Terminal follows the ethical rules of research, in particular those proposed by the CNRS in its guide “Integrity and responsibility in research practises”. All the people involved in the elaboration of the journal (editors, authors, evaluators in particular, but also readers) are bound to respect them. The commitments below are based on the recommendations of the guide, and on the ethical charter proposed by the journal Questions de communication.

Commitments of the journal

Evaluation process

Every effort is made to process submissions in an efficient and timely manner.

All submissions are analysed by a plagiarism detection software. If it reveals borrowings that do not comply with the rules of citation, the author is informed by a request for rectification or rejection at the end of the deadline set by the editor.

An article proposal that does not conform to the scope of the journal or that goes against its editorial line may be rejected by the editorial board without going through a peer review process.

After deliberation by the editorial board or the special issue coordinators and based on the evaluation reports, an article proposal may be accepted, accepted subject to modifications (major or minor), or rejected:

• In the case of conditional acceptance, the editors and editorial board make a final decision based on the author’s consideration of the reviewers’ suggestions and comments;

• In the case of rejection of their proposal, a reasoned opinion is sent to the authors.

Conflicts of interest

In the event of a conflict of interest with one of the authors or with the content of a proposal, the concerned members of the editorial board shall recuse themselves. If the reviewers are asked to identify the author of the proposal, and if they detect a conflict of interest, they are asked to recuse themselves.

Impartiality

Each submission is considered impartially. It is important to bear in mind that the aim is to evaluate an article according to its scientific and intellectual contributions. Considerations of gender, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnic origin, seniority or institutional affiliation of authors are absolutely irrelevant. To this end, articles are anonymised before being sent to reviewers.

Confidentiality and use of data

The peer review process is strictly confidential. Information or correspondence about a proposal is not shared with anyone outside the process. No unpublished information, arguments or interpretations contained in a contribution are used or disclosed prior to publication of the article without the consent of the authors.

Editorial treatment

All accepted texts (on first submission or after modification) are edited in consultation with the submitters.

Erratum

If the journal learns that an article it has published contains a significant error, it informs the authors, who must promptly (and within a maximum of two months) either submit corrections or provide evidence of the accuracy of the article concerned. Pending these corrections and the publication of an erratum, the article will be withdrawn or the error will appear at the beginning of the online version, depending on the seriousness of the error. This decision is at the discretion of the Terminal editorial board. If the error cannot be corrected (e.g. wrong data), the article will be removed.

Commitments of reviewers

Recusal

Once an article has been submitted to a reviewer, the reviewer is asked to inform the editors (of the journal or special issue) promptly, and if possible within one week of being asked to do so, whether he or she will be able to carry out the review (within 6 weeks) or whether he or she does not wish to carry out the review (because he or she detects a conflict of interest, feels inadequately qualified, or does not have the time to review the submitted research).

Confidentiality and use of data

The peer review process is strictly confidential. Information or correspondence about a proposal is not shared with anyone outside this process. No unpublished information, arguments or interpretations contained in a contribution are used or disclosed prior to publication of the article without the consent of the authors.

Impartiality

The quality of the proposed article is judged objectively while respecting the intellectual independence of the authors. Reviewers clearly express their views, with supporting arguments; ad hominem criticism is prohibited.

Multiple or redundant publications

Reviewers should inform the journal management of any substantial similarity between the manuscript under review and any paper published or submitted simultaneously to another journal that they might be aware of.

References

Reviewers will inform the journal management if they detect the use of other authors’ work without attribution.

Defamatory statements

Reviewers must report to the Editorial board any defamatory, fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements.

Commitments of authors

Originality and plagiarism

By submitting their article to Terminal, authors certify that their proposed article is original, does not infringe on the moral rights of intellectual property of any other person or entity, and does not draw on research or theories developed by others without citation.

Conflicts of interest

Authors declare to the journal management any potential conflicts of interest, whether professional, financial or otherwise, that could be construed as having influenced their approach. All sources of funding for the research presented in the contribution must be listed in a separate file at the time of submission. If the article is accepted, these sources will be mentioned in the publication by Terminal.

Acknowledgement of authors

The person or group of persons submitting the article and in particular the person indicated as the correspondent of the journal Terminal or the team editing the special issue must ensure that only the authors and all authors who have made a significant contribution to the design, development and interpretation of the study presented are listed as co-authors.

It is also the responsibility of this person or team to ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and decided to submit it for publication. Acknowledgements can be used to acknowledge those who have provided substantial assistance to the published work.

Defamatory statements

Authors warrant that their paper proposal does not contain any defamatory, fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statement. Reviewers should report such statements to the Editorial board.

Multiple or redundant publications

Authors guarantee that their proposed article has not been previously published and that it is not based, even in part, on previously published work (with the exception of notes and reviews), except in the case of translation or if the editorial board has given its approval (the fact that it is a translation will then be mentioned). They also certify, when submitting a text to Terminal, that this work has not been submitted in parallel to any other journal.

References

Authors commit to cite appropriately all works mentioned in their work. Any reference cited in the text must appear in the bibliography, and the bibliography must not contain any reference not cited in the text.

Editorial treatment

Authors authorise the editorial team of the journal to make any changes to their article and collaborate with them when changes are submitted for approval.

Erratum

If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy after publication of their article, authors will promptly inform the journal and cooperate with the journal to retract or correct the article.

If authors are contacted by the journal after publication of their article following the discovery of a substantial error, they will promptly, and within at most two months, either submit their corrections or provide evidence of the accuracy of the original article. Pending these corrections, the article will be removed or the error will be mentioned at the beginning of the online version, depending on the severity of the error. This decision is at the discretion of the Terminal editorial board.

If the error cannot be corrected (e.g. wrong data), the article will be removed.

Publication

The authors authorise the distribution of their article in digital format on the OpenEdition portal.