Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

This document outlines the best practices now publishers Inc. adheres to for our journal and book publications. This is intended for authors, editors, reviewers, publishing partners such as societies, funders, and third parties. We refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) throughout this document as a guideline on which we base our practices.

Editorial Ethics

At now publishers we believe in safeguarding the quality of research. Our editorial processes are such that we do not allow discrimination of any kind to influence the decision to collaborate or publish. We are committed to collaborate with and publish a diverse group of editors and authors and continue to implement this as best we can across our publications. Authors, editors, and reviewers have to declare a potential conflict of interest, whether academic or financial, when they work on our publications. We do not tolerate abuse, libel, defamation, or censorship in our work and publications. If anyone has any concerns about our processes, collaborations, or publications, they should contact Zac Rolnik at zac.rolnik@nowpublishers.com.

Editorial Processes

now publishers strives to be compliant with the COPE practices in all editorial processes, both for our journals and books.

Editorial Review

All our journal article submissions are initially reviewed by an Editor who decides to send the article out for peer review or desk reject the article. Our Editors are the first gatekeepers in the decision to publish or not. They are also the last gatekeepers after peer review has been completed; the final decision to publish lies with the Editor of our journal. In order to ensure that our Editors execute this role without bias and with the same commitment to upholding the quality of the research, we ask them to sign an agreement that stipulates their responsibilities. They include:

  • Using their best judgement in accepting articles. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making final publication decisions for submitted manuscripts based on feedback from the Editorial Board and Reviewers.
  • Leading the appropriate peer-review process for contributions submitted for publication in association with the Publisher
  • Appointing an Editorial Board, in consultation with the Publisher, whose responsibility will include identifying, soliciting, and reviewing articles for the Journal:
  • The Editorial Board must keep information pertaining to submitted manuscripts confidential.
  • The Editorial Board must disclose any conflicts of interest.
  • The Editorial Board must evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content.

    • Book proposals are initially reviewed by the Publisher, or in case of an edited book series, an Editor. Book proposals are subsequently sent out for independent single blind peer review before a decision to publish is made. Review reports are shared with the Author.

    Peer Review

    All our journal articles are peer reviewed, either double blind or single blind. Reviewers are asked to declare a conflict of interest when invited to review. For our Foundations and Trends® articles, we offer reviewers an honorarium as the length of these articles often exceeds a peer reviewed article. Our book proposals are also sent out for peer review before we accept the manuscript for publication. At the discretion of the publisher and/or editor, co-reviewing is allowed. More information about best practices in the peer review process can be found at COPE.

    Authors

    We apply the following definition for Authors: someone who has made a substantial contribution to the work and who agrees to be held accountable for the accuracy and integrity of the work. All our authors are asked to sign a license to publish agreement. The author’s specific responsibilities include:

  • Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript, including proper acknowledgement of the work of others and citation of relevant publications.
  • Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to use copyrighted materials and that consequently liability for breach of such copyright shall rest with the authors.
  • No contribution shall contain anything that is obscene, indecent, or of a libelous or scandalous character.
  • The Author may retain copyright to their Work provided that they transfer all commercial rights exclusively to the Publisher in all forms of media in existence today or in any format to be developed in the future.
  • Authors shall be instructed to submit manuscripts in accordance with the “Instructions for Authors” supplied by the Publisher.
  • Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work.
  • Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere. Our journals have an exclusive submission policy. When authors submit an article to one of our journals that article cannot be under consideration for publication in another journal.
  • Authors must notify the publisher or editor-in-chief should they be concerned of any conflicts of interest.
  • Authors must report any fundamental errors they discover in their manuscript to now publishers.

    • If we are faced with a misrepresentation of authorship or there is a dispute about qualifications or expertise then we adhere to the COPE guidelines on Authorship.

    Plagiarism, Falsification, and Fabrication

    In addition to making authors, editors, and reviewers aware of their responsibilities, we guard the integrity of our publications by checking for (self-)plagiarism. We are members of Crosscheck and use the iThenticate plagiarism tools.

    Authors are required to provide the manuscript and associated images without any copyright encumbrances. We ask authors to secure the rights to use copyrighted images before publication. We allow authors to modify images but expect that this does not lead to falsification or misrepresentation of their original meaning or results, and complete acknowledgment should be given to the original source of publication.

    Falsification and fabrication in our publications are not accepted and our rigorous review processes should ensure that these do not find their way into our journals and books. If retractions are necessary then we consider this according to COPE’s Guidelines.

    Finally, if authors submit from a previously authored thesis, they should avoid self-plagiarism by reworking the material and properly citing quotes where applicable.

    Record preservation, access, and discoverability

    now publishers safeguards the version of record of their publications. We submit DOIs in CrossRef for all our journal articles, books, book chapters, online appendices, and supplementary material so that these versions can always be found on any platform now publishers utilizes. For most of our journals and books, authors retain copyright and are free to post the content on their website or in open repositories. See our Sharing Policy for more information. The version of record can only be found on the now publishers platform or publishing partners we work with.

    Where applicable, now publishers supports the submission of replication data and supporting evidence. We host this content as supplementary material to the respective articles or books.

    After publication, now publishers allows errata and corrigenda. An erratum is a correction of errors introduced to the article by the publisher. A corrigendum is a change to their article that the author wishes to publish at any time after acceptance. Authors should contact the editor of the journal, who will determine the appropriate course of action. If corrections are necessary, now publishers submits the data to CrossRef so that any updates can easily be found. If retractions are necessary, now publishers commits to adhere to the COPE’s Guidelines. In exceptional cases we commit to removing the content from our platform(s) and from print circulation. These cases would include hitherto undetected (self-)plagiarism, defamation, risk to public health, or if we believe we have a legal obligation to remove the content.

    now publishers believes in fair access to research. We adhere to a green open access policy for almost all our content. When authors retain copyright they are free to host their work in open repositories, which means that the content as accepted for publication is always freely available online. now publishers’ version of record and all subsequent updates are available to subscribers. Subscribers have online access through their IP addresses and/or their user accounts. We commit to making all publication metadata available in (library) discovery services so that anyone can find us as easily as possible. Subscribers can also opt for print subscriptions. We offer access to anyone, anywhere in the world unless their geographic location makes them exempt from trade with the United States of America. Under no circumstances will now publishers deny access based on discrimination of any kind.

    Some of our content is available open access through article processing charges or book publication charges. For this we adhere to a gold open access policy and this content is freely available via our website. Metadata is deposited in DOAJ for open access journal articles and DOAB for open access books. See our Open Access Policy for more details.

    All of our content is digitally preserved and archived by Portico.

    now publishers participates in the National Information Standards Organization’s Shared Electronic Resources Understanding (SERU).

    Metrics, Usage and Reporting

    Usage statistics are available for our subscribing customers. We strive to being COUNTER compliant in our reporting.

    Concluding Statement

    Closing statement: We follow COPE’s Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and encourage our publishing partners to uphold these same principles.

    This statement is available as a PDF download.