PUBLISHING ETHICS

The following are the standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in publishing in „The Skrzatusz Annals” journal: the author, the journal editor and editorial board, the peer reviewers and the publisher.

All the articles submitted for publication in “The Skrzatusz Annals” are peer reviewed for authenticity, ethical issues and usefulness.


DUTIES OF AUTHORS

Authorship of the manuscript
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the report study. All those who have made contributions should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Ghostwriting firewall and guest authorship
Honesty is one of the fundamental aspects that guarantee the quality of education. Readers must be sure that the authors of the papers present the results of their own research in a transparent, fair and honest way, no matter if they wrote the articles on their own or if they were supported by a specialist. What proves the ethical attitude of a researcher and the highest editorial standards is the transparency of information about the entities that have contributed to the publication (a merit, technical, material, financial input etc.), which is stands for not only a good practice, but also social responsibility. The examples of inappropriate practice are ghostwriting and guest authorship. What is meant by ghostwriting is the lack of information about the people who had a significant contribution to the publication – neither their names nor role is meant in the publication. Guest authorship (honorary authorship) (honorary authorship) is the situation in which a person has had not much/no contribution to the publication but their name has been place on the list of the contributors.

To prevent from ghostwriting or guest authorship, the editors of „The Skrzatusz Annals” make the following regulations obligatory:
1. In the process of submitting a paper, authors declare the input of each author to the publication (they define their affiliations and contributions, i.e. the information who is the author of the main concept, principles, methods, protocol, etc.); what is important the main responsibility is taken by the author who submits the paper.
2. The editors request the authors to get familiar with the document on ghostwritingfirewall below .
3. The editors will keep track of the procedure and all forms of scientific misconduct, especially violating the ethical rules that need to be followed in the scientific research will be reported.

A statement regarding the novelty of the article (ghostwriting). must be attached to the text. The ghostwriting is a procedure required in a parametric assessing of the scientific journal to protect the originality of scientific publications. Readers can not have any doubt that the authors present only the results of their scientific work. If anybody (a natural or legal person) helps them with their work, they should clearly notify the readers about it (for example, through the proper links).

Standards for text submission
Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. The paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. The fabrication of results and making of fraudulent or inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and may cause rejection or retraction of a manuscript or a published article.

Originality and plagiarism
Authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others they need to be cited or quoted. Plagiarism and fraudulent data is not acceptable.

Data access retention
Authors may be asked to provide the raw data for editorial review, should be prepared to provide public access to such data, and should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication of their paper.

Multiple or concurrent publication
Authors should not in general publish a manuscript describing essentially the same research in more than one journal. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of sources
The proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. The authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the scope of the reported work.

Fundamental errors in published works
When the author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Any violation of the abovementioned ethical principles is a reason for rejecting the article.


DUTIES OF EDITORS

Monitoring the ethical standards
Editorial board is monitoring the ethical standards of scientific publications and takes all possible measures against any publication malpractices.

Fair play
Submitted manuscripts are evaluated for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, citizenship, or political ideology.

Publication decisions
The editor is responsible for deciding which of the submitted articles should or should not be published. The decision to accept or reject a paper for publication is based on its importance, originality, clarity, and its relevance to the scope of the journal.

Confidentiality
The editor and the members of the editorial board must ensure that all materials submitted to the journal remain confidential while under review. They must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the authors, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher.

Disclosure and conflict of interest
Niepublikowane materiały ujawnione w przedłożonym manuskrypcie nie mogą być wykorzystywane przez redaktora i redakcję we własnych badaniach bez pisemnej zgody autorów. Redaktorzy zawsze wykluczają potrzeby biznesowe z pogwałcenia standardów intelektualnych i etycznych.

Maintain the integrity of the academic record
Unpublished materials disclosed in the submitted manuscript must not be used by the editor and the editorial board in their own research without written consent of authors. Editors always precludes business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards.

Retractions of the articles
Journal editors will consider retracting a publication if:
- they have a clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error),
- the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (cases of redundant publication),
- it constitutes plagiarism or reports unethical research.
Notice of the retraction should be linked to the retracted article (by including the title and authors in the retraction heading), clearly identify the retracted article and state who is retracting the article. Retraction notices should always mention the reason(s) for retraction to distinguish honest error from misconduct. Retracted articles will not be removed from printed copies of the journal nor from electronic archives but their retracted status will be indicated as clearly as possible.


DUTIES OF REVIEWERS

Contribution to editorial decisions
Peer reviews assist the editor in making editorial decisions and may also help authors to improve their manuscript.

Promptness
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its timely review will be impossible should inform the editor about it.

Confidentiality
All manuscript received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except those authorized by the editor.

Objectivism
Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with appropriate supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of sources
Reviewers should identify the relevant published work that has not been cited by authors. Any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper should be reported to the editor.

Disclosure and conflict of interest
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider evaluating manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relations with any of the authors, companies, or institutions involved in writing a paper.



A certificate of authenticity article rs_oswiadczenie_autora_zapora_ghostwriting.pdf
Author’s statement rs_zaswiadczenie_autora.pdf
Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) cope_pol.pdf
Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) cope_eng.pdf



Ethical principles were developed on the basis of the recommendations of the COPE Committee on Publication Ethics contained in the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and the elaborations of Best Practices in Review Procedures in Science.