Code of Ethics (Based on COPE's Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors)

Fungal Systematics and Evolution is committed to ensuring ethics in publication and quality of articles (see Code of Conduct, Committee of Publication Ethics, COPE). This also applies to editors following rules relating to readers, authors, and reviewers, as well as procedures for handling complaints.

Fungal Systematics and Evolution code of ethics

Editorial Board: Members are international experts in the field of mycology. The full details and affiliations are available on the journal’s web site.

Contact information: Editor-in-Chief, Prof. dr P.W. Crous, Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Uppsalalaan 8, 3584 CT Utrecht, Netherlands; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Authors and Authors responsibilities

No fees are charged for manuscript processing and/or publication. Authors are: 1) obliged to participate in the peer review process; 2) all authors should have significantly contributed to the research; 3) obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes; 4) must list references, financial support; 5) confirm that the work has not been submitted elsewhere for publication (irrespective of language), or does not present any conflict of interest.

Peer-review process 

This journal operates a single blind review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final.

Publication ethics

The editorial board tries to prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has been detected. The board will deal with any allegation of research misconduct. Retractions are allowed, and errata will be published as needed. Any dispute concerning a manuscript with the Editor-in-Chief will be dealt with by the managing editor, in consultation with the editorial board following COPE guidelines. 

Copyright and Access

All articles are copyright of Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Uppsalalaan 8, 3584 CT Utrecht, Netherlands. All articles can be freely downloaded.

Archiving

Fungal Systematics and Evolution is a member of CrossRef, and all manuscripts have a unique Doi in the CrossRef system.

Ownership and publication

Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Uppsalalaan 8, 3584 CT Utrecht, Netherlands.

Web site and schedule

The journal’s web site, including the text that it contains, demonstrates that care has been taken to ensure high ethical and professional standards. Two issues of Fungal Systematics and Evolution will be published annually in June and December.

Name

Fungal Systematics and Evolution is a unique name and cannot be confused with that of another journal.

Editor responsibilities:

Editors will: acknowledge receipt of manuscripts in a timely manner, arrange fair and timely reviews, handle manuscripts confidentially and make the final decision concerning acceptance or rejection; respect the intellectual independence of authors; make known any conflicts of interest that might arise; where editors are authors of a manuscript, it should be passed to another editor for processing; not use work of others for their own research; not use referees which an author has requested to be excluded, and deal fairly with appeals against rejection of manuscripts. 

Authors responsibilities:

Authors will: not breach copyright rules; obtain permission from the relevant publishers to publish previously published data or figures; give due recognition to published work via correct citation; inform the editor of related manuscripts under consideration for publication; provide copies of these related manuscripts, and of manuscripts cited as “in press”; ensure that the manuscript has not been submitted elsewhere simultaneously; remove all personal criticism of other scientists; give due acknowledgement to contributions; declare all sources of funding for the work.

Referees responsibilities:

Referees will: Treat manuscripts as confidential; destroy reviewed manuscripts; not review papers outside of their field of expertise; review manuscripts objectively and in a timely fashion; inform the editor of any conflict of interest; inform the editor of any similarity between the submitted manuscript and other published work; ensure that all materials remain confidential; not use submitted materials for their own research; alert the editor of plagiarized material in the manuscript; alert the editor of any conflicts of interest.

Human and animal rights

Research involving human subjects should be carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki). Manuscripts should adhere to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals; representative human populations (sex, age, and ethnicity) should be used as recommended. Informed consent should be obtained for experimentation with human subjects, and their privacy observed.

It should be stated that animal experiments comply with the ARRIVE guidelines [see U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and use of Laboratory animals; NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978].

Informed consent

An ethics committee should approve studies on patients, and informed consent should be provided. Consent and permission must be obtained in cases where details or other personal information or images of patients are included in a manuscript. Authors should have written consent to be provided if requested. Without such consent, personal details of patients should be removed (including all illustrations and videos) before submission.