Editorial principles and policies
The policies shared by every Palmyra journal. They follow the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Each journal's own ethics page remains authoritative for that journal.
Editors
Editors decide on scholarly merit alone: the significance of the question, the soundness of the method and the clarity of the argument. They decide without regard to the author's nationality, institution, gender, seniority or personal relationship to the journal. An editor with any competing interest in a manuscript hands it to another editor and takes no part in the decision. Editors disclose nothing about a submission to anyone other than the author, the reviewers and the publisher.
Editorial review process
Each manuscript is first checked by the editorial office for scope, completeness, ethical declarations and similarity; manuscripts that fail this check are returned without review. Research submissions then undergo double-anonymised peer review by at least two independent reviewers: authors and reviewers are not made known to one another. The editor's decision rests on the reviewers' reports and on the manuscript's fit with the journal's aims and scope. Review times depend on reviewer availability and are not guaranteed; the journals make no promise of rapid acceptance.
Reviewers
Reviewers assess manuscripts confidentially and do not use unpublished material for their own purposes. A reviewer who feels unqualified, who cannot review promptly or who has a competing interest declines and says why. Reviews are substantive and civil; personal criticism of the author is not review.
Authorship
Authors present their work honestly and completely enough that it could be replicated. Authorship is limited to those who made a substantial contribution, and everyone who qualifies is included.
Use of generative AI
Generative AI may not be listed as an author: authorship carries accountability that software cannot hold. Any use of AI tools in producing a manuscript (drafting, translation, code, analysis or figures) must be disclosed in the methods, naming the tool and describing what it was used for. Authors remain fully responsible for everything in their paper, including anything a tool produced. Reviewers may not enter any part of a confidential manuscript into a public AI service.
Funding and competing interests
All sources of funding and all competing interests are declared. Undisclosed conflicts of interest are grounds for rejection or, after publication, retraction.
Data availability
Data underlying the findings are made available on reasonable request unless ethics or law prevent it.
Consent and ethical approval
Every manuscript includes an ethical-approval statement. Case studies state how access was obtained and what consent was given. Anonymising an organisation is acceptable and often wise; undisclosed anonymisation is not.
Plagiarism, duplication and image manipulation
All submissions are screened for similarity before review. Plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, image manipulation, duplicate submission, salami-slicing and citation manipulation are grounds for rejection or, after publication, retraction.
Allegations of misconduct
Allegations may be sent to editor@palmyrapub.org. They are investigated with the author's institution where appropriate, the author is given a full opportunity to respond, and the outcome is published.
Corrections and retractions
The published article is the version of record. It is never silently altered and never silently removed.
- Correction. An error that does not affect the findings is fixed by publishing a correction notice, linked from the article, stating what changed and when. Notices are listed under each journal's Errata tab.
- Expression of concern. Where a serious question has been raised but not yet resolved, an expression of concern is published and linked from the article.
- Retraction. An article is retracted when its findings are unreliable, through error or misconduct, or where it constitutes plagiarism or redundant publication. It remains available, watermarked as retracted, with a notice explaining who requested the retraction and why.
Complaints
Complaints about editorial process, conduct or a published article may be sent to editor@palmyrapub.org. They are acknowledged within ten working days and answered by someone not involved in the original decision. If the complainant is unsatisfied, the matter is referred to COPE.
Copyright, licence and reuse
Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication. See the open-access policy.
Preprints and self-archiving
- Preprints. Authors may post a preprint of their manuscript on a non-commercial preprint server or their own website at any time, including before and during review. Posting a preprint does not count as prior publication. Authors state at submission that a preprint exists and give its address; to keep review anonymised, reviewers are not told of it.
- Accepted manuscript. After acceptance, authors may deposit the accepted manuscript in any institutional or subject repository at once, with no embargo.
- Published article. After publication, the article may be shared and deposited anywhere, because it carries a CC BY 4.0 licence. Any preprint or deposited copy should be updated to link to the published version, which is the version of record.
Third-party material and permissions
Everything in a Palmyra article is published under CC BY 4.0, so readers may reuse it. Authors must therefore hold the right to publish every figure, table, image and long quotation in their manuscript on those terms.
- Your own original figures and tables need no permission.
- Material adapted from another work is cited in the caption ("Adapted from …"). If the adaptation is substantial enough to need permission, the rule for reproduced material applies.
- Material reproduced from another work needs written permission from the rights holder to publish it under CC BY 4.0, or a clear mark that it is excluded from the article's licence ("© [holder], reproduced with permission; not covered by the article's CC BY licence"). Authors obtain and keep these permissions and send copies on request.
- Openly licensed material (for example CC BY or CC0) may be used with the credit its licence requires. Material under a non-commercial or no-derivatives licence must be marked as excluded, as above.
- AI-generated images are permitted only as illustrations, never as data. They must be labelled as AI-generated in the caption, naming the tool, in line with the generative-AI policy.
- Photographs of identifiable people need their consent to publication.
What the journals will not do
They do not sell authorship, do not guarantee acceptance, do not levy a charge on authors at any stage and do not offer to expedite review for payment or favour. They do not buy indexing and do not display purchased "impact factors".