Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
Journal Igra ustvarjalnosti (IU), in translation, Creativity Game (CG) is an academic double blind peer-reviewed journal published by the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture and Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering. One of the priorities of the editorial team is to publish quality original papers. The integrity of the content published is an essential objective and will be ensured during the review, editing and publishing process. To that purpose, all the parties involved, authors, reviewers, and members of the editorial team, are expected to fully adhere to the IU journal policy regarding publication ethics and malpractice and respect the statements below.
The Editor(s)-in-Chief are responsible for providing guidance to guest editors, authors and reviewers on everything that is expected of them as well as keeping the editorial team updated on new policies and developments.
The IU ethic statements are based on
COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines) and on other (e.g. existing Elsevier) policies.
1 Duties and responsibilities of editors and editorial board
1.1 Editorial independence
IU editors evaluate submitted manuscripts exclusively on the basis of the academic merit (importance, originality, study’s validity, clarity) and their relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious belief, political philosophy or institutional affiliation. Decisions to edit and publish are not determined by the policies of governments or any other agencies outside of the journal itself.
1.2 Publication decisions
The editors ensure that all submitted manuscripts considered for publications undergo peer-review by at least two reviewers who are experts in the field. The Editors-in-Chief are responsible for deciding which of the manuscripts submitted to the journal will be published, based on the validation of the work in question, its importance to researchers and readers, the reviewers’ comments, and such legal requirements as are currently in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The Editors-in-Chief shall confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.
1.3 Confidentiality and disclosure
Editors and editorial board will not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers and other editorial advisers, as appropriate. Editors and editorial board should not under any circumstances use unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own purposes without the authors’ explicit written consent. Privileged information or ideas obtained by editors as a result of handling the manuscript will be kept confidential and not used for their personal advantage.
1.4 Conflicts of interest
Editors or members of the IU editorial boards will recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the papers; instead, they will ask another member of the editorial board to handle the manuscript.
1.5 Involvement and cooperation in investigations
Editors and editorial board of Creativity Game journal should take rationally responsive measures when ethical concerns are raised with regard to submitted manuscript or published paper. Such measures will include contacting the author of the manuscript and giving due consideration of the respective complaint or claims made, but may also include further communications to the relevant institution and research bodies, and if the complaint is upheld, the publication of a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other note, as may be relevant. Every reported act of unethical publishing behaviour will be looked into, even if it discovered after publication.
2 Duties and responsibilities of authors
2.1 Reporting standards
Authors of the original research should present an accurate account of the work performed and the results, followed by an objective discussion of the significance of the work. The manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.
2.2 Data access and retention
Authors of the IU may be asked by the IU editorial team to provide the raw data of their study together with the manuscript for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if possible. In any event, authors should ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data centre), provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.
2.3 Collaboration in the publication process
Authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process and cooperate fully by responding promptly to IU editors’ requests for raw data, clarifications, and proof of ethics approval, patient consents and copyright permissions*. 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 IU reduction by the deadline given.
2.4. Originality and plagiarism
Authors should ensure that they have written and submit only entirely original works, and if they have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the work reported in the manuscript should also be cited. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable. Self-plagiarism (also known as text recycling) should also be avoided; however, when text duplication from previous works is necessary, it is then reported transparently and these previous works are fully cited in the publication itself. Authors submitting their works to IU journal for publication confirm that the submitted works represent their own contributions and have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other works without clearly citing the source. The editorship also screens all articles with online plagiarism prevention services, e.g. TurnItIn.
2.5 Acknowledgement of sources
Authors should ensure that they have properly acknowledged the work of others, and should also cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately (from conversation, correspondence or discussion with third parties) must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Authors should not use information obtained in the course of providing confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, unless they have obtained the explicit written permission of the author(s) of the work involved in these services.
2.6 Multiple, duplicate, redundant or concurrent submission
Papers describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal or primary publication. Hence, authors should not submit for consideration a manuscript to IU editorial board that has already been published in another journal. Submission of a manuscript concurrently to more than one journal is considered unethical publishing behaviour. IU editorial board, in accordance with the Elsevier policy, does not view the following prior uses of a work as prior publication: publication in the form of an abstract or published lecture, publication as an academic thesis, publication as an electronic preprint with clearly stated status.
2.7 Authorship of the manuscript
Authorship should be limited to those who who meet the following authorship criteria, as they must be able to take public responsibility for the content: (i) made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, data acquisition, or analysis/interpretation of the study; and (ii) drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content; and (iii) have seen and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication.
All individuals or institutions who made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (such as technical help, writing and editing assistance, general support) but who do not meet the criteria for authorship must not be listed as an author, but should be listed as contributors or acknowledged in the "Acknowledgements" section after their written permission to be named as been obtained. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication in Creativity Game/Igra Ustvarjalnosti.
2.8 Fundamental errors in published works
When authors discover significant errors or inaccuracies in their own published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify the IU journal’s editors and cooperate with them to either correct the paper in the form of an erratum or to retract the paper. If the editors or publisher learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error or inaccuracy, then it is the authors’ obligation to promptly correct or retract the paper or provide evidence to the IU editors of the correctness of the paper.
2.9 Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Authors of the papers submitted to IU should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding, as well as non-financial ones such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest stage possible.
2.10 Hazards and human subjects
If the work involves human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) has approved them. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subject must always be observed.
* Detailed instructions for authors are available on the IU journal webpage. Detailed copyright rules are available on the IU journal webpage
3 Duties and responsibilities of reviewers**
3.1 Contribution to editorial decisions
Appointed peer reviewers of the IU reduction assist editors of IU in making editorial decisions and, through editorial communications with authors, may assist authors in improving their manuscripts. Peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication and scientific endeavour, therefore all the reviewers shall recognize their importance and decisive role within the publishing process.
3.2 Standards of objectivity
Reviews should be conducted strictly objectively and observations formulated clearly with supporting arguments so that authors can use them for improving the manuscript. Personal criticism of the authors is inappropriate.
3.3 Competences
Peer reviewers will be invited by the editors and editorial board to review a specific manuscript based on their competences. Any invited referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript should immediately notify the editors and decline the invitation to review, so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.
3.4 Confidentiality and disclosure
All the manuscripts received in the redaction of IU journal for review are confidential documents and must be treated as such; they must not be shown to or discussed with others except if authorized by the editors. Reviewers should not under any circumstances use unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript for the reviewer’s own research purposes without the authors’ explicit written consent. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for the reviewer’s personal advantage. This applies also to invited reviewers who decline the review invitation.
3.5 Conflicts of interest
Any invited referee who has conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the manuscript and the work described therein should immediately notify the editors to declare their conflicts of interest and decline the invitation to review, so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.
3.6 Promptness
Editors and invited reviewers shall arrange the timeframe for reviewing. Any invited referee who knows that its prompt review will not be manageable should immediately notify the editors and decline the invitation to review so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.
3.7 Acknowledgement of sources
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement, i.e. an observation, derivation or argument reported in previous publications should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also notify the editors of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other manuscript (published or unpublished) of which they have personal knowledge.
** Detailed instructions for reviewers are available on the IU journal webpage.