Education, Environment and Society Research is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics and does everything it can to stop any publication mistakes. All authors who want their work to be published in the journal as an original article must sign a statement saying that the work is their own and has not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from another work.

All of the work that is turned in will be checked by software that looks for plagiarism. If plagiarism is found, the work won't be allowed to be published again. If an author has been found to have plagiarized, they won't be able to publish in Forest and Society.

Withdrawal/correction/retraction policy

Forest and Society handles retractions and revisions. Addendum, Erratum, Corrections, Retractions (or Partial Retractions), and Comments.

Addendum

An Addendum can be added to the original publication to include important results that were accidentally left out. The current journal issue will include the Addendum with article numbers. The original publication will link to the Addendum, but it does not need to be changed.

Erratum

Errata should be published for formatting changes that are scientifically important or for changes to authorship if the author or contributor list is wrong because a worthy author was left off or someone who doesn't meet the criteria for authorship was added. Scientifically important formatting problems that need an Erratum include figures that are missing or not clear, or mistakes that were made during proofreading (e.g., missing text). Errata are not given for spelling or grammar mistakes that don't change the way something is read or what it means. The final version should be carefully proofread by all of the authors.

Author Name Change Policy: After publication, some authors may want to change their names. In these situations, Forest and Society will fix the article, republish it, and send the updated metadata to the right indexing services (please note that all updates are dependent upon the policies of the databases). Our teams know that name changes can be private and/or sensitive for a number of reasons, such as to match gender identity, get married, get divorced, or change religion. So, to protect the authors' identities, there won't be an Erratum and co-authors won't be told about it. If an author wants to change their name, they should contact the journal's Editorial Office.

Corrections

If published articles have mistakes that are important to science, corrections should be sent.

The academic editors can look at any changes that are made. Corrections are used to let people know about any changes made after a paper has been published that change the scientific interpretation (for example, changes to a misleading part of an otherwise reliable paper, an error in a figure, an error in data that doesn't change the conclusions, or the addition of missing details about a method). This is a separate paper that links to the updated original paper. A note will also be added to the Article Versions Notes and the abstract page to let readers know that a new version was uploaded.

Retractions

Sometimes, a piece of research literature needs to be taken out of the whole. This could be because of mistakes made by accident during the research process, major ethical violations, making up data, a lot of plagiarism, or some other reason. These kinds of articles hurt the reliability of scientific records and should be taken down. When it comes to retractions, Forest and Society does what the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) says to do. The Editorial Office, with help from the Editorial Board and final approval from the Editor-in-Chief, looks into possible retractions in depth. Other people and institutions, like university officials or experts in the field, will be talked to as needed. If a Retraction is published, the original publication is changed by adding a "RETRACTED" watermark, but it will still be available on the journal's website for future reference. But retracted articles shouldn't be used as sources for more research because you can't trust them. Retractions are printed in the current issue of the journal as a separate item with the same authorship and affiliation as the article being taken down. Page numbers are added. So, the Retraction can be marked in the indexing databases after the issue is published. When only part of a result is wrong, a partial retraction might be published. A paper will only be completely taken down in very rare cases, such as when leaving it online would be against the law or would cause a lot of harm.

Expression of Concern

An Expression of Concern can be released when a situation is complicated, unclear, or going on for a long time. If investigations into alleged or suspected research misconduct haven't been finished yet or turn out to be inconclusive, an editor or journal may want to publish a "Expression of Concern," which lists the points of concern and what actions, if any, are being taken. Very seldomly.

Comments and Replies

Comments are short letters from readers to the editors that question either the results reported in an article or the way the experiment was done. If a reader finds an article interesting, he or she will usually talk to the Editorial Office or the Editor-in-Chief. When this happens, the Editorial Office may ask the reader to write a short, well-thought-out Comment about the article. After the Editor-in-Chief has thought about and reviewed the Comment, it may be published. If that happens, the Editorial Office will contact the authors of the article and ask them to write a Reply. If the reader's complaints are true, the authors or the Editorial Office may publish a "Correction" or pull the whole paper.

Both comments and replies will be reviewed by a referee to make sure that the comment addresses important parts of the original paper without turning into a new paper, that the reply answers the comment directly without being vague, and that the tone of both is appropriate for a scientific journal.

The first check on a comment will be done by academic editors. If it is accepted, it will be sent to the person who wrote the original paper, who will have the chance to respond. Usually, the editor will give a deadline for getting the reply so that the discussion can be published as soon as possible. If a response is sent in on time, the editor will review both the comment and the response. If the original author doesn't send in a reply, the editor may decide to move on without one.

Most of the time, editors will ask people who have already reviewed the article to look over both the Comment and Reply (if available). When editors get review reports, they will send the Reply and the review reports to the person who wrote the Comment. The person who wrote the Comment will only get one chance to change it.

The authors of the Reply will get the revised Comment and review reports. The authors will only have one chance to make changes to the Reply. Last, the edited Comment/Reply will be sent to the academic editor for a final decision.

Duties of Editors, Reviewers, and Authors

Duties of Editors

The editor's role is to choose which of the articles sent to the journal should be published. These kinds of decisions must always be based on how well the work in question has been proven and how important it is to researchers and readers. The editors may follow the rules set by the journal's editorial board and be limited by the laws in place at the time about libel, copyright violations, and plagiarism. When making this choice, the editors may talk to other editors or reviewers.

Play fair. The editor always looks at the intellectual content of manuscripts, regardless of the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic background, citizenship, or political views.

Confidentiality. The editor and any editorial staff must not share any information about a submitted manuscript with anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as needed.

Disclosure and having different goals. Editors can't use unpublished information from a submitted manuscript in their own research without the author's written permission.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions.Peer review helps the editor decide how to proceed with the paper, and the editor's communications with the author may also help the author make the paper better.

Promptness.Any chosen referee who doesn't feel qualified to review the research in a manuscript or who knows that it won't be possible to review it quickly should let the editor know and drop out of the review process.

Confidentiality. Any manuscripts that are sent in for review must be kept secret. They can't be shown to or talked about with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity. Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Sources. Reviewers should find published work that is relevant but hasn't been cited by the authors. If you say that an observation, a deduction, or an argument has been reported before, you should include the citation. A reviewer should also tell the editor about any significant similarities or overlaps between the manuscript being looked at and any other published paper the reviewer is familiar with.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

- Reviewer should treat the manuscript as confidential. The reviewer must not share the review or information about the review process with anyone without the agreement of the editors and authors involved, even after publication. 

- If the reviewer suspects plagiarism, fraud or have other ethical concerns, please inform the editor and provide as much detail as possible.

- Any citation suggestion work must be for genuine scientific reasons and not with the intention of increasing reviewer's citation counts or enhancing the visibility of his/her work.

Duties of Authors

Reporting standards. Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Originality and Plagiarism. The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication. An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of Sources. Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of the Paper. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest. All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.