Ethical Guidelines

1. Statement of Compliance

The Revista Española de Derecho Internacional (REDI) is a scientific publication of the Asociación Española de Profesores de Derecho Internacional y Relaciones Internacionales (AEPDIRI). It is devoted to publishing academic studies in public international law, private international law as well as international relations, with open access through its website (www.revista-redi.es)

According to the General Guidelines of the REDI, the organs of the Journal are the Editor-in-chief, the Editorial Board, the Associate Editor-in-Chief and the Advisory Board (hereinafter, the journal editor). With the aim of following the standards of ethical behavior, all the organs of the Journal, as well as the authors, reviewers and professionals involved in the editorial process are engaged with the fulfillment of the ethical standards as recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics COPE.

In order to ensure the research integrity of the REDI, and, by so doing, to ensure that the REDI achieves its aim of providing scholars with high quality service according to its General Guidelines, the journal works closely with authors, journal editors and reviewers to promote adherence to the core principles of publication ethics.

The REDI operates from a strong belief that international law and international relations are areas of scholarship vital for addressing today’s global challenges. This belief brings the journal editor to offer to the authors the best possible service to disseminate their research according to core principles of publication ethics as articulated by the (COPE). All manuscripts, whether submitted to a peer-reviewed publication (such as studies) or not (such as book reviews and fora) are expected to conform to the standards of ethical behavior.

2. Ethical duties of the Editor-in-chief and the Editorial Board

The main organs of the REDI assume the following commitments: promoting the continuous improvement of the Journal; ensuring the quality of the articles published; reviewing the manuscripts submitted for publication in the Journal; reserving the anonymity of the reviewers assigned to manuscripts  and supervising the compliance with the ethical commitments assumed by the Journal.

The Editor-in-chief and the Editorial Board are responsible for the fulfillment of the above obligations. They assume the primary responsibility for the scientific and academic quality of the REDI, and for the fulfilment of the legality on intellectual property, copyright, infringement and plagiarism. The Editorial Board must respect the intellectual independence of the authors and consider all originals submitted for publication, assessing each contribution objectively. The Editorial Board is also responsible for assuring authors and reviewers that manuscripts will be subject to an anonymous review process. The final decision and responsibility for acceptance or rejection of an original rests with the Editor-in-chief and the Editorial Board.

They will seek reviewers, who will assess the scientific quality of the papers submitted to the journal. They will be chosen on the basis of their prestige, knowledge and good judgement, and However, papers may be rejected for publication without external review if, in the opinion of the Editorial Board, the manuscript is unsuitable for publication in the journal. This decision should be based on the inappropriateness of the manuscript to the content and line of the journal, lack of interest for the REDI readers, formal incorrectness, or any other reason related to the scope of the journal. Articles will therefore be judged solely on the basis of their content, irrespective of commercial interests and without ethnic, racial, ideological, religious, gender or any other discrimination against the author.

The Editor-in-chief and Editorial Board of the REDI must communicate the outcome of the assessment reports to the authors without disclosing any information about the identity of the reviewers, but will inform the authors of the criteria used by the reviewers in assessing the work for publication.

3. Authors’ Ethical Duties

The author of a manuscript is considered to be the person who signs the text submitted for evaluation to the REDI and is accountable for the substantial intellectual and creative contribution to the publication and for all aspects of the work.

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works and they must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere. According to article 7.3 of the General Guidelines of the REDI, manuscripts that essentially coincide with the content of the author’s previously published research, either in other journals or as part of collective works or monographs, will not be published in the Journal. Notwithstanding the above, the Editorial Board may exceptionally accept the publication of a paper containing data and conclusions similar or identical to those contained in a previously published document, when it considers that circumstances make this advisable. In this case, specific reference should be made to the circumstances and to the first publication. Likewise, in similar circumstances, the Editorial Board may authorise the subsequent edition of a paper previously published in the Journal, provided that the same specific references are made.

When the manuscript is written by more than one author, if necessary, the text will identify which co-authors are responsible for specific parts of the work.

4. Reviewers’ Ethical Duties

 Reviewers will only accept manuscripts to review for which they have the expertise required to carry out as a proper assessment and which they can assess in the allowed time. They will provide feedback on the manuscript, suggest improvements and make a recommendation to the Editorial Board about whether to accept, reject or request changes to the manuscript.

Reviewers will uphold the standards of the Journal, and will help prevent ethical breaches by identifying plagiarism, research fraud and other problems related to the manuscript. They shall act objectively and make clear and precise judgements and evaluations, sufficiently, constructively and respectfully argued, and impartial. Conflicts of interest of any kind –a personal, academic o commercial relationship that may directly or indirectly influence or bias the publication process– shall be avoided. In particular, reviewers must point out relevant publications that were not cited by the author of the manuscript, such as possible similarities with, or partial or complete duplication of, other articles already published, which the reviewer has personal knowledge about.

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board shall apply the recommendations by the COPE in case of detecting any inadequate behavior from any reviewer.

5. Confidentiality

 The Editor-in-chief and the Editorial Board of the REDI shall not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript for consideration to anyone other than those from whom academic or scientific advice is sought. Confidentiality will be protected at all times during the review process as regards to the personal data and content of the manuscripts submitted to evaluation.

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript will not be used in the Editorial Board’s and reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review will be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Authors and reviewers will treat all communication with the REDI as confidential, which includes correspondence with the Secretariat, Editor–in–chief, and Editorial Board, unless explicit consent has been received to share information.

6. Corrections and Retraction

The REDI will deal with any complaints about the published content via redi@revista-redi.es. When a retraction or correction of what has been published in the journal is necessary, the editors will be guided by the principles contained in the Guidelines for Retracting Articles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as well as in the General Guidelines of the REDI according to which, when the Editor-in-chief, the Editorial Board or the Associate Editor-in-chief become aware of the existence of errors through third parties, the author will be informed of the need to correct the manuscript as soon as possible or, in the case of plagiarism, to withdraw it from the editorial process and, if it has already been published, to withdraw it from publication, and the author's cooperation may also be required (art. 7.4 of the General Guidelines).