1. General provisions
The editorial staff of the journal adheres to high standards of publication ethics and makes every effort to ensure their enforcement. These standards are based on the scientific scope of the journal, as defined by the general requirements for scientific publications from the scientific community.
1.1. The editorial board adheres to the publication standards stated in COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and recommends the following ethical guidelines to everyone involved in the publication process (authors, reviewers and editors).
1.2. The manuscripts are not returned to the submitters and should not be published in other scientific journals. The full responsibility for plagiarism lies on the authors of the submitted materials. In the event of conflict of interest, the editorial board will be governed by the policy of the Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK).
1.3. Violation of any condition listed below is a reason for rejecting a paper submitted for publishing.
2. Author duties and responsibilities
Authorship, licensing
2.1. An article is submitted for publication in the journal by the author or co-author of the article. The list of co-authors must include all those who have made a significant research contribution to the content of the work. Gratitude may be expressed to other persons for their assistance. An author submitting an article to the editorial board of the journal must indicate all co-authors. He must also guarantee that all co-authors are acquainted with the final version of the work and agreed to its submission for publication.
2.2. The author cedes the gratis right to the publisher to use his work on the conditions of a simple (non-exclusive) license for the period of exclusive rights to the work. The author guarantees that he holds a sufficient amount of the rights required for executing an agreement.
Originality, duplicated submission
2.3. An article submitted for publication in the journal must be original one. The author must indicate that the work is to be published for the first time and guarantee that it has not appeared previously in other publications in its present or highly similar form, and is not under consideration by editorial boards of other publications. Duplicated submission of the same article is inadmissible. Authors generally should not publish papers containing the same studies in more than one journal.
2.4. The author guarantees that the submitted article and its publication shall not infringe authors’ and other rights of third parties.
2.5. Only papers duly formatted, containing footnotes and a bibliography may be accepted for peer review. The article must be expressed clearly. The content should be consonant with the profile of the journal.
Prevention of plagiarism
2.6. Plagiarism, verbatim copying of another person’s work without an indication of original authorship, without reference to the sources (either paper or electronic), an incorrect rephrasing of the work of another person without a due footnote regarding the source, and the publication of false information are proscribed.
2.7. If elements of the article have been published previously, the author is obligated to cite the earlier publication.
2.8. In exceptional cases, articles in which the author has substantially (no less than 50 %) rethought earlier published works, may be accepted for publication.
3. Editors duties
Seeking to uphold academic integrity the editors retain the right to accept or reject an article submitted for publication, including instances of the author failing to comply with even one of the conditions listed above.
3.1. The editors should ensure a considered and balanced position in performing their duties and reaching decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of an article.
3.2. Editors are responsible for ensuring anonymous, fair and unbiased peer review process. Editors may confer with reviewers in making final decision.
3.3. All the decisions concerning papers should be based on considerations of freedom of opinion, evaluation of originality, importance and the novity aspect of any paper.
3.4. Discrimination of authors on grounds of age, gender, religious beliefs, political views or ethnic origin is proscribed. Commercial interests must not influence the evaluation of an article.
3.5. The position of the editorial board does not necessarily coincide with the views expressed by authors.
3.6. Mutual relations between the editors and the publisher of the journal are based on the principle of editorial independence.
4. Peer reviewers duties
The destination of peer review is assistance to the journal in supporting high academic standards and help to the authors in improving quality of publications.
4.1. Reviewers contribute to the decisions regarding accepting or rejecting the articles. They are obligated to review articles objectively, fairly, on the basis of supporting arguments and within deadlines set by the editorial board. The peer reviewers should express their positions clearly. Peer reviewers have to inform the editor promptly about any events preventing them from completing the review before stipulated deadline set by the journal.
4.2. Peer reviewers should not present or discuss papers reviewed with any third parties except for indicated by the editor. Prior to publication all papers submitted have to be treated as confidential materials.
4.3. Every peer reviewer is obliged to inform as soon as possible the editorial board about any conflicts of interests with the author, or the research subject, or funding sources of paper reviewed.
4.4. Peer reviewer must identify published articles related to the paper under review and not cited by the author.The peer reviewer must also draw the editor’s attention to a significant similarity or partial coincidence between the reviewed paper and any other work published previously of which he has personal knowledge.
Academic integrity
4.5. Malpractices, such as selective publication, modification of results or omitting observations in order to suit a hypothesis are strictly prohibited.
4.6. Authors are obliged to inform the journal as soon as possible when errors are disclosed in papers published in the journal.
5. Complaints and conflict of interests
Whenever possible, any disputes or differences arising concerning authors’ rights shall be resolved by means of negotiations based on ethical norms and procedures.
5.1. Any person may inform the editors about discovered errors or misprints in the papers. Such reasonable information must be scrutinized thoroughly, and the editors shall advise the author of their decision. When necessary, a relevant correction must be published in the journal. Anyway, editors must always be ready to publish other clarifications, retractions and apologies, when it is needed.