edMercel journals follow the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices. These standards apply to everyone involved in publishing a paper.
Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism and duplicate publication, is not accepted. Manuscripts may be screened with similarity-detection software and reviewers are asked to flag originality concerns. A paper found to be plagiarised can be rejected, or retracted after publication.
Every author accepts a plagiarism and originality declaration when submitting. Read the full policy.
Authors must have made a substantial contribution and approved the final manuscript. Anyone who qualifies as an author must be listed, and nobody may be listed without their consent. Changes to the author list after submission must be requested through the editorial office.
Authors, reviewers and editors must disclose financial or personal relationships that could be seen to influence their work. Authors must acknowledge all funding sources.
Data must be genuine. Fabrication and falsification are serious misconduct. Research involving people or animals must have the required approvals and consents, stated in the manuscript.
AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Authors must state whether generative AI tools were used and how. Authors remain fully responsible for the content of their manuscript.
Honest errors that affect the findings are corrected through a published correction. Serious misconduct may lead to retraction, with a notice explaining why.
If you believe a published or submitted paper breaches these standards, tell the editorial office through the contact page. Concerns are handled confidentially.