1. Authorship

All listed authors must have made a substantial, direct intellectual contribution to the work. Ghost authorship, honorary authorship, and gift authorship are not permitted. Changes to authorship after submission require written justification and approval from the editorial team.

2. Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must submit only original work that has not been published elsewhere. Acceptable similarity threshold is below 20% (excluding references, quotes, and common phrases). Manuscripts exceeding this threshold will be returned for revision or rejected.

3. Peer Review Policy

All submissions undergo double-blind peer review by at least two independent experts. Reviewers are expected to:

• Conduct reviews objectively and in a timely manner
• Maintain strict confidentiality of the manuscript
• Disclose any conflicts of interest before accepting a review
• Provide constructive, specific feedback
• Alert the editor to any suspected ethical issues

4. Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, personal, or professional relationships that could influence their research. All funding sources must be acknowledged in the manuscript.

5. Data Integrity

Authors must present their data accurately and honestly. Fabrication, falsification, or selective reporting of data constitutes research misconduct and may result in retraction. Authors should retain raw data for a minimum of five years after publication.

6. Corrections and Retractions

When significant errors are identified in published work, the journal will issue a formal correction, erratum, or retraction as appropriate. Retraction decisions are made following COPE guidelines.

7. Open Access and Licensing

All articles are freely available online under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This allows others to share, copy, and adapt the work provided proper attribution is given.

8. Reporting Ethical Concerns

Report suspected violations to info@stardomuniversity.edu.eu. All reports are handled confidentially following COPE flowcharts.