As written in the instructions for authors, dearq emphasises that every article submitted for consideration and publication must be:
- Original – the article must be the intellectual property of the author alone, who must take full responsibility for its content. In accordance with the journal’s guidelines, all information and content taken from existing material, either published or unpublished, must be duly acknowledged in the body of the text, and in the final bibliography.
- Unpublished – the article has not been previously published, nor has it been accepted for publication.
- Exclusivity – the article should not be submitted to any other journal(s). The author will be required to declare that the article is not being considered for publication by another media, nor will they submit the article to another media until having received conformation of acceptance or rejection from dearq.
It is the joint responsibility of all the actors in the editorial process (authors, referees, and editors) to avoid the publishing of articles that do not adhere to the aforementioned standards. As such, each and every article must be submitted in conjunction with a Certification of Originality and Exclusivity. It is the task of both the editorial team and the referees to actively endeavour to detect any irregularities in the articles.
dearq will take the following position if the stated anomalies are encountered:
- If the article is submitted with no Certification of Originality and Exclusivity attached, then it will not be considered until the correct documentation has been sent. Failure to comply with the guidelines on documentation required when submitting an article to a thematic call for papers may result in its rejection due to missing the closing date.
- In the event that it is discovered the article has already been published, or that it does not fully fulfill all the stated requisites, aforementioned in this declaration, it will be rejected with immediate effect.
- In the event that an article is published by dearq and is retrospectively discovered to have been previously published, the online version of the article will be revoked. The title of the article as well as the author(s) will remain, along with a note that it has been revoked and the reasons for the decision.
- In the event that the article is published by dearq and it is found to have retrospectively also been published by another journal after its date of publication in dearq, the editorial team will do the following: contact the editor of the journal in question, requesting that, if possible, the publication be retracted leaving only the title of the article, as well as the author(s) name(s), along with a note that it has been retracted and the reasons for the decision.
