Navigation – Plan du site

AccueilInformations aux auteursEthical charter

Ethical charter

This charter, which takes up and expands on some of the indications given in the section "Pour être publié", indicates the rules of good conduct to which the journal, its collaborators, authors and readers must adhere. It is the translation of the "Charte éthique" de Physio-Géo with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).

I - Duties and requirements of the journal for "articles", "ouvrages" and "essais et documents"

The texts are examined without a priori of any kind. Only the scientific quality in relation to the issues supported by the journal is taken into consideration.

Physio-Géo operates on a fully voluntary basis. No financial contribution is therefore requested from the authors and no remuneration is paid to them.

Physio-Géo guarantees the total confidentiality of the writings and other information provided by the authors.

1 ) Conduct of reviews

Upon receipt of a draft article, the Governing Board shall have one week to decide on its admissibility.

This pre-examination concerns, in the first instance, the conformity of the text with the editorial line of the journal. Physio-Géo deals with all the themes of physical geography. Its disciplinary field may deviate from this target and deal with various environmental subjects, but on the condition that a strong link is established with the biophysical environment.

Scientific quality is also taken into consideration and texts that are clearly too weak in this respect are rejected so as not to unnecessarily overburden the reviewers. At this stage, adjustments to the text may be requested from the author (or the referent author).

Great attention is paid to borrowings by authors from other works. All articles presenting significant plagiarism and self-plagiarism in bad faith are systematically discarded. A certain leniency may be granted, however, in the case of young researchers who are not very familiar with the rules of citation, for whom we are prepared, within certain limits, to make a pedagogical effort.

Finally, discourteous remarks towards persons or entities are not accepted.

The decision whether or not to initiate the review does not require unanimity or even a relative majority. If a Director deems a draft article to be in order, he or she may initiate revision against the opinion of all colleagues. In this case, the publication will ultimately remain subject to a further review by the Steering Committee.

In other cases, for each draft article deemed admissible, a director of the journal is appointed collectively from among the volunteer directors to coordinate the revision. This task cannot be performed by a director who has expressed a negative opinion on the text.

The decision taken is communicated to the author(s) or to all authors (thus ensuring their agreement). For texts thus "pre-accepted", it is indicated under which heading ("articles", "ouvrages" or "essais et documents") a possible publication is envisaged.

Any text deemed admissible is made as anonymous as possible and submitted to at least two reviewers, at least one of whom (except for subjects requiring special skills) is a member of the Physio-Géo Editorial Committee or Reading Committee.

The reviewers are chosen so as to avoid, as far as possible, problems related to too close or, on the contrary, too strong opposition with the authors in case the latter are unmasked on reading.

The reviewers have nine weeks to give their opinion. The director in charge of the revision then draws up a summary of the opinions to which he may add his own remarks.

The summary of the opinions and the attached documents (reading notes and annotations throughout the text) are sent by the director in charge of revision to the author or to all the authors, with a copy to all the directors of Physio-Géo. They are also sent separately to each of the reviewers, in order to guarantee the anonymity of the author(s).

If some rather heavy or very heavy modifications have been requested by the reviewers, the reworked text will be resubmitted to them. They will have five weeks to give the new opinion if the text has returned after less than six months, ten weeks if it has returned after more than six months. The operation may be renewed once more if the revisers agree.

If the reviewers express a unanimous position, the Director must abide by their decision. Otherwise, he or she may lean one way or the other, seeking the opinion of the other directors if he or she so wishes or taking into account any opinions that the directors may have expressed spontaneously.

If an author contests a refusal, the Management Committee is called upon to rule.

Directors conducting revisions undertake to make accepted texts as close as possible to a directly publishable version. Accepted texts are then forwarded to the director of publication and editor for online publication.

2 ) Finalization of texts and editing work

The work still to be done at this stage is sometimes still quite heavy, the objective being to achieve the best quality, in form and substance, in the interest of the authors as well as the journal.

Additional information and even basic data may then be requested from the authors in order to support their demonstration.

If a serious and insurmountable problem emerges and if a draft article accepted by the reviewers does not fully meet the quality requirements of the journal, the editor reserves the right to refuse to put it online after discussion with the Steering Committee. However, every effort is made to ensure that the publication can be carried out.

After publication, in case of discovery of important errors, by the Physio-Géo team, by readers or by the authors themselves, it is planned to make the necessary corrections within the framework of a consultation between the journal's management and the authors. In the absence of a concerted correction, the articles may be unpublished (with an explanation of the reason on the site) or completed with a warning.

3 ) Commitments of the auditors

The reviewers undertake to treat the draft articles impartially, both with regard to the authors whose identity they may identify and with regard to the topics addressed. If in doubt, they are asked to recuse themselves.

In addition to expressing an opinion on the quality of the texts (form and content), they are asked to point out works that could have been exploited by the authors without being mentioned.

In addition to the preparation of a reading list, annotations should be made throughout the text. Opinions, especially negative ones, must be argued. Even if a refusal is finally requested, constructive criticism should be preferred.

The revisers also undertake to scrupulously preserve the confidential nature of the revision, and therefore of the text submitted and the exchange of messages. No unpublished information of any kind discovered in the course of a review may be shared with a third party or exploited outside of a citation of the article after it has eventually been published.

4 ) Deposit in open archives

Authors are authorized to deposit in the open archives any text they have published in Physio-Géo and to make public in the reference databases (SHERPA/Romeo and Heloïse) its policy concerning the open archives.

II - The rights and duties of the authors of "articles", "ouvrages" and "essais et documents"

1 ) Originality and plagiarism

Authors undertake to propose original texts, free of copyright, not submitted at the same time to another journal and free of plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Non-compliance with the moral rights of intellectual property is not tolerated.

If the observations and data used are not personal and original, borrowings from previous personal work or the work of other authors ‒ including in grey literature ‒ must be duly reported, or even be subject to authorisation for use by the owner(s) of the elements used. The work on which the research was based should therefore be cited in the text in the appropriate places and included in the bibliography.

2 ) Relationship with the journal

Authors must propose draft articles written in French (with title, abstract and keywords in English) and follow as closely as possible the instructions to authors (see the section "Pour être publié").

After a text has been accepted by the reviewers, a certificate is signed by the author or referent author. This attestation requests the publication of the article (and thus its digital dissemination) and gives assurances on the agreement of the possible co-authors and on the absence of plagiarism. If the information turns out to be false after publication, the article will be unpublished.

The authors undertake to thank all those who have provided assistance. They should also, in the body of the text or in the acknowledgements, indicate the sources of funding for their research, simply as a courtesy and so that readers are aware of possible conflicts of interest.

Physio-Géo expects the authors to collaborate effectively during the revision process as well as during the preparation of the publication. During this last phase, if requests or proposals for modification are presented to them by the publication director, they commit themselves to respond in a constructive spirit, the goals being the improvement of the article and the quality of the journal. At this stage of the revision process, texts can no longer be withdrawn by authors without the journal's agreement.

If authors discover a significant error in their text after publication, they inform the management of Physio-Géo and help them to correct it. Similarly, if the management of Physio-Géo informs them of an important error, they can either justify their position, ensure that the error can be corrected, or retract it. In the latter case, the absence of the text will be explained on the journal's website.

II - The rights and duties of the authors of "articles", "ouvrages" and "essais et documents"

1 ) Originality and plagiarism

Authors undertake to propose original texts, free of copyright, not submitted at the same time to another journal and free of plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Non-compliance with the moral rights of intellectual property is not tolerated.

If the observations and data used are not personal and original, borrowings from previous personal work or the work of other authors ‒ including in grey literature ‒ must be duly reported, or even be subject to authorisation for use by the owner(s) of the elements used. The work on which the research was based should therefore be cited in the text in the appropriate places and included in the bibliography.

2 ) Relationship with the journal

Authors should follow the instructions to authors as closely as possible (see "To be published").

After a text has been accepted by the reviewers, a certificate is signed by the author or referent author. This attestation requests the publication of the article (and thus its digital dissemination) and gives assurances on the agreement of the possible co-authors and on the absence of plagiarism. If the information turns out to be false after publication, the article will be unpublished.

3 ) Enhancement of publications

After publication, for any deposit in open archives, authors should use the PDF file retrieved from the journal's website, which will be provided to them by the publisher.

III - Special case of the "résumés" and "comptes rendus"

For the "résumés" and "comptes rendus", the Management Committee simply ensures the quality of the French and compliance with the rules of courtesy. However, reports that are too systematically negative are prohibited.

IV - About special issues

Physio-Géo is open to the publication of special issues (contributions to symposia or thematic issues). This service is free of any financial consideration, on the part of the journal as well as on the part of the authors. The content of these issues must correspond to the editorial line of the journal.

A prior agreement in principle must be requested from the publisher. The person(s) responsible for the issue then manages the pre-selection and revision of the articles. The selected texts are forwarded to the journal with the names and opinions of the reviewers.

Physio-Géo's Management Committee examines the texts that have been communicated to it, to verify their formal and scientific quality and to ensure that they do not deviate from the ethical rules of the journal. Texts can be either accepted or definitively rejected, or returned to the authors for improvement of the form, or submitted to other reviewers for verification of the substance.

Authors of accepted articles are subject to the same obligations as authors publishing in normal issues, in particular with regard to the signing of a certificate.

As in the case of normal issues, articles undergo a final, very strict check during the preparation of the online publication.

V - Information to users of documents put online

The use by readers of the documents put online is governed by the licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International.

Rechercher dans OpenEdition Search

Vous allez être redirigé vers OpenEdition Search