Publication Ethics

The University of Tampa Press is committed to following ethical standards for publication and therefore follows the Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines, including its statement on Authorship and AI Tools. Below is a condensed version of our expectations and commitments.

Editor Responsibilities

  • Complete editorial duties without bias or discrimination based on race, gender, sexuality, religious or political beliefs, ethnicity, citizenship, or geographical location of authors.
  • Acknowledge and prevent potential conflicts of interest from an author, reviewer, or editor.
  • Find appropriate and qualified reviewers for each submission and communicate reviewer guidelines.
  • Uphold anonymity of authors and peer reviewers, if required by a journal’s peer review process.
  • Communicate with authors and share the status of a submission and feedback in a timely fashion.
  • Issue appropriate corrections or retractions if errors are discovered in a published work.
  • Follow COPE’s recommendations in cases of suspected misconduct or disputed authorship.

Peer Reviewer Responsibilities

  • Enhance a journal’s publication quality by thoroughly and objectively critiquing manuscripts.
  • Disclose any potential conflicts of interest to the editor.
  • Identify published work that is similar but not cited in manuscripts under review and report any concerns about plagiarism to the editor.
  • Uphold confidentiality of manuscripts under review.
  • Complete review within a reasonable amount of time and communicate with the editor about review extensions or withdrawal.

Author Responsibilities

  • Confirm that a submitted manuscript is original and not under consideration elsewhere, unless the journal accepts simultaneous submissions. AI tools do not meet the requirements for authorship.
  • Be prepared to share raw data during editorial review and with the public, if appropriate.
  • Disclose any research funding.
  • Cite all content from other sources and obtain appropriate permissions when reproducing content.
  • Notify the editor or publisher immediately if a significant error is discovered in a manuscript/published work and assist in amending or retracting the work.
  • Inform the editor in writing about withdrawing a submission.