Ethics - Geotrope

All articles received by Revue GEOTROPE are selected by the editorial board. The main objective is to ensure that the content of the article is in line with the objectives and mission of the journal. Once this stage has been completed, the article is submitted anonymously to two reviewers. The reviewers’ task is to provide an objective appraisal explicitly focused on the text’s contribution to the production of knowledge in tropical geography and the environment.

Reports submitted by reviewers are considered acceptable when they contain precise, substantiated explanations of the originality of the content, the coherence of the methodology used, the relevance of the arguments and results obtained, and the importance of the sources used. If the article is submitted with maps, tables and graphs, an infographic evaluation will be carried out. In addition, a systematic assessment will be made to ensure the quality of the language.

The « Statement on Ethics and Publication Practices » of the journal GEOTROPE published at the Félix Houphouët-Boigny University of Cocody (Ivory Coast) is based on the guidelines of the Publication Ethics Committee (COPE), available on the websitehttp://publicationethics.org.

Authors, journal editors, editorial staff, peer reviewers, and all parties involved in the act of publication agree to the following ethical standards.

All manuscripts submitted to GEOTROPE undergo a strict double-blind peer review process in the field of the submitted article. Acceptance is based on scientific significance, originality, and clarity.
Based on the reviewer’s comments, a notification (accept as is; accept with minor correction; accept with major correction; reject and resubmit; reject) is made by the editorial board. At the end of the review process, the editor-in-chief makes the final decision.
Although authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a manuscript, there is no guarantee that the revised manuscript will be accepted.
Rejected manuscripts will not be re-evaluated.
Manuscripts may be rejected without review if the editorial board considers the article to be clearly unsuitable for publication or outside the scope of the journal.
Acceptance of the manuscript is limited by the legal requirements then in force regarding defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

Authors who submit articles to the Journal of Tropical Geography and Environment (GEOTROPE) of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny University attest that:

Their manuscript is original and unpublished, it has not been copied or plagiarized, and the author’s other works on the same subject have been cited or referenced appropriately if they have been published elsewhere.
They did not present essentially the same research in previously published works.
Authorship of the study is limited to those who made a significant contribution to the design, collection and/or processing of data, execution or interpretation of the reported study.

All those who made a significant contribution have been listed as co-authors. Other researchers who participated in significant aspects of the research project have been acknowledged or cited as contributors. All co-authors were clearly indicated at the time of submission. Authors presenting original research results must provide an accurate account of the work performed. The underlying data must be accurately represented in the manuscript or made accessible by providing a link to a database or other type of repository.

An article must contain sufficient details of methodology and references to allow others to reproduce the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is their duty to promptly inform the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with them in either withdrawing the article or issuing an appropriate statement of correction or erratum.

The Editorial Board seeks to identify and prevent unethical publishing behavior. It undertakes to investigate any complaints filed against the journal. The author is responsible for the alleged violation. The Editorial Board is always willing to publish corrections, apologies, and explanations, if necessary.

A complaint alleging unethical publication practices may be filed at any time by anyone with the journal’s editorial board. The person filing the complaint must provide supporting evidence. All complaints will be taken seriously by the editorial board and processed to a conclusion.

All complaints will be processed regardless of the publication date of the article in question. Documents relating to the processing of this complaint will be retained by the editorial board.

The following measures may be implemented in the event of a complaint to the journals:

Interview with the author, in the event of a misunderstanding of the ethical charter and the rules of publication of journals

Sending a letter to the perpetrator, detailing the offense and having the value of a warning

Sending a letter to the author’s employing organization

Publication of an editorial informing the readership

Withdrawal of the article from the journal, as well as from the indexing databases, and information for the readership

Embargo on any new articles by this author for a fixed period of three (3) years.

Refer to an external organization or body with authority to handle the complaint.

Authors should not include false data or research findings in the manuscript. Furthermore, manipulation of the research process or arbitrary modification or omission of data that leads to distortion of the research content or findings should not be performed. The authors undertake not to exceed, in the submitted articles, the rules of scientific debate and not to make defamatory statements which could be interpreted as attacks on the reputation of a third party.

To ensure a reliable and open publication process, all authors, reviewers, and editors are requested to declare, via our submission platform or directly to the Editor-in-Chief, any interests that may compromise or influence the validity of the review and publication, or that may create a conflict of interest. Authors must declare any potential conflict of interest, whether professional or financial.

Reviewers must declare to the journal’s management at the time of accepting or rejecting the online review request any potential conflict of interest, whether professional, financial, or otherwise, that could be interpreted as having influenced their approach. The journal also asks reviewers to withdraw from the process if the author is identified.

The journal GEOTROPE aims to contribute to the development of geography and the environment. It is a cumulative and reproducible science through an open and evolving editorial policy. The articles are published under the CC-BY 4.0 license. However, the content may not be reused for commercial purposes.

Every article received by the GEOTROPE Journal is subject to selection by the editorial board. The main objective is to ensure that the article’s content is consistent with the journal’s objectives and mission. Once this step is completed, the article is submitted anonymously to two reviewers. The reviewers’ task is to provide an objective assessment explicitly focused on the text’s contribution to the production of knowledge in geography and the environment.

Reports submitted by reviewers are considered acceptable if they contain precise and substantiated explanations of the originality of the content, the coherence of the methodology used, the relevance of the argument and results obtained, and the importance of the sources used. If the article is submitted with maps, tables, and graphs, an infographic assessment will be performed. In addition, a systematic assessment will be made to ensure the quality of the language.

All manuscripts submitted to GEOTROPE undergo a strict double-blind peer review process in the field of the submitted article. Acceptance is based on scientific significance, originality, and clarity.
Based on the reviewer’s comments, a notification (accept as is; accept with minor correction; accept with major correction; reject and resubmit; reject) is made by the editorial board. At the end of the review process, the editor-in-chief makes the final decision.
Although authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a manuscript, there is no guarantee that the revised manuscript will be accepted.

Rejected manuscripts will not be re-evaluated.
Manuscripts may be rejected without review if the editorial board considers the article to be clearly unsuitable for publication or outside the scope of the journal.
Acceptance of the manuscript is limited by the legal requirements then in force regarding defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

Plagiarism is also the reproduction of a text, a part of a text from any literary or graphic production, or the paraphrasing of a text without indicating the author. It violates the rules of academic ethics and constitutes fraud in graded work.

Plagiarism also constitutes an infringement of copyright and intellectual property rights, which can be considered a counterfeiting offense. When the author of an academic work feels the need to rely on another text, they must do so in accordance with the following rules:

When an extract, even a short one, is quoted exactly, it must be placed in quotation marks (or indented and in slightly smaller type if the text exceeds a few lines) and the reference (author’s name and source) must be indicated; the quoted extract must be short; when the text or a passage of the text is paraphrased or summarized, the reference (author’s name and source) must be indicated. GEOTROPE does not accept in any way whatsoever the publication of plagiarized articles. To do this, in the event of proven plagiarism, the plagiarist author is informed by confidential mail with irrefutable evidence. However, if in one way or another, an article containing many similarities with another existing text is published on our site, the article in question remains blacklisted, i.e. impossible to read and download. To this end, an anti-plagiarism test is carried out when the text is submitted, and another anti-plagiarism test before the author’s text is published.

All documents used in the writing of a scientific article must be clearly identified and the name of the author and the source of the extract must be mentioned. Textual quotations, including those in a personal translation, must be properly cited in accordance with editorial standards. Non-textual quotations (tables; graphs; photos; scientific formulas, etc.) must also be accompanied by a bibliographic reference. All references to documents cited, borrowed or adapted, must appear in the bibliographic references.

The editors of each issue:

Are responsible for the decision to publish submitted articles.
Must take into account the assessment made by the evaluators.
May speak with the management and scientific committee of the journal.
May be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and are subject, under the editor’s control, to legal and ethical requirements regarding defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.
Must evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the author(s).
Must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisors, and the editor, if applicable.
Must not use in their own research unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript without the express written consent of the author.

Peer review helps the editorial board make editorial decisions and can also help the author improve their article. Each selected reviewer agrees with the following statements:

If a reviewer feels unqualified to review the research presented in a manuscript or knows that it is not possible to meet the deadline, they should immediately inform the issue coordinator or the editorial board so that the article can be sent to another reviewer.
Manuscripts received for review should be treated as confidential documents. They should not be shown or discussed with other people unless authorized by the scientific committee.
Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticisms of the author(s) are not accepted. Reviewers must clearly express their point of view, with supporting arguments.
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Reviewers should also report to the journal editors any substantial similarities or overlaps between the manuscript under review and any other published articles of which they have personal knowledge and that are not mentioned and referenced in the reviewed text.
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal gain. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or ties with any of the authors, companies, or institutions related to the articles.

GEOTROPE continuously receives contributions, offers thematic issues where appropriate, and is published twice a year: June and December. The texts received are evaluated using a double-blind review process. In some cases, a third evaluation is essential and necessary before acceptance. The order of publication depends on the text’s theme.

If you have any comments on an article, you can send them directly to the author’s email address or to the editorial office. This procedure is particularly useful for reporting errors or omissions of important references on the subject matter. The editorial board will discuss any changes or additions to the article with the author.

Once an article has been published, it is designated the reference version. This is a reliable and complete version of the article, which others can cite and rely on. If an author identifies an error or inaccuracy in the registered version, they may address it by making a correction, expressing concern, retracting it, or, less commonly, deleting it.

A correction is issued when errors or omissions affect the interpretation of the article, but the integrity of the results remains unchanged. This may include missing information, such as details about conflicts of interest, or incorrect labeling of graphs, tables, or other data.

The retractions are published when major errors in a part of the article render the discussion or conclusions unreliable, or when serious cases of misconduct have occurred. Plagiarism, ghost authorship, fraudulent authorship, or manipulation of the peer review process are examples of misconduct that can easily lead to retraction.

It is important to note that retractions can also result from honest mistakes, such as analytical problems or measurement errors that led to incorrect results. It should be noted that retractions are not appropriate if a correction is sufficient to resolve the issues in question.

Any author who discovers, after publication, a significant error or inaccuracy in their own work is required to inform the journal management without delay and to cooperate with them in publishing an erratum or even in notifying the retraction of their article. If the editorial board or editor of the journal learns from a third party that an article already published contains a significant error, they must inform the author, who must then request the retraction of their article, correct it, or provide evidence to support the correctness of the error.

Ownership and Copyright

GEOTROPE allows authors to hold unrestricted copyright and publication rights to their contributions.
GEOTROPE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CC-BY 4.0

Access & Licenses

GEOTROPE is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal available online. In accordance with the Budapest Initiative for Open Access’ definition of « open access, » users have the right to « read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link » to the full text of articles.