Ethics and Malpractice

This document applies to the Dam World Conference proceedings, which aim and scope is to disseminate the scientific and technological activity developed in the field of Dam Engineering. Submitted articles are written in English, including the title and abstract. 

Editors of the Dam World Conference nominated the Scientific Committee members, which consisted of experts in the dam engineering field who have been in charge of the blind peer-review. They evaluate the relevance of the submitted manuscripts to the proceedings, technical and scientific merit, originally and impact. These evaluations are carried out regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, citizenship or political philosophy of the authors. The Editors, as full  authority, are solely responsible for the published content.

Editors, Scientific Committee members and publishing staff may not disclose manuscripts or their content, directly or indirectly, to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers and the publisher. Contents of submitted manuscripts, whether accepted or rejected, will never be used in the scientific committee members and publishing staff’s own research, without prior written consent by the authors.

Dam World Conference uses double blind peer review. Peer-review is the process of experts in the field reading, understanding and objectively commenting on submitted papers. Peer review assists the editorial board in making editorial decisions by thoroughly read, understand and, through the editorial communications with the author, may provide constructive feedback in order to improve the paper. Reviewers should aim to identify and report technical issues, irregularities, mistakes, missing citations and similarities to other published work. Final decisions of acceptance or rejection of papers will solely rely on the peer-review results. Any manuscripts received for review are treated confidentially.

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must not be used for personal advantage and should be kept confidential. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by reviewer without the express written consent of the author.

Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should review manuscripts fairly and objectively, with supporting evidence or arguments, regardless of personal feelings or biases.

Reviewers should promptly notify the chairs if they feel unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or if they know that their prompt review will be impossible, and excuse themselves from the review process. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the papers. Peer reviewers’ identities are protected in the double-blind peer review process.

Only individuals who have significantly contributed to the work and the manuscript can be named authors on a paper. These contributions include the idea/concept, design, experiments, evaluation, analysis, drafting or revision of the manuscript, among others. Authors must all have agreed to be named as such and for the manuscript to be submitted. Anyone who has contributed based on the above, although the level of contribution is not significant, may appear in the acknowledgement section of the manuscript. The corresponding author should ensure that there is a full consensus of all co-authors on the manuscript submission for publication.

The submission of a manuscript imply that the respective authors accept the conference ethical principles. Authors ensure that the manuscript is their own original work, when submitting a manuscript. Submitting a manuscript to more than one venue (conference, journal, ...) simultaneously is not allowed. Presenting previously published work to be considered as a new submission, without a significant new interpretation or analysis, is prohibited.

Authors should describe their work and the results of their work accurately. The level of provided accuracy and detail should be such that a reader can replicate the work independently. Inaccurate, incomplete, fraudulent and misleading statements are considered unacceptable and unethical. Authors are encouraged to share their data, software or other shareable material online, provided copyright and ownership laws surrounding that particular project permit. Authors may also be asked to share such material with the chairs, and/or reviewers, and must be willing to do so if asked. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Authors should clearly declare any conflicts of interest. All funding sources should be disclosed in the manuscript. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

The Editorial Board is committed to the monitoring and safeguarding of the stated publication ethics and to maintain the integrity and good practices in academic publishing. The publisher takes the necessary steps to prevent mistakes, academic and scientific misconduct, and unethical behaviour, both intended and unintended. Papers that do not comply with the ethical guidelines will not be accepted.

Errors or issues detected after publishing will lead to an investigation. In cases where the mistakes are severe and significant, the paper might be retracted. If unethical behaviour, plagiarism, academic and scientific misconduct, or other such activities are proven to have taken place by an author or authors, the publisher will retract the paper.

The Dam World Conference Proceedings will be available in digital format and with access to authors and conference attendees at https://dw2025.lnec.pt/authors/proceedings.

Authors are free to make the pdf files of their own articles available as deemed necessary. Therefore, the conference allows self-archiving of the published version without any restriction. Authors are free to use all or part of their content (text and figures) in other publications, including edits and adaptations; nevertheless, the original publication in Dam World Conference should always be referenced.

The Dam World Conference Proceedings are preserved and stored digitally in the LNEC’s web server and their security and maintenance are assured by this Public Laboratory. These conference proceedings accompany the conference, meaning that new proceedings will be published every year when the corresponding conference takes place.