Ethics and Malpractice Statement

NoSo is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics. All parties – authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher – must adhere to these standards. Our policies follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices.

Roles and Responsibilities

  • Editors: Decide which submitted articles to publish based solely on scientific quality, relevance, and originality. Editors ensure a confidential (double-blind) peer-review process and withdraw from cases of conflicts of interest, for example by involving guest editors or members of the editorial board.
  • Reviewers: Provide objective, constructive, and timely peer reviews. Reviewers treat all manuscripts and attachments as confidential documents and declare any competing interests.
  • Authors: Ensure that submitted work is entirely original, accurate, appropriately cited and that it follows national and international ethical principles. Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals concurrently is strictly prohibited. All funding sources as well as any financial or personal relationships that could influence their work is clearly stated in manuscripts. The journal's AI policy is strictly followed. All co-authors approve the final version before submission and authorship is limited to individuals who made significant contributions to the study's conception, design, execution, or interpretation.

Specific Journal Policies

  • Ethical Oversight: Research involving human subjects, animals, or sensitive personal data must comply with institutional and national ethical standards (e.g., Etikprövningsmyndigheten in Sweden). Informed consent from research participants is often mandatory for this research.
  • Data Sharing and Reproducibility: We encourage authors to deposit research data in public repositories when this is legally and ethically appropriate. Ethical, legal, or privacy restrictions on data must be clearly stated in the text.
  • Intellectual Property: Authors retain copyright but grant the journal the right of first publication. Articles are published under an open-access Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).
  • Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections: The journal facilitates post-publication debate through letters and comments. If errors are discovered, editors will publish corrections, clarifications, or retractions as necessary.
  • Complaints and Appeals: Anyone wishing to submit a complaint regarding editorial decisions or processes should contact the Editor-in-Chief. Complaints are investigated transparently in line with COPE guidelines.

 

Research Misconduct

Editors and the publisher take all reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers involving plagiarism, citation manipulation, or data falsification and fabrication. The journal maintains a zero-tolerance policy, meaning it does not encourage or knowingly allow any research misconduct to take place. If allegations of misconduct are raised regarding either a submitted or published article, the editors and publisher will investigate the matter thoroughly by following COPE’s guidelines. Should misconduct be proven, the journal will take appropriate action, which may include issuing a formal correction or retraction, notifying the author's institution or funding body, and banning the author from future submissions.