Our ethics statement is based on the COPE Best Practices Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Publication decisions
Editors are responsible for deciding which articles submitted to a journal should be published. Editors may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and limited by applicable legal requirements regarding defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The editor can consult with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

Fair play
An editor at all times evaluates manuscripts based on their intellectual content without regard to the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, nationality, or political philosophy.

Confidentiality
Editors and any editorial staff should not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisors, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript may not be used in the editor's own research without written permission from the author.

Reviewer Duties

Contribution to Editorial Decisions
Peer review helps editors in making editorial decisions and through editorial communication with authors can also help authors in improving papers.

Speed
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that prompt review is not possible should notify the editor and seek permission from the review process.

Confidentiality
Any manuscript received for review must be treated as a confidential document. The document may not be shown or discussed with others except with the permission of the editor.

Objectivity Standards
The review must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. The referee must express his views clearly with supporting arguments.

Source Acknowledgment
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the author. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument has been reported previously should be accompanied by relevant citations. A reviewer should also draw the editor's attention if there are substantial similarities or overlaps between the manuscript under consideration and other published papers of which they are personally aware.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal gain. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts that have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any authors, companies, or institutions associated with the paper.

Writer's Duties

Reporting standards
Authors of original research reports must present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. The underlying data must be presented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain enough detail and references to allow others to replicate the work. False or intentionally inaccurate statements are unethical and unacceptable behavior.

Originality and PlagiarismAuthors must ensure that they have written an entirely original work, and that if the author has used the work and/or words of others that the work has been appropriately cited or cited.

Multiple, Excessive, or Simultaneous Publication
An author should generally not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously is unethical and unacceptable publishing behavior.

Source Acknowledgment
Proper recognition of the work of others should always be given. Authors should cite publications that were influential in determining the nature of the work reported.

Paper Writing
Authorship should be limited to those who have made significant contributions to the conception, design, conduct, or interpretation of the research being reported. All parties who have made significant contributions must be listed as co-authors. If others have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

The corresponding author must ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and approved its submission for publication.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
All authors must disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project must be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published work
When an author discovers significant errors or inaccuracies in his or her published work, the author has an obligation to immediately notify the journal editor or publisher and work with the editor to retract or correct the paper.