Ethics

The Financial and Economic Review (FER) is edited and published by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (the Central Bank of Hungary, MNB). The MNB covers all costs incurred regarding the edition and publication of any issue of FER. Access to the printed version and to any digital versions of the journal on the FER’s website is free of charge.

This Code of Ethics is a comprehensive collection of general values and principles, a set of guidelines and standards governing work on FER.

The Editorial Board and staff have adopted the double-blind peer review process; all parties affected (the authors, the editor of the journal, the members of the Editorial Board, the peer reviewers and the publisher) must accept the standards of ethical conduct.

Decisions Regarding Publication

The Editorial Board of the journal decide on which of the articles received for publication are published in the journal. Only the manuscripts may be accepted for review that are to be published for the first time.

The decision is based on the laws on defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism in force. To sup­port their de­cision, the Editorial Board may request help from editors or from the peer reviewers.

The editorial staff takes reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of manuscripts that show evidence of research misconduct or misappropriation of another author’s work. (Research misconduct includes but is not limited to plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification and/or fabrication.)

Plagiarism

Every author must guarantee that their study is his/her own original intellectual property. If any work or method of other authors is used, these shall be properly quoted and appropriately referenced.

A paper that contains sections fully or partly borrowed from other works without proper references is considered plagiarised. Suspected plagiarism must be immediately reported to the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board and staff and shall be duly examined. The Ed­itorial Board reserves the right to use software to identify plagiarism.

Equal Opportunities

The Editorial Board and the peer reviewers always evaluate the intellectual content of the manuscripts without any regard to the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, ethnicity, citizenship or political affiliations of the author and which are reflected in the paper.

Confidentiality

Every manuscript sent out for peer review shall be considered confidential. Manuscripts must not be forwarded to third parties without the approval of the Editor-in-Chief or the Chairman of the Editorial Board. The conclusions and the results of the manuscripts may be used prior to the peer review only with the author’s written consent. The data and research results accessed during the peer review process are considered confidential and must not be used by the peer reviewers in their own research. If a peer reviewer requires the involvement of a third party in the peer review process, he/she shall notify the editorial staff in advance and the same rules apply to any third party to be involved.

The editor and the members of the Editorial Board shall not disclose any information to any parties in relation to the manuscript submitted for publication. Exceptions to this rule include the author, the potential peer reviewers and other consultants to the editor and the publisher.

Conflict of Interest

Authors are required to declare and acknowledge any financial conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any person, organisations, companies or institutions associated with the manuscript.

Peer reviewers are required to disclose any potential financial conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions associated with a manuscript they have been invited to review. Peer reviewers are required to treat each manuscript received for review as confidential.

Complaints and Appeals

Complaints and appeals shall first be raised with the editor assigned to the original manuscript in question. If necessary, complainants and appellants may then contact the Editor-in-Chief. The parties shall strive to communicate in writing.