«Nuove Musiche», annual journal of contemporary music, is managed in every phase and by all the subjects involved (publisher, editorial board members, referees, and authors) according to a code of conduct that was inspired by COPE, Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines.
The Publisher’s Responsibilities
The Publisher chooses which journals to publish based on its own editorial policy, and is required to declare any funding sources. The Publisher should ensure that the directors adopt the best international practices, and follows up on their application. The Publisher solicits original contributions – that have been written with respect to authorship rights and are not being simultaneously evaluated by other journals – which follow high standards regarding method and editorial accuracy.
Furthermore, the Publisher should guarantee and encourage independent research. The Publisher should promote and supervise the use of peer reviews as a method for selecting and improving articles. The Publisher must denounce all copyright violations and plagiarism. The Publisher must commit to publishing any corrections of errors that are present in published articles.
Finally, the Publisher should: reflect on the evolution of academic publishing with the Italian Publisher’s Association and the Italian University Press Management; maintain constant dialogue with the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities, and Research, ANVUR (National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems), CUN (Italian National University Council) and CRUI (the Conference of Italian University Rectors); consult with researchers and librarians on issues linked to the spread and promotion of research, including such systems as Open Access.
The Editorial Board’s Responsibilities
The Journal’s Scientific Director, Scientific Committee members, and Editorial Board members are the only people responsible for deciding which articles that have been submitted to the journal should be published. In making their decisions, they are required to respect the Journal’s editorial strategies and planning. They are also bound to current legal regulations regarding libel, copyright violations and plagiarism.
When making decisions, the Director should utilize the support of referees who have been chosen from scholars and experts who do not belong to the Scientific Committee and Editorial Board; these referees are requested to express their opinions according to standard and certified peer review procedures.
The Scientific Committee and Editorial Board members are required to evaluate submitted manuscripts according to their scientific and cultural content, with no discrimination based on the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or their scientific, academic or political orientation.
The Journal’s Scientific Director and its Scientific Committee and Editorial Board members are not allowed to divulge any information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the authors, referees, and potential referees.
Any original material contained in manuscripts submitted to the Journal cannot be used by members of the Committees for their own research, without the author’s consent.
If the Editorial Board detects or receives notifications about errors, inaccuracies, conflicts of interest or plagiarism in a published article, it must promptly communicate this to the author and the publisher, and do whatever is necessary to clear up the issue; when necessary, it will remove the article or publish a retraction.
Self-regulation codes: The Scientific Director must send each contribution that has been proposed for publication – except contributions that are destined for non-peer review sections of the Journal – to the members of the Scientific Committee for their evaluation, as well as to external experts chosen by the Scientific Director from amongst Italian and foreign researchers who exhibit appropriate scientific expertise. Referees have twenty days to send a profile to the Director which contains the following: a concise and justified evaluation of the work; an appraisal about whether the work is worthy of being published or not; any indications about further, specific interventions needed to improve the work. The Director must promptly inform the author about the results of the independent evaluation, guaranteeing in any case the anonimity of the referees. Should there be contrasting opinions between referees, the Director will make the decision to publish the work, or not. The Director will keep all documentation regarding the review procedures carried out for each contribution.
The Referee’s Responsibilities
Referees assist the Journal’s Scientific Director in making editorial decisions, and they may provide authors with any corrections or advice aimed at improving their manuscripts.
Referees must not accept manuscripts which would cause any conflicts of interest deriving from the referee’s relationships of competition, other work collaborations, and any kind of connection to authors, firms, or institutions that are related to the manuscript’s subject.
If designated referees do not feel qualified to review an assigned manuscript, or know that they are not able to carry out the review within the required timeframe, they must notify the Director about their decision, and renounce their participation in the review process.
Reviews must be conducted in a balanced, impartial way. Personally criticizing or offending authors is not allowed. Referees must express their opinions clearly, and support them with documented reasoning.
Referees are required to follow strict evaluation criteria, while simultaneously adhering to the principles of cooperation and “interpretative charity”. This means they must make every effort to interpret an author’s text in the most accurate and pertinent way possible, according to its own terms and aims. This means that rather than focusing on transforming the text into something different, referees should make any improvements to the text according to its own principles.
Referees must notify the Director if the manuscript in question has a substantial resemblance to or overlapping of any other published documents they know about.
Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown or discussed with anyone unless the person has been previously authorized by the Director to do so. The information or ideas obtained through the manuscript review process must be kept confidential and must never be utilized for personal gain.
The Author’s Responsibilities
Authors must guarantee that their works are entirely original, and if the work and/or words of other authors are used, these must be properly paraphrased or quoted literally. In any case, any references to the work of other authors must always be indicated.
Authors are obligated to cite all the publications which influenced them in determining the nature of the work they are proposing. Authors of articles that are based on original research must present an accurate account of the work they have carried out, as well as an objective discussion on its meaning. Related information must be accurately represented in the manuscript.
Manuscripts must contain sufficient details and references in order to allow others to reproduce the research that was conducted. Making false or voluntarily inaccurate declarations represents non-ethical behavior, and is unacceptable.
Submitted manuscripts cannot be material that has been published and protected by copyright in other journals. Manuscripts undergoing review by this journal cannot be submitted for review to other journals for the purposes of publication. When submitting a manuscript authors agree on the fact that, should the manuscript be accepted for publication, they will cede to Fondazione Prometeo all rights regarding economic exploitation, without space limits and through the use of any current or future methods and technologies.
Literary authorship of a manuscript is restricted to those who have given a significant contribution to the creation, planning, execution or interpretation of the study in question. Anyone who has provided a significant contribution must be listed as a co-author. If there are any other subjects who participated in substantial areas of the research project, they must be recognized and listed as contributors in the acknowledgements section. The primary author must guarantee that all co-authors have been included in the manuscript, have seen and approved the definitive version of the manuscript, and have agreed on submitting it for publication.
Authors must indicate in the manuscript any financial conflicts or any other kind of conflicts of interest which could influence the results or the interpretation of the manuscript. All financial support sources for the project must be indicated.
Should authors note any significant errors or inaccuracies in the published manuscript, they are obligated to promptly notify the Director or the Editor, and to cooperate with them in retracting or correcting the manuscript.
