Purpose and Scope
This policy establishes Treata Scholars principles for transparency about the business and organizational conditions under which scholarly publishing takes place. It covers publisher identity, ownership and governance, revenue sources, author charges, advertising, sponsorship, marketing, and commercial relationships.
Business sustainability is compatible with responsible publishing only when financial interests are communicated honestly and do not improperly determine scholarly editorial decisions.
Publisher Identity and Ownership
Treata and its journals should provide sufficient information for authors and readers to understand who publishes the journal and, where applicable, the relevant ownership or governing organization. Public information should not create misleading impressions about institutional affiliation, endorsement, or control.
Changes in ownership or publishing responsibility that materially affect authors, readers, or journal governance should be communicated appropriately.
Revenue Sources
Relevant revenue models may include publication charges, subscriptions, institutional agreements, sponsorship, advertising, grants, society support, services, or other legitimate sources. Journals should describe material author-facing charges transparently and should not conceal mandatory fees.
Transparency about revenue does not require public disclosure of every confidential commercial contract or internal financial figure.
Editorial Independence
Commercial staff, owners, sponsors, advertisers, or partners must not improperly direct acceptance, rejection, peer-review outcomes, correction, retraction, or other individual scientific editorial decisions.
Editorial governance should provide a meaningful separation between revenue generation and the assessment of scholarly content.
Advertising
Advertising, where accepted, should be distinguishable from editorial content and should not be presented in a way that implies scientific endorsement by the journal or publisher. Advertising decisions should not depend on favorable editorial treatment.
Journals may establish restrictions on categories of advertising according to legal, ethical, disciplinary, or audience considerations.
Sponsored Content and Supplements
Sponsored supplements, collections, educational material, or other funded content should identify relevant sponsorship and editorial arrangements. Sponsors should not control publication decisions in a manner inconsistent with the journal’s declared editorial standards.
Readers should be able to distinguish sponsored material from independent editorial content where the distinction is relevant.
Marketing and Journal Claims
Marketing communications should be accurate, proportionate, and verifiable. Treata journals should not fabricate or exaggerate indexing status, metrics, editorial affiliations, peer-review characteristics, acceptance speed, society relationships, memberships, endorsements, or other credentials.
Solicitation of manuscripts, reviewers, or editors should identify the journal accurately and should not use deceptive urgency or false prestige claims.
Metrics and Performance Information
Citation metrics, download counts, acceptance statistics, turnaround times, or other performance information should be described with appropriate context and should not be manipulated or selectively presented to mislead authors or readers.
Unofficial or proprietary metrics should not be presented as recognized journal impact indicators without clear identification of their source and nature.
Partnerships and Service Providers
Treata may use technology, hosting, production, preservation, payment, metadata, or other service providers. Use of a provider does not necessarily imply endorsement, membership, or accreditation by that provider or related organizations.
Material outsourcing should not remove Treata’s responsibility for publisher-level standards that remain within its control.
Conflicts Between Business and Editorial Interests
Where a specific commercial relationship creates a material conflict, the journal should manage it through disclosure, recusal, independent editorial handling, or another proportionate safeguard.
Financial success should not be used as a justification for weakening research-integrity, peer-review, authorship, correction, or transparency requirements.
Journal Implementation and Version Control
This policy is publisher mandatory. Journal pages should publish their actual fee, access, sponsorship, advertising, and governance arrangements where relevant rather than inheriting assumptions that do not apply.
Material changes should be versioned and communicated where they affect author obligations or reader understanding.
Version Control
Version 1.0. This page is the canonical publisher-level text for the current version. Material revisions should be versioned and dated, while superseded versions remain identifiable so historical applicability can be determined.