Statement on Publishing Ethics and Misconduct Prevention
The journal is committed to upholding the highest ethical standards in the publication process and to preventing any form of unethical behaviour or misconduct. All editorial, review, and publication processes are based on the principles and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Responsibilities of authors
- submitted papers must be original, scientifically grounded, and unpublished;
- all sources used must be properly cited;
- plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification of data are strictly prohibited;
- all co-authors must make a genuine scientific contribution and approve the final version of the paper;
- all potential conflicts of interest must be clearly disclosed;
- research involving humans, animals, and data must be conducted in line with the relevant ethical approvals;
Authors are obliged to inform the editorial board if they notice an error in the paper after submission.
Responsibilities of editors
- ensuring fair, unbiased, and timely decision-making on manuscripts;
- organising the review process in line with the highest professional standards;
- strictly maintaining the confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts;
- avoiding conflicts of interest in the decision-making process;
- taking appropriate action in cases of suspected unethical behaviour by authors or reviewers.
Responsibilities of reviewers
- providing objective, constructive, and timely reviews;
- respecting the confidentiality of manuscripts;
- not using data from manuscripts for personal benefit;
- reporting suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, or data manipulation;
- declining to review papers where there is a potential conflict of interest.
Responsibilities of the publisher
- ensuring editorial independence;
- a transparent and consistent publication process;
- resolving ethical disputes in accordance with COPE guidelines;
- long-term archiving and availability of published papers.
Prevention of misconduct
- use of plagiarism-detection software;
- double-blind peer review process;
- clearly defined authorship, citation, and publication policies;
- acting in accordance with COPE protocols in cases of ethical breaches.
Procedures in cases of unethical behaviour
- initiating an internal editorial investigation;
- requesting an official explanation from the authors;
- involving additional reviewers or experts;
- publishing a correction, retracting the paper, or issuing an official notice, where necessary.