Publication Ethics

The Journal of Research in Contracts and Business Law is committed to the highest standards of scholarly publishing. We are guided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines. Publication in our peer-reviewed journal is a means of promoting knowledge in contracts and business law while upholding integrity for all parties: editors, reviewers, and authors.

We adhere to stringent ethical standards to prevent malpractice and ensure quality. The position's responsibilities are as follows:

1) Duties of Authors

• Reporting standards: Authors must accurately present original research and objectively discuss its significance; manuscripts should follow the journal’s submission guidelines and be language-edited before submission; data should be represented accurately with sufficient detail and references for replication.
• Originality and plagiarism: Authors must ensure the work is original and properly cite others’ work; the journal may use plagiarism-detection software to screen submissions.
• Multiple, redundant, or concurrent publication: Authors should not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal or publish essentially the same research in multiple venues.
• Data access and retention: Authors should retain raw data and provide it for editorial review upon request.
• Disclosure and conflicts of interest: Authors must disclose financial or other substantive conflicts of interest and all sources of financial support.
• Authorship of the paper: Authorship is limited to those who made significant contributions to conceiving, designing, executing, and/or interpreting the study.
• Acknowledgement of sources: Proper acknowledgment and referencing of others’ work is required.
• Fundamental errors in published works: Authors must promptly notify the editor/publisher of significant errors and cooperate to retract or correct the paper.

2) Duties of Reviewers

• Contribution to editorial decisions: Peer review assists the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board in making editorial decisions and helps authors improve their papers.
• Promptness: A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research or cannot complete a timely review should notify the editor and decline to review the paper (via the ASJP platform where applicable).
• Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review are treated as confidential documents and are not shared or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
• Standards of objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively; personal criticism of the author is unacceptable; reviewers should express views clearly with supporting arguments.
• Acknowledgement of sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work not cited by the authors and report substantial similarity or overlap with other published work.
• Disclosure and conflict of interest: Information obtained through peer review is confidential and not used for personal advantage; reviewers should not consider manuscripts where conflicts of interest exist.

3) Duties of the Editor

• Publication decisions: The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which submitted articles should be published, guided by the journal’s editorial policies and applicable legal requirements (e.g., libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism), and may consult the Editorial Board and reviewers.
• Fair review: Each manuscript is evaluated on its intellectual content without regard to race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
• Confidentiality: The Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board members, and editorial staff do not disclose information about a submitted manuscript except to the authors, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher as appropriate.
• Disclosure and conflicts of interest: Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript will not be used in the research of the Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Board members without the expressed written consent of the author.