STVR Policy on Conflicts of Interest
The standing of a journal is determined by the community,
and maintaining a positive opinion by the community is paramount to ensuring
the long-term success of STVR.
This is why the the co-Editors in Chief do not submit papers to the journal;
such a submission would represent an inherent and unavoidable conflict of interest.
Conflicts of Interest
Generally speaking,
a conflict of interest occurs whenever an individual is not able to provide an objective,
unbiased,
review of another’s work.
Note that a conflict could be positive (we really hope that person succeeds)
or negative (we really hope that person does not succeed).
STVR reviewing editors and reviewers are on their honor to declare any conflict of interest
they have.
Particular examples of conflicts of interest include,
but are not limited to:
- Supervisor or subordinate within the past 5 years.
- PhD or MS advisor or student, forever.
- Co-author, co-investigator, or business partner in the past 5 years.
- Current employer, or currently negotiating employment.
- Bitter enemy or great friend.
Other Ethical Issues
- Submissions to STVR cannot be submitted in parallel to any other conference or journal.
- Authors may not list anyone they have a conflict with as a preferred reviewer.
- Reviewing editors and reviewers should treat all submissions and reviews as
privileged and confidential.
They may not discuss material except with the co-editors in chief and
may not use ideas from a submitted paper until and unless the paper is accepted
and published either at STVR or another outlet.
Submitted papers and reviews may never be distributed beyond the editors and reviewers.
- Reviewers are expected to provide reviews that are thorough, fair, unbiased, objective,
and respectful.
Reviews that are excessively short or biased are unacceptable and reviewers who provide
such reviews may not be asked to review future STVR papers.
Jeff Offutt and Rob Hierons
STVR Editors-in-Chief
August 2011