Publication Ethics Statement

Publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is a crucial building block in the general network of knowledge. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to set and agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior and strictly follow them in order to avoid any form of publication malpractice. For this purpose, publishing in Journal of Soft Computing and Decision Analytics is based on the following principles of Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement. These guidelines are fully suitable with the COPE Principles of Transparency and Best Practice Guidelines and the COPE Code of Conduct. For more details can be seen in the following link: https://publicationethics.org

Authors’ Responsibilities
·       The submitted article is original.
·       The submitted article does not contain any statement/information that is intentionally misleading or inaccurate.
·       All authors are aware of the full content of the submitted article prior to the submission. The content represents their own contributions, and the authorship is limited to those who have made a significant contribution.
·       The submitted article has not been previously published. An exception can be made for papers published at a conference by the Authors themselves, however, a significant modification and extension of the already published work must be done to justify publication in Journal of Soft Computing and Decision Analytics. 
·       The work presented in the submitted article is not being considered for publication elsewhere in any form and neither will be submitted for such consideration while under review by Journal of Soft Computing and Decision Analytics.
·       The submitted article does not violate any privacy right and neither infringes any intellectual property rights nor any other rights of any kind of any person or entity. The same is valid for any duty of confidentiality, which the author(s) may owe to a third party. The submitted article does not contain any material or instructions that might cause harm or injury.
·       If any portions of the work are owned or controlled by a third party, permission has been obtained and included with the submitted article for the right to use and authorize use in print and online formats.
·       Any conflict of interest is disclosed by authors or they declare no conflict of interest (for more information see the text at the bottom of this page).

Editor’s Responsibilities

The Editor together with the members of the Editorial Board is responsible for:
·       Ensuring unbiased double-blind peer review process for each submitted paper regardless of the author’s race, citizenship, age, gender, political or any other orientation.
·       Selecting suitable reviewers and evaluating submitted manuscripts exclusively based on their academic and intellectual merit, the quality of research conducted, and the presentation of the research.
·       Making final decisions about the paper to be published in the journal
·       Ensuring that new Editorial Board members and Guest Editors are provided with guidelines on how to handle manuscripts and what is expected from them in the journal.
·       Ensuring that unpublished materials are not used in the research of the Editor or any other third side.
·       Appropriate reactions in case of ethical complaints and suitable resolution of potential problems.
·       Publishing corrections, retractions, and similar, when needed.

Guest Editor’s Responsibilities

Guest Editors are responsible for:
·       Deciding about the topic of special/thematic issues and ensuring that the submitted papers fit into the predefined topic.
·       Ensuring that suitable reviewers are selected for the papers submitted to the special/thematic issues.
·       Setting time frames for paper submission, review process, revision, and publication.

Reviewer’s Responsibilities

Reviewers need to ensure that:
·       Their expertise enables them to make an objective assessment of the submitted paper and, in case the manuscript has merits for publication, the reviewers provide the authors with recommendations that assist them to improve their manuscript.
·       In case the reviewer does not feel qualified to review a paper, or cannot provide a timely review, the Editor should be immediately informed of that.
·       Reviews are done objectively assessing the scientific content and technical aspects of the submitted manuscript.
·       Editor is informed on copyright infringement or plagiarism if the reviewer is aware of any.
·       Editor is informed of any kind of conflict of interest the reviewer might have in reviewing the manuscript.
·       The work and data presented in the submitted manuscript must be treated confidentially.

Publisher’s Responsibilities

Publisher provides practical support to the Editor and Editorial Board but ensures the autonomy of decisions at the same time. Publisher protects intellectual property and copyright and ensures the publishing standards and good practices described above are maintained.