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Publishing Ethics for Authors

Scientific honesty and the safeguarding of good scientific practice, fairness, and transparency have constituted the foundations of our editorial and publishing practices over the 40-year history of Historical Social Research. The HSR authors are committed to the following ethical standards and instructions, which have been formulated in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Originality and multiple or concurrent submissions

Authors should ensure the originality of submitted manuscripts. Authors should not submit articles that are substantially the same as previous publications or that are being simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere.

Scientific Honesty

Authors must engage in scientific integrity, honesty, and fairness. Authors ensure that they respect intellectual authorship and that they properly disclose all citations. Citations and information from verbal and written communications – as well as the usage of their personal information – require express consent from the source. Authors must also commit themselves to informing the editors when relevant, copyrighted facts and materials are used. Submissions are randomly checked with plagiarism software.

Authorship

Authorship should be restricted to those who were responsible for the conception of the studies or experiments, the preparation, analysis, or interpretation of the data, or those who were personally responsible for the formulation of a genuine, significant contribution to the manuscript and have agreed to its publication, thereby assuming responsibility for it. So-called “honorary authorships” are not permitted.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors should disclose any conflicts of interest that may influence the findings or the interpretation of the article to the editors as soon as possible.

Availability and Accessibility of Research Data

Any quantitative, empirical data used in a submitted article should be available for replication. The HSR editorial team can help the authors archive their research data for replication purposes. Authors should indicate in the submitted article where the data and the scripts for analyses are available and accessible. Authors must also commit themselves to providing the data and associated scripts to any interested persons upon request.

In the case that the authors decide to archive their research data, GESIS offers a free archiving service through the GESIS SowiDataNet|datorium. For more information, feel free to ask the HSR editorial team at hsr[at]gesis[dot]org.

Fundamental Errors in Published Articles

In the unlikely case that an error is found in a published article, please inform the HSR editorial team immediately at hsr[at]gesis.org. The editorial team will then decide on the form in which a correction will be issued and will orient its decision towards the COPE Flowcharts.