OAPublishing Collective and their partners endorse the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI; 2002), the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) as well as the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). OAPublishing Collective and their partners endorse the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access by Scienceeurope (2022) to further develop and expand a sustainable, community-driven Diamond OA scholarly communication ecosystem.

At OAPublishing Collective, we and our partners are committed to upholding the highest standards of quality and integrity in scholarly publishing. Our quality assurance strategy is founded on the recommendations (Core Practices) of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Membership Criteria/ Code of Conduct of the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA). Through transparent review processes and adherence to best practices, we ensure that all published content meets rigorous scholarly standards and ethical guidelines.

Key Components of our Quality Assurance Strategy:

1. Reviews: We and our partnering journals employ a robust peer review process conducted by external experts in the respective fields to evaluate the quality, originality, and significance of submitted manuscripts.
2. Transparency and Openness: We are committed to transparency in our editorial processes and decision-making. Authors, reviewers, and readers have access to clear and comprehensive information regarding editorial policies, peer review procedures, and publication practices within partnering journals and products of OAPublishing Collective.
3. Ethical Publishing Practices: Upholding ethical standards is paramount in our publishing practice. We adhere strictly to guidelines outlined in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and other relevant ethical codes. Plagiarism detection, conflict of interest disclosure, and copyright compliance are integral parts of editorial workflows within partnering journals and products of OAPublishing Collective.
4. Accessibility and Inclusivity: We believe in the democratization of knowledge and strive to make our content accessible to all. The publications of partnering journals and products of OAPublishing Collective are freely available online (Diamond Open Access), ensuring broad dissemination and fostering global collaboration. Furthermore, we actively promote diversity and inclusivity in authorship and editorial leadership.
5. Continuous Improvement: Within partnering journals and products of OAPublishing Collective, we are dedicated to ongoing assessment and improvement of our publishing practices. Feedback from authors, reviewers, and stakeholders is solicited and utilized to refine our processes and enhance the quality of our publications continually.

By adhering to these principles and practices, OAPublishing Collective ensures that our journals and books uphold the highest standards of scholarly excellence, contributing to the advancement of knowledge and the betterment of society.

Furthermore:

Fairness and editorial independence

Editors of journals, issues, book series and other publications formats in the OAPublishing Collective consider submitted manuscripts solely on the basis of their academic value (importance, originality, validity, clarity) and their relevance to the subject area of the issue or journal. Origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religion, political views or institutional affiliation are not taken into account. The publishers of the journals, issues and book series are responsible for the entire content of the respective issue or anthology. Due to the Creative Commons 4.0 (intl., by) licence usually granted, the entire responsibility for the content lies with the authors.

Confidentiality

The editors do not pass on any information about submitted contributions to persons other than authors, reviewers, potential reviewers or other members of the editorial team.

Any contributions that are evaluated are confidential documents and will be treated confidentially accordingly. They may not be forwarded to others or discussed with other persons unless the editors and authors have given their consent (which they would only do in special and specific circumstances). Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of the review process, a manuscript, or any related communication during or after the review process, including after publication in the journal.

Conflicts of interest

Journals, issues and book series on OAPublishing Collective are generally associated with scientific organisations. The publishers and editors ensure that their publications are open to persons outside the respective scientific societies, that there is no discrimination in this respect, including that appropriate diversity is ensured among the reviewers.

Editors and reviewers will not use any unpublished information obtained from submitted manuscripts for their own research without the explicit written consent of the authors.

Authors should disclose as early as possible (usually when submitting the manuscript) any conflicts of interest that may influence the results or interpretations of their manuscript.

Publication decisions

Editors of journals, issues, book series, and other publication formats within OAPublishing Collective are ultimately responsible for deciding which manuscripts will be published. The basis for the publication decision are the specific quality assurance strategies within the journals, issues and book series of this publisher. As a rule, these are peer review procedures in various forms.

Compliance with scientific ethics

The editors will initiate measures if they encounter ethical doubts regarding a contribution. Every reported case of unethical publication behaviour is investigated, even if it is only discovered years after publication. Publishers follow the COPE flowcharts when dealing with suspected misconduct. If the investigation reveals that the doubt has been confirmed, a correction, retraction or other relevant note will be published in the journal.

Participation in editorial decisions

The respective quality assurance strategies – usually organised as peer review processes – support the editors in making editorial decisions. Reviewers can help to improve submitted manuscripts by making suggestions and imposing revision requirements on the authors. Feedback and feedforward in peer review processes is an essential part of scientific communication.

Guidelines for peer review

Generally, all manuscripts, e.g., contributions to journals, articles in edited volumes, monographies, and other publications within this publisher are evaluated under the principles of peer-review by independent external persons in their respective fields of expertise.

Reviews should be clearly formulated, supported by arguments and provide editors with a basis for publication decisions. Authors should generally be able to use reviews to improve the manuscript. Personal criticism of the authors is inappropriate. Concrete and constructive requirements help authors to revise their manuscript. The tone in the reviews is always collegial, constructive and respectful!

The copyright of the reviews lies with the reviewers.

As a rule, authors undertake to participate in further review processes and to co-operate in this regard. Journals, magazines and book series of the OAPublishing Collective formulate specific review guidelines on this basis.

Recognition of sources, rejection of plagiarism

Both authors and reviewers follow the academic standards of scientific citation, source citation and honesty. Authors must ensure that they cite correctly and are responsible for doing so.

Authors must ensure that they only submit independently written requirements and that they cite correctly. Any form of plagiarism is unethical and unacceptable behaviour and will lead to rejection of the submission.

Quality assurance in the journal MedienPädagogik: https://www.medienpaed.com/about#peerReviewProcess

Quality assurance in Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung (Journal for Higher Education Development): https://www.zfhe.at/index.php/zfhe/ethik