Demography joined the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE) in our endeavor to preserve and promote the integrity of the scholarly record through policies and practices that reflect the current best principles of transparency and integrity. Demography follows COPE’s Core Practices alongside specific national and international codes of conduct for research. Please review these practices before submission. In particular, given the nature of the research that is often published in Demography, authors should be attentive to the guidelines for “text recycling” in methods and data sections, where a degree of fidelity to the original description of datasets and methodological procedures is often advisable and acceptable. Authors also should consult the websites for any secondary source of data used in an article for more guidance on how it should be described.
Conflict of Interest Practice for Editorial Handling of Manuscripts
A conflict of interest (COI) occurs when a manuscript is submitted by a current or recent research collaborator, current or recent doctoral student, current or recent colleague, or current or recent postdoctoral mentee of the Editor or a Deputy Editor. A COI also occurs when an author is a former advisor to the Editor or a Deputy Editor or when an author and either the Editor or a Deputy Editor have a close personal relationship.
The current editorial structure enables Demography to handle COI cases efficiently. Although the majority of Deputy Editors are typically at the same institution as the Editor, many are from other institutions and are termed “outside” or “external” Deputy Editors.
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First, the Editor-in-Chief is barred from submitting a manuscript to Demography during their term.
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In the case of a submission authored by a Deputy Editor, the Editor either serves as Deputy Editor (if they do not have a COI with the submission) or selects a Deputy Editor from a different institution than that of the author, which is most often an outside Deputy Editor. The submitting Deputy Editor has no access to confidential editorial information (e.g., names of reviewers, name of assigned Deputy Editor) related to their submission.
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If a manuscript is submitted by any author (as either sole author or a coauthor) from Demography’s current home, the Editor has a COI, and hence one of the outside Deputy Editors is asked to serve as Acting Editor as well as to assume the responsibilities of Deputy Editor. Thus, the final editorial decision is made by the outside Deputy Editor. An identical procedure is used when there is a potential COI with the Editor. If there is no Editor or Deputy Editor without a COI, the immediately preceding Editor is asked to take on responsibility for the review process.