Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics Statement

The Journal is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and taking all possible measures against publication malpractices. This statement is based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

All parties involved in the act of publishing (authors, editors, peer reviewers, and the publisher) must agree upon expected standards of ethical behavior.

1. Duties of Authors

  • Originality & Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that their work is entirely original. Any manuscript exhibiting plagiarism (exceeding the 20% similarity threshold or 3% from a single source) will be rejected immediately.

  • Multiple or Concurrent Submissions: Authors should not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently.

  • Authorship & Affiliations: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the study. All co-authors must be listed with their institutional affiliations and active ORCID iDs.

  • Disclosure & Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose any financial or personal conflicts of interest that might influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.

  • Fundamental Errors in Published Works: When an author discovers a significant error in their published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify the Editor-in-Chief to retract or correct the paper.

2. Duties of Reviewers

  • Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists editors in making editorial decisions and helps authors improve their papers through constructive feedback.

  • Objectivity & Standards: Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Recommendations must be supported by clear arguments.

  • Confidentiality & Anonymity: Under our Double-Anonymous Peer Review process (involving 3 independent reviewers), manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not reveal their identity to authors.

  • Disclosure & Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors or institutions.

3. Duties of Editors

  • Fair Play & Independence: Editors evaluate manuscripts exclusively on their academic merit (importance, originality, study’s validity, clarity) without regard to the authors' race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.

  • Confidentiality: Editors must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and publisher.

  • Publication Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which of the submitted articles should be published, guided by the reports of the 3 independent peer reviewers and legal requirements regarding libel, copyright, and plagiarism.

4. Duties of the Publisher

  • Handling Unethical Behavior: In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism, the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures (including the publication of an erratum, clarification, or retraction).

  • Archiving & Access: The publisher ensures long-term digital preservation via PKP PN (LOCKSS) and maintains open access under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.