The publication process of our journal involves authors, the journal’s office management, the (chief) editors, the peer reviewers, the members of the advisory board, and the copy editor. All of us are human and thus by no means infallible. Yet, we maintain high standards we expect every person involved to meet. Below, we describe the most important points in this respect for which we also refer to the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) Guidelines.

1.How We Handle User Data
JRFM supports a strict open access policy. All public content is available without registeration. However, if a user submits a paper or review, or if a user provides a peer review, s/he has to register. Registration enables users to submit contributions, act as editors, peer reviewers and advisors (if applicable) and to receive notifications from JRFM about important news. The login data can be disabled in the user profile at any time, and the profile can be deletedby the JRFM office manager at any time if requested by a user.
For registeration, name, surname and a valid e-mail address are required. All other data are optional. All personal data are considered strictly confidential and are only used for the purpose of producing the journal. Under no circumstances will JRFM pass personal data to third parties with the exception of legal authorities according to legal requirements. Users are entitled to request the immediate and permanent deletion of their data at any time.

2.The Authors
The authorship of a manuscript submitted to JRFM is limited to people who made a significant contribution to the content submitted. This means that everyone and only those who substantially contribute in writing the text have to be named as a (co)author. JRFM encourages its authors to adhere to the best practices explained in the COPE guidelines.
The authors are highly esteemed partners in the challenge to produce original and creative contents. We trust that they submit manuscripts according to the style guide and containing an accurate presentation of their research results and accurate description of their objectives. If authors refer to the work of others (e.g. data, texts, images, figures etc.), they are obliged to properly quote the source, according to the standards defined in our style guide to ensure the protection of intellectual property rights.
We also expect authors not to submit the same contribution to different journals at the same time.
The submitter of the manuscript is responsible to seek permission for submission from his co-authors, and to inform them about all the steps of the review process, the revision of the text and the approval of the galley files before publication.
JRFM does not encourage the use of Large Language Models. However, if authors use LLMs, we require that they clearly indicate how the use of LLMs impacts the article uploaded on our webiste. Particularly, we require that the author indicates if LLMs has been employed to conceive the research design for the article and/or which parts of the article have been written with LLMs. The journal reserves the right to check submitted articles for plagiarism and generative AI content.
Authors are expected to disclose any aspects of possible conflicts of interest in the submission process. This includes, but is not limited to, sources of financial support, employment or other relationships of dependence.
If a submitter has received financial or material support from third parties, especially from private companies, or if s/he is in any relationship of dependence with them, the related information is to be disclosed. Conflicts of interest or competing interests must be declared. As an open access journal, JRFM encourages its authors to work under the guidelines of open science. This implies that authors may be asked to provide the underlying data to their work to ensure the reproducibility of their work.
Finally, a word on copyright issues: JRFM is located in Graz, Austria. Therefore, Austrian law is applicable and the place of venue is Graz. Austrian copyright law is restrictive, yet it gives room for the scientific quotations of text and other media. As an author, please make sure that all media you use (e.g. pictures, screenshots, film stills, audio files, scans etc.) are either covered by §42f. UrhG or approved by the current copyright holder.

3.The Office Management Staff
If the submitter does not enclose an explicit note stating otherwise, our office manager directly forwards the uploaded contribution to the editor(s) of the issue to which the contribution is attributed. The office manager is not allowed to forward submitted manuscripts to third parties prior to publications without written consent of the author. Confidentiality is key for us, especially in all respects concerning the double-blind peer review process. Thus, the office manager will never disclose names of authors to peer reviewers and vice versa (see also our detailed description of our peer review process).

4.The Editors and the Advisory Board
The chief editors are responsible for the management of the journal and its public appearance. They manage its business operations and, together with the editorial board, are responsible for the ethical oversight.
Each issue of JRFM is assigned to a member (in some cases several cooperating members) of the editorial board. They are responsible for the peer review and production process including the final decision to accept or reject a contribution. Their decisions about the articles and the issue as a whole are based solely on the scholarly quality of the submitted text without regard of the person of the submitter, and neither will gender, race, religion, ethnicity nor other such factors have any influence on them. The editors of an issue may discuss the peer review or production process within the editorial board. All members of the editorial board are requested to keep all information about submitted texts strictly confidential.
The members of the advisory board are consultative partners of the editorial board in their respective field of expertise. When considering topics for upcoming issues, they are our preferred respondents. They may also be involved in the peer review process.

5.The Peer-reviewers
Peer-reviewers are esteemed partners in the quality management process of JRFM. Their recommendations are crucial for both the issue editor(s) and the author(s). Thus, our reviewers commit themselves to these principles:
Objectivity shall be maintained throughout the review process. The reviewer may withdraw from the review process at any time if they consider their expertise as insufficient, if they feel they are professionally biased or are personally involved.
Although reviewers are required to critically evaluate the texts, they are expected to provide constructive critique. Not only will their review be a suggestion for the journals editors to publish or reject a specific paper, it also should provide guidance on how it might be improved. The reviewers keep in mind that the author may be a younger colleague who may have less experience in publishing and is grateful for any helpful advice from seniors.
The reviewers shall maintain full confidentiality. Neither will they discuss aspects of the review process with other persons than the editors nor will they actively try to identify the submitter of a paper. They will not take any advantages of the ideas that are discussed in the paper to be reviewed (see also our description of our peer review process).

6.The Copy Editor
The copy editor is in charge of maintaining consistent linguistic and stylistic standards in the published issues. They provide proofreading and check not only spelling and linguistic aspects of a text but also its consistency and comprehensibility. They confirm whether the author has standardised the article according to our style guide and may request improvements.

7.Financial Aspects
For the time being, the journal offers its services free of charge for all involved parties. That depends, of course, on the development of our funding and the cooperation with our hosting institutions. Please note that the free use of the services of JRFM is a privilege, not a right. It may be subject to change in the future (although we do our very best to keep it as it is).

8.Correction and Retraction Policy
The scholarly quality of its published articles is the central focus of JRFM’s work. Therefore, we continually strive to ensure the quality of our journal. This includes the following regulations regarding post-publication corrections and article retractions according to the COPE guidelines:

A. Corrections: If there are indications of errors such as inaccuracies, questionable content, or incomplete authorship attribution in an article published in JRFM, members of the editorial board will contact the author to clarify the matter. If the indications are substantiated, the author is offered the opportunity to submit a correction of the relevant points. This correction will be appended to the respective article. All registered readers are notified of the correction via email. A Corrigendum will be published in the next available issue.

B. Retractions: In rare cases, significant misconduct by authors occur which will require the retraction of a published article. These include, but are not limited to:

• clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g., data fabrication or image manipulation) or serious error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error),
• previous publication of the material elsewhere without proper references, permission, or justification (e.g., cases of redundant or duplicate publication),
• plagiarism,
• new evidence against the validity or integrity of the article,
• concerns of authorship for sale,
• evidence of compromised peer review or systematic manipulation of the review process,
• evidence of unethical research,
• evidence of a breach of editorial policies,
• deliberate submission of fraudulent or inaccurate information, or breach of a warranty provided in the submission process,
• undisclosed and/or unchecked use of AI

In these cases, the editorial board will deliberate on a decision after seeking a response from the author. If the indications of misconduct are substantiated, the editorial board will decide on the retraction of the article. The retraction process includes informing the author, replacing the PDF of the article with a version having the word “RETRACTED” stamped diagonally over the pages, and the publication of a retraction notice in the next available issue.

9.Advertising Policy
JRFM offers advertisement space for academic journals, monographs or anthologies in fields related to the journal’s focus. The chief editors decide which advertisements, and how many, may be published, based on the advertisements content and the size of the specific issue. Advertisements and issue content are processed as two separate areas and decisions about advertising are in no way related to editorial decisions. Advertisements are clearly marked as such and visually divided from the issue’s content. Advertisements are published both in the online and print edition of an issue. Advertising revenues are used exclusively for the production of JRFM. For more information, please contact jrfm@uni-graz.at.

Graz, February 1st, 2024
This statement is subject to changes and/or additions without further notice.

 

The previous version of this page which was valid until January 31st, 2024, can be found here.