Publication ethics

Sections

I. Alignment with COPE standards
II. Research ethics
III. Conflict of interest statement
IV. Author contribution statement
V. Responsibilities of contributors
VI. Corrections, retractions, post-publication procedures
VII. Archiving, licensing and access
VIII. Peer review process
IX. Plagiarism and redundancy detection
X. Processing charges and publication fees
XI. Open access

Conatus – Journal of Philosophy is firmly committed to maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity, transparency, and fairness in all stages of the publication process. To this end, the Journal adheres to internationally recognised ethical standards and guidelines.

I. Alignment with COPE standards

The Journal’s core practices and editorial policies are fully aligned with the principles outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The complete COPE Core Practices document is available at:
https://publicationethics.org/files/editable-bean/COPE_Core_Practices_0.pdf.

Authors may also have access to the COPE Core Practices here (the document is available on the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) website).

All parties involved in the publication process - including authors, reviewers, and editors - are expected to adhere to these principles, particularly with regard to:

Prevention of plagiarism and duplicate publication
Declaration and management of conflicts of interest
Fair and unbiased peer review
Data integrity and responsible reporting of research results

II. Research ethics

In cases where submitted work involves empirical research, human participants, personal data, or sensitive materials, authors must explicitly state their compliance with recognized ethical standards.

For research involving human subjects, Conatus – Journal of Philosophy follows the Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (World Medical Association, 2013). The full text is available at:
https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects.
Authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained when applicable and that approval was granted by an appropriate institutional ethics committee.
Submissions involving AI-generated content or datasets must include a clear statement on authorship responsibility, data provenance, and algorithmic transparency.

III. Conflict of interest statement

Conatus – Journal of Philosophy requires all authors, reviewers, and editors to declare any potential conflicts of interest, whether financial, institutional, or personal, that could influence the objectivity of their work. If no such conflicts exist, no statement is necessary.

Authors must include a Conflict of Interest Declaration at the end of their manuscript or explicitly state “The authors declare no conflict of interest.”
Reviewers must recuse themselves from evaluating manuscripts where such conflicts exist.
Members of the Editorial Board are appointed by the Editor-in-Chief on the basis of their scholarly expertise, publication record, and active contribution to the field; appointments are typically life-long. All editors are required to disclose any real or potential conflicts of interest and must recuse themselves from handling submissions for which such conflicts exist. Editors must ensure impartial handling of submissions and reassign manuscripts where necessary to avoid perceived or actual bias.

IV. Author contribution statement

For submissions with more than one author, Conatus – Journal of Philosophy requires a clear Author Contribution Statement specifying the role of each contributor. This ensures transparency and prevents guest or honorary authorship.
Authors may follow the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) or a simplified format such as:
“A.B. conceived the research idea; C.D. conducted the analysis; E.F. wrote the first draft; all authors revised and approved the final manuscript.”
If all authors contributed equally, this must be explicitly stated (e.g., “All authors contributed equally to this work.”).

V. Responsibilities of contributors

Authors must submit original work that has not been published elsewhere and must clearly acknowledge the use of others’ ideas or data. They are responsible for the accuracy of their claims.
Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts objectively, confidentially, and without conflict of interest.
Editors ensure that all submissions are assessed based on scholarly merit alone and that decisions are not influenced by gender, nationality, institutional affiliation, or personal beliefs of the authors.

By submitting or participating in the editorial process, all contributors confirm their acceptance of these ethical standards. The journal reserves the right to investigate breaches of this policy, and if necessary, to contact the author’s institution/funder, retract published articles, and publish expressions of concern.

VI. Corrections, retractions, post-publication procedures

In accordance with COPE Guidelines, the journal publishes:

Corrigenda (author errors): According to the COPE guidelines, "the term corrigendum (or correction) usually refers to an author error." The Journal will consider changes to articles requested by their authors at any time after publication. Authors should contact the Managing Editor or the Editor-in-Chief; they will determine whether to publish a corrigendum or not. In case of co-authored articles, all authors should state their agreement.
Errata (production errors): According to the COPE guidelines, "The term erratum usually refers to a production error, caused by the journal." Before publishing an erratum, the Journal will contact the author or the authors, indicate the mistake, and ask of their approval.
Author name changes (upon author request): Journal authors may change names during their publishing careers for various reasons: marriage or divorce, shift in their gender identity, religious conversion. Conatus - Journal of Philosophy will not require authors to disclose the reasons for a name change request. Conatus will only accept requests directly from the author. Unless otherwise requested, Conatus will silently update the author's name, and update metadata to abstracting and indexing services. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the article will remain the same.
Addenda (for significant post-publication updates): In case the author or the authors wish to provide additional information important for the understanding of their article, for example in order to add more depth to the topic, or clarify, or expand it, post-publication addenda may be published. The Editor-in-Chief and the Managing Editor will determine whether or not the publication of an addendum is necessary.
Expressions of concern: Expressions of Concern are published at the editors’ discretion to notify readers of serious concerns about published work and raise awareness to a possible problem in an article.
Retractions (for ethical breaches or legal violations): The Journal reserves the right to issue retraction statements and/or remove published content according to the COPE Retraction Guidelines in cases that

serious errors occure in the conduct of the research,
the views expressed are manifestly partial and/or outwardly biased,
publication or research ethics have been violated.

Published content of any kind (research papers, introductions, discussions, book reviews, etc.) will be completely removed from the Journal's online platform in cases that there is

defamatory content,
content that infringes the rights of a third party, such as intellectual property rights, the right to privacy, or other legal rights,
unlawful content (including instances of violation of the General Data Protection Regulations),
clear evidence of plagiarism,
content that would promote anti-social or discriminatory views, as well as hate speech and violence.

Content may be removed if it is defamatory, infringes rights, violates privacy, or promotes discriminatory or unlawful material.

VII. Archiving, licensing and access

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication.
The published work is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0, allowing sharing and adaptation with appropriate credit, noncommercial use, and no additional restrictions.

Authors may:

Enter separate, non-exclusive agreements for further distribution (e.g., in books or repositories).
Post their work online before or during the submission process to encourage engagement and citation.

The journal is published through the National Documentation Center (EKT), which provides:

OJS platform and digital archiving services.
PKP Preservation Network for long-term digital preservation.

Deposit Policy

Authors may self-archive all versions of their work (submitted, accepted, or published) in repositories without embargo.

Authors retain full rights to their work and may reuse, distribute, or republish it freely, provided that the original publication in Conatus is acknowledged.

VIII. Peer review process

The journal employs a double-blind peer-review process (authors and reviewers remain anonymous) to ensure the quality, validity, and academic integrity of published content. Reviewers are selected on the basis of their demonstrated expertise. In cases of substantially divergent evaluations, a third reviewer may be invited to provide an additional assessment. The final publication decision rests with the Editor(s). The Editor’s final decision regarding acceptance or rejection is definitive and cannot be appealed by the author(s).

a. Initial assessment

All submitted manuscripts will be assessed by the Editor (or the Editors) to ensure, on the one hand, that they fall within the scope of the Journal, and on the other that they abide by the academic standards the Journal embraces. Those manuscripts that meet the Journal’s criteria will, by standard procedure that guarantees double blind review, be channelled to independent (to wit, not affiliated with the same institute as the author) expert reviewers, at least two, for anonymous peer review.

Book reviews, interviews, introductory notes or editorials (in the case of special issues) will be accepted for publication after being reviewed only by the Editor or Editors.

b. Reviewer feedback and decision

Reviewers evaluate the manuscript’s originality, clarity, argumentation, methodology, and contribution to philosophy, and recommend acceptance, revision, or rejection. In case of conflicting reports, a third reviewer may be consulted. The final decision rests with the Editor(s).

c. Review timeline

The full peer-review process, including editorial decision, typically takes up to 16 weeks from acknowledgment of receipt.

d. Editorially reviewed submissions

Book reviews, interviews, and editorial notes (e.g., for special issues) are reviewed directly by the Editor(s).

IX. Plagiarism and redundancy detection

Conatus – Journal of Philosophy is committed to ensuring the originality and integrity of all published work. Following submission, all manuscripts are screened for plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and redundant publication prior to the peer-review process through Turnitin plagiarism-detection software, provided through the NKUA Applied Philosophy Research Laboratory, to identify significant textual similarity with previously published or submitted material.

Manuscripts found to contain plagiarised content, duplicate publication, or substantial overlap with other works (including the authors’ own previously published material) may be rejected at any stage. Cases of suspected misconduct are investigated by the Editorial Board in accordance with COPE guidelines; confirmed violations may result in rejection, retraction of published articles, and notification of the authors’ institutions or relevant authorities.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all sources are properly cited and that submitted manuscripts are original and not under consideration elsewhere. Submission to Conatus – Journal of Philosophy constitutes the authors’ acknowledgement of and agreement with these policies.

X. Processing charges and publication fees

The journal does not levy article processing charges (APCs), submission fees, publication fees, or any other form of cost to authors. Open access to all published content is provided immediately and entirely free of charge, ensuring that both the publication and dissemination of scholarly work in Conatus – Journal of Philosophy remain without financial barriers for authors and readers alike.

XI. Open access

Conatus - Journal of Philosophy is a diamond open-access journal, offering all its content freely to users and their institutions without any charges. Likewise, authors can publish their work without incurring any fees. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to the full texts of articles, or use them for any lawful purpose without needing prior permission from the publisher or the author. This policy aligns with the BOAI (Budapest Open Access Initiative) definition of open access.

Conatus - Journal of Philosophy provides immediate open access to its content at no cost either for the author, or for the reader, since the Journal's aim and mission is to make original philosophical research freely available, to facilitate exchange of ideas and inspire engagement in philosophical debates. To this purpose authors are encouraged to deposit their articles, as well as data underlying the publications, to institutional and/or other appropriate subject repositories under a Creative Commons BY-NC license. Permitted reuse is defined by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

The fact that Conatus - Journal of Philosophy is a diamond open-access journal, means that:

All content is freely available without subscription or author fees.
Users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, or link to articles without prior permission, in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition.

Authors are encouraged to deposit published articles and underlying data in institutional or subject repositories under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).