Allegations of Research Misconduct

eCM adheres to the recommendations of COPE and WAME and follows their guidelines on misconduct. The process for handling misconduct in eCM is as follows:

If an article published in the journal is suspected of containing research misconduct, you can contact the editorial office to share your concerns. The complainant must clearly specify the nature and details of the misconduct; for example, in cases of plagiarism, the plagiarized sections should be clearly identified, and reference should be made to the original and suspicious articles. During this period, the editorial office will contact the Editor-In-Chief and the journal editors for assessment. If the situation is confirmed to be true, the corresponding author of the suspicious article will be contacted for investigation (and relevant institutions may be contacted if necessary). The corresponding author will be asked to provide an explanation with factual statements and any available evidence. If no response is received within the specified time or if the explanation is unsatisfactory, the article may be permanently retracted or rejected. Before making a decision, it may be necessary to seek confirmation from experts from relevant institutions or other regulatory authorities. Your identity will not be disclosed by the journal throughout the investigation process. Once the investigation is completed, you will be informed of the outcome. The complaint case will then be considered closed.

Erratum, Editorial Expressions of Concern, Corrections and Retractions

To uphold the integrity of academic publications, eCM employs a rigorous process for identifying and rectifying significant inaccuracies, misleading statements, or distortions within published reports, adhering to COPE guidelines. Upon identification of such issues, corrections are promptly implemented with due attention. Following investigation, if valid concerns persist, eCM contacts the respective authors via their provided email addresses, and if necessary, may involve their institutions, affording them an opportunity to address the issue. While corrections to published articles impact their interpretation and conclusions, they do not necessarily render them invalid; the decision to issue corrections ahead of print or express concerns editorially lies within the editor's discretion. In cases where scientific integrity is severely compromised due to errors or misconduct, retraction of the published article may become necessary. Retraction notices will be indexed and linked back to the original article. Manuscripts under consideration may face rejection and be returned to the authors in such instances.

Conflict of Interest

A Conflict of Interest is anything that interferes with, or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the study design and conduct, full and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making or publication of research or non-research articles submitted to eCM journal. Conflict of Interest can be financial or non-financial, professional or personal. They can arise in relationship to an organisation or another person.

Who must declare a Conflict of Interest?

Authors

At the time of submission, authors must state what competing interests are relevant to the submitted research. Use eCM_Letter of Submission template to state any potential Conflict of Interest, including, but not limited to, support from any commercial sources, description of funder’s role in the study design, professional affiliations, advisory positions, board memberships, patent holdings, etc.

Peer Reviewers

Reviewers must declare autonomously their own Conflict of Interest and, if necessary, disqualify themselves from involvement in the assessment of the manuscript. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work they are reviewing before its publication to further their own interests.

Editors

Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have a Conflict of Interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration. Editorial staff must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain.

Plagiarism check

Each accepted manuscript will be run through a powerful plagiarism detection system software (http://www.ithenticate.com/) before production and publication.
iThenticate is used worldwide by scholarly publishers and research institutions to ensure the originality of written work before publication. iThenticate helps editors, authors and researchers prevent misconduct by comparing manuscripts against its database of over 60 billion web pages and 155 million content items, including 49 million works from 800 scholarly publisher participants of Crossref Similarity Check powered by iThenticate software.
Authors will be contacted in case the percentage of possible plagiarism (including self-plagiarism) in relevant sections is considered to be too large.

Appeals and Complaints

Where an author believes that an editor has made an error in declining a paper, he or she may submit an appeal to the editorial office.