Editorial Policy and Guidelines for Contributors. Striving for quality is the obligation and responsibility of the editorial board. JSSP publishes original research papers, results of international research projects focused on urban and rural socio-economic assessment and development, and spatial planning at various spatial levels. Moreover, we publish special issues on specific subjects, usually approached and debated by academics in scientific projects, conferences or at the initiative of working groups. The main purpose of JSSP is to provide an information platform for the future research in the field. We also encourage interdisciplinary approaches and joint research between research centres and academics complying with the scientific work ethics.

Online First Policy. In the interest of both authors and readers, we adopted the online first policy in 2018. This aims to offer full access to the research results at the earliest date possible, thus reducing the time before submission and publication of a manuscript. Manuscripts accepted for publication will be posted online as soon as they have the final proofread version prepared. Every manuscript will be assigned a DOI and will be available for reading and citation even before the date of the regular publication (be it June or December of a certain year). Articles will carry their own online publication date (the month when it is uploaded on the website). After an online first article is assigned to a regular issue, it will still preserve the online date of publication, but when cited authors will be able to refer to it by using not only the DOI number but also the volume/issue information and page numbers. Articles published online first are considered the final version, which will be also their printed version. Thus, authors are asked to carefully prepare their manuscripts, any subsequent content-related corrections not being allowed.

Editorial Policy and Expectation of Ethical Conduct. The mission of the Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning is to promote excellency in theoretical and applied geography. The editorial board of JSSP complies with the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Ethics in Research and Publishing published by Elsevier.

Ethical conduct and misconduct. Publication and research ethics. Manuscripts submitted for publication in JSSP should follow the guidelines of writing scientific articles promoted by the Babeș-Bolyai University and in accordance with the international standards regarding the editing of scientific papers promoted by Committee on Publication Ethics. We expect high level of research and ethical behaviour from both our reviewers and authors.

Policy against malpractice. Plagiarism. JSSP promotes valuable scientific contribution and does not accept any form of plagiarism on behalf of the authors. In case authors submit a manuscript and it is found plagiarized by the editorial board or the reviewers, those manuscripts are rejected from publication. The respective authors are subject of subsequent rigorous screening for any other manuscripts they submit later on.

More about plagiarism. Since scientific misconduct can take many shapes and forms experts in Ethics in research and publication (Elsevier) have developed a set of tools, an ethical toolkit meant to support editors, authors and reviewers in their activity of publishing in order to avoid misconduct of any form and comply with research ethics. One of the most common types of publication misconduct is plagiarism–when one author deliberately uses another’s work without permission, credit, or acknowledgment. Plagiarism takes different forms, from literal copying to paraphrasing some else’s work and can include: data, words and phrases, ideas and concepts. (Publishing Ethics Resource Kit, Committee on Publishing Ethics).

Anti-plagiarism procedure applied for the manuscripts submitted to be considered for publication in the Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning (JSSP). In accordance with the Decision CA 82/4.01.2022, the annexes thereof and the Senate Decision no. 119/23.09.2021, as well as with the Decision CA UBB 15823/14.11.2022, this document describes the procedure whereby members of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning perform a thorough similarity analysis on the manuscripts submitted for publication. This procedure also establishes a set of rules and terms of use for the specialized text analysis software in order to prevent and avoid plagiarism. More details here.

Copyright policy. The copyright shall be retained by the authors. However, the journal is to be recognized as the first publisher of the article. 
 
Originality and Authorship statement. Every author that submits an article for publication in Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning should fill out the author statement in accordance with the journal’s policy and guidelines on publishing ethics published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Elsevier’s Ethics in Research and Publishing (Publishing Ethics Resource Kit).
You can download the standard form here. 

Every author listed in the list of authors must fill it out and sign it. After you sign it, please scan the form and send it together with your submitted paper by e-mail to the editorial team.

Policy on conflicts of interest and financial disclosure

Conflicts of interest. Transparency and objectivity are essential in scientific research and the peer review process. (Elsevier Publishing Ethics Resource Kit). In case of conflict of interest please contact the editorial board.

Financial disclosure.  Authors must acknowledge any financial support they benefitted from in the acknowledgements section of the article, if the case. Please contact the editorial board for any other special circumstances.

Editorial and Peer-review process. Obligations of editors, reviewers and authors

Legal requirements:

1. Articles are published both online and in print by the Cluj University Press.
2. The copyright is retained by the authors.
3. Author(s) using images that have already been published must receive permission for their use.
4. Authors benefitting from any financial aid in elaborating the scientific article and reaching results used in the scientific article are bound to declare it in the acknowledgements section or contact the editorial board for specific circumstances.

Malpractice:

1. Misconduct leads to the rejection of the article from publication.
2. Prevention of malpractice is the responsibility of the editors and reviewers.
3. It is prohibited to publish the same article even though previously published in other language.
4. Authors must comply with the editorial guidelines promoted by COPE, PERK and UBB.

Policy against plagiarism:

1. Any form of plagiarism is not accepted.
2. In case authors submit a manuscript and it is found plagiarized by the editorial board or the reviewers, those manuscripts are rejected for publication. The respective authors are subject of subsequent rigorous screening for any other manuscripts they submit later on.
3. The responsibility of plagiarism is the duty of authors and not editors.

Recommendations:

1. Not hide some conflictual results but try and explain them.
2. Not take over ideas from another publication without clearly indicating the source.
3. Cite all research references.
4. Not falsify the original data.

Obligations of Editors
The editorial board should:

1. Accept or reject a manuscript for publication.
2. Send the submitted manuscript to at least two reviewers, keeping the names of both parts confidential.
3. Stand by a fair-play assessment (only based on the content, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religious belief).
4. Publish the manuscript only after the author’s signed agreement.
5. Involve and cooperate in investigations related to submitted manuscripts.

Obligations of the Reviewers. Reviewers are periodically assigned to review manuscripts and they have to fill out a standard peer-review report to complete the peer-review process in a certain amount of time set together with the editorial team. They need to focus on several essential aspects related to scientific relevance of the subject, content and formatting and give their recommendations to the authors in order to improve quality of the manuscript. Therefore, they must assure of the following:

1. Critical and confidential review.
2. Declare any situation of conflict of interest (please contact the editorial board as soon as possible).
3. Give constructive remarks and remain objective by offering supportive reasons for the eventual adjustments to be made by the authors.
4. Promptness of returning back the manuscript and the full reviewer report to the editorial board by the commonly agreed deadline.
5. Important contribution to the final decision for the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript for publication in JSSP.

Reviewers can also reject a manuscript if:

1. The reviewer does not have the full competence in the subject area of the paper or they consider the subject of the paper irrelevant for the journal.
2. They are in conflict of interest with the authors or the institution they are affiliated to.
3. It could bias the review process.
4. It could put anyone at a disadvantage.
5. The reviewer does not have the possibility to operate the review by the proposed deadline.

Obligations of Authors
Authorship Conditions:

1. Meet the standards set by the editors and editorial policy.
2. Submit only original research papers.
3. Bring a significant scientific contribution in the field.
4. Not reproduce the same idea in other journal.
5. Cite all the scientific resources/references and declare the source of data.
6. Acknowledge the involvement of co-author(s) who contributed to the completion of the manuscript (design, data processing, a.o.).
7. Assign the corresponding author.
8. Acknowledge the financial support in the acknowledgements section of the article, if the case. Please contact the editorial board for any other special circumstances.
9. Declare any fundamental errors, even noticed later.
10. Sign the Affirmation of Originality and Authorship Statement (all authors should fill out and sign the statement according to which they brought their original contribution to the scientific concept and final editing of the manuscript, they take full responsibility for the scientific content of their work and they agree with the publication of the final version of the manuscript) and send it to the editorial board by the commonly agreed deadline.
11. Declare any situation of conflict of interest (please contact the editorial board as soon as possible).

References:

Wager E., Kleinert S. (2011), Responsible research publication: international standards for authors. A position statement developed at the 2^nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010. Chapter 50 in: Mayer T & Steneck N (eds) Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment. Imperial College Press / World Scientific Publishing, Singapore (pp 309-16). (ISBN 978-981-4340-97-7). Available at: http://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standards_authors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf
*** Publishing Ethics Resource Kit, Committee on Publishing Ethics, available online at:
http://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/163715/ETHICS_PLA01a.pdf
Esther Hoorn, Maurits van der Graaf (2006), Copyright Issues in Open Access Research Journals. The Authors’ Perspective, in D-Lib Magazine, Volume 12, Number 2, ISSN 1082-9873, available at: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february06/vandergraaf/02vandergraaf.html M. Frenţiu, H.F. Pop, A guide for writing a scientific paper, available online at: http://www.cs.ubbcluj.ro/~studia-i/guideWritingPapers.pdf