Editorial Policies, Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

1. Ethical principles and good practices

Revista Direito Mackenzie - RDM (Mackenzie Law Journal) is committed to ethics and quality of publications. Thus, we advocate responsible and ethical behavior from all parties involved in the publication process: authors, editor, referees and the Editors of Scientific Journals. We do not accept plagiarism or any other behavior that violates transparency and ethics during the editing process until its conclusion.

2. Duties of Editors 

Fair play and editorial independence: the editor evaluate submitted manuscripts exclusively based on their academic merit and its relevance to RDM’s scope. RDM applies editorial independence, thus decisions to edit and publish are not determined by the policies of governments or any other agencies outside of the journal itself.

Publication decision: the editor ensure that all submitted manuscripts being considered for publication undergo peer-review by at least two reviewers who are expert in the field. The editor is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor is guided by the policies issued by the Editorial Board, the Scientific Committee, and the Editors of Scientific Journals, and should consult these bodies when making decisions. In addition, such policies must comply with the legal requirements regarding defamation, copyright violation, and plagiarism.

Transparency and respect: the editor should evaluate submitted manuscripts without regard to authors' race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, or political philosophy.

Confidentiality: the editor and other members of the editorial team shall not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript, with the exception of referees and editorial advisors.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest: The editor must not use unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript in own research without the author's express written consent. He/she should decline to evaluate manuscripts in which he/she has conflicts of interest due to competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions linked to the manuscripts.

Involvement and cooperation in investigations: It is the editor's responsibility to take appropriate necessary action when ethical complaints have been made regarding a submitted manuscript or published article. Every reported act of unethical publishing behaviour will be investigated, regardless the publication date. If, at the time of the investigation, the ethical concern is well founded, a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or another note that may be relevant, will be published in the journal.

3. Duties of reviewers

Contribution to editorial decisions: reviewers' review assists both the editor in making editorial decisions regarding the content and formatting of submitted articles and the author in improving his work.

Promptness: any article reviewer who does not feel qualified to review the article or who is unable to deliver his or her review within the stipulated time should notify the editor immediately.

Confidentiality: papers received for review should be treated as confidential documents and should not, under any circumstances, be disclosed and/or discussed.

Objectivity standards: reviews should be conducted in an objective manner. The referees should express their points of view clearly and supported by arguments. Personal criticism of the authors is inappropriate.

Acknowledgement of sources: referees should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors, and notify the editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript in question and any other published article of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and conflict of interest: privileged information or insights gained by the referee through reading the manuscripts should be kept confidential and not used for personal gain. The referee should not evaluate manuscripts in which he/she has conflicts of interest due to competitive, collaborative or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions linked to the manuscripts.

4. Duties of Authors

General guidelines: authors of papers that refer to original research should provide an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Additional data should be accurately represented in the paper. The paper should contain sufficient detail and references to allow others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or intentionally inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. In addition, authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process and cooperate fully by responding promptly to editors’ requests. In the case of a first decision of "revisions necessary", authors should respond to the reviewers’ comments systematically, point by point, and in a timely manner, revising and re-submitting their manuscript to the journal by the deadline given.

 

Originality and plagiarism: authors must ensure that their work is entirely original. If authors draw upon other authors' work and/or texts, citation of the source is mandatory. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical editorial behavior and is unacceptable.

 

Multiple, redundant and simultaneous publication: an author should not publish manuscripts that essentially describe the same research in more than one journal. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time and/or publishing the same article in more than one journal constitutes unethical editorial behavior and is unacceptable.

 

Acknowledgement of sources: the work of other authors should always be acknowledged. Authors should cite publications that were important in determining the nature of the work reported. Information obtained privately, such as in a conversation, correspondence, or discussion with a third party, should not be used or reported without the explicit written permission of the source. Information obtained through confidential services, such as manuscript referees or grant applications, should not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work.

 

Authorship: authorship of the paper should be restricted to those who made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution or interpretation of the study reported. All those who made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Individuals who participated in certain aspects of the research project should be listed as collaborators. The lead author should ensure that all appropriate coauthors are included in the paper. The lead author should also make sure that all coauthors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to its submission for publication.

 

Disclosure and conflicts of interest: all authors must disclose in the manuscript any financial or other conflicts that may influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

 

Fundamental errors in published work: when an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work it is the author's obligation to immediately inform the journal editor or the Journal Editors and cooperate with the editor to correct the article.

 

Research involving human subjects or animals: If the work involves the use of animals or human participants, the authors must ensure that all procedures have been carried out in accordance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that research ethics committees have approved them; the manuscript should contain a statement to this effect. Privacy rights should always be observed.

 

Copyright: Once they submit to the evaluation process and have their articles published, the authors assign the copyright of such articles to RDM and may reproduce this material only after publication on the Journal's official website with proper citation. Rejected or unpublished articles will be returned to the authors. RDM adopts the Creative Commons 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY); it is understood that every author, when submitting his or her article to the Journal, agrees with the use of such license. The CC-BY license allows others to remix, adapt, distribute and create derivative works of the published texts, with due credit given.

 

 Fees: RDM does not charge fees for the submission or publication of articles, nor for the evaluation, review, or download processes.

5. Duties of the Publisher

Control of unethical publication behavior: In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the editor will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to alter the article in question (e.g. this includes immediate publication of an erratum, clarification or, in the most serious case, retraction of the affected paper). Our articles are reviewed to ensure the quality of scientific publications and we are also users of Turnitin (software for identifying plagiarism and similarity).

Autonomy of editorial work: We are committed to ensuring that obtaining advertising, reprint or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions.

Access to journal content: The publisher is committed to the continued availability and preservation of scholarly research and to ensuring accessibility through its own digital archive

6. Copyright Statement

The copyright of the articles published in Mackenzie Law Journal belongs to the authors, who grant Mackenzie Presbyterian University the rights to publish the contents, and the assignment takes effect upon submission of the article, or work in similar form, to the electronic system of institutional publications.

 The journal reserves the right to make normative, orthographic, and grammatical alterations to the originals, with the aim of maintaining the cultured standard of the language, while respecting the style of the authors. The content reported and the opinions expressed by the authors of the articles are their exclusive responsibility.

7. Privacy Statement

The names and addresses informed in this journal will be used exclusively for the services provided by this publication and will not be made available for other purposes or to third parties.

8. Open Access Policy

RDM is an Open Access journal, which means that all content is available free of charge, at no cost to the user or his institution. Users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without seeking prior permission from the editor or author, as long as they respect the Creative Commons license of use used by the journal. This definition of open access is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI).

9. Intellectual Property

 All content of this journal, except where identified, is licensed under a Creative Commons - BY type assignment.

10. Inclusion Policy

RDM is concerned to ensure the full inclusion of all members of the academic community, with all its particularities, adopts for itself the parameters of gender inclusion indicated by the United Nations  and takes as reference the provisions made by Elsevier on the subject. RDM aims to ensure a more humanized and technically accurate work that covers all segments of society in a similar way. However, it should be emphasized that the journal is recommendatory in nature, so that the works should also be respected in their even if they are not based on evidence.

11. Archival Policy

RDM has an Archival Policy for its records in the PKP (PN) Public Knowledge Project Preservation Network / LOCKSS.

12. Withdrawal Policy

RDM is committed to upholding the integrity of literature in the field of law and publishes Errata, Expressions of Concern or Retraction Notices dependent on the situation and in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guidelines.

The retraction mechanism follows the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) Retraction Guidelines which can be accessed at COPE - Retraction Guidelines.

13. Plagiarism and similarity policy

As part of the actions for valuing academic integrity and preventing plagiarism in the publications accredited in the Portal, RDM adopts the service of identifying the similarity of texts using the Turnitin platform as a basis.

14. Conflicting Interest Policy

A conflicting interest for RDM is any financial, professional or personal interest that actually or potentially interferes with the preparation, evaluation or publication of an article and the work that generated it. Authors and their employers (academic or non-academic institutions), sponsors, reviewers, and editors may have conflicting interests. Conflicting interests may be considered hidden or explicit, real or perceived.

To fulfill its mission, RDM considers it important to ensure as far as possible that the research it presents in the form of articles is free of bias. Thus, the journal's editor may decide not to accept articles that he/she believes may have been compromised in some way by the conflicting interests declared by their authors.

Any conflicting interests of the author or co-authors in the paper and the work that generated it that are relevant and have arisen within five years of the paper's inception must be disclosed. In the submission process, the first author should declare on behalf of him/herself and the other co-authors the existence of any financial, personal, or professional interests that may actually or potentially have influenced the work and the development of the paper. Examples of conflicting interests include, but are not limited to: research grants received from any sources, grants for travel or attendance at meetings, provision of paid services, relationships with the editorial board of RDM, relationships with involved organizations, and participation in government agencies. All sources of funding for the work should be described, including their role, including involvement in the decision to submit the article for publication. Grants received by institutions or organizations that funded the work from other institutions or organizations and are known to the authors should be stated.

The editor will make the final decision about the relevance of the conflicting interests declared by the authors and their possible influence on the paper or the article. If necessary, he/she will discuss this issue with the ad hoc reviewers and the editorial board. The decision will be based on the conflicting interests declared by the authors.

The RDM ad hoc reviewers will also be asked to declare conflicting interests before they begin reviewing any paper. If the reviewer feels that they cannot review a paper because of conflicting interests they should notify the editor.

15. Declaration of Ethics

RDM is dedicated to observing good practices with respect to moral conduct consistent with scientific journal editing, based on the code of conduct of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). Prevention of malpractice is also a crucial responsibility of the editor and the editorial team: any form of unethical behavior, as well as plagiarism in any instance, is not accepted at RDM. Authors submitting articles to the journal declare that their content is original and guarantee that the work has not been published or is in the process of review/evaluation in any other journal.

In addition, RDM is committed to ethics and quality in publication. We support standards of ethical behavior expected of all parties involved in publication in our journal: the author, the journal editor, the reviewers, and the publisher. We do not accept plagiarism or any other unethical behavior.

 

RDM's Editorial Policies, Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement is based on recommendations from the following entities: