Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Based on COPE — Committee on Publication Ethics Guidelines

1. General Principles

Internal Auditing & Risk Management (AIMR) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics. All parties — authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher — must adhere to these ethical standards.

2. Duties of Editors

Fair play: Manuscripts are evaluated solely on intellectual merit, regardless of authors' race, gender, religion, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political views.

Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must not disclose information about submitted manuscripts to anyone except the corresponding author, reviewers, and the publisher.

Conflicts of interest: Editors must not use unpublished material for their own research. Editors recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where conflicts exist.

Publication decisions: The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over publication decisions, guided by editorial policies, legal requirements, and reviewer recommendations.

Investigations: Editors respond to ethical complaints about published or submitted manuscripts, cooperating with COPE and institutional inquiries.

3. Duties of Reviewers

Contribution: Peer review assists editors in making decisions and helps authors improve manuscripts.

Promptness: Reviewers who feel unqualified or unable to review within 14 days must notify the editor and decline.

Confidentiality: Manuscripts are confidential. They must not be shown to or discussed with others.

Objectivity: Reviews must be objective, with clear supporting arguments. Personal criticism is inappropriate.

Source acknowledgment: Reviewers should identify relevant uncited published work.

Conflict of interest: Reviewers must not use manuscript information for their own benefit. They must decline if conflicts exist.

4. Duties of Authors

Reporting standards: Authors must present accurate research with objective discussion. Fraudulent statements are unethical.

Originality and plagiarism: Work must be entirely original. All submissions are screened with plagiarism detection software.

Multiple submission: Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously is prohibited.

Source acknowledgment: All influential publications must be properly cited.

Authorship: Limited to those who made significant contributions (conception, analysis, drafting, approval). Ghost and gift authorship are prohibited.

Conflicts of interest: All financial or personal relationships that could influence the work must be disclosed.

Errors: Authors must promptly notify the editor of significant errors discovered after publication.

AI/GenAI disclosure: Authors using AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, etc.) must:

Disclose tool name, version, and purpose in Acknowledgments
Verify all AI-generated content for accuracy
Accept full responsibility for content
AI tools may NOT be listed as authors

5. Duties of the Publisher

Athenaeum University of Bucharest:

Supports editorial independence
Provides resources for journal operations
Ensures international publishing standards
Maintains digital archives
Cooperates with COPE and Crossref on ethical issues

6. Handling Misconduct

AIMR follows COPE flowcharts for:

Suspected plagiarism
Suspected fabrication or falsification
Redundant publication
Authorship disputes
Reviewer misconduct

Actions (depending on severity):

Letter of explanation
Formal warning
Publication of correction (erratum/corrigendum)
Article retraction with public notice
Notification to author's institution
Ban from future submissions

7. Retraction Policy

Articles may be retracted if:

Clear evidence of unreliable findings (error or fabrication)
Plagiarism is confirmed
Redundant publication
Ethical violations confirmed

Retracted articles remain on the website with a "RETRACTED" watermark and a linked retraction notice.

8. Appeals

Authors may appeal editorial decisions within 30 days with a detailed response to reviewer comments and justification for reconsideration.

Internal Auditing & Risk Management