Ethical standards
International Journal of Limnology (IJL) follows the standards and guidelines provided by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), especially regarding misconduct and fraud, and how to act in front of such a case. COPE provides a code of conduct with best practices in publishing and flow charts that describe the publisher's and editor's actions, if such a case has to be resolved: consult COPE. The actions available in the flowcharts will be applied to authors who have committed proven misconduct or fraud.
IJL's ethical practice and policy are closely related to those published on the pages of EDP Sciences.
1. Publication criteria
IJL submitted work implies that it has not been published and / or is not submitted for publication anywhere else. Publication must be approved by all authors. For ethics in publishing consult COPE.
IJL has adopted a rigorous examination of every submitted manuscript towards plagiarism or text recycling using SimilarityCheck. This tool allows the Editors-in-Chief to quickly identify even partial use of already published content, which cannot be re-published in this journal for various reasons, such as copyright issues, autoplagiarism, plagiarism, etc.
If an article is submitted containing any forms of previously published content without citing the appropriate sources, the authors will be informed by the Editors-in-Chief. For an unpublished manuscript, in case of conflicts, the relevant COPE guidelines will apply. The details and updated version of the action of the Editors-in-Chief is available on the website of COPE.
2. Authorship
IJL follows recommendations by COPE on what constitutes authorship in each discipline. Those contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship shall be acknowledged.
3. Peer-Review-Process
IJL operates a single blind peer review process.
All articles submitted to IJL are scanned for plagiarism using Crossref Similarity Check Powered by iThenticate.
If the article passes the plagiarism check, it is evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief in terms of adequation with the scope of IJL, interest, quality and impact. It is then assigned to an Associate Editor who handles the peer review. Most articles are reviewed by two external referees.
After reviews have been received, the Associate Editor recommends a decision. All decisions are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief for final decision which will be forwarded to the authors.
IJL's Editor-in-Chief has full authority for acceptance/rejection of the submitted manuscripts. Persons with a conflict of interest towards a submitted manuscript shall declare it and be withdrawn from the peer reviewing of the respective article.
4. Handling of publication malpractice
Simultaneous submission of the same article to more than one journals is unethical and will lead to immediate rejection ; likewise, the submission of several articles presenting similar results (to the same journal or to different journals) is considered as a breach of ethics.
Attempts to manipulate the peer review process in any way (undeclared conflict of interest, fake reviews, citation padding...) will also result in immediate rejection.
If a breach of ethics is detected after the paper is published, this may result in the retraction of the paper, and/or further consequences.
Peer Community In
Introduction
International Journal of Limnology is a PCI-friendly journal.
PCI (https://peercommunityin.org/) is a non-profit, non-commercial platform that publishes peer-reviews and recommendations of preprints, and that is supported by many universities and research organisations worldwide. Once recommended, a preprint can either remain on the preprint server or can be submitted to journals.
Articles recommended by the communities PCI Ecology, PCI Evol Biol, PCI Zoology, PCI Ecotox Env Chem, PCI Paleo and PCI Microbiol are welcome in IJL, as long as they concern inland water environments.
Preparation of your article
If your article was previously recommended by PCI, please add a section at the end of your article, before the references, titled Peer review, with the link to the PCI recommendations.
Example:
Peer review
A preprint of this article on bioRxiv has been reviewed and recommended by Peer Community in Ecology: Nicolas F. St-Gelais, Richard J. Vogt, Paul A. del Giorgio, Beatrix E. Beisner (2022). The taxonomic and functional biogeographies of phytoplankton and zooplankton communities across boreal lakes. Peer Community in Ecology, https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.ecology.100082.
Submission of your article
If your article was previously recommended by PCI, you should indicate at the time of submission that PCI reviewer recommendations are available:
- Respond to the author question in Editorial Manager, and provide the DOI of the PCI recommendation in the corresponding field, in the format https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.ecology.xxxxxx, https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.evolbiol.xxxxxx or equivalent depending on the PCI community.
- Include also this information in your cover letter for the attention of the Editor in charge of your article.
If the recommended preprint falls in the scope of the journal, it will be accepted without further peer-review (but correction of the article can be requested).
Publication of your article
If your article is accepted for publication in IJL, a link to the PCI recommendations will be added alongside your published article.