Policies and Publication Ethics

Metaverse Science, Society and Law is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication integrity, scholarly ethics, and editorial transparency. As a Diamond Open Access journal, we are dedicated to removing financial barriers while upholding rigorous peer review, research integrity, and equitable access to scientific communication.

1. Editorial Independence and Responsibility

The editorial team operates independently and is guided solely by the scholarly merit, originality, and relevance of submitted manuscripts. Editorial decisions are not influenced by funding sources, institutional affiliations, or personal interests.

2. Peer Review Policy

All submissions undergo a double-blind peer review by at least two independent experts. Reviewers are selected based on subject expertise and are expected to provide objective, constructive, and timely feedback. Editorial decisions (accept, revise, reject) are based on the reviewers’ evaluations and the editorial board’s judgment.

Authors may be asked to revise their manuscripts in response to reviewers’ comments. Revised manuscripts are subject to further evaluation before final acceptance.

We support open peer review as an option and welcome reviewer consent for signed or published reports when appropriate.

3. Open Access and Licensing

All content is freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Authors retain full copyright and grant the journal the right to disseminate the work widely. No article processing charges (APCs) or submission fees apply.

4. Authorship and Contributorship

Only those who have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, analysis, drafting, or revision of the manuscript should be listed as authors. All authors must approve the final version before submission.

We follow international standards on authorship and encourage transparency in author contributions, including the use of CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy).

5. Conflict of Interest

Authors, editors, and reviewers are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could influence their interpretation or decision-making. Where conflicts are identified, appropriate disclosures will be published alongside the article.

6. Plagiarism and Originality

Submitted manuscripts must be original, unpublished, and not under review elsewhere. The journal uses plagiarism detection tools to screen all submissions. Any form of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, text recycling, or improper citation, will result in immediate rejection or retraction.

7. Research Involving Humans and Ethics Approval

For studies involving human participants, authors must confirm that all procedures were conducted in accordance with institutional and international ethical standards and that informed consent was obtained. Ethics committee approval must be clearly stated.

For socio-legal or cultural research, community engagement and responsible research practices are strongly encouraged.

8. Data Availability and Transparency

Authors are encouraged to provide open access to data, code, and supplementary materials via repositories or data sharing platforms, in alignment with FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).

9. Misconduct and Corrections

The journal follows COPE guidelines in handling allegations of research or publication misconduct, including data fabrication, falsification, duplicate submission, and unethical authorship practices.