Ethical Code

Picenum Seraphicum is based on the principles of pluralism, open dialogue and freedom of thought. It opposes any form of discrimination or prejudice that undermines human dignity or promotes cultural and social stereotypes. It also works to prevent, address and resolve any issues arising from ethical questions related to research activities. This commitment is reflected in the recognition of the diversity and richness of the methodological approaches, analytical tools, and interpretative perspectives applied to phenomena and topics of study.

The Picenum Seraphicum Ethical Code has been drawn up in accordance with the editorial policies of the eum and the guidelines developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), with particular regard to the principles of transparency and best practice in scientific publishing. All parties involved (editors, authors and referees) must be familiar with and adhere to the following ethical requirements.

Editorial responsibilities
Management of the editorial workflow. Editors are responsible for managing the entire editorial workflow of Picenum Seraphicum through the OJS (PKP) platform on which the journal is hosted.
Decisions on publication. The Editorial Committee is responsible for deciding whether submitted articles are publishable. The Committee must comply with current regulations on defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism (see the anti-plagiarism measures section), take into account the opinions of referees and may consult with the Scientific Committee.
Fairness: The Editorial Committee evaluates submitted articles and evaluation forms solely on the basis of their content, without discrimination of gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, nationality, or political orientation of the authors and referees. According to COPE guidelines, if evaluation forms use inappropriate tone or language, editors may intervene in the form of reports without informing the referee, ensuring that the professional judgement remains unchanged.
Confidentiality: The Editorial Committee, the Editorial Board and all parties involved in the Picenum Seraphicum editorial workflow undertake not to disclose any information relating to a manuscript submitted for evaluation to anyone other than the author, referee, potential referee or publisher, and all are also required to guarantee the anonymity of authors and referees for the entire duration of the peer-review process.
Data retention. The editors, in agreement with the publisher and the managers of the OJS (PKP) platform, undertake to store all digital content of Picenum Seraphicum (particularly contributions at various stages of the editorial workflow and referees’ evaluation forms) in the long term, making it available as required.
Conflicts of interest and disclosure. Each editor must verify that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the authors, referees, and all other parties involved in the editorial workflow. They must also refrain from participating in the workflow relating to the contributions in question if necessary. Editors also undertake not to use the unpublished content of an article submitted for publication in their own research without the authors’ written consent.
Guarantee of post-publication public debate. Editors shall endeavour to promote and host any scientific debate that may arise after the publication of a contribution to the journal. They will offer opportunities to disseminate notes, letters or articles in response, which will be published in the journals Note section.

Referee responsibilities
Management of the peer-review process. Referees are responsible for managing the entire peer-review process and all communications with editors through the functions of the OJS (PKP) platform on which Picenum Seraphicum is hosted.
Contributing to editorial decisions. The peer-review process, conducted on a double-blind basis (see the relevant section), assists the Editorial Committee in making editorial decisions and enables authors to enhance their work. For this reason, referees who do not feel adequately qualified to perform the proposed task must not accept it. Referees are guaranteed assistance from the editors throughout the peer-review process.
Respecting deadlines. Referees who know they will not be able to complete the review within the required timeframe of four weeks are kindly requested to promptly notify the Editorial Committee in order to avoid harming the author and slowing down the editorial workflow. If the deadline is missed and no agreement has been reached with the Editorial Team, the Editorial Committee will assign the task to other experts in order to protect the interests of the author.
Confidentiality. Referees must treat all texts assigned to them as confidential and must not discuss them with other people without the express authorisation of the editors. All information and guidance obtained during the peer-review process must be treated as confidential and must not be used for personal purposes.

Authors responsibilities
Management of the editorial workflow. Authors are responsible for managing the entire editorial workflow for their contributions, as well as any communications with editors, through the OJS (PKP) platform that hosts Picenum Seraphicum.
Originality, plagiarism and citation of sources. Authors are responsible for their own work and must guarantee its originality, providing correct citations of sources and contributions, in accordance with the principles of scientific integrity. They also undertake to obtain all necessary authorisations for the publication of images and other material (texts, data, graphics, etc.) at no cost for Picenum Seraphicum, in accordance with current regulation.
Use of generative Artificial Intelligence. Authors who have included texts or images produced using generative AI tools in their contributions are fully responsible for verifying the terms and conditions of the software used, identifying the copyright holders of the generated content, and including a statement regarding these rights. They must also provide the following information in a footnote: the name and version of the used tool, the date of use, the written prompt used to generate the result, and the purpose of the product. In any case, the editors invite the authors to use generative AI tools only when it is strictly necessary for methodological or experimental reasons.
Anonymity and compliance with editorial standards. Authors undertake to submit a manuscript that complies with the journal’s editorial guidelines and is anonymised in all its parts (i.e. without the author’s name in the text or notes that could reveal their identity, and without any authorial indications in the file’s technical metadata; see the section How to ensure a double-blind peer-review).
Access and storage of data. If requested by the editors, authors is also required to make available the sources and/or data on which the research was based, so that they can be stored for a reasonable period of time after publication and can be consulted by others for verification purposes or to guarantee methodological replicability.
Multiple, repetitive and/or competing publications. Unless explicitly declared to the Editorial Committee, authors guarantee that the manuscript submitted for publication has not been previously printed or submitted to another publisher.
Intellectual property of the work. The intellectual property of the work must always be correctly attributed, indicating as co-authors all those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, organisation, implementation and reworking of the research on which the article is based. In the case of contributions written by several authors, the corresponding author (i.e. the author who submits the text to Picenum Seraphicum and deals with the editors) must declare that they have correctly indicated the names of all other co-authors, obtained their approval of the final version of the article and their consent to publication in the journal. The author and each contributor retain full intellectual property rights over their work, granting the journal the right of first publication. The author may enter into other non-exclusive licence agreements for the distribution of the contribution (e.g. deposit it in an institutional archive or include it in a monograph) and may republish the text elsewhere, specifying that it was originally published in this journal.
Conflicts of interest and disclosure. Authors are required to explicitly declare that there are no conflicts of interest that could have influenced the results obtained or the interpretations proposed; they must also indicate within the contribution any entities that have funded the project and/or research. 
Errors in published articles. Should an author identify significant errors or inaccuracies in their published work, they are required to promptly notify the editors and provide them with all the information necessary to report the appropriate corrections and/or additions in a special addendum that will be published both as an accompaniment to the article containing the error and, depending on the length of the correction - in the Editoriale or Note section of the first available issue.