ASLTL is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and follows the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All parties involved in publishing with the journal editors, reviewers, and authors are expected to observe the standards described below.

Duties of Editors

•     Evaluate manuscripts solely on their intellectual merit originality, significance, rigour, and clarity without regard to the authors' race, gender, nationality, religion, political belief, sexual orientation, or institutional affiliation.

•     Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and all related correspondence until publication.

•     Manage conflicts of interest: editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a personal, professional, or financial conflict of interest, and such manuscripts will be assigned to another qualified editor.

•     Take reasonable responsive measures when ethical concerns are raised about a submitted or published manuscript, following COPE flowcharts.

•     Ensure the integrity of the peer-review process and base final decisions on reviewer recommendations, editorial judgement, and the journal's policies.

Duties of Reviewers

•     Evaluate manuscripts objectively, judging the work on its merits and providing constructive, substantiated feedback.

•     Treat manuscripts under review as confidential documents; they must not be shared with, or discussed with, anyone not authorised by the editor.

•     Decline to review a manuscript, or promptly inform the editor, if they lack the expertise to assess it fairly or if a potential conflict of interest exists. Although the journal operates a double-blind review process, reviewers may recognize the author(s) from the content of the manuscript; in such cases, they should declare any relationship that could compromise their impartiality (e.g., recent collaboration, institutional rivalry, or a personal relationship). Reviewers should also declare any competing interest in the work itself, such as closely related competing research or a financial interest in the findings. Reviewers must not attempt to identify the author(s)..

•     Alert the editor to any substantial similarity between the manuscript and any other published or submitted work of which they are aware.

•     Complete reviews within the agreed timeframe, or notify the editor promptly if this is not possible.

Duties of Authors

•     Submit only original work; properly cite and quote the work and ideas of others; disclose any prior or overlapping publication of the same data or argument.

•     Ensure that the data and results reported are accurate and that the manuscript provides sufficient detail for the study to be assessed, and where applicable, replicated.

•     Not submit the same manuscript, or a substantially overlapping manuscript, to more than one journal simultaneously.

•     List as authors only those who meet the journal's authorship criteria (see Submissions, §2.4), and acknowledge all other contributors appropriately.

•     Disclose all sources of funding and any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest relevant to the work.

•     Promptly notify the editor and cooperate in issuing a correction or retraction if a significant error is discovered in a published article.

Conflicts of Interest

All parties authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose any competing interests (financial, institutional, personal, or ideological) that could be perceived to influence the manuscript's evaluation or presentation. Disclosed conflicts do not automatically disqualify a manuscript or a reviewer but are managed transparently by the editor handling the case.

Handling Allegations of Misconduct

Concerns about possible misconduct relating to a submitted or published manuscript may be raised with the editorial office at any time and will be investigated in line with COPE guidelines, as detailed further in the journal's Ethics and Misconduct Policy, Errata, and Retraction Policy page.