Ethics

Culture Unbound is a non-commercial, open access, electronic journal for cultural research. As such it pledges to uphold certain ethical principles regarding, confidentiality, originality and intellectual fair play. The following fundamental codes of conduct thus apply for the different actors involved in the publication process:

Responsibilities of the Editors

  • It is the editors’ responsibility to decide whether to accept or reject an article, supported by the reports from the reviewers.
  • The decision to publish an article will be based solely on the quality of the article, regardless of the author’s race, gender, nationality or any other individual characteristics.
  • Culture Unbound requires that all its material in original and properly referenced. Articles will occasionally be screened for plagiarism.
  • The editors will make sure that each article is read by one or two referees that are capable of evaluating the text in a competent, objective and unbiased manner.
  • It rests with the editors to keep the author’s identity hidden from the referee(s) and vice versa.
  • The editor will follow the recommendation of the referee(s) as far as possible and be able give a proper motivation if s/he goes against the referee(s).
  • The editors will give the author access to the reviews on which the publishing decision is based.
  • As Culture Unbound is an open access journal the editors’ will make sure that its content shall be accessible for anyone free of charge.

Responsibilities of the Authors

  • It is the authors’ responsibility to guarantee the text is their original work and free from plagiarism in any form.
  • It is the authors’ responsibility to secure permission to use any copyrighted material included in the text, when necessary.
  • Authors should confirm that a submitted article is not being considered for publication elsewhere.
  • Articles shall be free from racist or sexist language.
  • If an article is funded by external sources, those shall be mentioned in relation to the text
  • It is up to each author to guarantee that the published research has been conducted in compliance with whatever ethical norms might apply for that particular research in the country where it has been undertaken.
  • As a general rule every article shall include contact information in the form of an e-mail address to at least one corresponding author.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

  • A Reviewer must notify the editors in any conflicts of interest may arise.
  • A Reviewer must notify the editors if s/he can identify the author(s) of a manuscript.
  • A Reviewer must not distribute the manuscript or disclose any findings from the article without permission from editors or authors
  • Reviewers must evaluate articles only for their intellectual content.