PRINCIPLES OF PUBLISHING ETHICS
The Principles of Publishing Ethics are based on the recommendations of: COPE Committee on Publication Ethics' Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and the study “Good Practice in Review Procedures in Science”. With full acceptance of these recommendations, publishing ethics rules applicable to each party - editors, reviewers and authors involved in the publication process - have been implemented for the journal.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EDITORS
MONITORING ETHICAL STANDARDS:
The Editorial Board ensures that publishing standards and publishing ethics are adhered to and prevents any practice contrary to accepted standards. The Editorial Board systematically monitors internationally accepted publishing ethical standards. Members of the Editorial Board are obliged to respect current laws on copyright, data protection, defamation and plagiarism, and strive to eliminate cases of plagiarism and the practices of guest authorship and ghostwriting. All articles submitted for publication in the journal are screened for ethics, integrity, value and scientific utility.
PUBLICATION DECISIONS:
The editors are responsible for deciding whether to accept or reject a paper. This decision is based on the scientific merit of the publication, its compatibility with the topics presented in the journal, the originality of the treatment of the topic and the clarity of the argument. The editorial board's decisions are made after taking into account the opinion of an independent reviewer who is an expert in his or her field. The editors accept only original texts previously unpublished and not submitted in whole or in part for publication in other journals and not duplicating previous work.
CONFIDENTIALITY:
Members of the editorial team are obliged to maintain the confidentiality of information obtained at every stage of the publication process, and therefore do not disclose any information about articles submitted for publication to unauthorised persons. Only: authors, selected reviewers, members of the editorial board remain authorised to have this information.
SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY:
Members of the editorial team are required to make every effort to maintain integrity in terms of the scientific integrity of published articles. To this end, they may make appropriate corrections and, in the case of suspected fraudulent practices (plagiarism, falsification of research results), decide to withdraw the text from publication. If scientific dishonesty is discovered, the editors follow the procedure recommended by COPE.
WITHDRAWAL OF THE TEXT:
The editorial team may consider withdrawing a text if: - there is evidence of unreliability of the research results, fabrication of data, as well as if unintentional errors (e.g. calculation errors, methodological errors) have been made, - the research results have been published previously, - the paper bears signs of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or violates ethical principles. A notice of withdrawal should be regarded as equivalent to the withdrawal of the article. This notice should contain information about the person (the heading should include at least the title and surname(s) of the author(s) of the work) and the reasons (in order to distinguish unintentional errors from deliberate misuse) for deciding to withdraw the text. Withdrawn texts are not removed from the published version of the journal, but the fact that they have been withdrawn will be clearly marked.
DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST:
Information obtained in the publication evaluation process, without the written consent of the author, may not be disclosed by the editors to any person other than those who are party to the publication process. In addition, without the written consent of the author, none of the submitted texts, including excerpts and rejected texts, may be used for personal research (personal gain) by reviewers and members of the editorial board.
DISCRIMINATION:
Articles are judged on the basis of their quality and relevance to the journal, without regard to the origin of the author of the paper, his/her nationality, ethnicity, political views, disability, gender, race or religion.
ACCESS TO THE CONTENT OF THE JOURNAL:
The editors provide permanent, free access to published articles on the website: www.reflections.umcs.pl / www.reflections.umcs.eu
RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS
FEEDBACK:
The reviewer should agree to review only those papers in which he/she has sufficient knowledge to give an appropriate opinion within the specified time. The reviewer is obliged to deliver the review within the agreed deadline. If for some reason (substantive, lack of time) he/she is unable to undertake the review or meet the deadline, he/she should inform the editors immediately.
STANDARDS OF OBJECTIVITY:
In order to enhance the scientific value of the text, reviews should be performed objectively, in accordance with ethical standards, based on scientific arguments. Personal criticism of the author is considered inappropriate. Reviewers should clearly express their views, supporting them with appropriate arguments.
CONFIDENTIALITY:
The reviewer is obliged to maintain the confidentiality of the scientific review and not to disclose any details of the article as well as the review.
ANONYMITY:
All reviews are performed anonymously. The editors do not share authors' details with reviewers, and vice versa.
DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST:
Confidential information or ideas arising from the review must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain. Reviewers should not review papers where there is a conflict of interest arising from a relationship with the author.
RELIABILITY OF SOURCES:
The reviewer should identify published work that has not been cited by the author. Any statement that an observation, source or argument has been previously discussed should be supported by an appropriate citation. The reviewer should also inform the editors of any significant similarity, partial overlap between the content of the reviewed work and any other published and known work, or suspected plagiarism.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF AUTHORS
AUTHORSHIP OF THE WORK:
Authors may only submit original work of their own authorship for publication. All references to other authors' work and research should be appropriately footnoted and should be disclosed in the bibliography. The author may only submit for publication unpublished papers and papers not submitted for publication in other publications. Submitting articles to more than one publication simultaneously is considered unethical behaviour. Ghost authorship, guest authorship and gift authorship are considered a sign of scientific dishonesty and are not accepted by the editors. If such conduct is detected, the editors will notify the relevant parties.
SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY:
The author is obliged to describe accurately the research work carried out and to discuss the results objectively. The publication should contain information that allows the identification of data sources. Presenting and interpreting research results in a dishonest or inaccurate manner is unacceptable and may result in the withdrawal of the paper.
ORIGINALITY OF THE WORK:
The author submits to the editor only original work, previously unpublished and unvalidated. Where he/she uses the research and/or words of others, he/she should use appropriate citation marks. Plagiarism or fabrication of data is not acceptable.
ACCESS TO DATA:
The author is obliged to cooperate with the editors as part of the review process. In particular, at the request of the editors, he should provide the data on which he bases the results of his research and submit relevant explanations as required. The author is obliged to ensure access to the data he refers to in his work also after publication. He should retain these data for one year after publication.
FUNDAMENTAL ERRORS IN PUBLISHED WORKS:
The author shall notify the editors if he perceives significant inaccuracies or errors in a published work of his authorship. The editors, depending on the circumstances, take action in the form of clarification, correction or withdrawal of the article.
