Policies
Our commitment to transparency, integrity, and ethical publishing
Open Access & Copyright
CACTUS – Journal of Tourism for Research, Education, Culture, and Soulis an open access scholarly journal. All articles are freely available online to readers without financial, legal, or technical barriers, ensuring that the integrity of the published content is maintained.
The journal supports the free dissemination of research results and compliance with international open access policies, reinforcing our long-term commitment to equitable access to knowledge.
The journal applies no article processing charges (APCs) and no submission fees. The full text of all published content is available free of charge, and copyright of published articles remains with CACTUS – Journal of Tourism for Research, Education, Culture, and Soul.
All published material is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. This allows users to copy, distribute, and adapt the material for academic, educational, or other non-commercial purposes, provided that proper attribution is given to the authors and the journal.
Paper template copyright & license statement: © This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.
Revenue sources
CACTUS Journal is a non-commercial scientific publication, operating without a business model based on fees or direct revenues. The journal does not obtain income from subscriptions, advertising, reprints or commercial sponsorships. The editorial activity is supported exclusively by the volunteerism of the editorial staff and institutional resources.
Advertising policy
The Cactus Journal does not place commercial adverts. We may, however, with the approval of the Editorial Board, publish announcements of academic events, conferences, or funding opportunities relevant to the scientific community. Such announcements have no influence on the editorial process or the selection of content.
Direct marketing
Cactus Journal does not engage in spamming or aggressive promotional practices. Any direct marketing activities, including the solicitation of manuscripts, will be conducted in an appropriate, well-targeted, and unobtrusive manner.
Ethics Policy
Cactus Journal is committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards in scientific publishing. Our publication ethics follow COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines and the principles of transparency and good practices.
Editorial decisions must prioritize scientific quality, methodological validity, and ethical compliance, independent of commercial interests.
- • Publication decision
- • Fair play
- • Confidentiality
- • Disclosure and conflicts of interest
- • Involvement and cooperation in investigations
Reviewers contribute to editorial decisions by responding promptly, treating all manuscripts confidentially, and upholding objective standards.
- • Contribution to editorial decision
- • Promptness
- • Confidentiality
- • Standards of objectivity
- • Acknowledgement of source
- • Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Authors must observe academic standards, ensure transparency in data and methods, and disclose conflicts or overlapping submissions.
- • Academic and reporting standards
- • Data access and retention
- • Originality and plagiarism avoidance
- • Acknowledgement of sources
- • Proper authorship attribution
- • Disclosure and conflicts of interest
- • Hazards & ethical compliance for human/animal studies
Cactus Journal supports the observance of ethical principles in scientific research, but does not automatically require the submission of an ethics committee opinion except where the nature of the research justifies it.
Authors bear full responsibility for complying with the ethical norms of their institutions or fields. By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that the study was conducted ethically and in accordance with academic standards, and they must be able to provide supporting documentation (e.g., approvals, consent) upon request.
Paper template ethical statement: The authors declare that the study was conducted in accordance with ethical standards (and, where applicable, with the approval of the relevant ethics committee / with the informed consent of participants).
Editorial decisions must remain independent of the publisher's commercial interests. Editors base their decisions solely on scientific quality, methodological validity, and compliance with ethical standards.
The publisher intervenes only for scientific integrity or legal issues (plagiarism, defamation, etc.), while editorial structures (editorial board, scientific advisory board) handle complaints related to the editorial process.
Language should remain respectful, inclusive, and free from bias related to gender, age, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability, or health status. Avoid stereotypes or superiority claims; neutral formulations such as “authors” or “researchers” are recommended.
Cactus Journal takes a neutral stance on territorial disputes. Maps or institutional affiliations must reflect only the area under study, and editors may request changes if neutrality standards are not met. Use the official, standard name of institutions without political additions.
Artificial Intelligence Policy
No AI authorship
AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors, as authorship requires human accountability and intellectual contribution.
Limited use in writing
AI tools may only be used to enhance readability and language. They must not be used to generate substantive content, research insights, or analytical results.
Human oversight & responsibility
Authors must critically review and edit AI-generated outputs to ensure accuracy, completeness, and absence of bias. Authors remain fully responsible for the manuscript's content.
Mandatory AI disclosure
Use of AI tools must be declared in a “Declaration of AI Use” section before the References, specifying the tool (name and version), its purpose, and how outputs were verified.
⚠️ Non-compliance may result in manuscript rejection or retraction. Basic tools for grammar, spelling, or reference checking are exempt. AI tools are not permitted in the peer review or editorial process to protect confidentiality.
Data Sharing & Preprints
The journal encourages research transparency (for example, publishing raw data or citing open data sources). Authors are encouraged to upload supporting datasets to specialized platforms and include links in their articles.
The journal accepts original and innovative papers. Replication of studies is permitted only when it brings new methodological or theoretical contributions that advance the field.
CACTUS Journal does not accept manuscripts previously published as preprints on public platforms, whether peer-reviewed or not.
Authors must ensure that the manuscript:
- Has not been published in any other form (including as a preprint)
- Is not available online on scientific sharing platforms or academic networks
If it is determined that a manuscript has already appeared as a preprint, it will be automatically rejected, regardless of its stage in the editorial process.
Intellectual Property
We use the institutional (Bucharest University of Economic Studies) plagiarism detector to ensure originality of all submissions.
Authors must make an official declaration of originality, confirming that the material meets the standards of research ethics and has not been published or submitted elsewhere.
CACTUS maintains published content on institutional servers and internal backups, and is considering inclusion in international archiving services (e.g., CLOCKSS, PubMed Central) to strengthen long-term access.
If CACTUS is no longer published, reasonable efforts will be made to ensure that previously published volumes remain accessible through the journal website or trusted archives.
Authors must submit an official declaration confirming that their work meets research ethics standards and has not been published or submitted elsewhere.
Download the required template:Declaration of Originality.
Other Policies
Author may post some version to any repository or website with some delay.
No automatic posting in third-party repositories is allowed.
Article, metadata and citations may be crawled with permission.
Complaints, Appeals & Corrections
Any author, reviewer, or reader has the right to file a complaint regarding:
- • Editorial decisions
- • Inappropriate behavior of editorial staff
- • Suspicions of ethical violations (plagiarism, data manipulation, etc.)
Complaints should be sent to: cactus.journal@ase.ro
The editorial team is committed to responding within a maximum of 30 working days, ensuring a fair and confidential process.
Retraction will be issued when there is evidence of:
- • Data fabrication or recycling
- • Severe plagiarism
- • Double publication
- • Copyright infringement
- • Unreliable findings
- • Unethical research practices
Correction will be issued when:
- • Only a small portion of a published article is deemed flawed in a way that does not severely affect findings
- • The scientific community would be better served by a correction than a retraction
If notified of suspected scientific misconduct, the following protocol applies:
- Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board analyze the information and decide if investigation is needed
- Authors are informed in writing and asked for a formal, documented response
- Investigation is conducted in accordance with COPE guidelines
- Appropriate measures are taken depending on severity (rejection, correction, retraction, notification to institution, etc.)
All investigations are conducted with confidentiality, transparency, and impartiality, offering the right of defense to all involved.