Ethical Principles

Behavioral and Family Research and Couple Therapy is committed to maintaining high standards of integrity, transparency, accountability, and ethical conduct throughout the publication process. The journal expects editors, reviewers, authors, and all parties involved in scholarly publishing to act responsibly and in accordance with internationally accepted principles of research and publication ethics.

The journal considers ethical publishing an essential part of scientific credibility. Decisions concerning submitted manuscripts are based on academic quality, originality, methodological rigor, relevance to the journal’s scope, and compliance with ethical standards. Any form of research misconduct, publication misconduct, manipulation of the editorial process, or misrepresentation of scientific findings may result in rejection, correction, retraction, or other appropriate action.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts represent accurate, original, and ethically conducted research. A manuscript should provide a truthful account of the work performed and should not contain fabricated, falsified, manipulated, or deliberately misleading information.

Authors must present their methods, data, analyses, and findings with sufficient accuracy and transparency to permit appropriate scientific evaluation. Selective reporting of results, deliberate omission of relevant findings, inappropriate manipulation of statistical analyses, or misrepresentation of research procedures is considered inconsistent with responsible scholarly conduct.

Authors should retain relevant research records and, when reasonably required for scientific or ethical evaluation, be prepared to provide supporting information in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, and confidentiality requirements.

Originality and Plagiarism

All manuscripts submitted to the journal must be original. Authors must appropriately acknowledge the work, ideas, findings, methods, or wording of other researchers through proper citation and attribution.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, direct copying without acknowledgment, close paraphrasing without proper citation, presenting another researcher’s ideas or findings as one’s own, and unauthorized reproduction of tables, figures, images, or other protected material.

The journal uses iThenticate to screen submitted manuscripts for textual similarity. Similarity reports are evaluated by the editorial team on a case-by-case basis. Decisions are not based solely on a numerical similarity percentage; the nature, extent, location, and academic significance of the overlap are also considered.

Substantial plagiarism may result in immediate rejection. If plagiarism is discovered after publication, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction depending on the seriousness of the case.

Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Authors must not submit manuscripts that have already been published substantially elsewhere or that are simultaneously under consideration by another journal.

Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is considered unethical because it may lead to duplicate publication and unnecessary use of editorial and reviewer resources.

Authors must also avoid redundant publication, in which substantially similar data, analyses, or conclusions are published more than once without appropriate disclosure and justification. If a manuscript substantially overlaps with previously published or submitted work, the authors must inform the journal and clearly cite the related material.

Secondary publication may only be considered when scientifically and ethically justified and when all relevant permissions, disclosures, and acknowledgments are provided.

Self-Plagiarism and Text Recycling

Authors should avoid extensive reuse of their own previously published text without appropriate citation or disclosure. Limited reuse of standard methodological descriptions may sometimes be unavoidable, but substantial duplication of previously published material may constitute inappropriate text recycling.

When material from an author’s earlier publications is reused, the original source should be cited where appropriate, and the relationship between the previous work and the new manuscript should be transparent.

Authorship and Contributor Responsibility

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to the research and manuscript.

Authors should normally have contributed meaningfully to important aspects of the work, such as the conception or design of the study, data collection, analysis or interpretation of data, drafting or critically revising the manuscript, and approval of the final version.

All listed authors must approve the submitted manuscript and agree to be accountable for their contribution. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately rather than listed as authors.

Practices such as gift authorship, guest authorship, and ghost authorship are not acceptable. An individual should not be added as an author solely because of seniority, administrative position, personal relationship, or general supervision when they have not made a substantial scholarly contribution.

Changes to authorship after submission, including addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors, must be fully explained and should normally require the agreement of all affected authors and approval by the journal.

Corresponding Author Responsibilities

The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal throughout submission, peer review, revision, and publication.

The corresponding author should ensure that all eligible contributors are appropriately listed, that all authors have approved the final manuscript, and that relevant ethical approvals, funding information, conflicts of interest, and other required declarations have been accurately reported.

The corresponding author should also communicate editorial decisions, reviewer comments, and revision requirements to all co-authors where appropriate.

Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with recognized ethical principles and applicable institutional and national regulations.

Where ethical approval is required, authors must obtain approval from an appropriate institutional review board, research ethics committee, or equivalent authority before conducting the research. Relevant approval information should be reported in the manuscript.

The journal may request documentation of ethical approval when necessary.

Research involving vulnerable populations requires particular ethical attention, including appropriate safeguards for privacy, informed consent, voluntariness, and protection from harm.

Informed Consent

Where applicable, informed consent must be obtained from research participants before participation.

Participants should be provided with adequate information about the nature and purpose of the research, procedures involved, potential risks and benefits, confidentiality, and their right to withdraw where relevant.

For minors or individuals who are unable to provide legally valid consent, appropriate permission must be obtained from parents, legal guardians, or other authorized representatives, together with participant assent when appropriate.

Authors should avoid including identifiable personal information unless it is scientifically necessary and appropriate consent for publication has been obtained.

Confidentiality and Privacy

Authors must protect the privacy and confidentiality of research participants.

Identifying information should not be published unless its inclusion is essential and the participant has provided appropriate consent. Researchers should take reasonable measures to anonymize or de-identify participant data where possible.

Sensitive clinical, psychological, family, or personal information must be handled with particular care because inappropriate disclosure may cause harm to participants.

Research Integrity and Data Accuracy

Fabrication and falsification are serious forms of research misconduct.

Fabrication refers to inventing data, observations, participants, procedures, or results that did not occur.

Falsification includes manipulating research materials, procedures, images, analyses, or data in a way that misrepresents the research.

Authors must not modify, omit, or selectively present data in a manner intended to create a misleading impression of the findings. Statistical procedures should be selected and reported appropriately, and negative or non-significant results should not be deliberately concealed when they are relevant to the research question.

Data Availability and Transparency

Authors are encouraged to maintain accurate research records and to support transparency and reproducibility where appropriate.

When possible and ethically permissible, authors should make data, instruments, analytic procedures, supplementary materials, or other relevant research materials available in accordance with applicable legal, ethical, institutional, and participant-consent restrictions.

The journal recognizes that unrestricted data sharing may not always be possible, particularly where datasets contain confidential, sensitive, clinical, or identifiable information.

Any statement concerning data availability should accurately reflect the actual accessibility of the materials.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their judgment.

A conflict of interest does not necessarily imply misconduct. However, transparency is essential so that potential influences can be appropriately evaluated.

Authors should disclose relevant financial support, employment relationships, consultancy roles, institutional interests, personal relationships, or other circumstances that may affect interpretation of the research.

Editors and reviewers should decline involvement in manuscripts where a conflict of interest could compromise or reasonably appear to compromise impartiality.

Funding Disclosure

Authors must disclose all sources of financial or material support for the research.

Where applicable, the role of the funding organization in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit the article should be clearly described.

If the funder had no role in these activities, this may also be stated.

Funding information should be complete and accurate because undisclosed financial support may raise concerns regarding transparency and research independence.

Citation Ethics

Authors should cite sources that are directly relevant to the submitted work and should avoid unnecessary, misleading, or manipulative citation practices.

Citation manipulation includes adding irrelevant references solely to increase citation counts, excessive self-citation without scholarly justification, coercive citation practices, or coordinated citation arrangements intended to artificially influence bibliometric indicators.

Reviewers and editors must not require authors to add citations to their own publications or to the journal unless the references are genuinely relevant and scientifically justified.

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers play an essential role in ensuring the quality and integrity of published research. Reviews should be objective, constructive, evidence-based, and respectful.

Reviewers should evaluate manuscripts on their scholarly merits and should not allow personal preferences, institutional considerations, nationality, gender, personal relationships, or other irrelevant factors to influence their assessments.

Reviewers should identify important methodological, conceptual, analytical, or reporting weaknesses and provide sufficient explanation to support their recommendations.

Personal criticism, insulting language, or unprofessional comments are not acceptable.

Reviewer Confidentiality

Manuscripts under review are confidential documents.

Reviewers must not share manuscripts, discuss their content with unauthorized individuals, reproduce unpublished material, or use information obtained through peer review for personal, academic, commercial, or competitive advantage.

Any unpublished data, hypotheses, findings, or ideas obtained through the review process must remain confidential.

Reviewer Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers should disclose any conflict of interest that could interfere with their ability to provide an impartial evaluation.

Potential conflicts may arise from recent collaboration, institutional relationships, professional competition, personal relationships, financial interests, or other circumstances connected with the authors or research.

When a significant conflict exists, the reviewer should decline the review assignment.

Ethical Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for ensuring that editorial decisions are fair, consistent, independent, and based on scholarly considerations.

Editors should evaluate manuscripts according to scientific merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance to the journal’s scope, clarity, and ethical compliance.

Editorial decisions must not be influenced by commercial considerations, personal relationships, institutional pressure, or inappropriate discrimination.

Editors are responsible for maintaining confidentiality regarding submitted manuscripts and for protecting the anonymity of reviewers within the journal’s double-blind peer-review system.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions must remain independent of financial considerations.

The payment of an Article Processing Charge does not influence whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected. Manuscripts are assessed through the same scientific and peer-review standards regardless of financial arrangements.

Editors must not accept or reject manuscripts for the purpose of increasing journal revenue.

Fair and Anonymous Peer Review

The journal follows a double-blind peer-review process, under which the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from each other.

Normally, manuscripts that pass initial editorial screening are evaluated by two or three independent reviewers.

The journal seeks to select reviewers with suitable subject or methodological expertise and expects reviewers to provide independent evaluations.

If reviewer reports are substantially conflicting, the editor may seek additional evaluation or use editorial judgment to determine the appropriate next step.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors may raise concerns regarding editorial procedures or request reconsideration of an editorial decision when they believe that a significant factual, methodological, procedural, or ethical issue has been misunderstood.

Appeals should provide clear scholarly reasons and should not consist merely of disagreement with an unfavorable decision.

The journal will review legitimate complaints and appeals fairly and may seek additional editorial or expert assessment where necessary.

An appeal does not automatically result in reversal of a decision.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

The journal is committed to maintaining the accuracy and reliability of the scholarly record.

If an error is identified after publication, the journal will consider whether a formal correction is required. Minor errors that do not affect interpretation may not require a formal notice, whereas significant errors affecting the reliability or interpretation of the article should be corrected transparently.

Retraction may be considered when there is reliable evidence of serious misconduct, fabricated or falsified data, major plagiarism, unethical research, duplicate publication, invalid findings, or other circumstances that substantially undermine the reliability or integrity of the published work.

An expression of concern may be issued when serious questions have arisen but available evidence is insufficient to reach a definitive conclusion.

Corrections, retractions, and other notices should be clearly linked to the original article so that the scholarly record remains transparent.

Post-Publication Concerns

The journal takes credible concerns about published material seriously, regardless of whether they are raised by authors, readers, reviewers, institutions, or other parties.

Allegations should be supported by specific information or evidence where possible. The journal may contact the authors, relevant institutions, reviewers, or other appropriate parties when investigating significant concerns.

The journal will seek to act fairly and proportionately and will avoid making unsupported allegations of misconduct.

Misconduct and Ethical Investigations

Possible misconduct may include plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, peer-review manipulation, unethical research practices, citation manipulation, or deliberate misrepresentation.

Where credible concerns arise, the journal may conduct an editorial investigation and may request explanations, original data, ethics documentation, or other supporting materials.

Depending on the circumstances, appropriate actions may include rejection of a manuscript, suspension of editorial processing, publication of a correction, retraction, notification of relevant institutions, or other measures necessary to protect the integrity of the scientific record.

Peer-Review Manipulation

Any attempt to manipulate the peer-review process is considered a serious violation of publication ethics.

Prohibited practices include providing false reviewer identities, fabricated contact details, attempting to influence reviewer selection through deception, creating fraudulent reviewer accounts, interfering with reviewer reports, or coordinating reviews in a manner intended to undermine independent assessment.

If peer-review manipulation is identified, the manuscript may be rejected and further action may be taken as appropriate.

Use of Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and content of manuscripts submitted to the journal, regardless of whether artificial intelligence or automated tools have been used during preparation.

AI tools must not be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the work, approve the final manuscript, disclose conflicts of interest, or be accountable for research integrity.

Where substantial use of generative AI has contributed to manuscript preparation or other relevant stages of the work, authors should disclose such use when appropriate and ensure that the generated material has been carefully verified.

Authors must not use AI-generated content to fabricate references, data, results, quotations, or other scholarly information.

Reviewers and editors must also protect manuscript confidentiality and should not upload confidential unpublished manuscripts to external AI systems where doing so may compromise confidentiality or intellectual property.

Ethical Treatment of Sensitive Topics

Because the journal publishes research concerning families, couples, relationships, mental health, counseling, and psychotherapy, manuscripts may involve highly sensitive personal information.

Authors should ensure that research involving intimate relationships, marital conflict, trauma, family violence, psychological distress, sexuality, children, or vulnerable participants is conducted with appropriate ethical safeguards.

Research procedures should minimize foreseeable harm, protect participant dignity and privacy, and use responsible language when describing individuals or groups.

Responsibility for Published Content

Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and ethical legitimacy of their published work.

Publication by Behavioral and Family Research and Couple Therapy does not imply that the journal, editors, reviewers, or publisher endorse every interpretation or opinion expressed by authors.

Where errors or ethical concerns are identified, authors are expected to cooperate fully with the journal in clarifying and, when necessary, correcting the scholarly record.

Commitment to Publication Integrity

Behavioral and Family Research and Couple Therapy is committed to ensuring that scholarly publishing is conducted transparently, fairly, and responsibly. The journal will address ethical concerns according to the nature and seriousness of each case and will seek to protect authors, reviewers, participants, readers, and the integrity of the scientific record throughout the publication process.