Plant Perspectives and its publisher The White Horse Press, are fully committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards in academic publishing, and to dealing thoroughly and effectively with any allegations of research misconduct. 

 

The policies and guidelines that follow are for Plant Perspectives, but should be understood in the context of White Horse Press’ general policies and procedures around publishing standards, available here. 

a. All authors must warrant that their article is their own original work and cannot be construed as plagiarising any other published work, including their own previously published work. 

b. Authors should not submit previously published work, nor work which is based in substance on previously published work, either in part or whole.

c. The corresponding author must ensure all named co-authors consent to publication and to being named as a co-author. All persons who have made significant scientific or literary contributions to the work reported should be named as co-authors.

d. When papers are submitted, full disclosure must be made of any financial or other relationship between authors (or their employers or sponsors) and other organisations or individuals that might give rise to a conflict of interest.

 

a. Authors must avoid making statements in submitted articles which are defamatory or which could be construed as impugning a person’s reputation.

b. Authors should appropriately cite all relevant publications. 

c. Permission must be obtained for the use of any copyrighted material such as diagrams or illustrations (e.g. from libraries, published sources or the internet), and copies of such permissions may be required by the publishers before publication.

d. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, should be fully cited, and the permission of the third party should be obtained. 

e. Written consent for publication should normally be obtained from people who might recognise themselves or be identified by others (e.g. from case reports, interviews or photographs).

 

a. Any complaint or appeal made to the journal, if it cannot be resolved satisfactorily through simple immediate action, will be managed by one of the partners at White Horse Press.

b. The priority in handling any complaints or conflicts is to adhere to the ethical standards set out here and elsewhere, while ensuring that all parties are treated fairly throughout the process.

 

a. If at any time a member of the editorial team or the publisher team think they may have a potential conflict of interest – with another journal, another press, in author relationships, or in any other connection – they are expected to declare their potential conflict to a partner at White Horse Press and to the Editor.

b. The Publisher and the Editor will then assess whether any special measures need to be taken to avoid any impact from the potential conflict.

c. Preceding paragraphs a and b apply equally to the editor and publishers, as much as to anyone else.

 

a. This journal is fully open access under CC BY 4.0. All text and data published in the journal is therefore freely available for anyone to share or reproduce in any context.

 

a. Ethical oversight of the journal is the joint responsibility of the Editor and Publisher.

b. The journal’s ethical standards are expressed in the context of the Publisher’s general publishing standards, here.

c. The frame of reference within which the Editor and Publisher apply ethical standards is informed by ethical guidelines and advice offered by key industry bodies such as DOAJ, SCOPUS and others.

d. In the event of any uncertainty, the journal and its publisher will follow the detailed guidelines set out by COPE.

 

a. Copyright in all articles remains with the author.

b. All articles are published under CC BY 4.0, so they are freely available to copy, share, distribute, re-use or adapt.

c. Where relevant, rights for intellectual property outside the published issues themselves – for example, the design of this website, or the name ‘Plant Perspectives’ – may be retained by the Publisher, the Editor, other stakeholders or third parties as the case may be.

 

a. Once an article is published, it cannot generally be amended. 

b. In exceptional cases of factual error or other major problem, it may be possible to add an erratum.

 

a. Any direct marketing activities, including solicitation of manuscripts, shall be appropriate, well targeted, and unobtrusive.

b. The publisher and journal will only provide information about themselves which is truthful and not misleading for readers, authors or any other party.

 

 

The journal and the publisher are firmly opposed to research misconduct, and will take all reasonable steps to prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred. Such misconduct may include but is not limited to:

 

- Plagiarism.

- Self-plagiarism.

- Citation manipulation.

- Data fabrication.
- Misuse of generative AI tools.

 

The journal and its editors and publisher strictly discourage such miscreancy, and will not knowingly allow it to take place. Editorial staff have access to Crossref’s Similarity Check service to help assess the originality of submitted papers and to detect inappropriate reliance on generative AI. Please refer to the publisher’s policy on AI and AI-assisted technologies for more detail on the acceptable range of use for such tools.

 

If the publisher or editors become aware of an allegation of research misconduct in a paper published in or forthcoming in the journal, they will thoroughly investigate the allegation to the best of their ability, taking care to remain impartial and to give all parties a fair opportunity to state their case. The investigation will follow COPE guidelines.