Publishing ethics
The editorial board of the journal “Scientific notes of Orel State University”
adheres to internationally accepted principles of publication ethics which are
reflected, in particular, in the recommendations of the Committee on publication
ethics (Committee on Publication Ethics).
To avoid unfair practices in publishing activities (plagiarism, presenting
false information, etc.), in order to ensure the high quality of scientific publications
and public acceptance of the scientific results of obtained by the author, each
member of the editorial board (hereinafter the editor), the author, the reviewer, the
publisher, and institutions involved in the publishing process, must comply with
ethical standards, rules and regulations and take all reasonable measures to prevent
their violation.
Editor’s Responsibilities
The editor in his/her activities shall:
–improve the journal constantly;
– follow the principle of freedom of opinion;
– strive to meet the needs of journal’s readers and authors;
– eliminate the impact of business interests or policy decisions on the publication
of materials;
– make decisions on the basis of the principle of fairness and impartiality, to ensure
transparency of the editorial activity at all stages;
– not disclose information about submitted materials to anyone other than the
respective authors, reviewers, other editorial advisers, and, if necessary, the
publisher;
– assess manuscripts solely for their scientific content;
– decide on the publication of materials guided by the following main criteria:
conformity of the manuscript to the journal; the relevance, novelty and scientific
significance of the submitted article; clarity; reliability of results and completeness
of conclusions. The quality of the research and its relevance are the basis for the
decision about the publication;
– take all reasonable steps to ensure the high quality of publishing materials and
the protection of confidentiality of personal information. If meaningful,
grammatical, stylistic and other errors are found, the editorial board shall take all
measures to eliminate them;
– take into account referees’ recommendations when making the final decision on
publication of the article. The responsibility for the decision to publish it lies
completely with the editorial board of the journal;
– justify his/her decision in the case of acceptance or rejection of the article;
– give the author of the peer-reviewed material the opportunity to substantiate
his/her research position;
– in case of the staff change of the editorial board, not cancel the decisions of the
previous staff concerning the publication of material;
– encourage discussions and provide an opportunity to present the point of view of
opponents;
– not use in his/her own research data from unpublished materials.
Author’s Responsibilities
Authors when submitting material to the journal “Scientific notes of Orel
State University” undertake:
– to submit only original work;
– when using the text or graphical information from previously published studies
of the author or from the work of another researcher, to refer to the appropriate
publications or to submit a written permission to use these materials. The presence
of borrowing without reference will be considered by the editorial board as
plagiarism;
– to present only true facts and information in the manuscript; give sufficient
information to check and to repeat experiments by other researchers; not to use
information obtained privately, without explicit, written permission; to prevent the
fabrication and falsification of data;
– to avoid duplication of publications (in the cover letter the author should indicate
that the work is to be published for the first time). If parts of the manuscript have
been previously published, the author is obliged to refer to earlier work and to
indicate the differences of the new work from the previous one. Submission to
more than one journal simultaneously is considered unethical.
– to comply with ethical norms, acting with criticism or comments in relation to
studies of third parties;
– to adhere to the principles of bioethics in the study of animal objects;
– to notify immediately the editorial board or the publisher about a significant error
in the published paper;
– to provide the editorial board or the publisher with the proof of the correctness of
the original article or to correct significant errors if the editorial board or the
publisher became aware of them from a third party;
– to name all the authors of the material.
The author has the right to appeal the decision of the editorial Board in the
prescribed manner (reference Review).
Referee’s Responsibilities
A referee assessing the materials submitted for publication in the journal
“Scientific notes of Orel State University” shall:
– make objective and impartial decisions;
– observe confidentiality. It is not allowed to discuss the paper with others except
for the persons authorized by the editor to work with the author’s manuscript;
– not use the information obtained in the course of reviewing for personal gain;
– inform the editor and withdraw from reviewing the manuscript if, in referee’s
opinion, his/her qualification is not enough to review the material submitted for
peer review or in case of violation of terms of the manuscript peer-reviewing;
– make decisions based on the specific facts and bring proof of his/her decision;
– attract the editor’s attention to a substantial similarity or partial similarity of the
manuscript which is being assessed with any other work, as well as the lack of
reference to statements, conclusions or arguments previously published in other
works of this or other authors;
– assist the author in improving the quality of the article;
– not use the material of the unpublished manuscript in his/her own research.
Conflict of interest
In order to avoid breaches of Publication Ethics it is necessary to exclude the
conflict of interests of all parties involved in the publication of the manuscript. A
conflict of interest occurs when an author, a reviewer or a member of the editorial
board have a financial, academic or personal relationship that may affect their
actions.
In order to prevent the conflict of interest and in accordance with accepted
ethical standards of the journal, each party shall have the following responsibilities.
If there is a conflict of interests, the editor is obliged:
– to give a manuscript for reviewing to another member of the editorial board if the
originally assigned referee has a conflict of interest with the author of the
submitted manuscript;
– to ask all the participants in the process of publishing the manuscript the
information about the possibility of competing interests;
– to take the decision to publish the information specified in the author’s letter
concerning the conflict of scientific and / or financial interests, if it is not
confidential and can influence the assessment of published work by a reader or a
scientific community;
– to ensure the publication of corrections if the information on conflicts of interest
has been received after the publication of the article.
The author is obliged:
– to enumerate known and potential sources of a conflict of interest in the cover
letter;
– to note the place of the work and the source of the research funding;
– if there is no conflict of interest, to state it clearly in his/her cover letter.
The referee is obliged:
– to inform the editor about any conflict of interest (dual commitments, competing
interests) and to withdraw from peer-reviewing the manuscript.
Violations
When a situation arises involving a breach of publication ethics by the editor,
author or referee, it requires mandatory consideration. This applies to both
published and unpublished materials since the publication of the document. The
editorial board should require clarification, without the involvement of persons
who may have a conflict of interest with one of the parties.
If the material which contained significant inaccuracies was published, it
needs to be immediately fixed in a form accessible to readers and indexing
systems.