The Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society (TCSPS) is dedicated to following best practices on ethical matters, errors, and retractions. The prevention of publication malpractice is one of the important responsibilities of the journal. Any kind of unethical behavior is not acceptable, and TCSPS does not tolerate plagiarism in any form. Authors submitting articles to TCSPS affirm that manuscript contents are original.
The following duties outlined for editors, authors, and reviewers are based on the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors (https://publicationethics.org).
Duties of Editors
Publication Decisions: Following a review of the manuscript, the editor can accept, reject, or request modifications to the manuscript.
Review of Manuscripts: The editors will evaluate each manuscript for originality, whether it meets the submission criteria, and whether it carries sufficient promise of contributing to the mission of the journal. Except for book reviews and exceptional circumstances where a clear rationale for departure can be given, manuscripts that pass initial editorial review must be sent out for double-blind external peer review, which the editors will use to determine whether to accept, reject, or request revisions for the manuscript.
Fair Review: The editors must ensure that the chosen external reviewers are suitably qualified to judge the intellectual content of the manuscript submitted. The editors must further ensure that each manuscript is reviewed, internally as well as externally, for its intellectual content without regard to sex, gender, race, religion, citizenship, etc. of its authors.
Confidentiality: The editors must ensure that the identities of authors and reviewers as well as any material submitted, including correspondence, is kept confidential. With regard to the authors, the confidentiality of their identity and of the text of their (revised) submission ends only when the manuscript is accepted for publication.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: The editors will not use unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research without written consent of the author, and a policy is in place to handle conflicts of interest.
Complaints and Concerns: Complaints and concerns must be addressed immediately by investigating the validity of the complaint and taking appropriate steps. If the editors and the complainant cannot come to a resolution, the issue is escalated to the Executive Committee of the Charles S. Peirce Society. If the Executive Committee is unable to address the issue itself, it will appoint a committee drawn from the journal’s board of consulting editors with the charge of looking into the issue and make recommendations to the Executive Committee. The consulting editors are listed in the journal’s masthead.
Duties of Authors
Reporting Standards: Authors should present an accurate account of their original research as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Manuscripts will follow the submission guidelines of the journal.
Originality: Authors must ensure that they have written entirely original work.
Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publications: Authors should not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently. It is also expected that the author will not publish redundant manuscripts or manuscripts describing the same research in more than one journal.
Acknowledgement of Sources: Authors should acknowledge all sources of data used in the research and cite publications that have been influential in the research work.
Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to conception, design, execution or interpretation of the reported study. Others who have made significant contribution must be listed as co-authors. Authors also ensure that all the authors have seen and agreed to the submitted version of the manuscript and their inclusion of names as co-authors.
Data Access and Retention: Authors should provide raw data related to their manuscript for editorial review and must retain such data.
Fundamental Errors in Published Works: If at any point of time, the author(s) discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in a submitted manuscript, the error or inaccuracy must be reported to the editor.
Duties of Reviewers
Confidentiality: Information regarding manuscripts submitted for review should be kept confidential and be treated as privileged information.
Acknowledgement of Sources: Manuscript reviewers must ensure that authors have acknowledged all sources of data used in the research. Any kind of similarity or overlap between the manuscripts under consideration or with any other published paper of which reviewer has personal knowledge must be brought to the editor’s notice.
Standards of Objectivity: Review of submitted manuscripts must be done objectively and the reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Promptness: In the event that a reviewer feels it is not possible for him/her to complete review of manuscript within stipulated time then this information must be communicated to the editor, so that the manuscript could be sent to another reviewer.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers for TCSPS may not use unpublished materials disclosed in a manuscript that was submitted for their review for their own research without written consent of the author, and they must immediately notify the editors of potential conflicts of interest.
