Ethical statement

Statistica & Applicazioni (Statistics & Applications) is published by Vita e Pensiero, the publisher of Catholic University of Milan, on behalf of the Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods of the University of Milano-Bicocca.

The journal was founded by seven departments belonging to different Italian universities. At present the journal is supported by the following departments: Economics and Management - University of Brescia; Statistics and Quantitative Methods - University of Milano-Bicocca; Statistics - Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan; Economics, Statistics and Finance - University of Calabria; Engineering - University of Bergamo.

The delegates of these departments identify a qualified editorial board who actively contributes to the development of the journal. The scientific committee appoints the chairman and the editor-in-chief for a three-years mandate.

The editorial board provides new scientific committee members with guidelines and keeps existing members updated on new policies.

The act of publishing involves many parties, each of which plays an important role in the overall process. It therefore follows that the author, the journal editors, the peer-reviewer and the publisher agree on meeting expected ethical standards, at all stages in their involvement, from submission to publication of an article.

Vita e Pensiero is committed to meeting and upholding standards of ethical behaviour at all steps of the publication process. Below is a summary of our key expectations from the editors, the peer-reviewers, the authors and the scientific committee.

1. Ethical expectations

Editor-in-chief, associated editors and editors’ responsibilities

The editor-in-chief and the editors of each issue are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The validation of the manuscript and its importance to researchers and readers must always drive such decisions. The editors may be guided by the policies of the journal and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor-in-chief and the editors may confer with other editors, or members of the editorial board, or reviewers in making this decision.

An editor should act in a balanced, objective and fair way while carrying out his expected duties, without discrimination on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors. The editors should handle submissions for sponsored supplements or special issues in the same way as other submissions, so that articles are considered and accepted solely on their academic merit and without commercial influence.

The editors should inform readers about who has funded research or other scholarly work and whether the funders had any role in the research and its publication.

The editor-in-chief and any editorial board should adopt and follow reasonable procedures in the event of complaints of an ethical or conflict nature. The editor-in-chief should give authors a reasonable opportunity to respond to any complaints. All complaints should be investigated, no matter when the original publication was approved. Documentation associated with any such complaints should be retained. 

Reviewers’ responsibilities

Peer review assists the editor-in-chief and the editors in the decision-making process, and in improving the quality of the published paper by rigorously reviewing the manuscript, in a timely manner. 

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential document. The reviewer should maintain the confidentiality of any information supplied by the editor.

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

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. A reviewer should also alert the editor-in-chief to any published or submitted content that is substantially similar to that under review. Reviewers should be aware of any potential conflict of interest (financial, institutional, collaborative or other relationships between the reviewer and author) and have to alert the editor-in-chief, if necessary withdrawing their services for that manuscript.

Authors’ responsibilities

A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudolent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. Review and professional publication articles should also be accurate and objective, and editorial ‘opinion’ should be clearly identified as such.

Authors should maintain accurate records of data associated with their submitted manuscript, and supply or provide access to these data, on reasonable request. An author should confirm/assert that the submitted manuscript is not under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere. Where portions of the content overlap with published or submitted content, he/she has to acknowledge and cite those sources. 

Authors should confirm that all the work in the submitted manuscript is original and acknowledge and cite content reproduced from other sources. They should obtain permission to reproduce any content from other sources.

Authors should declare any potential conflict of interest (e.g. where the author has a competing interest (real or apparent) that could be considered or viewed as exerting an undue influence on his or her duties at any stage during the publication process).

Authors should promptly notify the journal editor-in-chief or publisher if a significant error in their publication is identified. They have to cooperate with the editors and publisher to publish an erratum, addendum, corrigendum notice, or to retract the paper, where this is deemed necessary.

Editorial board’s responsibilities

Editorial boardmembers will serve a variety of functions. These include:

• acting as ambassadors for the journal;
• supporting and promoting the journal;
• seeking out the best authors and best work and actively encouraging submissions
• reviewing submissions to the journal;
• attending and contributing to editorial board meetings.

The editorial board meets regularly (at least once a year) to gauge opinions about the running of the journal, to define any changes to journal policies, and to identify future challenges.

The editorial board,in cooperation with the associated editors, monitors the performance of peer reviewers and takes steps to ensure this is of high quality; develop and maintain a database of suitable reviewers, and update this on the basis of reviewer performances; uses a wide range of sources (not just personal contacts) to identify potential new reviewers (e.g. author suggestions, bibliographic databases, etc.). It encourages reviewers to ensure the originality of submissions and be alert to redundant publication and plagiarism. It encourages academic institutions to recognise peer-review activities as part of the scholarly process.

2. Procedures for dealing with unethical behavior

Misconduct and unethical behaviour has to be identified and brought to the attention of the editor-in-chief and publisher at any time, by anyone. Whoever informs the editor-in-chief or publisher of such conduct should provide sufficient information and evidence to initiate an investigation.

All allegations should be taken seriously and treated in the same way, until a successful decision or conclusion is reached.

An initial decision should be taken by the editor-in-chief, who consults with or seek advice from the associated editors, the editorial board and the publisher, if appropriate.

Evidence should be gathered, while avoiding spreading and allegations beyond those who need to. 

In any event, the author should be given the opportunity to respond to any allegations.