The FBIM Transactions' ethic statement is guided by COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors[1], and its standards outlined in:

1. Kleinert S & Wager E (2011) Responsible research publication: international standards for editors. A position statement developed at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010. Chapter 51 in Mayer T & Steneck N (eds) Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment. Imperial College Press / World Scientific Publishing, Singapore (pp 317-28). (ISBN 978-981-4340-97-7)

2. Wager E & Kleinert S (2011) Responsible research publication: international standards for authors. A position statement developed at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010. Chapter 50 in Mayer T & Steneck N (eds) Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment. Imperial College Press / World Scientific Publishing, Singapore (pp 309-16). (ISBN 978-981-4340-97-7)

For detailed information authors can visit the webpages:

- https://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standard_editors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf

- https://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standards_authors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf

Here will be shown the main principles:

The author should read both standards and agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing.

Editors

Publication decisions

Editors are accountable and should take responsibility for everything they publish

- Editors should make fair and unbiased decisions independent from commercial consideration and ensure a fair and appropriate peer review process

- Editors should adopt editorial policies that encourage maximum transparency and complete, honest reporting

- Editors should guard the integrity of the published record by issuing corrections and retractions when needed and pursuing suspected or alleged research and publication misconduct

- Editors should pursue reviewer and editorial misconduct

- Peer reviewers and authors should be told what is expected of them

- Editors should have appropriate policies in place for handling editorial conflicts of interest

Fair play

An editor will at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality

MESTE NGO journals operate a system where peer reviewers are chosen by editors and editors must protect the confidentiality of authors’ material and remind reviewers to do so as well.

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Editors should not give any indication of a paper’s status with the journal to anyone other than the authors.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's research without the express written consent of the author.

Reviewers

The FBIM Transactions publishes a peer-reviewed article, which means that articles are professionally evaluated by appropriate colleagues. Editors protect reviewers’ identities. However, if reviewers wish to disclose their names, this is permitted.

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer reviewers assist the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.

Promptness

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process, as it is written in the Reviewer’s statement.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments as it is shown in the Reviewer’s report.

Acknowledgment of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Authors

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. MESTE NGO journals encourage international cooperation, but, also, encourage practices that prevent guest, gift, and ghost authorship.

Reporting standards

When submitting their articles authors attach a statement in the form of the Declaration that the submitted article is an original work and has not been published before, that is not under consideration for publication anywhere else, that submitted article publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, and that there are no any legal obstacles for the article publishing, as it is shown in the journal’s webpages “Submit your manuscript”

- The research being reported should have been conducted ethically and responsibly and should comply with all relevant legislation.

- Researchers should present their results, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation.

- Researchers should strive to describe their methods clearly and unambiguously so that their findings can be confirmed by others.

- Researchers should adhere to publication requirements that submitted work is original, is not plagiarized, and has not been published elsewhere.

- Authors should take collective responsibility for submitted and published work.

- The authorship of research publications should accurately reflect individuals’ contributions to the work and its reporting.

- Funding sources and relevant conflicts of interest should be disclosed.

Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases[2]), if practicable, and should, in any event, be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

Multiple publications arising from a single research project should be identified as such and the primary publication should be referenced. Translations and adaptations for different audiences should be identified as such, should acknowledge the source, and should respect relevant copyright conventions and permission requirements. If in doubt, authors should seek permission from the original publisher before republishing any work.

Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgment of Sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or another substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her published work, the author must promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.