Author Guidelines and Policies

Generative AI Policy

Authors may not use any generative AI technology, including, but not limited to, ChatGPT, to produce content for this journal. Accepted works that are found to have broken this policy will be retracted.

Submissions about generative AI or that examine generative AI using research methods based on evidence and experience but do not use generative AI for the purpose of generating its content are permitted.

Note that editors and peer reviewers also may not use generative AI tools in their work with Murmurations in order to protect author confidentiality, intellectual property, and the integrity of peer review.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors will be asked to share information about their relationship with the topic of their work with the editors. This may include financial conflicts of interest, connections with the chapter subjects (e.g. reviewing or discussing a resource one helped create), institutional affiliation, and other relevant information.

Copyright

Authors retain copyright to their work, unless they choose to dedicate it to the public domain.

For the purpose of publication of the work, authors provide a nonexclusive license to the journal to make copies and distribute the work publicly; authors will still be able to make copies and distribute the work elsewhere themselves, and will retain the right to grant that permission to other parties.

Authors choose what license to put on their work for reader and other third parties’ reuse, including the following options:

Any Creative Commons license
CC0 (public domain)
All rights reserved
Other options proposed by authors will be given due consideration by the Editorial Board

This journal accepts works that have been previously published as long as the author can legally grant permissions for publication. If you are not sure if you can republish your work, please contact the Editorial Board for a consultation.

If content (e.g. images, text, audiovisual materials) from other copyrighted works is included in a way not covered by fair use, authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions to legally include the third-party materials. See University of Minnesota Libraries’ Fair Use page for more information about fair use.

We recognize that copyright can be confusing and scary! Please reach out to the editors if you have questions about the legal issues around your chapter.

Public Access & Article Processing Charges (APCs)

Although all journal content is immediately available freely, not all is openly licensed. In keeping with our ethos of asserting trans autonomy and respecting others’ autonomy, individual authors choose the terms by which readers and third parties may reuse the content of their works; readers and third parties are expected to check the license statement of each work and abide by its terms.

Authors are permitted, and encouraged, to deposit any version of their work – submitted, accepted, and published versions – in subject and institutional repositories at any time.

We consider article processing charges (APCs) to be the only funding model that could make scholarly publishing worse than the traditional reader-pays model already was. While we support the Open Access movement’s goal of fostering equitable global knowledge sharing, the APC model of “funding” open access only shifts the financial burden onto authors instead of readers. We firmly believe that APCs are unfair for everyone. So. You know. We shan’t be doing that.

Publishing Name Policy & Anonymity

Authors may publish under any name they’d like, including anonymously. They may also have the name on their published piece changed at any point (though this will not affect any copies downloaded by readers before the change). While the default peer review process involves authors knowing who the reviewers are and vice versa, authors can be kept anonymous from reviewers upon request. For authors who publish anonymously but would like to include their publication in their tenure or promotion dossiers, the editorial board can write a thank you letter acknowledging their authorship.

We cannot absolutely guarantee complete anonymity. If you have concerns about anonymity or questions about protecting your anonymity during the publication process, please contact editors@murmurations.space (feel free to do this from an anonymous email account).

Funding

If a submitted work has received funding, authors must list all sources in the Acknowledgments section. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation.

Data

Data sharing is at the discretion of the author. Authors are not required to share research data in order to publish in this journal.

Authors who have gathered research data to inform their journal publication are encouraged to reflect carefully on the potential benefits and harms related to publicly sharing the data that the analysis and conclusions of their work is based on. Considerations that can inform whether and how authors share their research data include, but are not limited to:

Privacy of human research participants: can the data be shared in such a way that participants are neither directly nor indirectly identifiable? How does the sharing of data interact with your commitment to research ethics and any institutional review board that has approved your research study?
Mutuality in researcher-participant relationships: Are participants in your research aware of your intent to share their interactions with you publicly? Conversely, have you made commitments to your participants to tell a hidden story of theirs?
Reproducibility of research: Is the data reusable if brought into a different context? Can future researchers make sense of your data and reproduce your methods? Can you share the data in a way that meets FAIR and CARE data principles? Are you able to share the data in a secure repository with a ReadMe file, sufficient metadata for reuse, and a permanent identifier?
Added value to the research publication: Does sharing the data help readers make sense of your research publication, or explore it in a new and different way?
IRB compliance: If your research was approved by an institutional review board or equivalent, does your data sharing plan align with the approved proposal?

If the data associated with an accepted article has been shared publicly in a repository, authors should link to it in the article.

More information and guidance on data sharing is available through the Oregon Health and Science University; please also use other guidance available publicly or through your institution.

Withdrawal (Pre-Publication)

Authors interested in discussing or requesting withdrawal of their submitted work(s) from the journal before publication should work with their Lead Editor. Murmurations will comply with any such withdrawal requests.

Takedown

If you believe a published work with the journal has infringed upon your rights or should be taken down or redacted in some form due to privacy concerns, please reach out to the Editorial Board at editors@murmurations.space. This can include copyright infringement, or other policy breaches outlined below in the Retraction Policy. In these cases, the Editors will follow the investigation and communication process outlined in our Retraction Policy.

Retraction

We will consider retraction in the following circumstances:

Use of Generative AI
- We do not accept submissions created with generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) for writing, analysis, or content generation
- We value human knowledge creation, community expertise, and authentic authorship, which the use of generative AI fundamentally undermines
- If we discover after publication that generative AI was used for writing or other content generation, the work will be retracted
Research Integrity Issues
- Fabricated or falsified data, findings, or sources
- Significant errors that undermine the word’s conclusions or recommendations
- Plagiarism or uncredited use of others’ work
- Ethical violations in research conduct (especially harm to trans, gender diverse, or other marginalized communities)
- Undisclosed conflicts of interest that compromise the work’s integrity
Community Harm
- Work that causes documented harm to trans, gender diverse, or other marginalized communities
- Violations of participants’ privacy or consent
- Misrepresentation of community perspectives or experiences
Author Request
- Authors interested in discussing or requesting withdrawal of their published work(s) from the journal should contact editors@murmurations.space. Murmurations will comply with any such withdrawal requests. However, it should be noted that removal of work(s) from the journal website will not remove any previously downloaded copies by readers.

The Editorial Board may elect to retract work or add a disclaimer to published work outside of the above circumstances on a case-by-case basis.

Our Retraction Process

When concerns arise, we will:
- Investigate transparently, in dialogue with the author(s), editors, reviewers, and other affected folks as needed
- Communicate clearly, while maintaining the privacy of those involved, about what happened and why we’re retracting
- Maintain the record by posting a retraction notice and explanation, and requesting that authors who have submitted their work to institutional repositories either remove or update with a retraction notice
- Center community and relationship throughout the entire process, not punishment
When authors request a retraction, we will:
- Work closely with the author to retract the piece with appropriate notice
- Honor the author’s request to the extent possible
- However, it should be noted that removal of work(s) from the journal website will not remove any previously downloaded copies by readers.

Corrections vs. Retractions

Not all errors require retraction. For minor errors that don’t undermine the work’s integrity, we issue corrections that are clearly marked and publicly documented. We work collaboratively with authors to determine the appropriate response to any concerns.

Accountability & Repair

We recognize that mistakes happen and accountability will look different depending on the context and circumstances. Our process is meant to prioritize understanding what went wrong and why, addressing harm, supporting authors in learning and growth (when appropriate), and maintaining transparency with our readers and community.

If you have concerns about our published work, contact us at editors@murmurations.space. We will take all concerns seriously and investigate them with care.

Complaint Process

Authors should contact editors@murmurations.space if they have any concerns that arose during the publication process.