Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

All participants of the preparation of materials for publication: authors, expert reviewers, members of the editorial staff, representatives of the publishing house – have to follow the standards of Publication ethics. In case if there is a suspicion that some of the standards of Publication Ethics have been violated, the editorial staff will follow the instruction of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Ethical principles of the authors. The authors submitting materials to the editorial staff carry the full responsibility for the content of their work and should follow the principles below: 

  • conformity of materials with ethical and legal norms;
  • originality and scientific novelty of the research;
  • reliability of obtained results, lack of false statements, correctness of presented data;
  • objective discussing of the significance of the research;
  • inadmissibility of personal, critical and disdainful remarks and accusations addressing to other researchers;
  • if people or animals are involved in the experiments, the authors have to obtain appropriate approvals, licenses, and registrations complying with the current legislation and regulations (British Educational Research Association ethical guidelines, in case of clinical researches – WMA Declaration of Helsinki) before the research starts;
  • total exclusion of plagiarism; recognition of the input of other persons, necessary availability of references concerning the given article;
  • presenting of all participants who have contributed to the research and to the writing of the article as co-authors; improvement of final version of the article by all co-authors and their full consent to its publication;
  • getting permission for using (reproduction) of somebody’s materials, tables, and images and necessary indication of author’s name of these materials and/or owner of author’s rights to these materials;
  • presenting of the information from confidential sources only by their authority;
  • absence of self-plagiarism in the article; reproduction of author’s own statements is acceptable in form of brief exposition and only when it is necessary to substantiate or develop the statements in submitted material;
  • information on essential mistakes or inaccuracy in the publication and interaction with the editorial staff for the purpose of prompt correction of found mistakes or inaccuracy or rejecting of the publication;
  • clear indication in the text of the manuscript on the sources of financing of the research and on other forms of support influencing the results or conclusions presented in the work.

If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Neither the editors nor the Editorial Board are responsible for authors’ expressed opinions, views, and the contents of the published manuscripts in the journal. The originality, proofreading of manuscripts and errors are the sole responsibility of the individual authors.

Ethical principles of editors. The editorial staff of the journal is guided by the following ethical principles:

  • editorial objectiveness and impartiality;
  • complying with scientific ethics while editing the articles, encouragement of fair scientific discussion among the authors and editors;
  • privacy of personal information concerning the authors and editors, as well as other information obtained during professional interaction;
  • making editor’s corrections by agreement with the authors;
  • rejecting of the manuscript of the article in case of revealing materials of other authors without references in article’s content;
  • publishing if necessary, the corrections, refutations (withdrawal of the article) and apologies in case of errors, significant facts and comments being revealed after the publication of the material;
  • the editorial board of the journal, together with reviewers, take adequate response measures in case of ethical claims arising from the review or publication of manuscripts.

Editor and any member of the editorial board should release themselves from the duties of considering manuscripts in case of any conflicts of interest resulting from collaborative, competitive, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies/institutions having relevance to the manuscripts. Editor should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests.

Editors will take reviewer’s misconduct seriously and investigate any evidence of confidentiality breach, non-declaration of conflicts of interest (both financial and non-financial), inappropriate use of confidential material, or delay of peer review for competitive advantage. Allegations of severe reviewer misconduct (e.g. plagiarism) will be taken to the institutional level.

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in any research of the editor or any other informed person without the written consent of the authors. Privileged information or arguments obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal or third party advantage.

Ethical principles of reviewers. The expert reviewers should follow the principles below:

  • only reviewing those manuscripts which are in the scope of reviewer’s competence;
  • timeliness of the review;
  • confidence of reviewing;
  • objectivity and constructiveness in compiling the review; the reviewers have to express his opinion clearly and reasonably, criticism of author’s personality is not acceptable;
  • revealing of significant published scientific works concerning the topic of author’s investigation which have not been included in the reference list;
  • origin of the manuscript, nationality, sex, political, and religious beliefs of the author should not influence the content of the expert review;
  • reviewers have the right not to be known to the authors of reviewed work;
  • informing the editorial staff about conflict of interests. Reviewers should release themselves from the duties of manuscripts consideration in case of any conflicts of interest resulting from collaborative, competitive, or other relationships or connections with any of the author(s), companies/institutions having relevance to the manuscripts;
  • privileged information or arguments obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal or third party advantage.