Publication Ethics

  • Introduction

    Brepols is a leading publisher of academic book series and journals. An entirely independent firm since our establishment in 1796, we are committed to maintaining editorial independence and we abide by a strict code of publication ethics, which is reflected in our editorial procedures and processes. In order to preserve the highest possible standards of publication ethics and to ensure the research integrity of our publications, we follow the guidelines set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We encourage and will support all authors, Editorial Boards, and peer reviewers, as well as our publishing partners, to adhere to these core principles. We outline the best practice guidelines in key areas below, but for further clarification or in cases of doubt, please check the COPE website. If you believe that the core principles have not been respected throughout our publishing process, please contact the relevant publishing manager or the or email to report this.

  • Types of Research Misconduct

    Plagiarism

    All forms of plagiarism — which might range from literally copying someone else’s work to paraphrasing another researcher’s ideas or copying their research methods without giving due credit — is considered unacceptable and will not be tolerated. All sources, direct or indirect, should be fully acknowledged. When a passage is copied word for word from a previously published work, it should be identified as a citation, either by placing it between quotation marks or else by formatting it as a block quotation,and its source should be cited correctly. These rules also apply when authors make use of their own work, which has previously been published elsewhere. The author is required to correctly cite and refer to the original source to avoid selfplagiarism and text recycling.

    Submitting papers or volumes that do not contain original, hitherto unpublished research, is considered dishonest and therefore unethical. Submissions containing plagiarism will be rejected. If plagiarism is discovered after publication, COPE guidelines regarding retractions will be followed.

    Duplicate & Redundant Publication

    We ask authors not to submit their manuscript to us for peer review if it is currently under review elsewhere. Resubmitting or offering for publication identical or near-identical content to that found in a prior publication, ‘salami slicing’, and other forms of redundant publication are likewise considered a breach of publication ethics. Republication of a translation of a paper in another language is acceptable, provided that full reference is given to the original, and that the first publisher has granted approval.

    Censorship

    We respect the background of our authors, editors, and peer reviewers, and do not treat anyone differently based on identity, race, gender, religion, nationality, or other personal traits. Editorial decisions are taken on academic grounds, based on reports prepared by referees who have been commissioned by virtue of their specialism in the appropriate field, unless the potential impacts of behavioural misconduct by authors or editors cannot be ignored. All publications are evaluated by an EditorialBoard, who ensures that the screening is done independently, without conflicts of interest, and with due regard for the confidentiality of the review process. We will never accept censorship by any of our partners or will be complicit in it.

    Unprovenanced Artefacts

    Scientific research should be conducted according to international standards and scholarly engagement with cultural material must always be lawful and ethical. Brepols aligns with the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, and will therefore not publish cultural material knowingly obtained illegally from unprovenanced sources, unless it is the view of the Editorial Board that such publication will directly contribute to discussions concerning the loss of archaeological or historical context, or acquisition history. Work dealing with human remains must have been carried out in line with national legislation and informed by professional standards.

    Handling of Allegations, Disputes, Complaints, and Appeals

    When concerns about misconduct are raised or potential errors in our published content are pointed out, we are guided by the COPE recommendations and guidelines. Concerns can be directed to or to the or relevant publishing manager.

    When we receive a concern, first we would inform the author or editor involved that a concern has been raised. Subsequently, we would support the journal or series editor in their investigation and, if necessary, liaise with the relevant institutions or third parties. When the conclusion of this investigation points out that there is evidence of misconduct we will consider issuing a retraction, correction or expression of concern following the COPE Retraction Guidelines.

  • Information for Authors

    Authorship and Contributorship

    The attribution of a contribution to one or more author(s) should reflect the reality. It is unethical to omit names of scholars who contributed substantially to the research. All researchers who made a significant contribution should be listed as co-authors, provided they agree to take responsibility and accountability for the integrity of the published work and were involved in the revision or necessary amendments to the content as part of the peer review or production process. Citation manipulation, or crediting as an author any person who did not make a substantial contribution to the conception, execution, or interpretation of the research reported in the publication is also a breach of publication ethics. Scholars who have a lesser involvement in the research should thus be listed as contributors or identified in the acknowledgements. For each author, an affiliation, representing the institution(s) at which the research has been done, supported, and/or approved, should be given. We align with established and upcoming industry standards, like ORCID, to enhance transparency in authorship.

    The use of any AI tool or other software while collecting and analysing data, writing text, and producing images or other graphical elements must be clearly stated, describing transparently which AI tool or software was used and how it was used. AI tools cannot be listed as an author of a publication, as they do not meet the requirements for authorship. Authors using AI tools remain fully responsible for the content of their publication and its originality and accuracy, including those elements produced using AI tools or other software.

    Author name changes after publication

    After a name change, authors may wish to update their name, pronouns, and other relevant biographical information for books and papers published prior to the name change. Brepols will always accept this request without asking for the reason for the name change or for further details or documentation.

    In case of a name change request, we will correct the metadata and adjust, to the extent possible, the online version of the article, including both the full text and the PDF. We will also resubmit the updated metadata to the DOI Registration Agency

    We will handle all request with the utmost discretion and make these corrections silently, without publishing a change notification, to protect the author’s privacy. If the author prefers to publish a formal public author correction, this should be explicitly stated at the time of the name change request.

    Brepols encourages authors to use ORCID, which, by attributing a unique, persistent identifier to scholars, helps distinguish academic authors and accurately attribute their work, regardless of name variations or changes over time, tracing back all publications to this unique identifier.

    Please contact your Publishing Manager to request a name change. Any name change request made by someone who is not the author, without the explicit consent of the author, is considered a breach of publication ethics and will be rejected by Brepols.

    Conflicts of Interest and Funding

    When submitting a text for publication, authors should disclose any conflict of interest that could affect their objectivity in a cover letter and/or footnote to the manuscript. Conflicts of interest can be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial. The funding body of the research and/or any other source of (financial) support, including funding for open access publication and for writing, indexing, or editorial assistance, should be mentioned here as well, or else indicated in the acknowledgements section.

    Data Transparency and Reproducibility

    We highly value transparency and openness of data. For all our publications, we support the possibility for storing and sharing research data as supplementary content, in an open access format at no cost, to facilitate reproducibility. The supplementary content must provide extra information to the author’s work (monograph, journal article, or contribution to a collected essays volume) and can consist of open data collections, primary sources,appendices, tables, colour images, graphs, etc., i.e. materials that are not essential to be included or that cannot be accommodated in the main text, but that would be useful to the reader. Such supplementary content should be considered as not peer reviewed, unless otherwise stated. The open access platform for supplementary content is available at https://brepols.figshare.com/.

    Errors and Retractions

    Authors who discover any significant mistakes or inaccuracies in their work must promptly notify the editor of the book series or journal, as well as the publisher, and must provide them with a correction or erratum as soon as possible. When the error is such that it renders the entire work or parts of it invalid, the paper, chapter, or volume should be retracted, and a public explanation of the reason for this retraction given. Readers are alerted of such post-publication changes; these post-publication notices are freely accessible and linked to the article or chapter concerned.

    Copyright, Licensing, and Intellectual Property

    Authors are required to sign a copyright agreement prior to publication. For Open Access publications, all authors retain copyright. The copyrights will be governed by a Creative Commons-licence. The authors will grant Brepols the license to publish and disseminate the article by signing a license to publish agreement.

  • Information for Editorial Boards and Peer Reviewers

    Each of our book series is supported by an Editorial Board of respected academics based at institutions around the world. All Brepols volumes are extensively peer reviewed to ensure they meet the most stringent scholarly criteria.

    The responsibility for deciding which material to accept for publication rests mainly with the general editor or wider Editorial Board of a book series or journal. Editorial Boards should have quality control mechanisms in place as a key part of the decision-making process, both to ensure the excellence of the published material, and to encourage accuracy, completeness, and clarity of research. All content submitted to the book series or journal should therefore be subjected to peer review. Submitted volume proposals or journal papers can be rejected without peer review when the content, publication language and/or type of paper do not match with the scope of intended series or journal. Non-peer reviewed sections of a volume or journal, if any are included, should clearly be identified as such.

    Peer Review for Series and Journal Editors

    Editorial Boards for book series and journal should adopt policies and procedures to guarantee an unbiased, objective, and timely peer review process. Papers and volumes should be reviewed strictly on academic merit, based on reports prepared by referees who have been commissioned by their specialism in the appropriate field. Editors have a duty to ensure that the screening is done fairly and independently, without regard to the author’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy, and without any conflicts of interest. All journals and book series should adopt specific procedures for ensuring a fair peer review of submissions made by editors, members of the editorial or advisory board, and other editorial staff. It is obvious that they can never be involved in editorial decisions about their own work.

    Journal and series editors guarantee that all material under review is treated confidentially. No information about the submitted paper can be distributed to anyone other than the corresponding author, (candidate) referees, the Editorial Board, and the publisher. Neither members of an Editorial Board, nor peer reviewers, may use any unpublished content disclosed in submitted work for their own research purposes without the explicit written consent of the author.

    Peer Reviewing as an External Expert

    Peer reviewers are expected to assess the originality and quality of the research, to draw attention to any redundant publication and plagiarism, and to point out relevant literature that is not yet referred to. Prior to accepting a peer review request, selected referees should report any conflicts of interest that might influence their opinion. They should also notify the Editorial Board of the journal or book series when a prompt review (as agreed between Editorial Board and reviewer) would be impossible or when they feel unqualified to assess the paper.

    We encourage all peer-reviewers and parties involved in the editorial process to familiarise themselves with the COPE Guidelines on Editing of Peer Reviews. All comments offered by referees in the peer review report have to be written in a respectful and constructive manner and should be passed on in their entirety to the author. Unless otherwise stated in the description of the book series or journal’s peer review process, Editorial Boards will ensure reports are sent in an anonymous form to protect the identity of the peer reviewer.

    To avoid citation manipulation, journal editors should not force authors to cite articles from their journal for non-scholarly reasons, to artificially increase the journals metrics and to inappropriately influence the journal’s ranking and impact factor.

    Errors and Retractions

    When authors or readers point out genuine errors in published material to the editors of the journal or book series, COPE guidelines will be followed and the editors must be willing to publish a correction or clarification, or else to initiate the process of retracting the flawed publication. Journal editors should also offer authors the opportunity to respond to critics.

    Post-Publication Discussions

    All journals should allow for post-publication discussions and critiques through the publication of letters to the editors, commentaries and other article types that facilitate scholarly discussion.

  • Publisher Transparency and Best Practices

    Information Transparency and Metadata Management

    All book series and journals published by Brepols have a unique name that is clearly differentiated from other book series and journal titles to ensure that potential authors and readers cannot be confused or mislead. For all our publications, we keep a record with all details (metadata) describing the publication. We strive to follow the COPE’s principles of Transparency and Best Practices in Scholarly Publishing and encourage our partners to adhere to the same principles.

    Website, Marketing, and other Media Communications

    Brepols guarantees the provision of a web page for every book series and journal, which will be made available on its website www.brepols.net. Each web page will clearly indicate the name of the general editor or else the research centre under whose auspices the book series or journal is published, together with the names and affiliations of all members of the Editorial Board, as well as any Advisory Board, if applicable. In cases of distribution, we will also indicate the name of the publisher of the book series or journal. Other information that will be published on the individual web page of each book series or journal comprises: the frequency of publication (in the case of a journal), the peer review policy, contact information for the editorial office, information regarding any fees that may apply to manuscript processing and/or publishing, copyright and licensing information, and price models for journal subscriptions.

    Our marketing communication, including online communication such as social media and email, serves as a powerful tool for disseminating information on our publications and for engaging with the academic community. We ensure that our marketing communication is never at the expense of the integrity of the content, and is guided by the following principles: honesty, responsibility, fairness and respect for consumers and society. When we advertise our products and services to customers, we make sure that this is always done in accordance with our Privacy Policy and with data protection regulations.

    We allow for suitable, limited advertising on our online academic platforms, and within some of our print publications. Where present, advertising must: be independent from editorial decisions on what we publish; be clearly distinct from content and appropriate to the audience.