Committed to publication ethics and quality, the Hansenologia Internationalis journal upholds standards of ethical behavior and good practices for all parties involved: author(s), journal editor(s), reviewers, and the Publisher (the institution responsible for publication). The Journal is dedicated to taking the necessary steps to adhere to these principles and guides its editors, reviewers, and authors to conduct themselves according to the international principles of editorial conduct and practice established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), while also adhering to the guidelines and recommendations regarding integrity and ethical misconduct published by Scopus, a division of Elsevier. Thus, it is understood as:

Duties of Editors:

• Publication Decision: The journal editor is responsible for deciding which submitted articles should be published. The editor is guided by the journal’s editorial board policies and must strictly observe legal requirements concerning defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The editor may consult the editorial board or collaborators when making decisions.
• Fair Practices: the editor must evaluate manuscripts based on their intellectual content, without discrimination regarding race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, nationality, or political philosophy of the authors.
• Confidentiality: the editor and any editorial team members must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential collaborators, other editorial advisors, or the publisher, as appropriate.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: the editor must not use unpublished information for their own research without the express written consent of the author(s). The editor should refrain from evaluating manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest resulting from competitive or collaborative relationships, or any other connections with the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the articles.
• Participation and Cooperation in Investigations: the editor must take reasonable responsive measures when ethical complaints are raised regarding a submitted manuscript or published article.

Duties of Reviewers:

• Contribution to Editorial Decisions: peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and, through editorial communication with the author(s), may also help improve the article.
• Timeliness: any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to evaluate the research reported in a manuscript or knows that immediate review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse themselves from the review process.
• Confidentiality: all manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others.
• Standards of Objectivity: reviews should be conducted objectively, and reviewers should express their opinions clearly, supported by arguments.
• Acknowledgment of Sources: peer reviewers should identify relevant published works not cited by the authors. Reviewers must also bring to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and any other published document of which they have personal knowledge.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest arising from competitive or collaborative relationships, or any other type of relationship or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions associated with the articles.

Duties of Authors:

• Reporting Standards: authors of original research reports must provide an accurate account of the work performed, along with an objective analysis of its significance. Underlying data should be presented accurately in the article. A manuscript must include sufficient detail and references to allow others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
• Originality and Plagiarism: authors must ensure that their work is entirely original. If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, they must have been appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Refer to the policy on Plagiarism Prevention and Use of Artificial Intelligence.
• Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publications: an author should not, in general, publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously and/or publishing the same article in different journals constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
• Acknowledgment of Sources: proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in shaping the nature of the work reported. Information obtained privately, such as through conversations, correspondence, or discussions with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained during confidential services, such as manuscript review or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit, written authorization of the authors of the work involved in such services.
• Authorship of the Article: authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study reported. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as coauthors. Others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project should also be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The author should ensure that all appropriate coauthors and no inappropriate ones are included in the article and that all coauthors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: all authors must disclose in their manuscripts any financial or substantive/material conflicts of interest that might influence the results or interpretations presented. All sources of financial support for the project must also be disclosed.
• Fundamental Errors in Published Works: when an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the article. Refer to the policy on Errata and Retraction.

Duties of the Publisher:

• HI Journal is committed to ensuring that the obtaining of funding or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions.
• The journal ensures that all articles are peer-reviewed to maintain the quality of scientific publications. Additionally, it utilizes the Similarity Check tool to identify plagiarism and assess content similarity.

(*) This Ethics Policy is based on recommendations by Elsevier and COPE — Committee on Publication Ethics — Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Ethics in research involving humans and the use of animals

The publication of articles presenting research results involving humans is conditional on compliance with the ethical principles outlined in the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association. Additionally, researchers must comply with the specific legislation of the country where the research was conducted, regarding human and/or animal subjects.  In Brazil, this includes the regulations set by the National Research Ethics Commission (CONEP) and the National Council for the Control of Animal Experimentation (CONCEA). Research carried out in Brazil must respect the legal precepts of Law No. 14.874, of May 28, 2024, which regulates research with human beings and establishes the National System of Ethics in Research with Human Beings.

Articles conducted in Brazil whose results involve human beings and/or experimental animals must provide clear information about compliance with this regulation in the last paragraph of the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript. Authors must also provide the number of the Ethical Approval Certificate System (CAAE), generated by the CEP/INAEP system (Plataforma Brasil), or the number of the institutional Animal Use Ethics Committee. At the time of submission, as a complementary document, the respective approval opinions of the Research Ethics Committees must be sent, signed by the committee.

For studies conducted in other countries, approval from the ethics committee, or its equivalent, of the institution or country must be provided, in accordance with applicable laws and ethical standards, and the document must be attached at the time of submission.

The Editorial Board of the journal reserves the right to request additional information regarding the ethical procedures executed in the research.

Conflict of Interest Declarations

Authors are responsible for identifying and disclosing any potential conflicts of a personal, academic, political, financial, commercial, or associational nature related to the material used in the work, or any other conflicts that may influence them, and for stating whether or not such conflicts exist in the Declaration of Authorship and Responsibility at the time of submission. Reviewers must also inform the editor of any conflict that may influence or impede their evaluations, as must the editors.

The existence, or absence, of conflicts of interest will be disclosed at the end of the published article, along with all sources of financial support used for the research.

In accordance with the ethics policy cited above, if a conflict of interest is identified during the editorial process, HI Journal will proceed as follows:

• Authorship: if a potential conflict of interest is identified during the review phase or after the manuscript’s acceptance, the journal’s editorial team will contact the authors for clarification and, if confirmed, will request that the existence of the conflict be updated in the Declaration of Authorship and Responsibility. If there is a refusal to disclose or correct a conflict, the manuscript will be rejected.
• Reviewers: If a reviewer fails to disclose a conflict of interest, the review of the article will be invalidated, and the reviewer in question may be removed from the journal’s pool of reviewers for future reviews. In this case, the manuscript will be re-evaluated by another reviewer.
• Editors: If an editor is involved in a conflict of interest, the manuscript will be reassigned to another editor to ensure that the editorial decision is made impartially. The editor involved in the conflict will not participate in the evaluation or the final decision regarding the article.

Members of HI’s Editorial Policy Committee and Editorial Board may submit manuscripts to the journal. However, in such cases, they will have no involvement in the editorial or decision-making process related to their work, ensuring impartiality and transparency.

If a relevant conflict of interest is identified after the publication of an article, the journal will take the following actions:

• If the conflict of interest did not impact the article, the journal will publish an explanatory note regarding the situation.
• If the conflict of interest affected the study’s results or conclusions, the journal will publish a correction and, if necessary, a retraction of the article.

Anyone who identifies a potential conflict of interest related to a published article should notify the journal’s editorial team via email: hansenologia.internationalis@gmail.com