Ethical Standards
These Ethical Standards worked out and adopted from the world’s best practice of scientific publishing. Intellectual honesty should be actively encouraged in all scientific courses of study, and used to inform publication ethics and prevent misconduct.
Odesa National Technological University is committed to meeting and upholding standards of ethical behavior at all stages of the publication process. We follow closely the industry associations, such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and The European Association of Science Editors (EASE), that set standards and provide guidelines for best practices in order to meet these requirements.
Definitions
Editor – manager of the journal.
Author - a person, who takes responsibility for a particular section or for the whole study.
Peer reviewers - external experts, chosen by editors, to provide written opinions, with the aim of improving the study.
Conflicts of interest - personal, commercial, political, academic or financial dispute, which affects the scientific research and engaged sides.
Plagiarism - unreferenced use of others’ published and unpublished ideas.
Falsification/Fabrication of data - a recording of fictitious data when none exists and falsification is the manipulation of data or procedures to produce a desired outcome or to avoid a complicating or inexplicable result.
Editors' responsibilities
- Evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
- Using the journal’s standard electronic submission system for all journal communications.
- Handle submissions for sponsored supplements or special issues in the same way as other submissions, so that articles are considered and accepted solely on their academic merit and without commercial influence.
- Protect the confidentiality of all materials submitted to the journal and all communications with reviewers, unless otherwise agreed with the relevant authors and reviewers. In exceptional circumstances and in consultation with the publisher, the editor may share limited information with editors of other journals where deemed necessary to investigate suspected research misconduct.
- Adopt and follow reasonable procedures in the event of complaints of an ethical or conflict nature, in accordance with the policies and procedures of the Society where appropriate. To give authors a reasonable opportunity to respond to any complaints. All complaints should be investigated no matter when the original publication was approved. Documentation associated with any such complaints should be retained. Every reported act of unethical publishing behavior must be looked into, even if it is discovered years after publication.
- Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.
- Ensure that the peer review process is fair, unbiased, and timely.
Authors' responsibilities
- Maintain accurate records of data associated with their submitted manuscript, and to supply or provide access to these data, on reasonable request. Where appropriate and where allowed by employer, funding body and others who might have an interest, to deposit data in a suitable repository or storage location, for sharing and further use by others.
- Confirm that the manuscript as submitted is not under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Where portions of the content overlap with published or submitted content, to acknowledge and cite those sources. Additionally, to provide the editor with a copy of any submitted manuscript that might contain overlapping or closely related content.
- Confirm that all the work in the submitted manuscript is original and to acknowledge and cite content reproduced from other sources. To obtain permission to reproduce any content from other sources.
- Declare any potential conflicts of interest (e.g. where the author has a competing interest (real or apparent) that could be considered or viewed as exerting an undue influence on his or her duties at any stage during the publication process).
- Take responsibility for a particular section of the study or for the whole study.
- Take responsibility for the trustworthiness of the research.
- Be aware of and adhere to regulations and policies related to research.
- Take responsibility for the contributions to all publications, funding applications, reports and other representations of the research. Lists of authors should include all those and only those who meet applicable authorship criteria.
- Notify promptly the journal editor or publisher if a significant error in their publication is identified. To cooperate with the editor and publisher to publish an erratum, addendum, corrigendum notice, or to retract the paper, where this is deemed necessary.
- Take full responsibility for any plagiarism of text, image or other type of graphics. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Any related misconduct will be dealt in accordance with COPE algorithm.
Reviewers' responsibilities/Peer review
Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. That is why actions of a reviewer should be unbiased
- The submitted manuscript should not be retained or copied.
- Not make any use of the data, arguments, or interpretations, unless they have the authors’ permission.
- Provide speedy, accurate, courteous, unbiased and justifiable reports. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate.
- Alert the editor to any published or submitted content that is substantially similar to that under review.
- If misconduct is suspected, write in confidence to the editor.
- Be aware of any potential conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, collaborative or other relationships between the reviewer and author) and to alert the editor to these, if necessary withdrawing their services for that manuscript.
- Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer's own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.
- To follow in his work the “Singapore Statement on Research Integrity”.
Conflicts
- Data should be appropriately analyzed, but inappropriate analysis does not necessarily amount to misconduct. Fabrication and falsification of data do constitute misconduct.
- Higher education establishments and scientific institutions take measures to prevent academic plagiarism - to publicize (partially or completely) the scientific (creative) results obtained by other persons as the results of their own research (creativity) and/or reproduction of published texts (published works of art ) other authors without specification of authorship.
- Disclose financial and other conflicts of interest that could compromise the trustworthiness of their work in research proposals, publications and public communications as well as in all review activities.
- Report to the appropriate authorities any suspected research misconduct, including fabrication, falsification or plagiarism, and other irresponsible research practices that undermine the trustworthiness of research, such as carelessness, improperly listing authors, failing to report conflicting data, or the use of misleading analytical methods.
Procedures for dealing with unethical behavior
Identification of unethical behavior. Misconduct and unethical behavior may be identified and brought to the attention of the editor and publisher at any time, by anyone. Whoever informs the editor of such conduct should provide sufficient and reliable information and evidence, in order for an investigation to be initiated. All allegations should be taken seriously and treated in the same way, until a successful decision or conclusion is reached.
Investigation
- An initial decision should be taken by the editor, who should consult with or seek an advice from the publisher, if appropriate.
- Evidence should be gathered, while avoiding spreading any allegations beyond those who are involved.
Minor breaches
Minor misconduct might be dealt with without the need to consult more widely. In any event, the author should be given the opportunity to respond to any allegations.
Serious breaches
Serious misconduct might require that the employers of the accused be notified. The editor, in consultation with the publisher or Society as appropriate, should make the decision whether or not to involve the employers, either by examining the available evidence themselves or by further consultation with a limited number of experts.
Outcomes (in increasing order of severity; may be applied separately or in conjunction)
- Informing or educating the author or reviewer where there appears to be a misunderstanding or misapplication of acceptable standards.
- More strongly worded letter to the author or reviewer covering the misconduct and as a warning to future behavior.
- Publication of a formal notice, detailing the misconduct.
- Publication of an editorial, detailing the misconduct.
- Formal letter to the head of the authors or reviewers department or funding agency.
- Formal retraction or withdrawal of a publication from the journal, in conjunction with informing the head of the author or reviewers department, Abstracting & Indexing services and the readership of the publication.
- Reporting the case and outcome to a professional organization or higher authority for further investigation and action.
Privacy Statement
Information about the authors (surname, name, patronymic, affiliation, e-mail, contact number), which is provided by them for publication in the Journal, is becoming available for indefinite range of persons, for which the authors give their written permission by signing the corresponding Letter Of Agreement, provided within the list of items to accompany the manuscript.
The above mentioned data is published for the convenience of the authors with the aim of the full and correct account of publications and their citation by the corresponding bibliography companies and providing the possibility of contacting the authors and the scientific community.
Personal information provided by the authors in addition to the referred above, include additional e-mails and phone numbers. These will be used exclusively for contacting the authors in the process of preparing the publication and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
Based on Sources:
- Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing link
- Publishing Ethics Resource Kit for editors link
- Guidelines for managing the relationships between society-owned journals, their society, and publishers link
- COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers link
- How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers link
- Guidelines on Good Publication Practice link
- Ethical Standards link
- Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education" link
- Singapore Statement on Research Integrity link
- Best Practice Guidelines on Publishing Ethics , A Publisher’s Perspective link
- Council of Science Editors link
- White Paper on Publication Ethics link
- San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) link