Ethical Code

Publication ethics and publication malpractice statement

The Rassegna Italiana di Criminologia (RIC)  is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Its activities are inspired by the ethical code of publications developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and aimed to editors, reviewer reviewers and authors (https://publicationethics.org/).

DUTIES OF EDITORS

Decisions on publication: the editors of Rassegna Italiana di Criminologia are responsible for deciding whether or not to publish the proposed articles.

Honesty: the editors evaluate manuscripts submitted for publication only on the basis of the scientific merit of the content, without discrimination of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality, political opinion of the authors.

Confidentiality: the editors and members of the working group undertake not to disclose information relating to the articles submitted for publication to other persons other than the author, the reviewers and the editor.

Conflict of interest and disclosure: the editors undertake not to use in their research content of articles submitted for publication without the written consent of the author.

DUTIES OF REVIEWERS

Contribution to the editorial decision: peer review is a procedure that helps editors to make decisions on the proposed articles and also allows the author to improve the contribution submitted for publication.

Respect deadlines: the reviewer who does not feel adequate to the task proposed or who is not able to finish the evaluation of the proposed contribution in the scheduled time is required to promptly notify the coordinators.

Confidentiality: each assigned review should be considered confidential. Under-review manuscripts should not be discussed with other people without the explicit permission of the editors.

Objectivity: the peer-review must be conducted in an objective manner. Any personal judgment about the authors of contributions is considered inappropriate. The reviewers are required to give adequate reasons for their judgments.

Text display: the reviewers undertake to accurately indicate the bibliographical references of fundamental works possibly neglected by the author. The reviewer must also report to the editors any similarities or overlaps between the text received in reading and other works known to her/him.

Conflict of interest and disclosure: confidential information or information obtained during the process of peer-review must be considered confidential and may not be used for personal purposes. The reviewer shall not accept in reading articles for which there is a conflict of interest due to previous collaboration or competition with the author and/or her/his institution.

DUTIES OF AUTHORS

Access and Retention:  if the editors deem it appropriate, the authors of the articles should make available the sources or the data on which research is based, so that they can be kept for a reasonable period of time after the publication and possibly be made accessible.

Originality and plagiarism: the authors are required to declare to have composed an original work in its entirety and citing all the texts used.

Publications multiple, repetitive and/or competitors: the author should not publish articles that repeat the same search results in more than a scientific journal: the simultaneous proposal of the same contribution to multiple scientific journal is to be considered an ethically improper and reprehensible.

List of sources: the author should always provide the correct indication of the sources and contributions mentioned in the article.

Authorship: it should be correctly attributed the authorship of the work and shall be referred to as co-authors all those who have made a significant contribution to the design, organization, implementation and revision of the research that forms the basis of the article. If other people have participated significantly in some stages of the research, their contribution must be explicitly recognized. In the case of contributions written by many hands, the author who sends the text to the journal is required to declare that she/he had correctly stated the names of all the other co-authors, have obtained their approval of the final version of the article and their consent for publication in the Rassegna Italiana di Criminologia

Conflict of interest and disclosure: all authors are required to declare explicitly that there are no conflicts of interest that may have influenced the results obtained or the interpretations proposed. Authors must also indicate any research funding agencies and/or the project from which arise the article.

Errors in published articles: when an author in her/his article identifies a significant error or inaccuracy, he/she shall promptly inform the journal editors and provide them with all the information required to list the relevant corrections on the bottom of the article itself.

Ethics approval: Researchers submitting manuscripts involving human participants, human material (tissues, corpses, etc.), or human data, must ensure that they have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee or institutional review board. The authors must specify the methods of acquiring informed consent to participate in the study.

Consent for publication: Manuscripts that contain any individual person’s data (including individual details, images or videos), require acquisition of consent for publication. Consent for publication must be obtained from the involved person. In the case of children consent for publication must be obtained by their parent or legal guardian; by a proxy in those vulnerable populations who benefit from it. The use of institutional consent forms is accepted.
Manuscripts reporting studies involving vulnerable groups must ensure that informed consent to participate has been obtained. Manuscripts reporting data on participants vulnerable groups with there is a risk of coercion (e.g. inmates, patients suffering from psychiatric disorders under personal security measures) must detail the measures that have been taken to avoid this risk and ensure free participation
The Editor may request at any stage to see a copy of the consent form. Those manuscripts that do not fall within the cases described above must report the wording "not applicable" in the appropriate section.