Transparency statement for: QScience Connect (e-ISSN: 2223506X) 1. Peer review process All submitted manuscripts are sent for peer-review unless they are out of scope or do not meet the criteria of articles publishable in the journal. All manuscripts that are published in the journal have been peer-reviewed by independent experts who evaluate the suitability of work for publication. The journal also has access to outsourced, independent, peer-review provided by Rubriq - whereby a report of two invited reviewers is submitted within an agreed time frame of 14 days. The editors and editorial board of the journal reserve the right to seek further recommendations independently. In both cases, the peer review process is always double-blind and reviewers are required to declare any competing interests. Ultimate responsibility for editorial decisions rests with the Managing Editor of the journal. 2. Governing Body: The journal is managed by in-house editors at QScience.com Managing Editor: Dr Christopher Leonard, Editorial Director, QScience.com
[email protected]
3. Editorial team/contact information: In addition to the Editor-in-Chief, other editors involved in the journal are in-house staff that can be reached via
[email protected] 4. Author fees: The article processing charges (APC) associated with accepted articles to cover costs of producing the final version the manuscript free available via open access is US$995. An additional US$85 invoice handling charge for APCs not settled online by credit card will
be charge. In these instances an invoice will be sent to the author to arrange for payment within 60 days. There is no VAT payable. Full, automatic waivers are offered to submitting authors whose institutions are based in countries with low or lower-middle income economies as defined by The World Bank. 5. Copyright: All articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-4.0) also known as 'gold' open access. This allows authors to retain copyright of their work whilst others can share, use and build upon this work created as long as appropriate attribution is given. 6. Identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct: Publishers and editors take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. We neither encourage such misconduct, nor knowingly allow such misconduct to take place. In the event of any allegation of research misconduct relating to a published article in the journal, the publisher or editor shall follow COPE’s guidelines (or equivalent) in dealing with allegations. 7. Ownership and management: The journal is owned, published, and managed by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals, an initiative of Qatar Foundation. 8. Conflicts of interest: Authors are asked to declare any financial or ethical conflicts of interest upon submitting their work to the journal. Difficult cases will be referred to Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) for advice. 9. Access: The journal publishes all articles online at its website (http://www.qscience.com/loi/connect) and all articles are free to read, reuse and redistribute, as long as the original source is cited. 10. Revenue sources: The journal is entirely funded by article processing charge (APC) revenues. 11. Advertising: There are no adverts accepted for publication in the journal.
12. Publishing schedule: The journal publishes special issues and individual research papers with no discernible frequency. 13. Archiving: In the event that a journal is no longer published, electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content will be provided by: LOCKSS and Portico. 14. Direct marketing: The journal engages in direct marketing using Thomson Reuters customized list services. No more than twice a year we will email authors who have published similar work to that appearing in the journal, inviting them to submit their next work. Authors can opt-out of this service by following the link in the relevant email or simply sending a blank email to
[email protected] This statement was prepared by Alwaleed Alkhaja (Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals) on 24 November 2014.
