RAST Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Review of Accounting Studies
Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
(Quoted, with Amendments in Bold Italics, from the Springer Publishing Webpage)

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of
the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on
how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results that could damage the trust
in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire
scientific endeavor. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation can be
achieved by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include:

  • The manuscript has not been submitted (partly or in full) to another journal for
    simultaneous consideration during the editorial review process.
  • Authors of accepted manuscripts are prohibited from publishing the manuscript
    (partly or in full) in any other publication, including online publication, before the
    manuscript is published in the journal unless the author receives approval to do so
    from the managing editor.
  • The manuscript has not been published previously (partly or in full), unless the new
    work concerns an expansion of previous work (please provide transparency on the reuse
    of material to avoid the hint of text-recycling (“self-plagiarism”)).
  • A single study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions
    and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (e.g. “salami-publishing”).
  • No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your
    conclusions
  • No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own
    (“plagiarism”). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes
    material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased),
    quotation marks are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions are
    secured for material that is copyrighted. Important note: the journal may use software
    to screen for plagiarism.
  • Consent to submit has been received explicitly from all co-authors, as well as from the
    responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute/organization where the
    work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.
  • Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the
    scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the
    results.
  • Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, corresponding author,
    and order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship or in the order of authors
    are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.
  • Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage may be justifiably warranted. A letter
    must accompany the revised manuscript to explain the role of the added and/or deleted
    author(s). Further documentation may be required to support your request.
  • Requests for addition or removal of authors as a result of authorship disputes after
    acceptance are honored after formal notification by the institute or independent body
    and/or when there is agreement between all authors.
  • Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in
    order to verify the validity of the results. This could be in the form of raw data, samples,
    records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential proprietary data is
    excluded.

If there is a suspicion of misconduct, the journal will carry out an investigation following
the COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, the allegation seems to raise valid concerns, the
accused author will be contacted and given an opportunity to address the issue. If
misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in the Editor-in-
Chief’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

  • If the article is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
  • If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of
    the infraction, either an erratum will be placed with the article or in severe cases
    complete retraction of the article will occur. The reason must be given in the published
    erratum or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the paper
    is maintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted” and explanation for the
    retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.
  • The author’s institution may be informed.