Open Access Policy

The editorial board of Imaginations believes in the democratic dissemination of information, both for readers and authors. As such, Imaginations is an online open access journal that publishes its articles according to a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives 4.0 license. Please review the parameters of this license agreement before submitting to Imaginations or repurposing any of its material.

To us, open access has to do with readers’ access to published materials and equally with the authors’ access to publication. Because of our generous SSHRC funding, and the time donated by our editorial board, guest editors, and peer reviewers, Imaginations is free to submit to and free to read online from anywhere in the world. We do not charge author publication fees.

As an open access journal, our funding relies heavily on Altmetrics data. Readers can best support the future of the journal by liking, sharing, and citing us with frequency and fervour. Furthermore, as a courtesy we ask authors to link to our journal as often as possible.

 

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE GUIDELINES

Imaginations is committed to ensuring that ethical standards are met at all stages of the publication process. All authors, editors, and reviewers involved in the publication of Imaginations must, therefore, conform to the ethical standards outlined below. These standards have been adapted from Elsevier’s publishing ethics guidelines for authors, and from COPE’s ethical standards for editors.

Authors

Authorship should include, and be limited to, every party who has made a significant contribution to the concept, content, execution, or design of the finished article. Any changes to the authorship of the article must be immediately reported to Imaginations, along with an explanation for the change and written consent of parties involved in the change.

Authors are expected to submit original work for first publication in Imaginations. Plagiarism, multiple concurrent submissions of the same manuscript to multiple journals, and resubmission of an already published manuscript constitute unethical publishing behaviour and are unacceptable. Authors must appropriately cite all sources according to the standards outlined in our style sheet. Authors are further expected to disclose any existing or potential conflicts of interest relevant to their research subject. A conflict of interest may exist when an author has a financial or other significant relationship with organizations or people that could inappropriately influence the author’s work. Finally, if the author finds any significant errors in their work after publication, the author is obliged to report this error to Imaginations promptly, and collaborate with the journal editors to retract or correct the error. If the editors become aware of an error, it will promptly be brought to the author’s attention, and a collaborative correction or retraction will be sought.

Editors

Editors will evaluate all manuscripts only on the basis of their academic merit and their suitability for the journal, according to the specifications set down in Imaginations’ Mission, Publishing with Imaginations and Author Guidelines. Editors will not use unpublished research in their own work without the express consent of the author. Editors will respond to all perceived misconduct and all ethical complaints presented to Imaginations regarding submitted manuscripts or publications in a timely and reasonable fashion.

Reviewers

Reviewers will treat all manuscripts received for review as confidential. Reviewers may not use unpublished research in their own work without the express consent of the author. Reviews should be conducted objectively, with a view to academic merit and suitability for the journal and journal issue theme, according to the specifications set down in Imaginations’ Mission, Publishing with Imaginations and Author Guidelines. All observations and suggestions should be formulated clearly, and final recommendations should be presented with supporting arguments so that the author may use this feedback to improve their work. Any reviewer who feels unqualified for a particular review, or who feels incapable of promptly completing the review, should contact Imaginations and recuse themselves from the review process. Furthermore, reviewers who perceive conflicts of interest between themselves and the manuscripts they are reviewing will promptly notify the editorial team and recuse themselves from the review process.