Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Physics and Astronomy Reports is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and pays regard to Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) on https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing

All submissions must be original, unpublished (including full text in conference proceedings), and not under the review of any other publication. The authors must ensure that the submitted work is original in nature. They must certify that the manuscript has not already been published or submitted elsewhere, in any language. Applicable copyright laws and conventions must be followed. Copyright materials (e.g., tables, figures or extensive quotations) must be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement. Any work or words by other authors, contributors, or sources must be appropriately credited and referenced.

Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees using a double-blind peer review process. Plagiarism, duplication, fraudulant authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, salami slicing/salami publication, breaching of copyrights, and prevailing conflicts of interest are unethical behaviors. All manuscripts that are not in accordance with accepted ethical standards will be removed from publication. This also includes any possible malpractice discovered after publication.

Research Ethics

Physics and Astronomy Reports adheres to the highest standards in research ethics and follows the principles of international research ethics as defined below. The authors are responsible for the compliance of the manuscripts with ethical rules.

- Principles of integrity, quality and transparency should be sustained in designing the research, reviewing the design and conducting the research.

- The research team and participants should be fully informed about the aims, methods, possible uses,requirements of the research, and risks of participation in research.

- The confidentiality of the information provided by the research participants and the confidentiality of the respondents should be ensured. The research should be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of the participants.

- Research participants should voluntarily participate in the research, not under any coercion.

- Any possible harm to the participants must be avoided. Research should be planned in such a way that the participants are not at risk.

- The independence of research must be clear, and any conflicts of interest must be disclosed.

- In experimental studies with human subjects, written informed consent from the participants who decided to participate in the research must be obtained. In the case of children and those under wardship or with confirmed insanity, legal custodian assent must be obtained.

- If the study is to be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from that institution or organization.

- In studies with human subjects, it must be noted in the method section of the manuscript that the informed consent of the participants and ethics committee approval from the institution where the study was conducted have been obtained.

 Author's Responsibilities

The authors are responsible for ensuring that the article is in accordance with scientific and ethical standards and rules. The authors must ensure that the submitted work is original in nature. They must certify that the manuscript has not already been published or submitted elsewhere, in any language. Applicable copyright laws and conventions must be followed. Copyright materials (e.g., tables, figures or extensive quotations) must be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement. Any work or words by other authors, contributors, or sources must be appropriately credited and referenced.

All the authors of the submitted manuscript must have direct scientific and academic contributions to the manuscript. The author(s) of the original research articles is defined as a person who is significantly involved in “conceptualization and design of the study”, “collecting the data”, “analyzing the data”, “writing the manuscript”, “reviewing the manuscript with a critical perspective” and “planning/conducting the study of the manuscript and/or revising it”. Fund raising, data collection and supervision of the research group are not sufficient roles to be accepted as authors. The author(s) must meet all these criteria described above. The order of names in the author list of an article must be a co-decision and must be indicated in the Copyright Agreement Form.

Individuals who do not meet the authorship criteria but have contributed to the study must take place in the acknowledgement section. Individuals providing technical support, general support, material, financial support and assisting in writing are examples to be indicated in the acknowledgement section.

All authors must disclose any issues concerning financial relationships, conflicts of interest, and competing interests that may potentially influence the results of the research or scientific judgment. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published paper, it is the author’s obligation to promptly cooperate with the editor-in-chief to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.

 Responsibility for the Editor and Reviewers

The editor-in-chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious beliefs or the authors’political philosophy. He/She provides a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles for publication and ensures that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing.

The editor-in-chief is responsible for the content and overall quality of publications. He/She must publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.

The editor-in-chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers. Only he has the full authority to assign a reviewer and is responsible for the final decision to publish the manuscripts in the journal.

The reviewers must have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, authors and/or research funders. Their judgment must be objective.

Reviewers must ensure that all information related to submitted manuscripts is kept confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.

A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse him/herself from the review process.

The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other people. The anonymity of referees must be ensured. In particular situations, the editor may share a review by one reviewer with other reviewers to clarify a particular point.