Publication Ethics

GAME is committed to follow the guidelines available from COPE (COPE resources, COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines).

We highlight the following main aspects.

Ethical responsibilities of authors

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results.  Rules of good scientific practice include:

  • The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration. 
  • The manuscript has not been published previously (partly or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work (which must be declared, for transparency).
  • A single study is not split up into several parts to various journals or to one journal over time (e.g.  ‘salami-publishing’).
  • No data have been fabricated or manipulated
  • No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Other works must be properly cited, quotation must be used for verbatim copying, and permissions secured for copyrighted material.   
  • Appropriate software services may be used for plagiarism detection, without anyway keeping the manuscript on the server.
  • All the authors have contributed to the manuscript, corresponding to their order (also alphabetic). Corresponding author is appropriately identified.
  • Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage may be warranted upon appropriate justification. 
  • 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 or with the agreement of all authors. 
  • Upon request, authors should be prepared to demonstrate the validity of the presented results. Confidential or proprietary information is excluded.
  • Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes

In case of suspicion of misconduct, the journal will carry out an investigation following the COPE guidelines. If concerns are confirmed by the investigation, the author will be contacted by the editor or the publisher to address the issue. If misconduct has been established, the Editor in Chief’s may take actions such as, for instance: 

  • If the article is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author. 
  • The author’s institution may be informed.
  • If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either an erratum, with the motivation, will be placed with the article. Retraction of the article may also be considered, according to the COPE Retraction Guidelines. The paper will be kept on the online journal system, watermarked “retracted”, together with the motivation note.

Publishers and editors are committed to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Conflict of interest

Authors must disclose all relationships or interests that could have influence or impart bias on the work. Disclosure of relationships and interests provides a more complete and transparent process. Examples of potential conflicts of interests include: research grants, project sponsorships, employment, multiple affiliations, any kind of financial supports, etc.

A conflict of interest can interfere with objectivity in judging. Therefore, authors should inform the editor at the time of manuscript submission of any potential conflict of interest with a potential reviewer or editor. Similarly, if the member of the editorial board who has been appointed as responsible for the review becomes aware of a conflict of interest, he will inform the editor. 

Research involving human participants

If the manuscript presents a study involving human participants, authors should include a statement that the studies have been approved by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards

Informed consent

All participants should have given their informed consent in writing prior to inclusion in the study. Identifying details (e.g., names, dates of birth, identity numbers, etc.) of the participants should not be published unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant gave written informed consent for publication. 

Appeals and complaints

Complaints and appeals may refer to editorial decisions, failure of processes (e.g., long delays in the review), publication ethics.

In all cases, the Editor-in-Chief decides after consulting the Handling Editor, considering the authors’ argumentations, and the reviewer reports. Appropriate feedback will then be given to the complainant and other stakeholders of relevant.

Appeals and complaints

In the event the GAME is no longer published, free access to the published archive will be preserved by the publisher.