the ethical principles in accordance with the International Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, “Culture Tourism” Journal requires all the editorial board members, reviews and authors to follow and adhere to the ethical guidelines of the journal.

Publisher’s Responsibilities (Journal)

• Currently, submission, review and acceptance of manuscripts in “Culture Tourism” Journal is free, and the authors do not need to pay any article-processing charges. In case a fee should be charged to authors due to any changes in the financial policy of the journal, the fees and the processing details will be announced in detailed endorsed statements and will be published on the journal website.
• The journal website is the official source of the journal news and information, and the publisher is responsible to constantly update the journal information on the website.
• The publisher assures not to allow any discriminations in the submission, review and acceptance process of the manuscripts. Therefore, the articles in “Culture Tourism” undergo through a double-anonymous peer review, and the order of publication of the accepted articles is determined based on the submission and reviewing timeline.
• The publisher undertakes to send all accepted papers to the authors for endorsement prior to publication.
• The publisher is responsible to investigate the literary or scientific plagiarism in the articles submitted to the journal. In case of observing any scientific or literary misconduct in the accepted articles, the publisher pledges to remove the article and/or it additional related follow-ups.
• The publisher must continuously monitor the activities of the editorial board members and the journal reviewers and track any infringement.
• If the authors of an article request to change the order of authorship, or assign a new corresponding author, and if they request to remove or add new authors, the journal will accept the authors’ request after receiving an application form (signed by the authors). If the authors provide sufficient evidence and reason and ask for the aforementioned changes after the acceptance of a paper, the journal will accept their request as well.
• The publisher is committed to protect author rights in accordance with copyright law.

Editor-in-Chief’s and Editorial Board’s Responsibilities

• The process of receiving and publishing the articles of all authors should be clearly and equally followed without any discriminations.
• The personal interests or conflicts of interest of the editor-in-chief and the editorial board should not affect the process of receiving, reviewing and accepting articles.
• The measures and procedures of receiving and reviewing articles should be based on a precise and clear timeline, and the authors should be informed of the review processes, details, and results at each stage of their submission.
• The editor and the editorial board should follow clear policies on rejection or acceptance of the articles. The editorial board and the reviewers should also clearly explain the final decision of accepting or rejecting an article to the authors through giving details reasons and comments.
• The authors' personal information must be maintained confidential to the journal before being accepted and published, and must not be published under any circumstances.
• The content of the articles and the authors’ information of the rejected articles are confidential and should not be used in any way.
• The publication of submitted articles should not harm the interests of a particular individual or group, and the editor-in-chief is responsible for pursuing this issue.
• Authors’ appeals against the journal due to an unfair review on infringement of reviewing policies should be pursued by the editor-in-chief and, if the claim is valid, the paper should be reconsidered for review.
• The editor-in-chief and the scientific editors of the journal should follow specific policies and investigation process in case of detecting possible scientific and literary plagiarism.
• All submitted articles should be immediately checked using content similarity detection software / systems, and in case of finding an extensive overlap with published sources, the editor should notify the authors of their initial rejection of the article.

Reviewer’s Responsibilities

• The invited referees should review the articles on the basis of scientific and specific reviewing principles and avoid giving any personal or unprofessional comments in reviewing the articles.
• If an article is not within the area of the reviewer’s expertise, or if the reviewer is not able to complete the review in the time frame, the reviewer should immediately consider declining the invitation to review, so that the invitation be sent to another reviewer.
• Regarding the double-anonymous peer review policy in “Culture Tourism”, the reviewer should decline the invitation to review and inform the editor-in-chief in case of recognizing the authors of an article based on the title or the content of the submitted manuscript.
• The reviewers should not use any information and findings of a received articles by no means.
• The reviewers should provide clear, explicit, and concise comments and explain their reasons for acceptance and rejection of a paper, or suggest a revision of the manuscript accurately and constructively to the authors.
• The reviewers should immediately report any suspected plagiarism, data fabrication, result falsification, and any scientific misconduct in a submitted manuscript to the journal.

Author’s Responsibilities

• Articles submitted to “Culture Tourism” should be consistent with the scope of the journal an in accordance with the principles of scientific publication.
• The authors and co-authors must complete and sign the “confirmation and commitment form” (available on the Confirmation Form, Requests and Commitment and Form section of the website) during the manuscript submission process and upload it with all necessary files on the website.
• The authors are required to prepare their manuscript and complete the submission process according to the journal manuscript format and in consistence to the journal ethics.
• The submitted articles should not be simultaneously submitted elsewhere for publication.
• The submitted articles should not be published in any other publication mediums (including journals, conferences, books, etc.).
• All authors must confirm the originality and authenticity of the findings of the article by completing and signing the commitment form.
• Authors should not fragment the research into multiple manuscripts with minor changes.
• Authors should not re-submit their previously published articles with minor changes to be reviewed in this journal.
• Authors must ensure that the rights of no individual or group are violated during the research process, and that the findings of the article, if published, will not harm any individual or group.
• The authors are required to declare any competing financial and/or non-financial interests, in case of benefiting from financial or non-financial supports from specific individuals or organizations, and to mention their position in conducting the research.
• The authors are required to declare no conflict of interest in a form available on the journal website, in case of potential conflicts of interest in their conducted research. If necessary, the authors must declare no conflict of interest at the end of the manuscript.
• The authors are required to cite all sources used in accordance with the journal guidelines and to refrain from creating or using the contents of other sources without citation.
• The authors should provide the journal with raw data used in the research, if the reviewers request the data for verifying the findings.
• It is necessary that all co-authors have made significant contribution in the process of drafting and writing the manuscript and should be well informed about the content of the article when the article is co-authored.
• If an article is accepted for publication, the authors (in accordance with the journal principals) should give full permission of English and Persian editing of the manuscript to the journal and cooperate in the editing process when necessary.
• The authors must agree on who should be listed as authors and corresponding author, and the order in which the authors should be listed.
• In case of detecting possible errors in a published article, the authors are obliged to inform the journal and cooperate with the journal in modifying the errors when necessary.
• Regarding the free access policy of “Culture Tourism”, the authors, while benefiting from the intellectual property of the article, give permission to the journal to publish their research and grant the readers to use their research, provided that they cite the article.