Ethical Guidelines

To avoid any unfair practices in publishing activities (plagiarism, presenting false information, etc.) and to ensure a high quality of scientific publications and public recognition of the author’s scientific results, each member of the Editorial Board, publishers, authors, reviewers and institutions involved in the publishing process shall adhere to ethical standards, rules and regulations and take any reasonable steps to prevent their violations. Compliance with these ethical guidelines by all the parties ensures authors’ intellectual property rights, improves the quality of the Journal and excludes a possible misuse of copyright material in the interests of particular individuals.

The editorial staff maintains the common ethical principles for publishing scientific materials, guided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Violation of copyright and ethical norms is not only unacceptable but also hinders the development of scientific knowledge undermining the authority of social sciences.

When submitting to the journal, authors (groups of authors) are aware that they bear responsibility for the novelty and validity of scientific results, which implies adhering to the following principles:

• Authors shall provide reliable research results. Deliberately false or fraudulent statements are not acceptable.
• Authors shall ensure that research results are completely original. Every borrowed fragment or statement must be accompanied by a mandatory reference to the author and the original source. Excessive borrowing and any form of plagiarism including non-documented citations, paraphrasing or appropriating another person’s research results are non-ethical and unacceptable. The Editorial Board regards borrowings without references as plagiarism.
• Authors shall only provide authentic facts and data; give enough information for other researchers to be able to verify and repeat experiments; not use information obtained privately, without an open written consent; not allow data fabrication and falsification.
• Authors shall avoid manuscript duplication. If some elements of the manuscript have been previously published, the author shall refer to the earlier work and specify the differences.
• Authors shall not submit the manuscript that has been submitted to another journal and is under consideration, as well as the manuscript already published in another journal.
• It is important to recognize the contribution of all persons who, in one way or another, participated in the research; in particular, the manuscript should contain references to works that significantly influenced the research.
• All those who have made significant contributions are to be described as co-authors. It is not acceptable to list persons who did not take part in the research.
• Authors shall respect the work of the Editorial Board and reviewers and eliminate the indicated inaccuracies or justify them.
• Authors shall submit and prepare their manuscripts in compliance with the Journal standards.
• If the author finds significant errors or inaccuracies in the manuscript under consideration or after its publication, they should immediately inform the Editorial Board.
• Authors shall prove to the Editorial Board or the Publisher that their initial manuscript is valid or correct substantial errors, if the Editorial Board has become aware of them from a third party.
• The author can request withdrawal of manuscript after submission within the time span when the manuscript is still in the peer- reviewing process. After the manuscript is accepted for publication, the withdrawal is not permitted.
• Content changes and clarifications made in the text are agreed with the author. In case of disagreement with editorial interventions, the parties have the right to refuse the publication of the material or come to a mutual agreement
• The editorial board is under the obligation not to use the information contained therein and provide it to a third party, except for the reviewers.

 

 The Editor-in-Chief shall evaluate the intellectual content of the manuscript regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, origin, citizenship, social status or political preferences of the author.

The Editor-in-Chief shall not allow the paper to be published if there is sufficient evidence to believe that it is plagiarism.

The Editor-in Chief shall decide on the publication of materials according to the following main criteria:

• appropriateness of the manuscript for the Journal;
• relevance, novelty and scientific significance of the submitted manuscript;
• clarity; reliability of results and completeness of conclusions.

 

The Editor-in-Chief shall:

• take all necessary steps to provide a high quality of the published materials and protect the confidentiality of personal information;
• consider recommendations of reviewers when making a final decision on publishing the manuscript. The Editorial Board of the Journal takes all the entire responsibility for a decision on publication or rejection of the manuscript;
• justify decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of the manuscript;
• allow the author of the reviewed material to substantiate their research viewpoint.

Manuscripts are peer-reviewed by minimum two peers of the same field. The reviewers submit their reports on the manuscripts along with their recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief. The manuscript received for reviewing shall be treated as a confidential document which cannot be passed for discussion or examination to a third party unless authorized by the Editorial Board.

 

The editorial board makes impartial decisions exclusively based on the professional level and quality of the materials provided,

A decision on publication is made on the basis of the quality of the research and its relevance.

 

Reviewers shall:

• provide scientific review of the manuscript, hence, all their actions shall be impartial;
• give an objective and reasoned evaluation of the research results, as well as clearly justified recommendations. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate;
• not make copies of the manuscript for personal use;
• know that the manuscripts they receive are the intellectual property of authors and are not to be disclosed. Confidentiality may only be breached if the reviewer declares unreliability or falsification of the information in the manuscript;
• inform the Editor-in-Chief about any substantial or partial similarity of the manuscript under consideration and any other work, as well as the absence of references to statements, conclusions or arguments which have been previously published in the papers of this or another author;
• note the relevant published works that are not properly quoted or cited in the manuscript.

 

In evaluating a manuscript, reviewers should focus on the following:

• Originality
• Contribution to the field
• Technical quality
• Clarity of presentation
• Depth of research

 

Reviewers should also:

• Observe that the author(s) have followed the instruction for authors, editorial policies and publication ethics.
• Observe that the appropriate journal’s reporting guidelines is followed.
• The report should be accurate, objective, constructive and unambiguous. Comments should be backed by facts and constructive arguments with regards to the content of the manuscript.
• It is unethical for reviewers to use derogatory and hostile comments.

 

Reviewers’ recommendation should be either:

• Accept Submission;
• Revisions Required;
• Resubmit for Review;
• Decline Submission;

 

Timeliness

By accepting the manuscript, reviewers ensure that they can dedicate appropriate time in reviewing. Thus, reviewers should review and return manuscripts in a timely manner.