Smart: Journal of Social Media Marketing and E-commerce (SMarket) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity and publication ethics. Our ethical framework is fundamentally aligned with the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The following principles outline the rigorous ethical expectations and responsibilities for all stakeholders in the publication process, including editors, peer reviewers, authors, and the publisher.

1. Duties of Editors

• Publication Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are responsible for determining which submitted manuscripts should be published. Decisions are based on the manuscript’s scholarly merit, empirical rigor, theoretical contribution to social media marketing and e-commerce, and alignment with the journal’s scope. The editors may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.

• Fair Play and Impartiality: Editors must evaluate manuscripts exclusively on their academic and intellectual content, without regard to the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or institutional affiliation of the authors.

• Confidentiality: The editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate. Proprietary data or business intelligence disclosed in submissions must be strictly protected.

• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be utilized in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author. Editors must recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

2. Duties of Reviewers

• Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists the editor in making scholarly editorial decisions and, through editorial communications with the author, may also assist the author in improving the paper. Peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication and lies at the heart of the scientific method in economic and business research.

• Promptness: Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the empirical or theoretical research reported in a manuscript, or knows that its prompt review will be impossible, should immediately notify the editor and decline the invitation to review.

• Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

• Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is strictly prohibited. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting academic arguments, focusing on methodological soundness, data validity, and theoretical contribution.

• Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. Reviewers should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

• Conflicts of Interest: Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal academic or commercial advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from financial, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors or corporate entities connected to the papers.

3. Duties of Authors

• Reporting Standards: Authors of reports of original empirical research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying market data, algorithms, and social media metrics should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the methodology. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

• Data Access and Retention: Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review (e.g., social media scraping datasets, e-commerce transaction logs). Authors should be prepared to provide public access to such data, provided it does not violate proprietary agreements or consumer privacy laws, and should retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

• Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that they have written entirely original works. If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, this must be appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism in all its forms—from passing off another's paper as the author's own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another's paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others—is categorically prohibited.

• Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: An author should not, in general, publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal of primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior.

• Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author must ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the document and agreed to its submission for publication.

• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All authors must disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. Examples include research grants from e-commerce platforms, consulting fees from marketing agencies, or equity ownership in companies discussed in the research.

• Fundamental Errors in Published Works: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper in the form of an erratum.

4. Duties of the Publisher

• Handling of Unethical Behavior: In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism, the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and amend the article in question. This includes the prompt publication of an erratum, clarification, or, in the most severe cases, the retraction of the affected work.

• Access to Journal Content: SMarket and its publisher are committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and ensure accessibility by partnering with appropriate digital archives and maintaining robust databases.