Publication Ethics and Malpractice: Authors

Authors should ensure that they have written original works, and where they have used the work and/or words of others, it must be appropriately cited or quoted. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Authors should cite publications that have influenced the reported work and that give the work appropriate context within the larger scholarly record. Work should not be cited simply for the purpose of displaying erudition. Authors should:

•       Ensure that their accounts of the work of others are accurate and are cited accurately.
•       Avoid excessive and inappropriate citations to their own work or that of others.
•       Avoid excessive citations to support a single statement in their article.

Information obtained from the use of generative AI should be traced to an authoritative source (AI tools are not authors) or not used. Authors must review our AI Usage Policy and confirm that their work conforms to that policy at the time of both the initial submission and (if applicable) resubmission.

Information obtained from unpublished sources must follow the guidelines identified in the edition of the Chicago Manual of Style (for the "Author-Work" reference system) identified in the Author Guidelines. In all cases Authors must receive explicit, written permission from the source.

An Author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal.

Authors must attest that they are not submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently.

The Editor(s) and Reviewers may recommend that Authors consult (and potentially cite) additional sources during the peer-review process for valid reasons. If the Editor(s) or a Reviewer suggests that an Author includes citations to the Editor’s or Reviewer’s (or their associates’) work, this must be for good reason and not with the intention of increasing the Editor’s or Reviewer’s citation count or enhancing the visibility of their work (or that of their associates). Requests for such citations can raise ethical concerns and may be seen as a conflict of interest or a source of bias. If an Author suspects citations have been suggested against this policy, then they should inform the President of the Hume Society at president@humesociety.org. For further information refer to "Complaints and Appeals."

Co-authors take collective responsibility for their co-authored work.  Each individual Author is accountable for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

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 substantial contributions should be listed as Co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the paper (e.g. language editing), they should be recognised in the acknowledgements section.

All sources of financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article must be footnoted in the submission and will be printed along with it. This includes funding organizations, grant numbers and the role of each funder.

When an Author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the Author’s obligation to promptly notify the Editor(s) or the Hume Society as publisher and cooperate with the Editor to retract or correct the paper if deemed necessary by the Editor(s). If the Editor(s) or the Publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains an error, it is the obligation of the Author(s) to cooperate with the Editor(s), including providing evidence to the Editor(s) where requested.