Publication Ethics

Combinatorial Press is committed to maintaining the integrity, transparency, and quality of the scholarly record. All Combinatorial Press journals follow the principles and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as well as relevant ethical guidance from the American Mathematical Society, the International Mathematical Union, and the European Mathematical Society.

This publication ethics policy applies to all journals published by Combinatorial Press, including:

Combinatorial Press expects authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members to follow high standards of academic integrity, fairness, confidentiality, and professional conduct throughout the submission, peer-review, editorial, and publication process.

General Publication Ethics

All manuscripts submitted to Combinatorial Press journals must be original, accurate, and submitted in good faith. Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time.

Manuscripts must not contain:

  • Plagiarism
  • Duplicate publication
  • Fabricated data
  • Falsified results
  • Inappropriate image or figure manipulation
  • Misleading claims
  • Improper authorship attribution

Combinatorial Press treats allegations of publication misconduct seriously. Where necessary, the editorial office may investigate concerns in accordance with COPE guidance and may contact authors, reviewers, editors, institutions, funders, or other relevant parties.

Confirmed misconduct may result in:

  • Rejection of the manuscript
  • Correction
  • Expression of concern
  • Retraction
  • Notification to institutions or funders
  • Other appropriate editorial action

Author Responsibilities

Authors submitting to Combinatorial Press journals are expected to:

  • Present their research honestly, accurately, and objectively.
  • Ensure that the manuscript is original and has not been published elsewhere.
  • Avoid simultaneous submission to another journal.
  • Properly cite all sources, including their own previously published work where relevant.
  • Obtain permission for any copyrighted material, figures, tables, or images reused from other sources.
  • Disclose all potential conflicts of interest.
  • Provide sufficient methodological detail to allow the work to be understood, verified, and, where applicable, reproduced.
  • Retain underlying data, code, computational files, or supporting materials for a reasonable period after publication.
  • Make data, code, or supporting materials available upon reasonable request from editors or reviewers, where applicable and subject to legal, ethical, privacy, or confidentiality restrictions.
  • Inform the journal promptly if they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in a submitted, accepted, or published manuscript.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a significant scholarly contribution to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or writing of the work. All listed authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to be accountable for the content of the publication.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged with their permission.

Changes to authorship after submission, including addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors, must be:

  • Approved by all authors
  • Justified to the editorial office
  • Supported by a clear explanation of the requested change

The following authorship practices are not acceptable:

  • Ghost authorship
  • Guest authorship
  • Honorary authorship
  • Gift authorship

Conflict of Interest

Authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members must disclose any financial, institutional, personal, professional, or academic relationships that could influence, or appear to influence, the objectivity of the submission, review, or editorial decision.

Conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to:

  • Employment
  • Funding
  • Consultancies
  • Stock ownership
  • Personal relationships
  • Academic competition
  • Recent collaboration
  • Institutional affiliation

When a conflict of interest is identified, the editorial office will take appropriate steps to ensure fair and independent handling of the manuscript.

Peer Review and Reviewer Responsibilities

Combinatorial Press journals use peer review to support the quality, validity, and scholarly contribution of submitted manuscripts. Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, timely, and respectful evaluations.

Reviewers must:

  • Treat manuscripts as confidential documents.
  • Not share, copy, distribute, or use unpublished material from a manuscript.
  • Declare any conflict of interest before accepting a review invitation.
  • Avoid personal criticism of authors.
  • Base their comments on scholarly merit, clarity, originality, correctness, and relevance to the journal.
  • Notify the editor if they suspect plagiarism, duplicate publication, data problems, citation manipulation, or other ethical concerns.
  • Avoid using information obtained through peer review for personal advantage.

Editor Responsibilities

Editors are responsible for ensuring a fair, transparent, and timely editorial process. Editorial decisions should be based on the scholarly quality, originality, relevance, clarity, and integrity of the manuscript, without discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, political belief, institutional affiliation, or personal identity.

Editors must:

  • Maintain confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.
  • Select suitable and independent reviewers.
  • Manage conflicts of interest appropriately.
  • Avoid using unpublished material from submitted manuscripts for personal research.
  • Take reasonable steps to investigate ethical concerns.
  • Ensure that corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions are issued when necessary.

Editorial board members who submit manuscripts to a Combinatorial Press journal must not be involved in the review or decision-making process for their own submission.

Plagiarism and Similarity Screening

Plagiarism is not permitted. This includes copying text, ideas, data, figures, images, tables, results, or structure from another source without proper attribution.

Unacceptable practices include:

  • Direct plagiarism
  • Paraphrasing without proper citation
  • Self-plagiarism
  • Redundant publication
  • Inappropriate reuse of previously published material
  • Uncredited use of figures, tables, or data

Submissions may be checked using similarity-detection software or other editorial screening methods. If plagiarism or substantial overlap is detected before publication, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is discovered after publication, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other appropriate notice.

Data, Code, and Reproducibility

Authors should provide sufficient detail about methods, proofs, computations, algorithms, datasets, and software so that the work can be assessed by reviewers and understood by readers.

Where applicable, authors are encouraged to deposit supporting materials in a suitable public repository, including:

  • Data
  • Code
  • Computational files
  • Supplementary materials
  • Algorithms
  • Software documentation

If public sharing is not possible because of legal, ethical, privacy, or confidentiality restrictions, authors should explain the restriction in the manuscript.

Editors and reviewers may request supporting data, code, or materials during peer review. Failure to provide reasonable supporting material when requested may affect the editorial decision.

Research Ethics

Where research involves human participants, personal data, surveys, interviews, experiments, or sensitive information, authors must confirm that the study was conducted in accordance with applicable ethical standards, institutional requirements, and legal regulations.

Where required, authors must provide information about:

  • Ethics approval
  • Informed consent
  • Confidentiality
  • Data protection
  • Permission to use personal or sensitive information

Although many Combinatorial Press journals publish mathematical research that may not involve human or animal subjects, authors are still responsible for ensuring that all research is conducted ethically and transparently.

Combinatorial Press remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps, institutional affiliations, and territorial descriptions.

Citation Ethics

Authors must cite relevant sources accurately and fairly. References should support the claims made in the manuscript and should represent the relevant literature appropriately.

Authors should not:

  • Cite sources they have not consulted.
  • Copy references from other publications without checking them.
  • Use excessive self-citation.
  • Include irrelevant citations.
  • Add citations only to increase the citation count of a person, journal, institution, or publisher.
  • Engage in coercive citation or citation manipulation.

Verbatim text from another source, including the author’s own previous work, must be placed in quotation marks where appropriate and properly cited.

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in Scientific Writing

This policy applies to the use of generative AI and AI-assisted tools in the writing and editorial preparation of manuscripts submitted to Combinatorial Press journals. It does not prohibit the use of computational tools, statistical software, symbolic computation software, programming tools, or other technical tools used as part of the research itself.

Generative AI and AI-assisted tools may be used to improve language, grammar, readability, or formatting, but only under direct human supervision. Authors are fully responsible for checking the accuracy, originality, validity, and integrity of all content in the manuscript.

AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors. Authorship requires responsibility, accountability, and scholarly contribution, which can only be provided by human authors.

If authors use generative AI or AI-assisted tools for substantive writing, rewriting, summarizing, language generation, or editorial preparation, they must include a statement before the references under the heading:

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process

Suggested wording:

During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [name of tool or service] for [specific purpose]. After using this tool or service, the author(s) reviewed, edited, and verified the content as needed and take full responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the publication.

No declaration is required for routine use of tools for:

  • Spelling checks
  • Grammar checks
  • Reference management
  • Formatting
  • Typesetting
  • Plagiarism screening
  • Similarity checking

This exception applies only when such tools did not generate or substantially rewrite scholarly content.

Undisclosed or inappropriate use of AI-assisted tools may be treated as an ethical concern.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

Combinatorial Press is committed to correcting the scholarly record when necessary.

A correction may be issued when a published article contains an error that does not invalidate the main findings.

An expression of concern may be issued when serious concerns have been raised but the investigation is incomplete or inconclusive.

A retraction may be issued when the findings are unreliable because of:

  • Major error
  • Plagiarism
  • Duplicate publication
  • Fabrication
  • Falsification
  • Unethical research
  • Compromised peer review
  • Other serious misconduct

Retraction notices will explain the reason for retraction and will remain linked to the original article. Retracted articles will normally remain available online with clear retraction marking, unless removal is required for legal, ethical, privacy, or safety reasons.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision if they believe there has been a procedural error, misunderstanding, or conflict of interest. Appeals must provide a clear explanation and supporting evidence.

Appeals may be reviewed by:

  • The editor-in-chief
  • An independent editor
  • The editorial office
  • Another appropriate editorial representative

Readers, authors, reviewers, or editors may also submit complaints about:

  • Editorial conduct
  • Peer review
  • Publication ethics
  • Corrections
  • Retractions
  • Published content

Complaints will be handled fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with relevant ethical guidance.

Submitting an appeal does not guarantee reversal of the editorial decision.

Confidentiality

Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must treat submitted manuscripts and related correspondence as confidential. Information about a manuscript should not be disclosed to anyone except those directly involved in the editorial and peer-review process.

Unpublished material from submitted manuscripts must not be used by editors, reviewers, or editorial staff for personal advantage or research purposes.

Misconduct Investigation Procedure

When a potential ethical concern is identified, the editorial office may take the following steps:

  • Conduct an initial assessment of the concern.
  • Request an explanation or supporting material from the authors, reviewers, or complainant.
  • Consult the editor-in-chief, editorial board members, or external experts where appropriate.
  • Follow relevant COPE guidance when investigating the matter.
  • Contact institutions, funders, or other journals if necessary.
  • Take appropriate action, such as rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or notification to relevant parties.

All investigations will be handled as fairly and confidentially as possible.

Ethical Guidelines Followed by Combinatorial Press

Combinatorial Press journals follow relevant ethical guidance from the following organizations: