These ethical guidelines, partially inspired by the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines, aim to establish a code of good practice for the main agents involved in the publication of scientific articles in EGAP [Galician School for Public Administration] journals: editorial teams, authors and evaluators of the papers.

1. The publishers

They will keep the software updated and be able to provide a dispatch, evaluation and publication process of the papers.

They will ensure impartiality when handling the proposed papers and respect the intellectual independence of their authors. The manuscripts that are submitted will be evaluated according to their content, without taking into account the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, political affiliation or school of philosophy of their authors.

They will ensure the confidentiality of the paper. Their identity cannot be disclosed to others involved who are not authorized members of the publishers or the journal's organs.

They can decline to publish a paper if it does not comply with the formal requirements stipulated or if it deals with a topic beyond their scope.

2. The evaluators

The journal shall have a database of evaluators of recognized standing who are unrelated to the Editorial Committee or with the publishers of the journal. They must refuse any evaluation assignment if they do not acknowledge themselves as being qualified in that subject matter or if they cannot undertake the evaluation within the term established by the journal.

The objective and reasoned evaluation report will be sent via the established computerized means. The suggestions of the evaluation should pursue the improvement of the paper and will be sent to their authors using the established computer means, omitting the identity of the evaluators, who should refrain from evaluating articles when they incur in any of the circumstances established in Article 23 of Law 40/2015, of 1 October, on the legal system of the public sector, in relation to the authors of the papers or with the institutions upon which they depend.

3. The authors

Authors should submit papers that present an original research on a clearly identifiable subject matter. Papers shall be sent to the journal using the established computer means. All the authors of the original will be identified in the referral message, indicating their names and surnames, ORCID code, email, affiliation institution and the country of origin. Likewise, they must indicate that they are aware of and accept the contents of the regulations governing the journal and its code of ethics and good practices, and that the version of the paper that is submitted has not been published and that it is not involved in any publishing process; otherwise such a statement will be required, with a warning that if it is not submitted within the deadline, the paper will not be considered for publication.

If the ideas of others are used, they must be clearly referenced; plagiarism is an unacceptable behaviour and its detection implies filing the paper or withdrawing it from the website if it has already been published.

In the event of co-authorship, each author must be able to identify which parts of the paper are the responsibility of the other co-authors and keep the various contents confidential until the article is published.

Authors must notify the members of the editorial team of any simultaneous submission of the paper to other publications so that the appropriate measures can be adopted. The authors must state any possible conflict of interest between the conclusions of their paper and its sources of funding.