Reviewers must treat the assigned manuscript as confidential. In the case that a reviewer wishes to seek opinion from a colleague, approval from the editor in charge of the manuscript has to be obtained in advance and the name of the person to be consulted informed.
After invitation, a reviewer has to inform with no delay if she/he is unable to do the review timely or unqualified and respect the confidentiality of the invitation and the manuscript itself.
The reviewer must inform the editor in charge if any conflict of interest exist or can be foreseen. Reviewers must not accept to review manuscripts of close collaborators or persons with who close personal or professional relations may bias her/his opinions.
Reviewers must not take advantage of the data reported in a manuscript while it is under review or if the manuscript is not published.
Reviewers are expected to give an objective justified report written in a respectful style in a timely manner. Foreseen delays have to be informed to the editor in charge of the manuscript.
A reviewer has to inform the editor in charge of the manuscript if: (i) there is a suspicion of plagiarism, (ii) there are indications of fabricated or manipulated data, (iii) there seem to exist an unusual text recycling (copy from the author's previous work).
