The journal is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics and expects the same from editors, reviewers, authors and the publisher. The journal follows COPE Core Practices and applies the COPE flowcharts when handling suspected misconduct.

Authors must:

•      Submit only original work, properly attributing all sources and prior work (including their own).

•      Not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously, and not split one study into multiple redundant papers.

•      Report data honestly; fabrication, falsification and selective reporting of results are serious misconduct.

•      Retain raw data and be prepared to provide it on reasonable request.

•      Disclose all funding, conflicts of interest and the use of generative AI.

•      Notify the editor promptly of any significant error discovered after publication and cooperate in issuing a correction or retraction.

Editors must make decisions on scholarly merit alone, without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, institutional affiliation or political philosophy; must preserve the confidentiality of submissions; and must act promptly on credible allegations of misconduct.