TAE / ECTAP is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics. The journal follows the principles and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), including its Core Practices and case guidelines. In all cases of suspected misconduct, the journal follows the relevant COPE flowcharts. These guidelines apply to authors, reviewers, and editors alike.

Authorship

Authorship must be limited to those who have made a significant intellectual contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All co-authors must have seen and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission. Each author is required to disclose their real identity and provide a verifiable institutional e-mail address.

The corresponding author must be clearly identified on every published paper. They are responsible for managing communication between the editorial office and all co-authors at all stages of submission, peer review, and post-publication.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section rather than listed as authors. Guest, gift, or ghost authorship is not permitted. Any post-publication changes to the author list require the written agreement of all authors and must be approved by the Editor.

Plagiarism

TAE / ECTAP requires that all submitted work is original. Plagiarism in any form — including verbatim copying, paraphrasing without attribution, and self-plagiarism (re-use of the authors' own previously published text or data without citation) — is unacceptable and will result in immediate rejection, or retraction if discovered after publication. Authors must ensure that all sources are properly cited and that any text reproduced from other works is clearly attributed. The journal may use similarity-detection tools to screen submissions.

Publishing malpractice

The following practices constitute publishing malpractice and are strictly prohibited:

• Duplicate submission: Submitting the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal is not permitted.
• Redundant publication: Publishing substantially the same research in more than one outlet without disclosure and cross-referencing is not permitted.
• Data fabrication and falsification: Inventing, manipulating, or selectively omitting data to support a particular outcome is a serious breach of research integrity.
• Citation manipulation: Authors must not artificially inflate citation counts through self-citation, coercive citation, or participation in citation cartels.
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest: Authors, reviewers, and editors must declare any financial or personal relationships that could be perceived as influencing their work.

Suspected cases of malpractice are investigated following COPE flowcharts. Confirmed cases may result in rejection, retraction, or notification of the authors' institutions.

Editorial responsibilities and independence

The Editor is solely responsible for all editorial decisions. These decisions are based exclusively on academic merit — originality, methodological rigour, and relevance to the journal's scope — and are never influenced by the authors' identity, nationality, institutional affiliation, or any commercial or personal consideration. Editorial board members recuse themselves from decisions on manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest.

Peer review

All submissions undergo double-blind peer review by at least three independent experts. Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts under review, must not use unpublished information for personal advantage, and must declare any conflicts of interest. Reviewers who cannot maintain objectivity are asked to decline the assignment.

Use of generative AI

AI language tools may not be listed as an author. If an author uses a generative AI tool in preparing any part of a manuscript, this must be disclosed transparently in the Methods or Introduction section. The author remains fully responsible for the accuracy of AI-assisted content. Reviewers and editors may use AI tools only to improve the language of their own reports and must not upload manuscript content to third-party AI services. Peer review judgments must remain human.

Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions

Errors identified after publication are corrected promptly. When errors are fundamental and undermine the conclusions of a paper, the Editor may issue a retraction following COPE Retraction Guidelines. Retracted articles remain accessible online with a clear "RETRACTED" notice. Expressions of concern may be published when an investigation is ongoing or inconclusive.

Open access

The full archive of TAE / ECTAP is freely and openly accessible under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence, in compliance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI).