The Journal of Public Law Studies Quarterly (PLSQ) is published in accordance with the standards of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and the By-Law on the Prevention and Suppressing of Plagiarism in Academic Works. The PLSQ uses Sharif‌ Pardazeshgar Danesh (Sinaweb) software to prevent and detect plagiarism. The personal information of the authors and their manuscripts are strictly confidential and protected by all those who have access to them, including the editor-in-chief, members of the editorial board and the managing editor of the journal.

Author/authors who submit a manuscript must follow and are presumed to be aware of the following ethical standards:

Authors

1. The manuscript should be the result of the author/ authors' research; it should be original, and innovative. The manuscript must be based on scientific research methodology and authentic references should be used. The author/ authors are required to complete, sign and submit the "Authors' Commitment" form;
2. In case of duplicate (dual) publication, plagiarism or conflict of interest not disclosed in the manuscript, in accordance with COPE guidelines, the author/ authors will be blacklisted; if their article is published, the article will be archived and the phrase "plagiarized article" will appear under the author/ authors name;
3. Anyone listed as an author must have made a significant contribution to the writing of the manuscript. If an author was not involved in writing the manuscript and his/her name has been misused, the editor-in-chief should be immediately informed by e-mail;
4. Anyone listed as an author must agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in order to ensure its accuracy and integrity;
5. All persons who meet the above-mentioned criteria should be listed as authors of the paper;
6. The corresponding author will take primary responsibility for communication with the PLSQ during the submission, review, and publication process, and ensures that all the Journal’s administrative requirements are completed. The corresponding author must ensure that the names and information of all authors are mentioned and no one other than the authors of the manuscript is mentioned. The corresponding author must send a copy of the article to all authors and obtain permission from the co-authors to submit the manuscript to the PLSQ;
7. The author/ authors must avoid unethical, subjective, and racially or religiously biased content, as well as false and inaccurate information. They must also strictly avoid using the translation of others’ work without referencing to the original work.
8. When directly or indirectly using others’ work, a complete and accurate reference should be made (according to PLSQ instructions for authors);
9. Submitting articles published, accepted or under review in other domestic or foreign publications is strictly prohibited;
10. If the article is extracted from a dissertation, the supervisor must be informed before the manuscript is submitted;
11. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published paper in the PLSQ, the author must promptly notify the editor-in-chief and cooperate to retract or correct the paper if deemed necessary by the editor-in-chief.
12. Responsibility for the accuracy of the content, references, and respecting the rights of other authors lies with the author/ authors;
13. Authors should respect the confidentiality of the entire manuscript evaluation process and not reveal their identities to the reviewers. Therefore, the original file of the manuscript must not contain any information about the identity or profile of the authors;
14. Responsibility for declaring any conflict of interests, and announcing financial resources lies with the author/ authors. The authors are obliged to complete, sign and submit the Conflict of Interest Form.
15. When a manuscript is submitted, the full details of all authors must be entered. Afterward, and especially when the article is accepted, no more individuals could be added to the article as an author.

Editor-in-Chief

1. The editor-in-chief shall evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political affiliation of the author/authors.
2. The editor-in-chief must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript, to the corresponding author, reviewers or anyone else;
3. The editor-in-chief may not use the unpublished contents of a submitted manuscript without the written permission of the author/ authors in his/ her own work;
4. Responsibility for determining the suitability of the manuscript in terms of the aims and scope of the PLSQ lies with the editor-in-chief. If the submitted manuscript does not fit within the journal’s aims and scope, the corresponding author will be immediately notified.

Editorial Board

1. After the evaluation of the manuscript by the referees, the article will be published with the final approval of the editorial board;
2. The editorial board shall evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political affiliation of the author/authors.
3. A member of the editorial board may not be involved in decisions about papers which he/she has written himself/herself or is one of the authors.
4. In case of no consensus, the articles will be approved by the decision of the majority of the members of the editorial board;
5. Members of the editorial board must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript, its author/authors or its reviewers.

Reviewers

1. Review of a manuscript should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author/authors is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly and with supporting arguments, and avoid personal preferences.
2. Reviewers shall, to the extent practicable, identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the author/authors. A reviewer shall also call to the editor-in-chief’s attention any similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and other published material of which he/she has personal knowledge.
3. Reviewers must respect the confidentiality of the review process. The manuscript must not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor-in-chief.
4. Unpublished materials contained in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewers own work without the written consent of the author/authors;
5. Reviewers shall not accept articles which serve the interests of specific natural or legal persons or in which personal relations are observed;
6. Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review a submitted manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor-in-chief and excuse him/herself from the review process.
7. If the reviewer is asked to review an article that she/ he has already reviewed for another publication, he/ she must inform the editor-in-chief of the details of the initial evaluation.