ASp’s ethical statement
ASp seeks to publish original, rigorous research reports. Any original research material submitted to our journal will undergo independent review by experts who are not part of our editorial staff. ASp’s editorial board endeavors to implement highly ethical submission and publication processes, in accordance with acknowledged best practices and international scientific publishing standards.
Although supported by GERAS (Groupe d’étude et de recherche en anglais de spécialité, France’s leading learned society for the study of English for specific purposes), ASp conducts its publication activities in an independent fashion, under the authority of its editorial board, supervised by the journal’s Editor.
Our ethical guidelines apply to all the steps of our publication process, which are available for review in our “Instructions for authors”.
We adhere to the following principles:
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Criteria used for evaluating submissions are available from the journal’s website.
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The editorial board endeavors to guarantee a fair and balanced evaluation of submissions. Evaluation forms with comments from reviewers are sent to authors in a timely fashion.
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The decision to accept or reject an individual article is solely based on the submission’s originality, clarity, scientific relevance and validity.
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All submissions are independently reviewed by two experts who are not part of our editorial staff. Should their respective opinions strongly differ, a third reviewer will be asked to provide his/her opinion.
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Authors may not suggest potential reviewers for their articles.
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Authors’ identities are not known to reviewers. Prior to sending submissions to reviewers, ASp takes all necessary steps to ensure that the identities of authors are masked.
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Reviewers’ identities are not known to authors.
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Reviewers are requested to consult the COPE ethical guidelines for peer reviewers.
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The decision to accept or reject an individual article is made independently by the editorial board, after reviewing the recommendations provided by the reviewers. Decisions are final and may not be appealed.
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Authors are required to state any potential conflicts of interest, especially if the article deals with products or services that can be marketed, or if it describes organizations; disclosures shall appear at the end of the article.
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If the findings described by authors in their articles result from research programs that have benefited from financial support or funding, relevant disclosures shall be made by authors.
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The journal reserves the right to publish, without prior authorization from authors, statements of errors or additional information about authors’ disclosures.
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The journal takes all necessary steps to prevent the publication of submissions where scientific misconduct (notably plagiarism and falsification of data) has been identified. When scientific misconduct is suspected, ASp reserves the right to require additional information from authors, and to retract an article from its website when their response is not satisfactory.
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The journal shall take all necessary measures when violation of intellectual property has been confirmed in a submission or an article that has already been published by ASp.