Publication Ethics

BRICS is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics and follows the Core Practices and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All parties involved in the publication process — authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher — are expected to adhere to these standards.

Duties of Authors

  • Submit only original work that has not been published and is not under consideration elsewhere.
  • Properly cite all sources and obtain permission for reproduced material.
  • Ensure that all listed authors have made significant contributions and approved the final manuscript; ghost, gift, and guest authorship are not acceptable.
  • Disclose all sources of funding and any conflicts of interest.
  • Report data accurately and make data available on reasonable request.
  • Promptly notify the editor of any significant error discovered in their work.
  • Obtain ethical approval and informed consent where research involves human participants.

Duties of Editors

  • Evaluate manuscripts solely on their scholarly merit, without regard to authors' race, gender, religion, nationality, institutional affiliation, or political views.
  • Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.
  • Recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest.
  • Investigate allegations of misconduct in accordance with COPE guidance.

Duties of Reviewers

  • Provide objective, timely, and constructive reviews.
  • Keep manuscripts confidential and not use unpublished material for their own research.
  • Declare any conflict of interest and decline to review where appropriate.
  • Alert the editor to any suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other misconduct.

Research Misconduct

Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, citation manipulation, and authorship misconduct are treated seriously. Suspected cases are handled following COPE flowcharts and may result in rejection, correction, retraction, and notification of the authors' institutions.

See also: Plagiarism Policy, Conflict of Interest Policy, Retraction and Correction Policy, AI Policy, and Complaints and Appeals.