The following Code of Ethics is explicitly based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors elaborated by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics).
Visual Ethnography is a biannual multimodal peer reviewed journal, published online and in print. Submitted articles – in Italian or in English – are selected through a double-blind peer reviewed process. All parties involved in the publication – Authors, Reviewers, Founding Editors, members of the Scientific Committee, members of the Advisory Board, and members of the Editorial Staff – are aware of the ethical standards required and expressly adopt them.
Duties of the Journal’s Editors and other members
The journal Visual Ethnography decides to accept or decline an article for publication on the basis of an evaluation of its academic quality and originality.
The Founding Editors are responsible for the procedure of evaluating and revising the texts, relying on the support of the Editorial Staff members and respecting the opinions of the Scientific Committee, of the Advisory Board, and of other highly qualified Peer Reviewers.
Articles are evaluated through a double-blind peer review procedure. Each article is evaluated by two Reviewers selected on the basis of their competence and high qualification in the field; their motivated opinion is communicated in its entirety, in writing, to the authors. The journal is committed to ensuring an anonymous, fair and impartial peer review. In the event of conflict between the evaluations of the two Reviewers, the Editor may turn to the opinion of a third Reviewer.
The journal guarantees the privacy of texts proposed for publication throughout the evaluation procedure. The confidentiality of individual, scholarly or professional information is guaranteed for the entire review process.
The journal also applies the same anonymous and objective evaluation procedures to the articles submitted for publication by the Editors, members of the Scientific Committee, members of the Advisory Board, and members of the Editorial Staff.
The results for each article’s peer review process are archived in a confidential database.
Editors and members of the Editorial Staff, Scientific Committee, and Advisory Board must declare any conflict of interest arising from personal, professional, or financial relationships with the Authors of a submitted article. In such cases, the Editor concerned must withdraw from the evaluation and decision-making process for that article, which will be assigned to another qualified member of the Editorial Staff.
Editors are responsible for ensuring that the peer review process is conducted promptly and that decisions on acceptance, revision, or rejection are communicated to Authors within a reasonable timeframe.
Duties of Authors
Authors submitting a manuscript to Visual Ethnography certify that the work is original and has not been published, in whole or in part, in any other journal, book, or publication, nor is it under simultaneous consideration elsewhere.
Authorship must be limited to those who have made a substantial intellectual, methodological, or creative contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the work. All co-authors must have approved the final version of the manuscript prior to submission. Any change in authorship after submission must be communicated to and approved by the Editors.
Authors must accurately represent their research and give proper credit to the work of others through correct citation of sources, data, images, and audiovisual materials. Plagiarism, data fabrication, and falsification in any form constitute serious ethical violations and will lead to rejection or retraction of the manuscript.
Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, or personal conflict of interest that could be perceived as influencing the results or interpretation of their work.
If an Author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, they are obliged to promptly notify the Editors and cooperate in issuing a correction, erratum, or retraction as appropriate.
Authors are responsible for obtaining and, where required, documenting the informed consent of any individuals who are identifiable in photographs, video recordings, audio recordings, or other materials submitted as part of the article (see also “Research Involving Human Subjects and Visual Materials” below).
Duties of Reviewers
Reviewers agree to evaluate manuscripts objectively, on the basis of their scholarly merit, methodological rigor, and originality, without regard to the Authors’ nationality, gender, religious or political beliefs, or institutional affiliation.
Reviewers must treat manuscripts under review as confidential documents. They may not discuss, disclose, or make use of the content of a manuscript, or of any information gathered during the review process, for personal advantage or for any purpose other than the review itself.
Reviewers who become aware of a personal, professional, or financial conflict of interest with the Author(s) of a manuscript, or who feel unqualified to review a given work, must promptly notify the Editors and withdraw from the review process.
Reviewers are expected to provide their evaluation within the timeframe agreed with the Editorial Staff. If unable to do so, they must inform the Editors as soon as possible so that an alternative Reviewer can be identified.
If a Reviewer identifies substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and any other published or unpublished work of which they are aware, they must bring this to the attention of the Editors.
Research Involving Human Subjects and Visual Materials
Given the multimodal and ethnographic nature of the journal, particular attention is paid to the ethical treatment of individuals and communities represented in textual, photographic, audio, and video materials.
Authors must confirm that research involving human participants was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of their institution and, where applicable, was approved by a relevant institutional review board or ethics committee.
Authors must obtain the informed consent of individuals who appear, are named, or are otherwise identifiable in the materials submitted for publication (photographs, video, audio recordings, direct quotations), and must be prepared to provide documentation of such consent upon request by the Editors.
Particular care must be taken when research involves minors, or individuals or communities in conditions of vulnerability (including but not limited to indigenous populations, refugees, and marginalized groups). In such cases, Authors must clearly indicate the safeguards adopted to protect the dignity, anonymity, and wellbeing of participants, including anonymization or obscuring of identity where consent for identifiable publication has not been obtained or is not appropriate.
The journal encourages, where feasible, practices of restitution and dialogue with the communities and individuals involved in the research, and Authors are invited to indicate, where relevant, how the results of the research have been or will be shared with participating communities.
Handling of Allegations of Misconduct
The journal follows COPE guidelines in handling allegations of research or publication misconduct, including but not limited to plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, duplicate publication, and undisclosed conflicts of interest.
Allegations of misconduct may be raised by Reviewers, Editors, or third parties, and will be investigated by the Founding Editors, who may consult the Scientific Committee or Advisory Board as needed. Authors will be given the opportunity to respond to any allegation before a final decision is made.
Where misconduct is confirmed after publication, the journal will issue a correction, erratum, or retraction, as appropriate, in accordance with COPE’s retraction guidelines. Retracted articles will remain accessible but will be clearly marked as retracted, together with the reasons for retraction.
Authors who believe an editorial decision to be unfair or mistaken may submit a written appeal to the Founding Editors, who will review the case, if necessary with the support of an additional independent Reviewer.
Use of Artificial Intelligence
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools (e.g. large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude, or similar) may be used by Authors as a support in the writing process (for instance, for language editing or improving clarity). However, AI tools cannot be credited as Authors, as they cannot take responsibility for the content, its accuracy, or its ethical and scholarly implications, nor can they give the consent required of an Author. The human Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, and integrity of the entire manuscript, including any text, citations, or data generated with the assistance of AI, and must verify that no fabricated or inaccurate references or claims (“hallucinations”) have been introduced.
Authors must disclose, in the manuscript’s acknowledgements or methodology section, whether and how generative AI tools were used in the preparation of the text, images, or other materials, specifying the tool used and its purpose.
Given the ethnographic and documentary nature of the journal’s visual content, images, photographs, audio, and video materials submitted as ethnographic evidence must be genuine records of the research conducted and must not be generated or substantially altered by AI tools in ways that misrepresent them as authentic documentation. Any use of AI-assisted visual material for illustrative, non-evidentiary purposes must be explicitly disclosed and clearly distinguished from the ethnographic documentation itself.
Reviewers and Editors must not upload unpublished manuscripts, or any part thereof, to generative AI tools or other external platforms, in order to preserve the confidentiality of Authors’ work and comply with data protection requirements. The scholarly evaluation and final judgment on a manuscript remain the sole responsibility of the human Reviewers and Editors, regardless of any supporting tools used.
Copyright and Licensing
Visual Ethnography is a fully open access journal. Authors retain copyright of their published work and grant the journal the right of first publication. All articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which allows unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that they hold the necessary rights to reproduce and publish any photographs, video, audio, or other third-party materials included in their submission, and for obtaining any required permissions prior to submission. Authors are advised that the CC BY 4.0 license governs copyright in the published work, but does not override the personal or privacy rights of individuals depicted in visual or audiovisual materials; the informed consent obtained from such individuals (see “Research Involving Human Subjects and Visual Materials”) remains a separate and necessary requirement, independent of the copyright license applied to the article.