Research, Innovation, Technologies - Hub for Academics

EDITORIAL POLICIES

The editorial policies of RITHA Publishing are rooted in a commitment to upholding the highest standards in scholarly publishing. We align our practices with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, as outlined in the joint statement by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) and OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association).

In addition to these fundamental principles, we also adhere to the NISO (National Information Standards Organization) Recommended Practices for the Presentation and Identification of E-Journals (PIE-J). This ensures that our publishing content is presented and identified in a clear, standardised, and reader-friendly manner.

Editorial Scope and Initial Assessment

Purpose: explains what RITHA publishes before discussing ethics.

RITHA Publishing is committed to publishing rigorous, original, and ethically conducted scholarly works that advance scientific knowledge and contribute meaningfully to their respective disciplines. Our journals and book series welcome original research, theoretical and conceptual contributions, methodological developments, critical reviews, case studies, and other scholarly works that demonstrate scientific merit, methodological rigour, and relevance to the aims and scope of the respective publication.

All submissions undergo an initial editorial assessment conducted by the Editor-in-Chief or the Editorial Office before being sent for external peer review. During this stage, manuscripts are evaluated for:

•      - alignment with the aims and scope of the selected journal or book series; 
•      - originality and scientific contribution; 
•      - methodological quality and academic rigour; 
•      - compliance with submission guidelines and editorial requirements; 
•      - ethical compliance and publication integrity; 
•      - overall suitability for peer review. 

Manuscripts that do not satisfy these criteria may be declined without external peer review.

Editorial Assessment of Bibliometric and Science-Mapping Studies

RITHA Publishing welcomes bibliometric, scientometric, and science-mapping studies across its journals when they make a substantive scholarly contribution within the aims and scope of the selected journal.

Bibliometric manuscripts are evaluated according to the same standards of originality, scientific rigour, methodological transparency, and scholarly significance as all other submissions. The use of bibliometric methods alone does not constitute a sufficient contribution for publication.

To be considered for publication, bibliometric studies should:

• - investigate topics that fall within the aims and scope of the selected journal; 
• - provide critical interpretation and conceptual advancement beyond descriptive publication mapping; 
• - identify research gaps, emerging themes, unresolved scientific questions, or future research directions; 
• - discuss implications for research, professional practice, clinical practice, governance, sustainability, or policymaking, where appropriate. 

Manuscripts limited primarily to publication counts, citation analyses, co-authorship networks, keyword mapping, or other descriptive visualisations without substantive theoretical, methodological, or practical contribution may be declined during the initial editorial assessment.

Specific requirements for bibliometric submissions are provided in the Author Guidelines of each journal.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made independently by the Editors-in-Chief based exclusively on scientific merit, originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal's aims and scope. Editorial decisions are not influenced by commercial interests, advertisers, sponsors, institutional affiliations, or the Publisher.

The Publisher respects the editorial independence of each journal and supports Editors in maintaining the integrity, transparency, and quality of the scholarly record.

Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism, in all its forms, is considered an unethical and unacceptable practice within our publication policies. Plagiarism involves the unauthorised use of someone else's ideas, processes, findings, or language without proper attribution to the original author and source. There are a variety of plagiarism types and all are considered serious violations of academic integrity. The most common forms of plagiarism are defined below:

• - Complete plagiarism: word-for-word transcription and submission of a manuscript or study that someone else created. This is equivalent to intellectual theft, as well as being unethical and academically dishonest.
• - Inaccurate authorship or misleading attribution: a contributor to a manuscript being denied credit for it. A secondary form is when a researcher claims credit without contributing to the work–ultimately, both variations are violations of the code of conduct in research.
• - Direct plagiarism: text is borrowed from another author verbatim, without the use of quotation marks or attribution.
• - Self or auto plagiarism: significant portions of one’s own previously published work being reproduced without attribution.
• - Mosaic or patchwork plagiarism: someone else’s phrases are interlaid in a text without quotation marks–even if used to footnote a source. If words differ from someone else’s work, yet the original concept remains the same, paraphrasing has occurred, which is considered a form of plagiarism.
• - Source-based plagiarism: a researcher references a source that is inaccurate, incorrect or does not exist. Plagiarism also occurs when a researcher uses a secondary source of data/information, but only cites the primary source of information, as this leads to an increase in the number of references cited.
• - Accidental plagiarism: can occur through negligent citing or misquoting of sources, or by paraphrasing similar words, groups of words, and/or sentence structure, without attribution. 

To maintain the integrity of our publication process, all manuscripts submitted to RITHA Publishing as submissions in Journals or Book Series undergo a comprehensive plagiarism check using Safe Assign and Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate v2) software. Manuscripts identified as plagiarised during the initial stages of review are promptly rejected and will not be considered for publication in the journal.

All this notwithstanding, it may happen that some plagiarism escape detection, despite our best efforts. Authors who find their work plagiarised may report plagiarism to office@ritha.eu, preferably by submitting both the original article and the allegedly plagiarising one, with plagiarised parts highlighted or underlined. The Managing Board will act promptly to address all such reports. In particular, it will ask the author to offer clarifications within two weeks. If the author does not reply within this deadline, or if the clarifications are deemed unsatisfactory by the Managing Board, the article will be immediately withdrawn from publication.

In cases where plagiarism is discovered after publication, the Editor(s) initiates a preliminary investigation, potentially involving a specially constituted committee from members of Editorial Board. If the extent of plagiarism is found to exceed acceptable limits, the following steps will be considered:

- Contact the author's Institute/College/University and any relevant Funding Agency to report the misconduct.

- Create a bi-directional link between original paper and plagiarised material, ensuring that the plagiarism is documented to readers.
- Consider formal retraction of the paper, if the extent of plagiarism warrants such action.
- Banning the author(s) from submitting future publications. Such a measure is taken to ensure that individuals who have engaged in unethical practices are held accountable and to prevent further violations of academic integrity within our publications.

Authorship Policy

RITHA Publishing House follow the COPE authorship guidelines regarding any authorship disputes. These issues may refers to:
- Ghost authorship – exclusion of a contributor from the list of authors;
- Gift/guest authorship – Inclusion of someone who hasn’t contributed to the work, or who has chosen not to be associated with the research;
- Disputes over the order of the authors and the level of contribution made by each author.

To be considered an author, someone have to:
- Made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the obtaining/gathering, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
- Contributed to drafting of the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;
- Given consent of the version to be published;
- Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Obtaining a grant to complete the work does not constitute authorship. These people can be included in the acknowledgements section.

Regarding authorship disputes, our aim is to try to reach reach an agreement between the parties.  If the authorship disputes can’t be resolved in such fashion, we may refer it to the authors’ institutions.

Conflict of Interest Policy

RITHA Publishing requires authors, reviewers, editors, and Editorial Board members to disclose any financial, professional, institutional, or personal relationships that could influence—or reasonably be perceived to influence—the editorial or scientific evaluation of a manuscript.

Authors should disclose all funding sources, institutional affiliations, consultancies, advisory roles, stock ownership, patents, or other relationships that may constitute a competing interest.

Editors and reviewers who identify a potential conflict of interest must decline participation in the editorial or peer-review process whenever impartiality cannot be ensured.

Where appropriate, disclosed conflicts of interest will be published together with the article to ensure transparency.

Retraction Policy

A published manuscript may be retracted for several reasons that involve serious errors potentially harmful to the RITHA Publishing House and the scientific community. These reasons include, but are not limited to, ethical breaches, data fabrication, plagiarism, falsification, and other issues. RITHA Publishing House adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines for retraction: COPE Retraction Guidelines.

Criteria for Retraction
RITHA Publishing House, in conjunction with the Editor(s)-in-Chief or Book(s) Editor(s), will consider retracting a publication if:

- There is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable due to major error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error) or due to fabrication (e.g., of data) or falsification (e.g., image manipulation);
-  Work constitutes plagiarism;
- The findings have been previously published elsewhere without proper attribution, disclosure to the editor, permission to republish, or justification (i.e., redundant publication);
- The material or data used lacks proper authorization;
- Copyright has been infringed or there is another serious legal issue (e.g., libel, privacy violations);
- The research reported is unethical;
- The publication is based on a compromised or manipulated peer review process;
- The author(s) failed to disclose a significant competing interest (conflict of interest) that would have unduly influenced the interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.

Retraction Notice
A Retraction Notice will:

- Be linked to the retracted article wherever possible (in all online versions);
- Clearly identify the retracted article (including the title and authors in the retraction heading or citing the retracted article);
- Be distinctly identified as a retraction (separate from other types of corrections or comments);
- Be published promptly to minimise harmful effects;
- Be freely accessible to all readers (not behind access barriers or available only to subscribers);
- State who is retracting the article;
- State the reason(s) for the retraction;
- Be objective, factual, and avoid inflammatory language.

Where concerns arise but available evidence is inconclusive, RITHA Publishing may issue an Expression of Concern while an investigation is ongoing, in accordance with COPE guidance.

When Retractions Are Not Appropriate
Retractions are generally not appropriate if:

- The authorship is disputed, but the validity of the findings is not in question;
- The main findings of the work are still reliable and errors or concerns can be sufficiently addressed through correction;
- An editor has inconclusive evidence to support retraction or is awaiting additional information, such as from an institutional investigation;
- Author conflicts of interest are reported to the journal/book series after publication, but these are not likely to have influenced the interpretations, recommendations, or conclusions of the article, in the editor’s view.

RITHA Publishing House also considers the discussions from the Expressions of Concern Forum of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Correction Policy

RITHA Publishing is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record. When errors are identified after publication, the appropriate corrective action will be taken according to COPE recommendations.

Depending on the nature of the issue, this may include:

• - Erratum – correction of an error introduced during the publication process. 
• - Corrigendum – correction of an error made by the author(s) that does not invalidate the scientific findings. 
• - Expression of Concern – issued when there is reason to question the integrity or reliability of a publication while an investigation is ongoing. 
• - Retraction – issued when the findings are unreliable due to misconduct, major error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, or other serious breaches of publication ethics. 

Corrections are linked to the original publication and remain permanently accessible.

Complaints and Appeals Policy

Authors may appeal editorial decisions or submit complaints concerning editorial procedures, peer review, publication ethics, or conflicts of interest.

Appeals should be submitted in writing to office@ritha.eu, clearly explaining the grounds for reconsideration. Appeals are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief together with the Managing Board or, where appropriate, by independent Editorial Board members not previously involved in the editorial decision.

The outcome of the appeal is final.

Digital Archiving and Preservation Policy

RITHA Publishing House is committed to ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of the scholarly content published in our Journals and Book Series. Our digital archiving and preservation policies are designed to safeguard the availability of this content, ensuring that it remains accessible to the academic community and the public, even if a journal or book series is no longer actively published.

Electronic Backup and Preservation

RITHA Publishing House employs a robust electronic backup and preservation strategy to protect our journal and book content. This includes:

•      - All journal content is securely stored and maintained within our in-house Editorial & Publishing System, ensuring that main articles and supplementary materials are continuously accessible to authors, reviewers, and readers.
•      - Through our agreement with PORTICO, a leading digital preservation service, we enhance our commitment to safeguarding our published works. Portico provides long-term digital preservation and access services, ensuring that our content will be archived securely and remains available even in the event of organisational changes or disruptions.
•      - In addition to Portico, we partner with reputable indexing services, including:
  •              - IndexCopernicus: Our journals are indexed with IndexCopernicus, which evaluates and catalogs scientific journals. It offers the ICI World of Journals platform, assisting researchers in locating credible journals. This indexing not only ensures wide visibility for our published content but also supports long-term preservation efforts by enhancing discoverability within the academic community.
  •              - EBSCO: Collaborating with EBSCO allows us to leverage their extensive digital library services to preserve and provide access to our journal articles.
  •              - Google Scholar: This freely accessible web search engine indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across various publishing formats.
  •              - CEEOL: The Central and Eastern European Online Library assists us in indexing and disseminating scholarly content, particularly enhancing accessibility within Central and Eastern European academic communities.
  •              - PubMed Central: For journals within the biomedical and life sciences domains, we will utilise PubMed Central to ensure that articles are preserved and remain accessible to researchers and practitioners worldwide.
•      - Authors and contributors are encouraged to engage in self-archiving. This practice allows them to archive their work independently, preserving it on personal websites, institutional repositories, or cross-institutional repositories. However, the posting or sharing of book chapters is not permitted to maintain content integrity. Book authors may post a summary of their contributions on their personal or institutional sites. For special considerations, authors may contact the Publisher Manager at a.omarova@ritha.eu.

Self-Archiving Policy

• Definitions:
  •      Pre-print Version: The original version submitted to the journal before peer review and without any editorial modifications.
  •      Post-print Version: The peer-reviewed, accepted version, but before copyediting, typesetting, and final proof corrections.
  •      Published Version: The final edited and typeset version made publicly available by the Publisher.
• 
  
• Pre-print Version: Authors are permitted to deposit the pre-print version of their manuscript on any platform at any time, provided they acknowledge RITHA Publishing House and the respective Journal. The acknowledgment should be formatted as follows:
  •      "This is a pre-peer-reviewed version of the paper submitted for publication to [Journal Name] published by RITHA Publishing House."
• Post-print Version: Authors may deposit the post-print version of their manuscript on their personal non-commercial website or institutional repository, with acknowledgment to RITHA Publishing House and the Journal:
  •      "This is an accepted peer-reviewed version of the paper. The published version of the article is available at RITHA Publishing House via https://doi.org/10.57017/journal name/[DOI of the article]."
• Published Version of Open-Access Articles: For open-access articles, authors are permitted to deposit the published version in any institutional repository, distribute, and make it publicly available, provided proper acknowledgment is given to RITHA Publishing House and the Journal:
  •      "This is the published version of the paper, available at RITHA Publishing House via https://doi.org/10.57017/journal name/[DOI of the article]."

Plan for Discontinuation

In the unlikely event that a journal or book series ceases publication, RITHA Publishing House has established a clear plan to maintain access to its content:

•      - The content will remain accessible via our Editorial & Publishing System, ensuring that all published articles are permanently available to the academic community.
•      - We will ensure that the content continues to be indexed and preserved by our third-party archiving partners (Portico, IndexCopernicus, EBSCO, CEEOL, and PubMed Central). This guarantees that even if the journal or book series is no longer actively published, the articles remain discoverable and accessible through these platforms.
•      - RITHA Publishing House adheres to copyright laws and ethical guidelines related to self-archiving and digital preservation. Authors are encouraged to familiarise themselves with these standards to ensure compliance.

Repository Policy

RITHA Publishing has a policy that allows authors to submit all versions of their articles to any repository they choose. The open-access options allowed by the RITHA Publishing's repository policy are listed below based on the type of publishing:

Article's Published Version in Journal
Authors are kindly advised to refrain from posting their manuscripts in institutional repositories or on websites during the pre-publishing or submission stages. However, they are permitted to post the PDF version of the publisher's final format, without embargo, after the article has been officially published. When doing so, it is important for authors to provide proper attribution to the original source of publication and ensure accurate citation details are included when sharing, reusing, or distributing their published Open Access articles elsewhere. Furthermore, it is recommended that authors deposit the URL/DOI of the published article when posting it to any repository.

In order to encourage the citation of published articles, we suggest that authors include a link from their published article to its DOI (Digital Object Identifier). This practice not only facilitates easier access to their article but also contributes to the assessment of its impact and relevance in the academic community. Proper citation and linking are fundamental in ensuring that the research reaches its widest audience and receives the recognition it deserves. In this regard, please see the section "How to cite" from the article's web page. E.g.: https://ritha.eu/journals/JORIT/issues/4/articles/1 or https://ritha.eu/journals/JAES/issues/jaes82/articles/3

Chapter's Published in e-Book

Upon the publication of a chapter in an e-book, especially in the Open Access format, authors are granted the freedom to redistribute the published version themselves. This redistribution is subject to certain conditions:
     - The content must be clearly labeled with the same Creative Commons license that applied to the original work.
     - Proper attribution must be provided, including a reference to the original source with a link to the publisher's website or the DOI.

For e-books that are not openly accessible and require payment, we encourage authors to take the initiative to publish their chapters or contributions in institutional repositories or share them via academic platforms. This practice, often referred to as 'self-archiving,' is permitted after a twelve-month embargo period from the publication date of the print edition.

Authors engaging in self-archiving are advised to use "Cite this chapter" included in the end of each chapter published in any further distribution. An example citation look like this: "Author's Name, Author's First Name: Chapter Title, in: Editor's First and Last Name (ed.), Title of the Essay Collection, Page Number. ©RITHA (Year of Publication)." Furthermore, it's essential to reference the product page of the publication on the website or its DOI for added clarity and proper attribution. In this regard, please see the section "Cite this chapter" from the chapter's web page. E.g.: https://www.ritha.eu/series/SERITHA/books/DFE/chapters/1dfe.

Chapter's Published in Printed Book

When a book is available as a paid e-book edition, the ability to self-archive is typically limited to individual chapters. This limitation arises from legal regulations, particularly the book price-fixing rule, which publishers follow for the entire e-book.

If an author wishes to make their entire work available in an Open Access format, we are more than willing to assist in this process. In such cases, we recommend reaching out to us via email at office@ritha.eu, and we will gladly provide a quotation for Green Open Access.

Research Data and Data Availability Statement Policy 

RITHA Publishing encourages authors to promote transparency and reproducibility by making the data supporting their findings available whenever possible.

Authors should include a Data Availability Statement in every manuscript indicating one of the following:

•      - the data are publicly available in a recognised repository; 
•      - the data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request; 
•      - the data cannot be shared because of ethical, legal, or confidentiality restrictions; 
•      - no new data were generated or analysed. 

Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to deposit datasets, code, and supplementary materials in trusted repositories such as Zenodo, Figshare, Open Science Framework (OSF), Dryad, or institutional repositories.

Policies for using AI-assisted technologies and generative AI in writing processes

This policy is designed to improve transparency and provide guidance to authors, readers, reviewers, and editors regarding the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies within the writing process at RITHA Publishing. It's important to clarify that this policy specifically concerns to the writing process and does not encompass the utilization of AI tools for data analysis and insights generation in the research process.

When authors employ AI and AI-assisted technologies during the writing process, these tools should focus on improving the readability and language of the work, rather than replacing crucial authoring tasks such as formulating scientific, pedagogic, or medical insights, drawing scientific conclusions, or providing clinical recommendations. The application of such technology must involve human oversight and control, and all work should undergo thorough review and editing. AI has the potential to generate content that may sound authoritative but could be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors assume ultimate responsibility for the content of their work.

Authors are required to disclose the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in their manuscript. A corresponding statement is included in their Disclosure of Interest statement and published inside the work when it is applicable. This disclosure advances transparency and trust among authors, readers, reviewers, editors, and contributors, and ensures compliance with the terms of use of the tools or technologies.

It's essential for authors not to attribute authorship to AI or list these technologies as authors or co-authors. Authorship carries responsibilities and tasks that are uniquely human. Each (co-) author is responsible for addressing accuracy or integrity issues within the work and must have the ability to approve the final version and consent to its submission. Authors are also responsible for ensuring the originality of the work, verifying that stated authors qualify for authorship, and confirming that the work does not infringe third-party rights. Authors should acquaint themselves with RITHA Publishing Editorial Policies before submitting their manuscript. Authors remain fully responsible for verifying the accuracy, originality, integrity, and appropriateness of all manuscript content, including any content generated or assisted by artificial intelligence technologies. The use of AI does not diminish the authors' responsibility for the scientific validity, ethical compliance, and originality of their work.

For comprehensive guidance regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative Technologies by authors, reviewers, editors, and the Publisher, please consult the RITHA Publishing House AI and Generative Technologies Policy.

Advertising Policy

RITHA Publishing House aims to maintain ethical standards and transparency in its advertising practices while upholding the integrity and credibility of its publications. This policy outlines guidelines for accepting and managing advertisements in journals and books. This policy applies to all  journals and books belong to RITHA Publishing House, including print and digital formats, and covers all advertising content, including display advertisements, sponsored articles, and promotional materials.

Advertising Principles:
     - RITHA Publishing House will ensure transparency regarding any advertising or sponsorship arrangements associated with its publications. Information about advertising policies and practices will be readily accessible to readers, authors, and stakeholders.
     - There will be a clear distinction between editorial content and advertising content. Advertisements will not influence editorial decisions or compromise the scientific integrity of RITHA publications.
     - Editors will maintain full control over the selection, placement, and scheduling of advertisements. Advertisements must align with the journal’s and book series' scope and target audience and comply with ethical standards and guidelines.
     - RITHA Publishing House will avoid conflicts of interest related to advertising. Advertisements that present a conflict with the journals' editorial policies, objectives, or ethical standards will not be accepted.
     - Advertisements must comply with applicable laws, regulations, and ethical standards. They should not contain misleading, deceptive, or inappropriate content that could harm readers’ trust in RITHA publications.

Advertising Guidelines:
     - Advertisements will be accepted based on relevance, appropriateness, and alignment with the journal’s audience and editorial policies.
     - Accepted advertising formats may include display advertisements, sponsored articles, announcements, and promotional materials, subject to editorial approval.
     - Advertisements will be placed in a manner that maintains the integrity and layout of the publication. They will be clearly identified as advertisements to avoid confusion with editorial content.
     - Rates for advertisements will be determined based on factors such as placement, size, frequency, and audience reach. Advertising contracts will outline terms, conditions, and obligations of both parties.

This policy will be periodically reviewed and updated to reflect changes in industry standards, ethical guidelines, and publishing practices. Updates will be communicated to stakeholders as necessary. Complaints will be addressed to Managing Board at office@ritha.eu and  investigated promptly (no more 10 working days), and appropriate actions will be taken to address concerns.