Ethics Policy
ESTS recognizes that ethics norms and policies differ across regions, institutions, and disciplines where STS is done. Authors are expected to adhere to the policies that pertain in their setting. Authors are also expected to practice context-sensitive care for their collaborators, research participants, interlocutors, co-authors, and scholarly and other communities. We encourage authors to contact the editors if this may entail requesting changes to the usual double-blind review process, for example, or other special considerations.
Conflicts of interest
Authors are required, upon submitting a manuscript to ESTS, to declare any conflicts of interest pertaining to that manuscript. Conflicts may be financial or pertain to other kinds of benefits, perceived benefits, or harms. They may be professional or personal. The lead author is responsible for declaring all relevant conflicts of interest. Editors and reviewers are also asked to declare conflicts of interest pertaining to submitted manuscripts.
Fraud and plagiarism
Fraud includes fabricating or manipulating data, results, or conclusions in ways that are inconsistent with a study’s identified methods. If the ESTS editorial team becomes aware of an allegation of fraud pertaining to a published manuscript or a manuscript undergoing review, we will follow our appeals process. Allegations of fraud pertaining to ESTS editors will be investigated by an ad hoc committee consisting of three members of the ESTS editorial board. To file a concern about fraudulent work, please use the journal’s email.
Plagiarism includes submitting work that is not the original work of the authors. This includes submitting work by people who are not identified as authors, with or without their knowledge, and reusing material that has already been published elsewhere without explicitly identifying it as such. Plagiarism applies to both verbatim text and to ideas.
ESTS does not permit simultaneous submission (submitting a manuscript to two journals at the same time). ESTS does permit authors to submit manuscripts that have already been posted as preprints.
