About the Journal

ECOCYCLES (ISSN 2416-2140, DOI 10.19040/ecocycles) is the first Open Access, fully refereed academic periodical in its field. The journal's primary goal is to provide a significant medium for scientists to present and discuss their latest findings from research across all aspects (social, economic, geological, environmental, etc.) of ecological cycles, with a publication schedule of at least two issues per year, with additional issues published as editorial circumstances warrant (e.g., Special Issues or high submission volumes).

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Focus and Scope

Ecological cycles are the various self-regulating processes that recycle the earth's limited resources - water, carbon, nitrogen, and other elements - that are essential to sustain life. The Eco Cycle strategy is based on these processes and aims to create a society with non-toxic, resource-efficient cycles. Understanding how local cycles fit into global cycles is essential for making the best possible management dehelsicisions to maintain ecosystem health and productivity now and in the future. The European Ecocycles Society was founded by researchers studying these cycles, and the goal of this journal is to publish scientific results in this field.

Peer Review Policies

All manuscripts submitted to ECOCYCLES are reviewed by the experts in the particular field and peer review judgments have to be as objective as the manuscript's subject allows. Manuscripts are evaluated confidentially, exclusively based on the paper's scientific merit. ECOCYCLES adopts the single-blind review process. The decision on the manuscript is based on two or more reviews. Reviewers are expected to identify uncited relevant work(s), and point out the overall strengths and weaknesses that may be present. Throughout the review process, the anonymity of the referees should be preserved.

Authors, after uploading their manuscript, may suggest names they wish to exclude from the list of possible reviewers of their paper.

During the review, international standards are followed: manuscripts are read by the Editor-in-Chief, who decides whether the submission complies with the formal requirements and is within the scope of ECOCYCLES. If yes, he assigns an Editor who oversees the review process. The Editor selects the reviewers (at least two anonymous professionals). The Editor assesses the reviewers' evaluations and discusses them with the Editor-in-Chief. Editors communicate with the authors and decide on acceptance or rejection of the submitted manuscript.

Plagiarism

The Editorials of ECOCYCLES have a "zero tolerance for plagiarism" policy. Plagiarism issues are checked by the editors using the Premium version of Grammarly (www.grammarly.com/plans) and the online Dupli Checker (duplichecker.com) tool.

Publication Frequency

ECOCYCLES publishes at least two issues per year, with additional issues published as editorial circumstances warrant (e.g., Special Issues or high submission volumes), aiming to become a quarterly journal. Individual papers will be published as soon as they are ready by being added to the "current" volume's Table of Contents.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Archiving

Publications in the journal are deposited in REAL (the searchable repository of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences).

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

ECOCYCLES is committed to ethical standards. The editors of ECOCYCLES work hard to guarantee an unbiased, transparent, and fair peer-review process and editorial decisions. They ensure that all studies they accept for publication strictly follow the relevant internationally accepted guidelines. Thus, investigations on humans (individuals, samples, or data) were performed under the principles stated in the Declaration of Helsinki, and the highest standards were met on the accessibility of research data, registration of clinical trials and other study designs, publication on vulnerable populations, research using animals or human subjects, handling of confidential data, and business and marketing practices.

In addition to the Declaration of Helsinki, the editors follow other relevant declarations, such as the Good Clinical Practice in medical sciences, the AERA and BERA declarations, as well as the American Psychological Association ethical principles in psychology, if using animals, the Ethics Statement on GMO and Ethics in a New Era, and similar ones in their field.

The publication ethics and publication malpractice statement of ECOCYCLES are based on the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2022). Our journal endorses the position statements developed at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010 for editors and authors (readable at http://publicationethics.org/resources/international-standards-for-editors-and-authors).

The process ECOCYCLES follows ensures that the Journal complies with the Recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing by The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Authors and Publication - Authors of ECOCYCLES are expected to observe high standards in publication ethics: no plagiarism, no publication of the same research in different journals, no duplication in the contribution of the authors, and/or no misappropriation of the works of other authors is allowed. Claims of unethical conduct will be examined first with the corresponding author of the paper. In the absence of agreement, the case will be reported to the author's institution and funding agencies for further action.

In their submissions, authors need to disclose any potential conflicts of interest that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgments on what is published.

Data Sharing Statement

Authors submitting manuscripts to Ecocycles are encouraged to share the data on which their research is based. This could be done by attaching them as Supplementary Data to their paper or archiving them in a public (institutional or other) repository of their choice. In the latter case, authors are urged to include a data availability statement in their paper together with a link to the repository.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors, reviewers, and editors participating in the publication process need to disclose any potential Conflicts of Interest that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgments on what is published.

Use of Generative-AI tools Declaration

The author(s) declare that they have used Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the creation of this article, list the AI tools used, explain how they were used, and indicate where in the article this information is located.

Responsibilities of the Authors

Authors are expected to participate in the full peer-review process. All authors are expected to contribute significantly to the research presented in the manuscript, and all data in the manuscript should be scientifically determined. Authors should take the reviewers' comments and suggestions seriously and address them fully.

Responsibilities of the Reviewers

Manuscripts submitted to ECOCYCLES are reviewed by the experts in the particular field, and peer review judgments have to be as objective as the manuscript's subject allows. The reviewers are expected to evaluate the articles solely on their scientific merit, regardless of the authors' citizenship, ethnic origin, gender, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, or political orientation. Reviewers are expected to treat the reviewed manuscript confidentially. They should not have a conflict of interest regarding the authors, the research, and/or the funders of the research. ECOCYCLES adopts the blind review process. In most cases, the decision on the manuscript is based on two or more reviews. Reviewers are expected to identify uncited relevant work(s) and point out the overall strengths and weaknesses that may be present. Throughout the review process, the anonymity of the referees should be preserved. Before finishing the review, the Review Form must be completed, and the reviewers are expected to suggest a decision on the paper's acceptability for publication.

Responsibilities of the Editors

The editors of ECOCYCLES have full authority and responsibility to decide the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript. They should not have a conflict of interest regarding the manuscripts and should be reasonably certain of their authenticity. If problems are identified, the editors will communicate with the authors and present the need for modifications and/or corrections in the article.

Publication Ethics Issues

Publication ethics issues will be continuously monitored and safeguarded by the editors of ECOCYCLES. Whenever necessary, ECOCYCLES will be willing to publish errata, clarifications, corrections, and apologies, provided that neither fraudulent data nor plagiarism will be published.

Privacy Statement

ECOCYCLES journal is managed under the open-access software platform Open Journal Systems (OJS).

The data collected from users (registered and non-registered) falls within the standard operating procedures of academic journals. The information collected serves to organize and record communication during the editorial process and to monitor site visits and download statistics.

Data that will assist in developing OJS may be shared with its developer, the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), in anonymized and aggregated form.

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Registered Users

All users (including the editorial staff, the authors, and the reviewers) who register with ECOCYCLES journal, including authors and peer reviewers, consent to having their personal information stored in OJS.

Rights of the Individual

The managers of the OJS platform and the journal's staff seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for "data subject rights". These rights include the right of access to registered personal data, as well as the right of deletion of such data (also known as "the right to be forgotten").

Participant Consent to Publish - Informed Consent

Identifiable individual data of human subjects (including children under 16 and deceased persons) collected in the course of research cannot be published without specific consent from the individual (or their parents or representative, or next of kin, respectively). Therefore, authors are required to confirm that all identifiable individuals are aware of the intended publication and their consent has been acquired. For adequate protection of participant anonymity, authors must retain proof of this consent and should not send it to ECOCYCLES. However, a statement demonstrating that consent was obtained for all identifiable individuals should be presented in the manuscript.

Authors, editors, reviewers, and readers have a right to their privacy and it cannot be violated without their informed consent. Authors should protect their co-authors' right to privacy by requesting written consent from them to include their ideas and results before submission. The OJS software framework used by ECOCYCLES protects the rights of all co-authors of a paper in the following way: when the corresponding author uploads the manuscript to the ECOCYCLES website, the names, email addresses, and places of work of all co-authors must be entered into the journal's database. After the upload is finalized, the OJS software sends an acknowledgment to all authors, not just the corresponding author. The Author Consent Form to be deposited by the corresponding author is downloadable here.

Public Interest Statement

(Optional but recommended)
In order to increase the impact of their research, authors may give a description (up to 150 words in length) of their work in a language that is easily understandable to the general public.

HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS

Humans

If the article covers studies performed on human subjects, authors should adhere to the Declaration of Helsinki (1975, as revised in 2000, 2008, and 2024) and indicate whether the methodologies used complied with the ethical standards therein. Any potential negative outcomes of the study for ecosystems, populations, or individual organisms must be evaluated in light of the potential advances in knowledge and their practical usefulness.

Animals

If the study involved animals, the authors should indicate whether they followed relevant international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. All animal work must specifically require authors to include details of animal welfare (such as species, number, gender, age, weight, housing conditions, welfare, training, and the fate of the animals at the end of the experiment) and relevant details of steps taken to ameliorate suffering in all work. For studies involving client-owned animals, author(s) must possess (and attach) a document of informed client consent and adhere to a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care. These details should be included in the Materials and Methods section of the article.

COMPLAINT POLICY

How to Make a Complaint

Complaints about editorial content in ECOCYCLES should be made as soon as possible after publication, preferably in writing by email to the Associate Editor (Dr. Sandor Nemethy) at sandor@conservation.gu.se. Please write your complaint with the journal title, vol. no., issue no., paper title, and page no. In your complaint letter, please describe clearly the nature of the complaint and the circumstances, the name of the person who is the subject of the complaint, and/or the product or the services which are the subject of the complaint.

Policy for Handling Complaints

If ECOCYCLES receives a complaint that any contribution to the Journal infringes intellectual property rights or contains material inaccuracies or otherwise unlawful materials, the Journal will investigate the complaint in good faith to determine whether to remove the allegedly wrongful material. ECOCYCLES will document its investigation and decision. The Editor in Chief will make every endeavor to put matters right as soon as possible in the most appropriate way, offering the right of reply where necessary. We welcome your complaint, as it will provide an opportunity and a spur to improvement, and we aim to respond promptly, courteously, and constructively. We will address it by following best practices in scholarly publishing ethics.

Errata, Retractions, Expressions of Concern

ECOCYCLES will publish corrections (errata) when errors could affect the interpretation of data or information, whatever the cause of the error (i.e. arising from author errors or from editorial mistakes). Likewise, ECOCYCLES will publish ‘retractions’ if work is proven to be fraudulent or plagiarized or will publish ‘expressions of concern’ if editors have well-founded suspicions of misconduct.

ADVERTISING POLICY

ECOCYCLES does not publish advertisements.

PUBLICATION FEES

Publication in ECOCYCLES is free, without article processing charges and article submission charges.