Transparency & Business Practices

The purpose of this policy is to provide authors, readers, reviewers, editors, libraries, institutions, indexing organisations, funders, and other scholarly stakeholders with clear information about the organisational and financial practices that support journals published by Macaw Publications.

Business arrangements must not be presented in a manner that could mislead authors or readers concerning journal ownership, editorial authority, publication charges, access conditions, indexing status, sponsorship, institutional relationships, or the services provided by the publisher.

Transparency is treated as a continuing publishing responsibility. Public information should therefore be reviewed and updated when material changes occur.

The ownership and management arrangements applicable to a journal should be identified clearly and must not be described in a manner that creates a false impression of ownership, institutional control, sponsorship, society affiliation, or academic endorsement.

Where a journal has a genuine formal relationship with a university, scholarly society, professional organisation, research institution, sponsor, or other entity, the nature of that relationship should be described accurately.

Ordinary author affiliation, Editorial Board membership, reviewer participation, conference participation, citation, or publication by researchers from an institution does not by itself constitute institutional ownership, sponsorship, or formal partnership.

Macaw Publications does not assume that every journal in its portfolio operates under an identical financial model.

Individual journals may use different mechanisms to support publishing operations. Accordingly, each journal should identify the business model and material revenue sources that actually apply to that journal.

Potential revenue or financial-support categories may include Article Processing Charges, publisher support, institutional support, subscriptions, print services, sponsorship, advertising, reprints, supplements, special issues, or other legitimate arrangements where applicable.

A revenue source should not be displayed as applicable to a journal unless it genuinely forms part of that journal's publishing model.

Mandatory publication charges should not be concealed, described ambiguously, or introduced unexpectedly after authors have made decisions on the basis of materially different published fee information.

Optional services should be distinguished clearly from services that are required for publication.

Authors should not be led to believe that purchasing an optional service is necessary to obtain favourable peer review, acceptance, priority handling, indexing, citation, or editorial consideration.

The existence, amount, payment, waiver, reduction, or absence of an author charge must not determine scholarly editorial decisions.

Editors and reviewers should assess manuscripts according to scholarly relevance, originality, methodological quality, research integrity, ethical acceptability, clarity, and suitability for the journal's stated aims and scope.

Payment of an APC or another publication charge does not guarantee acceptance, favourable review, accelerated editorial treatment, citation, indexing, or any particular scholarly outcome.

Where a journal charges an APC or another publication fee, any applicable refund, cancellation, or payment-adjustment conditions should be communicated clearly before or at the time the relevant payment becomes due.

Because financial models may differ among journals, Macaw Publications does not represent a single refund rule as automatically applicable across the entire journal portfolio.

Manuscript withdrawal and financial reimbursement are separate matters and should be handled according to the applicable journal policy and the stage of editorial or production processing.

Special issues, thematic collections, supplements, or conference-associated collections must remain subject to the journal's normal standards of editorial independence, research integrity, and peer review.

Where special-issue publication involves sponsorship, external financial support, additional charges, institutional support, or another material business arrangement, applicable information should be communicated transparently.

A financial contribution to a special issue does not guarantee acceptance of manuscripts or confer editorial authority on the funding party.

Advertising must be clearly distinguishable from independently reviewed scholarly and editorial content.

Advertisers must not influence reviewer selection, editorial recommendations, manuscript acceptance, rejection, corrections, retractions, or other scholarly decisions.

Purchase of advertising space must not provide preferential publication treatment to an advertiser, associated author, institution, organisation, product, or sponsor.

Indexing and abstracting claims should be current, journal-specific, and independently verifiable.

A journal should not describe itself as indexed in Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, DOAJ, or another selective database unless official coverage has been confirmed by the relevant organisation.

DOI registration, Crossref participation, Google Scholar discoverability, repository inclusion, library cataloguing, and search-engine visibility must not be represented as equivalent to inclusion in a selective citation index.

Future indexing cannot be guaranteed because external indexing organisations independently determine their own selection and continuing-coverage decisions.

Journal websites may communicate typical editorial or publication timeframes where such information reflects actual editorial experience and can be supported reasonably by the journal's publishing record.

Editorial timelines are affected by reviewer availability, manuscript complexity, required revisions, integrity checks, ethical assessment, and other legitimate factors.

Published timelines should therefore not be used to imply guaranteed acceptance or superficial review.

Where substantial delay occurs, authors should receive appropriate information about the status of their manuscript.

Macaw Publications seeks to maintain its journal platform using appropriate web security and technical practices, including secure HTTPS access.

Publisher and journal websites should not imitate another journal or publisher in a manner intended to mislead users about identity, ownership, affiliation, or legitimacy.

Third-party material reproduced on publisher websites should be used lawfully and attributed where acknowledgement is required.

Journal editors and Editorial Board members should be publicly identifiable by their professional names and appropriate institutional affiliations.

Individuals should agree to serve before their names are presented publicly as members of a journal's editorial or advisory structure.

Editorial lists should be reviewed periodically so that inactive, outdated, inaccurate, or unauthorised appointments can be corrected.

Journals may rely on legitimate third-party infrastructure or services for functions such as DOI registration, hosting, preservation, plagiarism screening, metadata distribution, payment processing, or other publishing operations.

Use of a third-party service does not automatically constitute indexing, accreditation, certification, sponsorship, or endorsement by that organisation.

External services should therefore be described according to the actual service or relationship provided.

Each journal should state whether it operates as fully Open Access, subscription-based, hybrid, or according to another clearly described access model.

Where any content requires registration, subscription, payment, institutional access, or another access condition, the method of obtaining access should be explained clearly.

Where print versions or other paid formats are available, any relevant charges should be distinguished from online Open Access conditions.

Any optional publishing-related service offered to authors, readers, institutions, or third parties should be identified clearly as optional unless it is genuinely a mandatory publishing requirement.

Purchase of language editing, reprints, formatting assistance, print copies, or another optional service must not guarantee manuscript acceptance or favourable editorial treatment.

Where an additional service carries a charge, the relevant conditions should be communicated before the service is ordered.

Registration of a business, assignment of an ISSN, DOI registration, use of publishing software, membership of a service, or participation in metadata infrastructure must not be represented as government accreditation, journal indexing, academic recognition, or institutional endorsement unless such status genuinely exists.

Similarly, reference to publishing guidelines or standards does not imply membership of, certification by, or endorsement from the organisation that developed those guidelines.

Where material publisher or journal information is found to be inaccurate, outdated, incomplete, or misleading, appropriate corrective action should be taken.

Action may include correcting website information, updating fee disclosures, revising marketing material, clarifying ownership or sponsorship, correcting indexing claims, updating editorial information, or modifying internal procedures.

Where an incorrect business practice has materially affected an author or editorial process, further review and appropriate remedial action may be considered according to the circumstances.

Macaw Publications periodically reviews its transparency, financial, marketing, advertising, sponsorship, fee, organisational, and journal-governance information.

Material changes affecting author charges, access models, ownership, publisher identity, journal management, advertising, sponsorship, or other important publishing arrangements should be reflected on the relevant website pages.

Historical or outdated information should not be retained in a manner that could materially mislead authors or readers about current publishing conditions.