Ethics and misconduct procedure

This document is a draft. It is not legal advice and it is not in force. It becomes required only when the owner adopts it by a recorded decision in nexus-governance. Until then nothing here blocks anyone’s work.

Anyone: authors, reviewers, editors, readers, sponsors, staff. You may do so openly or in confidence.

1. Use the complaint form (template in this set) and send it to the contact form. The ethics and ombuds contact is that role mailbox until the owner names another. The ombuds is to be named by the owner. 2. The managing editor logs it within 2 days and acknowledges receipt. 3. The log records date, network, subject, category and handler. It does not record more personal data than needed.

Plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, undeclared conflict, authorship dispute, duplicate submission, review misconduct, breach of confidentiality, unethical research, misuse of AI, harassment, information hazard.

1. Triage within 10 days. Is it in scope? Is there a conflict? Anyone conflicted is recused and replaced. 2. Inquiry. The ethics editor or a delegate asks the people involved for a written response within 14 days. The accused gets the allegation in full and a fair hearing. 3. Assessment. Follow the relevant COPE flowchart. Record what was found and why. 4. Outcome. One of: no action, advice, correction, expression of concern, retraction, notice to institution or funder, restriction of participation. 5. Notice. The people involved are told in writing. Any public notice goes in the corrections log. 6. Appeal. Within 30 days on process error, undeclared conflict or misread evidence. A council panel with no earlier involvement decides.

• No retaliation against a person who raises a concern in good faith.
• Confidentiality is kept as far as the inquiry allows. Limits are explained at the start.
• Safety first: where a concern involves risk to a person, the managing editor acts at once and informs the Secretariat.
• Records are kept under the retention rules in the privacy notice.

The ethics editor gives the council an annual integrity report with counts by category and outcome. No names.