Ethical Guidelines for the Journal of "Religions and Mysticism "

This code of conduct is a charter or commitment that outlines the ethical responsibilities related to submitting an article to the "Religions and Mysticism" journal, hereafter referred to as the "Journal," in order to prevent ethical violations by article authors. Authors, reviewers, the editorial board, and the journal editor are obligated to be aware of and committed to all research ethics principles and related responsibilities in the field of publishing. Submitting an article by authors, reviewing an article by reviewers, and deciding whether to accept or reject an article by the editorial board and editor is considered an acknowledgment and compliance with these rights. In the event of any breach of these principles and responsibilities by any of these individuals, the Journal reserves the right to take legal action. It is necessary to refer to the "Research Ethics Charter and Standards" (approved by the Research and Technology Deputy of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology) and the "Committee on Publication Ethics" (COPE) guidelines as a guide for authors and reviewers and those involved in the evaluation and publication of the Journal.

Duties and obligations of authors

• Articles submitted must be based on the original research of the author/authors, and any use of the research of others should be cited in the article.
• The accuracy and precision of the content of the articles are the responsibility of the authors, and the authors are obliged to ensure the accuracy and precision of the content of the articles. Printing an article does not mean that the content has been confirmed by the journal.
• Authors do not have the right to "resubmit an article." In other words, the article or any part of it should not be published or under review in any other journal inside or outside the country.
• Authors are not allowed to "publish redundant material." By publishing redundant material, it is meant publishing the findings and results of previous articles with minor changes in a new article.
• Authors are required to reference other people's work accurately, and if necessary, to use the necessary resources after obtaining written permission.

Unethical Publishing and Research Behavior

• If any of the following occur at any stage of submission, review, editing, or publication of articles in journals or afterwards, it is considered unethical publishing and research behavior, and the journal has the right to take legal action.
• Plagiarism: This includes close paraphrasing of other authors' thoughts and phrases, copying expressions of ideas, structural similarities in writing, or attributing other people's ideas and findings without proper citation, or presenting it as an original scientific research.
• Scientific Renting: This refers to when a writer (or writers) hires someone else to conduct research and, after the research is completed, they claim ownership and publish it under their own name.
• Fictitious Attribution: This refers to the non-existent attribution of the author (or authors) to an institution, center, or educational or research group that did not have a role in the actual research.

Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers

• After reviewing the abstract of an article, the selected reviewer should immediately inform the editor-in-chief of the journal of their decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of the review (due to the article's subject matter not being within the reviewer's area of expertise, lack of time, etc.).
• The reviewer must be a professional in the subject area of the article and knowledgeable in the field. Reviewers should not accept articles that are outside their area of expertise. It is also appropriate for the reviewer to avoid accepting articles for review that involve fundamental differences of opinion regarding their topics and which they may not be able to assess impartially.
• The reviewer should not accept articles for review if personal interests or relationships with individuals, institutions, or particular companies are involved.
• The reviewer should not accept articles for review in which they have participated in the research, analysis, or writing.
• If the reviewer accepts to review an article, they are required to provide their professional and corrective opinions clearly and unambiguously, and if necessary, with the provision of the necessary documents within the specified time frame to the journal's editor-in-chief and authors.
• Reviewing articles should be based on scientific documentation and adequate argumentation, and avoiding subjective, personal, professional, racial, religious, and other biases in the review process.
• Reviewers are expected to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the article constructively, explicitly, and educationally, and to provide suggestions for improvement, along with the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses to the editor-in-chief and the author(s).
• Reviewers are expected to be responsible, responsive, punctual, truth-seeking, interested, and committed to professional ethics and respect for the rights of others. Fairness, etiquette, avoiding prejudice and preconceptions, and haste, along with clear communication to the editor-in-chief regarding the suitability of the article for publication, are other characteristics expected of reviewers.
• Reviewers are expected to refrain from rewriting or correcting articles that are written without significant flaws and adhere to the ethical principles and guidelines of the journal.

The Roles of Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board Members

• The responsibility of selecting referees and accepting or rejecting a manuscript based on the referees' opinions lies with the editor-in-chief and the members of the editorial board of the journal.
• The editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board of the journal are expected to be professionally competent, knowledgeable, and have multiple publications. They should also have a sense of responsibility, accountability, truth-seeking, fairness, impartiality, adherence to professional ethics, and respect for the rights of others. They should participate seriously and responsibly in achieving the goals of the journal and continuously improving it.
• The editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board are expected to prepare a database of suitable referees for the journal and update it regularly based on the referees' performance.
• The editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board should take care in selecting appropriate referees based on their expertise, leadership, scientific and professional experience, and ethical commitment. It is also expected that requests from authors regarding the exclusion of certain referees will be respected as much as possible, provided they are well-founded and logical.
• The editor-in-chief of the journal must welcome in-depth and reasoned reviews, prevent superficial and weak reviews, and deal with biased, baseless, or insulting reviews.
• The editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board of the journal must take the necessary steps to register and archive the documents related to the manuscript reviews as scientific documents and keep the referees' names confidential.
• The decision to accept or reject manuscripts must be based on the evaluation of the referees' technical comments, their accuracy, scientific documentation, and sufficient arguments, without relying on personal, subjective, professional, or other biases.
• The editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board of the journal are responsible for promptly notifying the author of the final decision on accepting or rejecting the manuscript.
• The editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board of the journal must consider all information in the manuscript as confidential and refrain from disclosing it to others or discussing its details with others without proper authorization.
• The editor-in-chief of the magazine is obliged to carefully and seriously investigate the works accused of deviating from the publication and research ethics, which are reported by the referees or in any other way, and if necessary, take action based on the "Stages of Dealing with Unethical Publishing and Research Behavior" section included in this code of conduct.
• The editor-in-chief should not consider the issue closed with the rejection of the accused articles or articles that have committed violations, and is obliged to follow up on the cases until the final stage. At the same time, it is necessary to provide an appropriate opportunity for authors who have been accused of "unethical publishing and research behavior" to respond.
• The editor-in-chief of the magazine is obliged to promptly remove published articles that are found to have involved "unethical publishing and research behavior" and provide transparent information to readers and indexing agencies.
• The editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board of the magazine are required to review and quickly publish corrections and provide transparent information to readers for published articles that have errors.
• It is expected that the editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board will welcome logical and acceptable critiques of the published articles.
• The editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board of the magazine should constantly seek the opinions of authors, readers, and referees of the journal regarding the improvement of publishing policies and the formal and content quality of the magazine.

Tasks of the Journal Office

The Journal Office is responsible for editing, formatting, and ultimately publishing the print and electronic versions of the accepted articles.

• The tasks include the following:
• Establishing and transparently announcing its publishing policies, especially in relation to the editorial board's decision-making independence, publishing ethics, intellectual property and publishing rights, conflicts of interest, the responsibilities of authors, reviewers, editors, the editorial process of review and decision-making, requests for reconsideration and complaints, preserving scientific documents of the decision-making process, safeguarding the information of authors and reviewers, revising or deleting accepted articles, and resolving disputes between complainants and those accused of "unethical publishing and research behavior".
• Striving for editing, formatting, and printing the journal with the utmost accuracy and quality in the shortest possible time.
• Protecting the personal information of authors and the contents and details of articles, except for what is published in the journal after the acceptance of the articles, during the review process, and after the decision-making regarding the articles. The only exception in this regard is to review cases related to "unethical publishing and research behavior" by authors if there are acceptable reasons.
• Preserving the independence of the journal's editor-in-chief and editorial board.
• Providing necessary training to the editor-in-chief, members of the editorial board, and journal reviewers to fulfill their responsibilities properly.
• Striving to provide necessary training to journal authors to improve the formal and content quality of articles and to observe the principles of publishing and research ethics.
• Collaborating with the journal's editor-in-chief in maintaining the highest level of publishing and research ethics in the journal and ensuring the content's freedom from errors and formal and content-related mistakes.
• Collaborating with the journal's editor-in-chief in reviewing reports of "unethical publishing and research behavior" and providing specialized advice to complainants and those accused if necessary.
• Reviewing requests related to the use of published materials in the journal in other publications with attribution.

Steps for Dealing with Unethical Behaviors in Publishing and Research:

• Receiving a written accusation from an organization or an individual through a journal office.
• Holding a meeting of the editorial board of the journal with the presence of a representative from the university publishing center and conducting initial investigation into the accusation.
• Collecting documents and evaluating them if necessary and preparing a report on the presence or absence of the accusation.
• Sending the accusation to the accused authors and requesting a response within a specified period of time.
• Examining the responses of the accused individuals in the meeting of the journal's editorial board and making a final decision.
• Sending the decision along with disciplinary proposals to the complainant and the accused in case the accusation is confirmed.
• Informing the highest research authority of the organization where the violators are working.

*Sources used in preparing this guideline:

The Charter and Standards of Research Ethics, Deputy of Research and Technology, Ministry of Science, Research and Technology.

Ethical Guidelines for Publishing, Journal of Contemporary World Literature.

Ethical Guidelines for Publishing, Isfahan University Press.