Publication Ethics

Ethical Principles

As a journal serving the social sciences and humanities, Palanta expects research to respect the people, communities, cultures, knowledge systems, and social contexts represented in scholarly work. Ethical responsibilities apply to authors, editors, and reviewers from submission through publication and post-publication.

Responsibilities of Authors

• Originality: submitted manuscripts must be original and must not contain plagiarism, fabricated material, falsified data, or undisclosed duplicate publication.
• Accurate reporting: methods, sources, evidence, analysis, and limitations must be presented honestly and in sufficient detail for scholarly evaluation.
• Authorship: authorship must be limited to individuals who made a meaningful scholarly contribution. All listed authors must approve the submitted and final versions.
• Conflicts of interest: authors must disclose relevant financial, institutional, personal, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived to influence the work.
• Permissions and attribution: third-party text, images, instruments, datasets, and other copyrighted material must be used with appropriate permission and attribution.
• Research involving people and communities: where applicable, authors must explain relevant consent, confidentiality, institutional approval, community permission, or other ethical safeguards.
• Cultural and indigenous knowledge: manuscripts should represent local communities and knowledge systems responsibly, with appropriate attribution and sensitivity to restrictions on culturally sensitive information.
• Corrections: authors must promptly inform the journal if they discover a significant error in a submitted or published article.

Responsibilities of Editors

• Evaluate submissions on scholarly merit, relevance to the journal's focus and scope, clarity, originality, and ethical soundness without improper discrimination.
• Protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and editorial communications.
• Disclose and manage conflicts of interest and avoid handling submissions where impartiality may reasonably be questioned.
• Base editorial decisions on the manuscript and the evidence available through the editorial and review process.
• Take appropriate action when credible concerns about research or publication integrity are raised.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

• Treat manuscripts and review materials as confidential.
• Provide objective, constructive, evidence-based comments that help editors and authors assess and improve the work.
• Declare conflicts of interest and decline a review when an impartial assessment cannot be provided.
• Alert editors to substantial similarity, suspected plagiarism, citation problems, ethical concerns, or other integrity issues noticed during review.
• Complete reviews within the agreed time or promptly inform the editor when this is not possible.

Research and Publication Misconduct

Concerns may include plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, redundant publication, inappropriate authorship, manipulated citations, undisclosed conflicts of interest, unethical research practices, or other serious breaches of scholarly integrity. The journal will examine credible concerns, seek relevant explanations or evidence, and determine proportionate editorial action. Depending on the stage and seriousness of the matter, action may include rejection, correction, withdrawal, retraction, or another editorial notice.