Ethical guide for authors

This guide was inspired par Wiley’s best practice guidelines on publishing ethics and draws on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) that aimes to provide directions in the reflection on publication ethics and practical resources to educate and support members of the scientific community.


Intellectual property has important academic and social implications. It also implies a responsibility for what is published. The following criteria were taken and adapted from the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE), and aim to ensure that persons who have made substantial intellectual contributions to a text are credited as authors. These criteria make it possible to distinguish authors from other contributors.

In order to qualify for authorship, the following cumulative criteria must be met:

  • Substantial contribution to the conception of the study and to the methodology, to data collection, or data analysis and interpretation.
  • Substantial contribution to the writing and/or critical revision of the manuscript, with a significant intellectual input.
  • Final approval of the version to be published.
  • Commitment to being accountable for all aspects of the work, especially in cases where the validity or integrity of the data is questioned.

All authors mentioned must meet these four criteria, and anyone who meets these criteria should be listed as an author. According to these criteria, obtaining funding or general supervision of the research group or lab is not sufficient to be granted intellectual property rights to the text.

Persons who have otherwise contributed to the realization of the contribution should, if they agree, be credited under an "acknowledgements" section.

The order in which the names of the authors appear should respect, as far as possible, the scope of the contribution made by each author.
Authors are responsible for mentioning any source of funding in a "acknowledgements" section of their contribution.
Authors are required to report any information that may affect their objectivity and authenticity.
By submitting a contribution to the journal, the authors declare that they have not demonstrated either double publication (i.e., simultaneous submission of an article to two different journals), plagiarism or slandering.

Plagiarism refers to the unreferenced use of ideas from someone else, whether or not they are published. This includes research grant applications, unpublished peer-reviewed manuscripts (whether accepted or rejected), contributions to conferences, course or seminar content, etc. Self-plagiarism refers to the reuse of a text or parts of it in other contributions from authors and co-authors. This includes the use "as is" of parts of texts published by the author in another article by the same authors or the submission of the same article in another language. However, it is accepted that content related to context and methodology (mainly) can be included but not beyond 20% of the text.

Slandering occurs when a statement about a person is wrong and prejudicial to them. Critical discourse of an article is welcome, provided that there is no harm to the person.

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) can serve as a support tool for research or writing. However, its use must comply with the fundamental principles of scientific integrity, transparency, and responsibility. Under no circumstances can GenAI be considered an author of a manuscript, as it cannot assume responsibility for its content or ensure compliance with ethical standards in scholarly publishing.

Authors are expected to:

  • Explicitly disclose in a footnote or in the "Acknowledgements and use of GenAI" section any use of GenAI tools (e.g., for stylistic editing, structuring assistance, translation, or reformulation), specifying the nature of the assistance provided and the tool used.

  • Remain fully responsible for the content of the article and must not include ideas generated by GenAI.

  • Refrain from using GenAI to generate data, conduct analysis, produce results, or generate citations of non-existent or inaccurate sources. All data or references included in a manuscript must be verified and verifiable.

  • Ensure that GenAI is not used as a substitute for the expected scholarly work, in which human intellectual contribution is central.

Undisclosed or inappropriate use of GenAI, particularly when intended to conceal a lack of substantial contribution or to artificially generate content, constitutes a breach of scientific integrity. The journal reserves the right to retract the article.

The journal encourages free and responsible sharing of research in order to facilitate democratization of access to scientific knowledge. Thus, authors can share their articles with an unlimited number of people, provided that it is for personal and non-commercial use and with the mention of "La Revue LEeE" as a publication medium. The journal allows sharing of the link to the article by e-mail, on the authors' websites, on institutional websites, and on scientific social media such as ResearchGate.