Policies | Hong Kong Center of Social Sciences

📋 Publication Ethics

HKCSS is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics. All journals in our portfolio adhere to the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Zero tolerance for plagiarism, fabrication, or falsification of data
All submissions screened for originality using industry-standard plagiarism detection tools
Transparent conflict of interest disclosure required from all authors, reviewers, and editors
Clear policies on authorship criteria following ICMJE recommendations
Established procedures for handling allegations of misconduct
Research involving human subjects must have ethical approval from a recognized institutional review board

🔍 Peer Review Policy

All manuscripts submitted to HKCSS-sponsored journals undergo rigorous evaluation through a structured peer review process.

Double-blind review — Author and reviewer identities are concealed throughout the process
Minimum of two independent expert reviewers per manuscript
Editorial decisions guided by reviewer recommendations and editorial board judgment
Authors receive constructive, detailed feedback regardless of the decision outcome
Target review turnaround: 4–8 weeks from submission to first decision
Reviewers are selected based on expertise, avoiding conflicts of interest

🔓 Open Access Policy

HKCSS is committed to making scholarly research freely accessible to the global academic community and public.

All journals offer open access publication options
Published articles are freely available immediately upon publication
No embargo periods for open access content
Authors retain copyright under Creative Commons licensing
Commitment to reducing barriers to knowledge access, particularly for researchers in developing regions
Pursuing indexing in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

© Copyright & Licensing

Our licensing framework balances author rights with broad dissemination of scholarly work.

Authors retain copyright of their published work
Articles published under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license
Readers and researchers may share, adapt, and build upon published work with proper attribution
Commercial use permitted under CC BY 4.0 terms
Authors may deposit preprints and postprints in institutional repositories
Full text XML and PDF formats available for all publications

📊 Data & Reproducibility

We encourage transparency and reproducibility in research through responsible data sharing practices.

Authors encouraged to make research data available in recognized repositories
Data availability statements required for all empirical studies
Code and computational tools should be shared via platforms such as GitHub or Zenodo
Detailed methodological descriptions required for reproducibility
Support for registered reports and pre-registration of studies

⚖️ Editorial Independence

We uphold the principle that editorial decisions must be free from commercial or political influence.

Editorial decisions based solely on scholarly merit, originality, and relevance
No interference from the publisher or sponsor in editorial decisions
Clear separation between editorial operations and business functions
Editors empowered to make independent decisions on manuscript acceptance
Transparent editorial governance structure with defined roles and responsibilities