Editorial Policy

Obligations of the Editor and Editorial Office

The editors of the journal are responsible for making the final decision on which manuscripts will be published. In reaching these decisions, the editorial office is guided by the journal’s editorial policy and applicable legal regulations, including those related to defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. Plagiarism screening is conducted using appropriate software tools.

The editorial office reserves the right to evaluate submitted manuscripts and to decline publication if they do not meet the journal’s content and formal requirements.

The editorial office must ensure that no conflicts of interest exist with respect to manuscripts under consideration. The editor and members of the editorial board are required to promptly disclose any potential conflicts of interest.

Editorial decisions must be made solely on the basis of the manuscript’s academic merit, without discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or political beliefs.

Editors and members of the editorial board may not use unpublished material from submitted manuscripts for their own research without the author’s explicit written consent. Information and ideas contained in submitted manuscripts must be treated as confidential and may not be used for personal gain.

Editors and members of the editorial board are required to take all reasonable measures to ensure that the identity of reviewers remains anonymous to authors before, during, and after the review process, and that the identity of authors remains anonymous to reviewers until the review process is completed.

Obligations of the Author

Authors guarantee that their manuscript represents an original contribution, has not been published previously, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to multiple journals constitutes a violation of ethical standards and will result in immediate rejection.

If the submitted manuscript is the result of a research project, or if an earlier version of the paper has been presented at a conference (e.g., as an oral presentation), detailed information about the project or event should be provided in a footnote at the beginning of the manuscript. A paper that has already been published in a journal or edited volume cannot be considered for publication in this journal.

Authors are required to adhere to ethical standards in scientific research. They also guarantee that the manuscript does not contain unfounded or unlawful claims and does not infringe upon the rights of others. The publisher shall not be held liable for any claims for damages arising from the content of the manuscript.

Content of the Paper

The manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to enable reviewers, and subsequently readers, to verify the claims presented. The deliberate inclusion of false or misleading statements constitutes a serious breach of ethical standards.

Authors bear full responsibility for the content of their submitted manuscripts and are required, where necessary, to obtain consent from all individuals or institutions that directly participated in the research prior to publication.

Authors who wish to include illustrations, tables, or other materials that have been previously published must obtain permission from the copyright holders. Any material for which such permission is not provided will be considered the original work of the author.

Authorship

Authors are required to list only those individuals who have made a significant contribution to the development of the manuscript as authors. Conversely, all individuals who have made a substantial contribution to the manuscript must be appropriately credited as authors. If individuals who do not meet the criteria for authorship have contributed to certain aspects of the research or the preparation of the manuscript, their contributions should be acknowledged in a footnote or in the acknowledgements section.

Citing Sources

Authors are required to properly cite all sources that have significantly influenced the research and the preparation of the manuscript. Information obtained through private conversations, correspondence with third parties, or during the review of project applications or manuscripts may not be used without the explicit written permission of the source.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism, defined as the appropriation of another person’s ideas, words, or other forms of creative expression and presenting them as one’s own, constitutes a serious violation of scientific and publishing ethics. Plagiarism may also involve copyright infringement, which is subject to legal sanctions.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• literal or near-literal copying, as well as deliberate paraphrasing (with the intent to conceal plagiarism), of parts of other authors’ texts without clearly indicating the source or properly marking the copied content (e.g., using quotation marks);
• copying images or tables from other works without appropriate citation of the source and/or without obtaining permission from the author or copyright holder.

Conflict of Interest

Authors are required to disclose any financial or other conflicts of interest that could influence the interpretation of the results or the presentation of the research.

Errors in Published Works

If authors discover a significant error in their work after publication, they are obliged to promptly inform the editorial office and cooperate in correcting the published record.

By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors agree to comply with all stated ethical obligations.

Obligations of Reviewers

Reviewers are required to provide the editor with an assessment of the scientific quality of the manuscript in a professional, well-reasoned, impartial manner and within the specified deadlines.

Reviewers evaluate manuscripts based on the relevance of the topic to the journal’s scope, the significance of the research area and applied methods, the originality and scientific contribution of the work, the quality of scientific presentation, and the adequacy of the supporting academic apparatus.

If a reviewer has reasonable suspicions or evidence of a violation of ethical standards by the author, they are required to notify the editor. Reviewers should also identify relevant published works that have not been cited by the authors. In addition, they should alert the editor to any substantial similarities or overlaps between the manuscript under review and any other published work or manuscript under consideration elsewhere, if such information is known to them. If there is evidence that the same manuscript is being considered by multiple journals simultaneously, the reviewer must inform the editor.

Reviewers must not have any conflict of interest with respect to the authors or the research funding sources. In the event of a conflict of interest, the reviewer is obliged to inform the editor immediately.

If a reviewer feels unqualified to evaluate the subject matter of the manuscript, they must notify the editor without delay.

Reviews must be objective. Personal comments about the author are considered inappropriate. The reviewer’s assessment must be clear, constructive, and supported by arguments.

Manuscripts submitted for review are considered confidential documents. Reviewers may not use unpublished material from submitted manuscripts for their own research without the explicit written permission of the author. Information and ideas contained in submitted manuscripts must remain confidential and may not be used for personal gain.

Review Procedure

Submitted manuscripts are subject to peer review. The purpose of the review process is to assist the editor in making a decision regarding acceptance or rejection of the manuscript, as well as to improve the quality of the manuscript through constructive communication with authors.

Peer review is conducted anonymously.

At least two reviewers are assigned to each manuscript. The typical review period is one month.

The selection of reviewers is at the discretion of the editorial board. Reviewers must have relevant expertise in the subject area of the manuscript and must not be affiliated with the same institution as the author. In addition, they must not have recently co-authored publications with any of the authors.

In the main stage of the review process, the editor-in-chief forwards the manuscript to experts in the relevant scientific field. The review form includes a set of questions intended to guide reviewers in assessing key aspects necessary for evaluating the manuscript. In the final section of the form, reviewers are required to provide comments and suggestions for improving the manuscript.

Throughout the process, reviewers act independently of one another and remain unaware of each other’s identities. In cases where reviewers’ evaluations differ significantly, the editor-in-chief may seek the opinion of an additional reviewer.

During the review process, the editor may request additional information from the author, including primary data, when necessary for assessing the scientific contribution of the manuscript. The editor and reviewers are required to treat such information as confidential and must not use it for personal gain.

The editorial office is responsible for ensuring the quality and integrity of the peer-review process. If authors raise serious and well-founded objections to a review, the editorial board will evaluate whether the review meets appropriate academic standards and is conducted objectively. In cases of doubt regarding the quality or impartiality of the review, the editor may request additional independent reviews.

Settlement of Disputed Situations

Any individual or institution may, at any time, report to the editor and/or editorial office any information regarding violations of ethical standards or other irregularities, together with relevant evidence.

Verification of Allegations and Evidence

• The editor-in-chief, in consultation with the editorial board, will decide whether to initiate a procedure to verify the submitted allegations and evidence.
• During this procedure, all submitted materials and evidence will be treated as confidential and will be disclosed only to individuals directly involved in the process.
• Individuals suspected of violating ethical standards will be given the opportunity to respond to the allegations against them.
• If irregularities are confirmed, they will be assessed to determine whether they constitute a minor breach or a serious violation of ethical standards.

Minor Offense

Cases classified as minor offenses will be resolved through direct communication with the individuals involved, without the participation of third parties. Such cases may include, for example:

• informing the author or reviewer that a minor breach has occurred due to misunderstanding or misapplication of academic standards;
• issuing a warning letter to the author or reviewer responsible for the minor offense.

 

Gross Violation of Ethical Standards

Decisions regarding serious violations of ethical standards are made by the editor-in-chief in cooperation with the editorial board and, where necessary, a small group of external experts. The following measures may be applied individually or in combination:

• publication of a statement or editorial describing the ethical violation;
• sending official notifications to the authors or the authors’/reviewers’ affiliated institutions;
• retraction of published papers in accordance with the procedure described under Retraction of Published Articles;
• prohibition of manuscript submissions by the authors for a specified period of time;
• notification of relevant professional organizations or competent authorities so that appropriate actions may be taken.

In resolving disputes, the editorial board follows the guidelines and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Retraction of Already Published Papers

In cases of violation of publishers’ rights, copyright holders’ rights, or authors’ rights, breaches of professional ethical codes, duplicate submission to multiple journals, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, manipulation of data for fraudulent purposes, as well as other serious violations of ethical standards, a published article must be retracted. In certain cases, an already published article may also be retracted in order to correct significant errors identified after publication.

Standards for handling retractions are defined by libraries and scholarly organizations and are widely adopted by academic journals. In accordance with these standards, the electronic version of the original article (i.e., the retracted article) remains accessible and includes an HTML link to a retraction notice. The retracted article is retained in its original form; however, the PDF version is clearly marked on each page with a watermark indicating that the article has been retracted (RETRACTED).

Open Access

The journal operates under an open-access model. All articles published in the journal are freely available for download from the journal’s website.

The submission and peer-review process are free of charge. Publication fees may apply in accordance with the publisher’s policy, which is publicly available on the journal’s website.

Self-Archiving

The journal permits authors to deposit the final published version of their article (PDF format) in institutional repositories and/or non-commercial databases, as well as to share it on personal websites, including academic networking platforms such as ResearchGate and Academia.edu, and/or on the website of their affiliated institution, at any time after publication. In all cases, complete bibliographic information must be provided, including authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pagination, and the digital object identifier (DOI) or a URL link to the original published version of the article in HTML format.

Copyright

Upon acceptance for publication, authors retain the copyright to their work. Authors also retain the right to publish their work without restriction.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in published articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or the editorial board. Authors bear full legal and ethical responsibility for the content of their work. The publisher shall not be held liable for any claims for damages arising from published content.

Final Statement

The Open Access Policy and Publication Ethics are available on the journal’s website.