Declaration of Ethics

The Journal of East Asian Cultures (in Hungarian: Távol-keleti Tanulmányok), is fully committed to adhere to, represent and spread the highest ethical standards in its operations. In accordance with the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and the CSE's Recommendations for Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications, authors, editors, reviewers and others involved in our procedures must adhere strictly to the principles detailed below and are asked to follow the recommendations of COPE with regard to all their related activities.

Review procedure

Articles submitted to the journal go through a double-blind peer review procedure. Each submitted manuscript is evaluated by two reviewers. Information and messages between authors and reviewers are conveyed by the editors. Reviews are never made public.

Authors

• submit articles based on their own research in accordance with the standards of acknowledging and referring to other works, refraining from any form of plagiarism – plagiarism is considered a serious violation of scholarly ethics and is not tolerated;
• refer properly to other contributors involved in the research;
• submit original manuscripts that have not been piublished in any other publication (digital or printed);
• do not submit the same manuscript to any other medium while it is under review at the journal;
• only submit manuscripts based on original results and not on reformulation of already published findings; in case of partial overlap, they refer properly to earlier publications;
• handle the work of fellow scholars in a fair and professional manner avoiding any kind of personal comments or offensive language;
• are responsible for the authenticity and accuracy of data used in their research;
• communicate financial (or any other kind of) support behind their results (scholarships, research group memberships etc.);
• cooperate with editors and accept that their manuscript undergoes a double-blind peer review and other editing procedures of the journal;
• inform the editors about any conflict of interest that might affect the fair and anonymous reviewing process in any way;
• report any mistake or shortcoming if discovered in their article during the preparations or after publication, enabling editors to publish corrections or retract the article.

Editors

• are responsible for adherence to ethical norms, guaranteeing the exclusion of personal, financial, and other non-professional interests from the procedures applied;
• ensure that manuscripts are evaluated on a fair, professional and equal basis regardless of the race, religion, nationality, gender, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the author(s);
• clearly define and publish the criteria of evaluation and the procedures applied by the journal;
• are responsible for the quality of the review process, ensuring that submitted manuscripts are judged by qualified reviewers in a double-blind peer review process,
• are solely responsible for the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript;
• are responsible for ensuring that no conflict of interest affects any procedure of the journal, especially the reviewing process;
• guarantee the anonymity of authors and reviewers at all times;
• publish corrections or, if necessary, consider retracting an article (especially in cases where authorship is dubious or plagiarism is revealed);
• document, investigate and clarify any complaint or controversial situation and ensure that all parties’ views are fairly represented;
• strictly adhere to ethical principles of authors in case of submitting manuscripts to the journal; i.e., in such cases other editors shall be involved to ensure anonymity.

Reviewers

• are responsible for accepting the request for review only if they possess the required skills and knowledge for properly and objectively judging the manuscript;
• communicate to the editor if they are aware of any violation of norms or conflict of interest that would affect the objective and anonymous review process;
• prepare their evaluation by agreed deadlines and in a clear and professional format adhering to the procedures of the journal, justifying each element of the evaluation;
• prepare an evaluation that contains only professional opinions, and no personal comments, or humiliating or offensive language;
• pay special attention to any lack of proper referencing in the manuscript;
• handle the manuscript received for review in strict confidentiality. 

The Publisher

• provides required support for editors and all involved parties to act according to the ethical principles of the journal;
• cooperates with authors, editors and reviewers to develop the processes and procedures applied;
• guarantees that the standards of free scholarly research are met at all times and that the quality and integrity of the journal is not influenced by any non-professional interest.

Handling Breaches of the Ethical Principles

In case of an allegation of a breach of the above principles, the issue must be properly documented, thoroughly investigated, and the responsible parties shall be immediately notified, providing a fair opportunity for the person allegedly at fault to present their viewpoint. 

In minor cases, the proven fault should be corrected and the person at fault warned to refrain from unethical behaviour. In serious cases, the affected manuscript’s publication should be reconsidered from the first step. Depending on the severity of the fault, legal steps may ensue.

No publishing fees
Following a publication policy based on the principle of equity, the Journal of East Asian Cultures does not charge any article processing, submission or publication charges. All articles published in the journal can be accessed free of charge immediately after their publication.