Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Design History (DH) is committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct in scholarly publishing. This policy is guided by the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1. Research Misconduct

• Fabrication: Manufacturing data or results.
• Falsification: Manipulating research materials or omitting data.
• Plagiarism: The use of another person’s ideas or words without proper attribution. (See the separate Plagiarism Policy.)

2. Duties of Authors

• Originality and Accuracy: Submitted work must be original, previously unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere.
• Authorship: Limited to those with substantial contributions. All authors must approve the final version. Gift and ghost authorship are prohibited.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Disclose all financial and non-financial conflicts. Acknowledge all funding sources.
• Ethical Approval: Include ethical approval statements for research involving human subjects.
• Data Access: Be prepared to provide raw data upon request.
• Corrections and Retractions: Notify the editor of significant errors and cooperate with corrections.
• Use of AI: Disclose all AI tool usage. AI may not be listed as an author. Authors bear full responsibility for the content.
• Double-Blind Compliance: Ensure the main document is fully anonymized.

3. Duties of Editors

• Fair Evaluation: Evaluate on scholarly merit regardless of author demographics.
• Confidentiality: Treat all submissions as confidential.
• Conflicts of Interest: Recuse from manuscripts where conflicts exist.
• Publication Decisions: Based on reviewers’ evaluations, scope, and ethical requirements.
• Misconduct Investigation: Follow COPE guidelines for allegations of misconduct.

4. Duties of Reviewers

• Constructive Evaluation: Provide objective, detailed feedback.
• Confidentiality: Do not share or use manuscript content.
• Conflicts of Interest: Disclose conflicts and decline when necessary.
• Timeliness: Complete reviews within the agreed timeframe.
• Alertness to Misconduct: Report concerns to the editor.

5. Duties of the Publisher

• Scholarly Record: MSPL ensures the integrity of the scholarly record through robust peer review, corrections, retractions, and transparent procedures.
• Peer Review Support: Rigorous, fair, and confidential peer review infrastructure.
• Accessibility and Preservation: Long-term accessibility through archiving partnerships.

6. Duplicate Submission

Simultaneous submission to multiple journals is prohibited. Prior overlap must be disclosed.

7. Citation Manipulation

Excessive self-citation and coercive citation are prohibited.

8. Handling Misconduct

DH follows COPE guidelines. Violations result in rejection, retraction, institutional notification, and/or submission bans. Before publication, offending manuscripts are rejected. After publication, articles are retracted with a public notice.

For further information: https://publicationethics.org