Publication Ethics

SComS follows the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing issued jointly by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME. This page sets out what we expect of authors and what authors can expect of us.

Authorship

Authorship is reserved for those who have made a substantial contribution to the work and who can take public responsibility for it. Everyone who meets these conditions should be listed; no one who does not should be. Other contributions belong in the acknowledgements. The order of authors and any change to the author list is the authors’ own responsibility and must be agreed by all of them before submission.

Conflicts of interest

Authors declare any interest that could be seen to influence their work — financial support, employment, consultancies, or personal and institutional relationships. We ask for this statement once an article has been accepted; where there is nothing to declare, the statement reads that the authors declare no conflict of interests.

The same applies to us. Editors do not handle manuscripts by close collaborators or by colleagues at their own institution; such manuscripts are passed to another editor. Where a conflict cannot be resolved in this way, it is made transparent.

Peer review

Manuscripts submitted to peer-reviewed sections are assessed double-blind: authors and reviewers do not learn each other’s identities. Every submission is first checked against our formal requirements. Submissions outside the scope of the journal, or clearly not meeting its standards, may be declined at this stage without external review. All others are assigned to an editor, who decides whether the manuscript goes out for review. Manuscripts that enter review are assessed by at least two external reviewers, and the editor decides on the basis of their reports. Editorial decisions rest on scholarly merit alone.

Originality and plagiarism

Submissions must be original and not under consideration elsewhere. Where parts have appeared before — as a conference paper, a preprint or a book section — this must be disclosed at submission. Every submission is screened with plagiarism detection software. Using other people’s ideas, results or words without acknowledging the source is grounds for rejection at any stage, and for retraction after publication.

Use of generative artificial intelligence

Generative AI cannot be listed as an author. Authorship requires accountability for the work, and a tool cannot bear it. You remain responsible for everything in your article. Verify every statement and every reference such a tool provides: generative AI produces plausible citations to works that do not exist.

Research data

We encourage authors to make the data supporting their article publicly available upon publication wherever this is ethically feasible. Our Open Data Policy explains which licences and repositories we recommend.

Corrections and retractions

Where an error affects the interpretation of an article, we publish a correction. Where findings prove unreliable, or where research or publication misconduct is established, we retract the article. Corrections and retractions appear as separate notices with their own DOI and are linked to the original article, which remains available: the published record is amended, not erased.

The original article is marked as well, and not only on its landing page. A corrected article carries a note referring to the correction. A retracted article carries the word RETRACTED, together with the date and a link to the retraction notice, in its title and on every page of the PDF. A PDF travels independently of our website, and a reader who opens it elsewhere must see the same thing. Corrections and retractions are also registered with Crossref, so that databases and reference management software pick them up.

Allegations of misconduct

We take seriously any allegation concerning a manuscript under consideration or an article already published. Authors are given an opportunity to respond. Where an allegation is substantiated, we may decline the manuscript, publish a correction, or retract the article.

SComS is published by the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research (SACM), which maintains an Ethics Committee and an ethical code. In serious cases we may refer a matter to that committee.