Ethical standards and professional conduct guidelines for all stakeholders.
Ensuring integrity, transparency, and accountability in scholarly publishing.
All journals published by Symphony adhere to the core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and address cases of research and publication misconduct in alignment with these standards. Symphony is committed to upholding the highest ethical standards in scholarly publishing.
Our editorial processes, author guidelines, and reviewer protocols are designed to ensure integrity, transparency, and accountability throughout the publication lifecycle.
Authors are expected to adhere to the highest ethical standards when submitting manuscripts to Symphony journals. These guidelines ensure the integrity of the scholarly record and maintain trust in the academic publishing process.
Symphony journals do not permit the dual publication of the same material in peer-reviewed literature or the simultaneous submission of the same material to more than one journal. Authors must ensure their work is original and not under consideration elsewhere.
Symphony journals have zero tolerance for plagiarism, data or figure manipulation, providing knowingly false information, inaccurate author attributions, failure to disclose conflicts of interest, and fraud. All submitted manuscripts undergo comprehensive plagiarism screening.
Authors must disclose all relationships or interests that could inappropriately influence or bias their work. This includes financial interests such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, grants, and paid expert testimony, as well as non-financial interests including personal relationships and affiliations.
Authors should declare any conflicts involving themselves or their co-authors in the 'Comments for the Editor' field. If no conflicts exist, authors should state: 'The authors declare no conflicts of interest.'
Journal editors at Symphony are expected to adhere to the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, ensuring fair, unbiased, and ethical editorial processes.
Editors must ensure that the peer review process is fair, unbiased, and timely. All published research reports and reviews are evaluated by suitably qualified reviewers with appropriate expertise in the relevant field.
Decisions to accept or reject manuscripts are based solely on the paper's significance, originality, clarity, study validity, and relevance to the journal's scope, free from interference by journal owners, publishers, or other third parties.
The peer-review process must be kept confidential, and information or correspondence about a manuscript should not be shared with anyone outside of the peer review process. Editors maintain strict confidentiality of all submitted materials.
Editors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from editorial decisions when appropriate. Editorial independence is paramount to maintaining journal integrity.
Reviewers for Symphony journals are strongly encouraged to comply with the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and adhere to established ethical standards that ensure the integrity of the peer review process.
Reviewers should only agree to review manuscripts for which they have the necessary subject expertise and can complete the assessment in a timely manner. Reviews must be completed within agreed timeframes.
Reviewers must respect the confidentiality of the peer-review process and not disclose any details of a manuscript during or after the review process. Information obtained during peer review should not be used for personal gain or to advantage or disadvantage others.
Reviews should not be influenced by the origins of manuscripts, nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender, or other characteristics of authors. Reviews must be objective and constructive, avoiding hostility, inflammatory remarks, and derogatory personal comments.
Reviewers must provide accurate personal and professional information and declare all potential conflicts of interest. Impersonation of another individual during the review process is strictly prohibited.
Research involving human or animal subjects must ensure all procedures comply with relevant laws and institutional guidelines. Symphony maintains strict ethical standards for studies involving living subjects.
Authors must obtain review and approval from their Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to manuscript submission. Research must comply with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (2013 revision), and manuscripts must include statements confirming informed consent was obtained.
All experiments should comply with ARRIVE guidelines and be conducted in accordance with established international standards for animal welfare. Manuscripts must include statements identifying the institutional committee that approved the experiments.
Manuscripts must include appropriate ethical approval statements, consent confirmations, and institutional review details. For clinical trials, registration numbers must be provided at the end of the abstract.
Symphony follows COPE guidelines regarding the use of artificial intelligence in manuscript preparation, ensuring transparent and responsible use of AI technologies in scholarly publishing.
Generative AI technologies cannot be listed as co-authors or authors of submitted manuscripts, as they cannot take responsibility for the work, assert conflicts of interest, or manage copyright agreements as legal entities.
Authors who use AI tools in manuscript writing, image production, or data analysis must transparently disclose in the methodology section how the AI tool was used and which specific tool was employed. Authors remain fully responsible for all content, including AI-generated portions.
Symphony publishes articles under the Gold Open Access model, ensuring transparent financial practices while maintaining editorial independence and quality standards.
Some journals charge a one-time Article Processing Charge (APC) for accepted papers to provide free access to readers and cover publication costs. APC amounts are clearly displayed on each journal's homepage and cover comprehensive editorial and production services.
Certain content types including editorials, corrections, addendums, retractions, and comments are published free of charge. Many Symphony journals currently operate with no APCs, ensuring accessible publishing for all authors.
Publication fees are independent of article length or supplementary materials. Financial considerations do not influence editorial decisions or peer review processes.
Symphony takes all allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously and follows established procedures for investigating and addressing ethical violations.
Allegations should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief. If allegations involve the Editor-in-Chief, they should be sent to the Journal Editorial Office at Symphony. All reports are treated confidentially and investigated thoroughly.
Symphony follows COPE flowcharts and guidelines for dealing with suspected misconduct cases. Investigations are conducted fairly and objectively, with appropriate actions taken based on findings. Validated violations may result in retractions, corrections, or other appropriate measures.
For reporting misconduct or ethical concerns, contact the editorial office at journals@symphonypub.com
Guest Editors for thematic issues and special editions must adhere to the same ethical standards as regular editors while maintaining additional responsibilities specific to their role.
Guest Editors must ensure that all content published in thematic issues is consistent with the journal's aims and scope. They oversee the peer review process while maintaining the same quality standards as regular issues.
Guest Editors may not request that authors submit references solely to promote citations to their own work, co-authors' work, or journals with which they are involved. Guest Editor contributions are limited to 25% of thematic issue content and undergo external peer review.
Guest Editors must maintain confidentiality of all submitted materials and declare any conflicts of interest. When conflicts arise, they must recuse themselves from relevant editorial decisions.
Symphony promotes ethical data sharing practices that balance transparency with privacy protection and intellectual property rights. Authors are encouraged to follow FAIR data principles where appropriate.
Authors should make research data available when ethically and legally feasible, providing data availability statements that explain accessibility or restrictions. Data sharing enhances reproducibility and advances scientific knowledge.
Data sharing must respect participant privacy and consent agreements. Sensitive data should be appropriately anonymized or access-controlled to protect individual rights while enabling legitimate research use.
Fair attribution of credit and appropriate authorship order are fundamental to ethical scholarly publishing. Symphony promotes transparent and equitable authorship practices.
Academic status or institutional hierarchy should not determine authorship order. All contributing authors should be credited based on the significance of their contribution to the research and writing process. Substantial contributors must be included as authors.
Those who contributed but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately. Ghost authoring is prohibited, and all substantial contributors must be properly credited in the author list or acknowledgments.
Symphony maintains ethical standards for manuscript withdrawal and article retraction to preserve scholarly integrity while allowing legitimate corrections to the scientific record.
Authors may withdraw submissions before peer review completion but must provide justification. Late withdrawals may delay the editorial process and should be avoided when possible.
Retractions are considered for unreliable data, plagiarism, duplicate publication, unethical research, or compromised peer review. All retraction notices explain the reasons and maintain transparency about corrections to the scholarly record.
Ethical responsibilities continue after publication, requiring ongoing commitment to accuracy, transparency, and scholarly integrity from all stakeholders.
Authors must promptly report any errors or inaccuracies discovered after publication. Publishers and editors have responsibilities to issue corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern when warranted.
New conflicts of interest or funding sources discovered after publication should be disclosed. Changes in institutional affiliations or contact information should be communicated to maintain accurate scholarly records.
Symphony uses professional plagiarism detection software to identify textual similarities in submitted manuscripts. This tool provides editors with a user-friendly method to detect potential plagiarism. Similarity reports are carefully reviewed by editorial teams, who may request explanations, evidence, or revisions from authors based on the results.
The system compares submitted manuscripts against comprehensive academic databases and web resources. Authors must minimize word reuse, properly credit sources, and accurately cite all references.
Authors are responsible for ensuring originality of their work and proper attribution of all sources. Suspected plagiarism cases are investigated following established ethical guidelines.