The editorial board of Aridon is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all necessary measures to prevent publication malpractice. Authors who submit papers to this journal affirm that their work is original and unpublished, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Each manuscript undergoes plagiarism screening before being sent for peer review. Aridon endorses and adheres to the codes of conduct and international standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), available free of charge at http://publicationethics.org/. 

The standards of expected ethical behaviour have to be met by all participants involved in the act of publishing. For authors, they should:

-adhere to the Submission Guidelines and make sure that the manuscripts are not under consideration by any other journal and have not been published anywhere else;

-ensure that they submit entirely original works. It is the author’s duty to avoid plagiarism in all its forms. The submitted materials are checked with an anti-plagiarism software;

-indicate if there is a use of any AI tool in the research process;

-submit papers that have been conducted ethically and responsibly and that comply with all relevant legislation;

-present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation;

-endeavour to describe their methods clearly and unambiguously, so that their findings can be confirmed by others;

-take responsibility for the submitted work/s, as well as their layout;

-ensure that the authorship (as represented in the byline for the paper) accurately reflects the individuals’ contributions to the work and its reporting;

-disclose relevant funding sources and any existing or potential conflicts of interest.

For Editors, they should make fair and unbiased decisions independent of commercial considerations; ensure a fair and appropriate peer review process; adopt editorial policies that encourage maximum transparency and complete, honest reporting; guard the integrity of the published record by issuing corrections and retractions when needed and pursuing suspected or alleged research and publication misconduct; and have appropriate policies that comply with COPE guidelines for handling editorial conflicts of interest. 

Reviewers should demonstrate professional responsibility; declare potential competing, or conflicting, interests; prepare the review within a reasonable time frame (three weeks) unless exceptional circumstances arise, of which the reviewer is expected to inform the Editor-in-Chief on time; state honestly and clearly the strengths and weaknesses of the peer-reviewed text; and maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts. The reviewers should complete the following review form: MANUSCRIPT REVIEW FORM  

COPE ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR PEER REVIEWERS provides more information about the ethical guidelines for peer reviewers.