Principles followed by the Editor

The Editor respects the principles of publication ethics in accordance with the recommendations of the COPE - Committee on Publication Ethics (https://publicationethics.org/).

In particular:
1. Reliability in science is one of the cornerstones of quality. The Authors of a publication should be transparent and honest, and fairly present the results of their work; regardless of whether they are the direct authors or they used the help of a specialized entity (natural or legal person).

2. The evidence of a scientist’s ethical attitude and of high editorial standards is the disclosure of information on entities which have contributed to the publication (the contribution of knowledge, factual or financial input, etc.). It is a manifestation not only of good manners, but also of social responsibility.

3. To prevent cases of ghostwriting (a substantial contribution to the creation of a publication without disclosing the participation of one of the authors, and without mentioning this role in the acknowledgments of the publication) and cases of guest authorship (the author’s role is scarce or nonexistent, yet she/he is mentioned as the author or co-author of a publication), the Editors apply appropriate procedures, namely:
a) The Editor requires from Authors the following:
- the list of Authors should correspond to the actual contributions in the creation of a publication,
- persons who contributed to the final form of the publication, if not listed as authors, should be honored by acknowledgments,
- the bibliography should include all publications and articles which inspired the creation of a publication,
- the Authors should disclose the source of a publication’s financing.

b) Ghostwriting and guest authorship are signs of scientific misconduct; therefore, any detected cases will be exposed (notification of institutions employing the authors, scientific associations, etc.).

c) Editor will document all forms of scientific misconduct, particularly violations and infringement of the rules applied in science.

4. Basic principles of a publication’s peer review:
a) For the evaluation of each publication, at least two independent reviewers are appointed,

b) Editor implements a model in which the Author / Authors and Reviewers do not know their identities (the so-called double-blind review process),

c) The article received for review must be treated as confidential and the information and ideas obtained from the review should not be used for any other purposes,

d) A person who has received a proposal to review a manuscript should refuse the review if she/he:
- does not feel a specialist in its subject,
- finds a conflict of interest in relation to the subject of the article or institutions and persons related to this article,
- does not declare the performance of the review within the prescribed period.

e) The Reviewer should pay particular attention to the originality of the reviewed text, and signs of plagiarism should be described in the review, providing the basis for recommending rejection of the publication,

f) The names of the Reviewers of particular articles are not disclosed. Once a year (latest issue), a list of all reviewers is published.