Ethical norms

This journal complies with the requirements established by the International Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), which can be found on the COPE website, as well as the principles of DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment).s (COPE).

Principles of ethics of the editor and publisher

When making a decision on publication, the editorial board is guided by the reliability of the submitted data and the scientific significance of the considered work.

The intellectual content of the manuscripts is assessed regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, origin, citizenship, social status or political views of the authors.

Unpublished data obtained from submitted manuscripts are not used for personal purposes and are not passed on to third parties without the written consent of the author. Information from submitted manuscripts remains confidential and is not used for personal gain.

The editors do not publish the manuscript if there is reason to believe that it is plagiarism.

The editors do not leave unanswered claims concerning the considered manuscripts or published materials, and in the event of a conflict take all necessary measures to restore the violated rights.

 

Principles of reviewer ethics

The manuscript received for review is considered a confidential document that cannot be passed on for review or discussion to third parties who do not have the authority to do so.

The reviewer gives an objective and reasoned assessment of the results of the study. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable.

Unpublished data obtained from submitted manuscripts are not used by the reviewer for personal purposes.

A reviewer who, in his opinion, does not have sufficient qualifications to evaluate the manuscript, or if it cannot be objective, in particular in the event of a conflict of interest with the author or organization, must notify the editors with a request to exclude it from the review process.

 

Principles of ethics of the author of a scientific publication

The author (authors) of the article must provide reliable results of the research. Deliberate representation of false or falsified data is unacceptable.

The author must ensure that the results of the study presented in the submitted manuscript are completely original. Borrowed data must be made with the obligatory indication of the author and the original source. Plagiarism in any form is unethical and unacceptable. The article should provide references to the work that was relevant to the study.

Authors should not submit a manuscript that has previously been submitted to another publication and is currently under review, as well as an article already published in another publication.

The co-authors of the article should indicate all persons who have made a significant contribution to the study.

If the author finds errors or inaccuracies in the article at the stage of its consideration or after its publication, he must notify the editors as soon as possible.

 

In accordance with the principles of DORA, the Journal:

  • evaluates manuscripts solely on the basis of their scientific quality, originality, methodological soundness, and contribution to the advancement of knowledge;

  • does not use journal-based metrics (including the Impact Factor) as a criterion for assessing individual articles or the scientific quality of an author;

  • does not encourage artificial inflation of citation metrics;

  • supports the responsible use of scientometric indicators.

 

Plagiarism

All scientific articles submitted to the editorial office are subjected to a plagiarism test by special software Plagiat.pl. We protect the rights of authors/co-authors and investigate statements about plagiarism or misuse of the published articles. The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the information provided in the articles, and the correctness of names, surnames and quotations. The authors are responsible for the materials they submit in case of detecting plagiarism in them. Similarly, we protect the reputation of the journal against abuse of office. Thus, the journal reserves the right to reject an article for plagiarism without further explanation and to take appropriate legal measures. If a plagiarism is detected after publication, the journal may post the correction or recall the article.

 

Conflicts of Interest

To ensure objectivity, neutrality and transparency in research and to ensure that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed, authors and peer-reviewers participating in the manuscript submission stage should include information regarding sources of funding and potential conflicts of interest, financial or non-financial, – whether they actually had an influence. Submissions with undeclared conflicts that are later revealed may be rejected. Published articles may need to be re-assessed, have a corrigendum published, or in serious cases be retracted.

The types of the conflicts for the authors are:

  • research grants from funding agencies. Please give the information about research funder and the grant number in the Acknowledgements part of the manuscript;
  • honoraria for speaking at conference;
  • financial support for attending conference;
  • financial support for educational programs;
  • employment or consultation;
  • support from a project sponsor;
  • position on advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships;
  • multiple affiliations;
  • financial relationships, for example equity ownership or investment interest;
  • intellectual property rights (e.g. patents, copyrights and royalties from such rights);
  • references to the “predatory” journals;
  • holdings of spouse and/or children that may have financial interest in the work;
  • personal relationships or competing interests directly or indirectly tied to this research;
  • professional interests or personal beliefs that may influence your research.

The corresponding author must collect the conflict of interest (listed above) disclosure from all authors and declare them on behalf of all authors during manuscript submission stage. Declared conflicts of interest will be considered by the editor and reviewers.

The journal intends to prevent from the conflict of interest assigning submissions to editors and inviting peer-reviewers. They should decline in any of the below situations occur and declare any conflicts to the journal. 

The types of conflicts of interests for editors and peer-reviewers are:

  • editors and/or peer-reviewers have a recent publication or current submission with any author of the manuscript;
  • editors and/or peer-reviewers share or recently shared an affiliation with any author of the manuscript;
  • editors and/or peer-reviewers collaborate or recently collaborated with any author of the manuscript;
  • editors and/or peer-reviewers have a close personal connection to any author of the manuscript;
  • editors and/or peer-reviewers have a financial interest in the subject of the work of the manuscript;
  • editors and/or peer-reviewers feel unable to be objective for the manuscript.

 

Policy on the Use of AI

The Journal’s policy on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools is based on international and national recommendations and regulatory documents, in particular the statements of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the provisions of the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act), the Concept for the Development of Artificial Intelligence in Ukraine, and the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On Academic Integrity”.

The Journal recognizes the possibility of using AI tools as auxiliary instruments during the preparation of scientific materials. At the same time, the use of such tools must comply with the principles of academic integrity, transparency, and the author’s responsibility for the content of the scientific work and the reliability of the results presented.

AI tools may be used, in particular, for auxiliary tasks such as language editing, structuring of materials, technical data processing, and similar activities. Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, and scientific validity of the submitted materials, proper citation of sources, and for the absence of plagiarism, fabrication, or falsification of research results.

The Journal requires authors to openly disclose any use of AI tools during manuscript preparation. AI systems cannot be considered authors or co-authors of scientific articles, as they cannot take responsibility for the content of a publication.

Editors and reviewers must also adhere to principles of confidentiality and must not use AI tools in a way that would disclose unpublished manuscript materials or any other confidential information obtained during the editorial review process.

Violations of the principles for using AI tools may be considered breaches of academic integrity and publication ethics and may result in appropriate editorial actions, including rejection of the manuscript or retraction of a published article.

 

Ethical Approval Policy

The editorial board adheres to international standards of academic integrity and research ethics. All studies involving human participants, animals or their biological materials, as well as research involving personal or confidential data, must be conducted in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine and generally accepted international ethical standards.

In cases where the research falls under the scope of relevant legal or regulatory requirements, authors are required to obtain approval from a competent ethics committee or another authorized body (Ethics Committee / Institutional Review Board).

In the manuscript, authors must:

  • indicate information about the obtained ethical approval, including the name of the institution, protocol number, and date of the decision (if available);
  • confirm that the research was conducted in compliance with ethical standards and relevant regulatory requirements;
  • in the case of research involving human participants, state that informed consent was obtained from the participants;
  • in the case of studies involving animals, confirm that the experiments were conducted in accordance with the principles of humane treatment of animals.

The editorial board reserves the right to request additional documents or confirmation from authors regarding compliance with ethical requirements. Manuscripts that do not meet these ethical standards may be rejected at any stage of the editorial review process.

 

Retraction Policy

On rare occasions, when the scientific information in an article is substantially undermined, it may be necessary for published articles to be retracted. Journal will follow the COPE in such cases. Retraction articles are indexed and linked to the original article.
Journal provides free, immediate and permanent online access to the full text of all articles.

Journal editors should consider retracting a publication if:

• they have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (eg, data fabrication) or honest error (eg, miscalculation or experimental error)

• the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (ie, cases of redundant publication)

• it constitutes plagiarism

• it reports unethical research

Journal editors should consider issuing an expression of concern if:

• they receive inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors

• there is evidence that the findings are unreliable but the authors’ institution will not investigate the case

• they believe that an investigation into alleged misconduct related to the publication either has not been, or would not be, fair and impartial or conclusive

• an investigation is under way but a judgement will not be available for a considerable time

Journal editors should consider issuing a correction if:

• a small portion of an otherwise reliable publication proves to be misleading (especially because of honest error)

• the author / contributor list is incorrect (ie, a deserving author has been omitted or somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been included).

If a decision to retract is made, the journal publishes an official retraction notice indicating the reasons for the retraction and the date of the decision. The retracted article is not removed from the journal’s electronic archive; however, it is clearly marked as retracted to ensure transparency and preserve the integrity of the scholarly record. All decisions are made in accordance with the principles of fairness, confidentiality, and respect for the rights of all parties involved in the publication process.