Publication ethics and best practices of the RVAP

This declaration seeks to set out the criteria applied by the Basque Journal of Public Administration in order to ensure the transparency and integrity of the publishing process. These commitments are inspired by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines , is aimed at both editors and reviewers and authors.

Commitments by authors

Originality and plagiarism: authors of the submitted manuscripts to the RVAP shall ensure that their work is original, that it does not contain large parts from other authors or from own pieces of previous published works and that if those parts were to be included it would be with the data and place of their prior publication. Besides, they confirm the accuracy of data, i.e. that empiric data have not been altered.

Multiple and/or repetitive publications: authors should not publish articles that reproduce same results in more one scientific journal. The simultaneous proposal of the same contribution to multiple scientific journals shall be considered incorrect and reprehensible.

Publication Standards: authors should respect the standards for the submission of manuscripts, which shall be available on the Journal’s website. Likewise, the formal requisites that are the style guidelines of the Journal to be followed by the submitted manuscripts will also be detailed on the Journal’s website. Manuscripts shall be sent in an electronic media, by email, to the Secretary of the Journal: argitalpenak-ivap@ivap.eus. The receipt of the submitted manuscripts shall be acknowledged within a maximum of  thirty days.

List of sources: authors shall always provide the correct reference of the sources and materials mentioned in the article.

Authorship: with regard to the authorship of the work, it will be ensured the inclusion of those persons that have made a substantial scientific and intellectual contribution to it.

Conflict of interests and dissemination: authors must expressly state at the beginning of the contribution any professional or personal relationship that may be relevant. They must also indicate funding sources that helped the research that led to the publication.

Responsibility: all authors accept the responsibility for what has been written, they should take into account the latest and most relevant scientific literature on the subject under analysis and to consider the different trends of knowledge.

Errors in the published manuscripts: in the event of a substantial error or inaccuracy identified by the authors themselves, they must immediately inform the Journal Editors and provide them with all the information necessary for the appropriated corrections at the bottom of the same article.

Commitments of the reviewers

Peer reviewing: manuscripts shall always be screened by at least two (external) experts members of the Advisory Board of the Basque Journal of Public Administration with the anonymous peer-review of the paper by the double blind procedure.  The opinion of a third reviewer may be sought in the event of significant discrepancies between the two assessments as to whether or not the article should be published. Assignment of papers to peer reviewers will be made without disclosing the identity of their authorship.

Final Decision on the publication: in view of the reviewers’ opinions, the Editorial Board shall adopt its final decision on its publication.

Transfer of rights: the submission of manuscripts implies the automatic transfer exclusively to the Basque Journal of Public Administration of the rights of distribution, public communication and reproduction of published articles, including computer media.

Respect of time limits: the reviewers undertake to screen the manuscripts in the shortest possible time in order to respect the submission times.

Confidentiality: Every manuscript submitted for review shall be treated as confidential. Therefore, reviewers shall refrain from discussing them with other persons.

Objectivity: in the reviewing process of manuscripts the following aspects shall be particularly analized in an objective manner: the relevance of the topic of the work, structure and narrative, wording and style; quality and methodology (including the adequacy of the references used); scope of the scientific contributions and potential impact; as well as the respect for the formal criteria of the Journal. The experts shall advise on both the positive and negative aspects of the reviewed manuscripts and they will recommend their publication and within which section or, as the case may be, their no publication.

Displaying the text: the reviewers agree to accurately identify the bibliographic references of key works possibly forgotten by the author. They shall also inform the editors of any similarity or overlaps with other published works.
• Conflict of interests and confidentiality: conflicts of interests in the appointment of reviewers should be avoided, specifically in case there is a personal or direct labour relationship with the author. Any information obtained during the peer review process is confidential and cannot be used for personal purposes.

Commitments for the Editorial Board and the Advisory Board

The Editorial Board of the RVAP shall act in accordance with the principles of impartiality, integrity, confidentiality, independence and objectivity.

Impartiality: the Editorial Board of the RVAP ensures the selection of the most qualified reviewers to issue a critical and expert assessment of the work. Members of the Editorial Board shall not act as external reviewers but those of the Advisory Board.

Decision on the publication: after the reviewing process and the decision adopted by the Editorial Board, the RVAP officially informs the authors stating the reasons therefor either of the publication of the manuscript and the section where it shall be included –along with requiring the necessary amendments, if any- or of its refusal. If the reviewers have proposed amendments, they shall be communicated to the authors so that they can modify the work before publication.

Integrity: the Editorial Board will evaluate submissions for publication only on the basis of their scientific  quality, without discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, nationality or ideological opinion. With total respect for the freedom of research, expression and creation, the RVAP shall ensure that the manuscripts do not contain pejorative or discriminatory expressions towards persons or groups. It will also promote gender equality.

Confidentiality: the Direction and the Editorial Board undertake not to disclose the information related to submissions for publication to other persons apart from authors, reviewers and editors in such a way that anonymity preserves the intellectual integrity of the whole process.

Conflict of interests and dissemination: The members of the Editorial Board undertake not to use in their own researches contents from the submited manuscripts unless written consent is given by their authors.

Respect of time limits: The Direction of the Journal is responsible for the fullfilment of the time limits in reviews and in the publication of the accepted manuscripts in order to ensure a rapid dissemination of research results. The Direction shall promptly inform the authors once a decision on the publication, refusal or need for revision has been adopted taking into consideration that is a quaterly Journal.

No remuneration: The activities of the members of the Editorial Board, including the Magazine's Management, are not subject to any remuneration.

Funding and advertising

The Basque Journal of Public Administration is funded exclusively from the budget of the Basque Institute of Public Administration, an autonomous body attached to the Department of Governance, Digital Administration and Self-Government of the Basque Government, which serves the public administrations of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.

Publication in the RVAP is free of charge, so authors are not charged for submitting their manuscripts or participating in the editorial process.

The IVAP does not charge readers any fees for accessing the published content.

Open Access and patrimonial rights

The RVAP is in charge of the storage of the manuscripts in appropriate servers and shall ensure the preservation and permanent accesibility to their content. Access shall be open, inmediate and full-text. The IVAP shall retain the patrimonial rights (copyright) upon the published works and it fosters and allows its reuse under the terms of Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license so as to copy, use, communicate, transmit and publicly exhibit them as long as 1) the authorship and the original source of its publication are cited, 2) there is not commercial use, 3) no derivative works license and 4) there is a mention to the licence of use and its specifics.

The RVAP is responsible for storing the works on servers suitable for this purpose and will ensure permanent access to their content; access will be open, immediate and full text. Similarly, it authorises the authors of published articles to follow this practice; authorisation is granted for unrestricted access, respecting in all cases the management of copyright protected by the legal framework in force at the time of publication.

Archiving and digital preservation policy

The journal assigns a persistent DOI (Digital Object Identifier) managed by Crossref to guarantee the identification and accessibility of our articles. RVAP is published using its own open-source system for the management and publication of online academic journals.

RVAP is also preserved in the CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) preservation network, which ensures that articles are preserved and widely available. CLOCKSS is based on the open source LOCKSS software developed at Stanford University Library, which allows libraries to preserve digital journal content by regularly checking their websites for current content for archiving and preservation.

Likewise, the electronic contents of the RVAP journal of are kept in Dokusi, the Single Electronic Archive of the Public Administration of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, and are permanently preserved. Dokusi is equipped with long-term conservation systems (resealing of documents with electronic signatures, transformation of obsolete formats) that are applied to the documents in custody.

Artificial intelligence usage policy

The editorial team of the Basque Journal of Public Administration (RVAP) recognises the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic research and establishes the following rules for authors and members of editorial teams:

AI tools cannot be listed as authors in articles submitted to the RVAP.

The use of AI cannot be aimed at the autonomous creation of content.

It is not necessary to declare the use of AI tools when the purpose of such use has been to improve the readability and style of the texts, as well as to ensure the absence of spelling and grammar errors.

In the case of greater use of artificial intelligence (covering more areas than those specified in the previous point), this contribution must be notified in the first footnote, specifying what it was used for. If the publication is funded by an academic and/or research programme, both notifications shall be included in the same footnote.

The RVAP management will use the necessary tools to detect the misuse of AI. Where misuse is suspected, the management will act diligently. Before taking any action (including the withdrawal or deletion of an article), the parties concerned will be given a hearing.

Mechanisms against plagiarism and other irregularities

The Management and Editorial Board are responsible for deciding on the removal of works that contain plagiarism or other fraudulent practices. When there is suspicion of plagiarism or other possible irregularities, action will be taken diligently. These circumstances may be detected using computer programs designed for this purpose, but always under the supervision of the Journal's management, which will follow the guidelines of the COPE Guide to Good Practice for Editors of Publications in such cases.

Before taking any action to address possible irregularities, including the withdrawal or removal of an article, the parties concerned will be given a hearing. Works that include content identified as plagiarised will not be published in the Journal and, if they have already been published, they will be removed.