The ethics of scientific publications

The scientific and applied journal "Ecological Bulletin of Scientific Centers of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation" observes high standards of publishing ethics. Ethics of scientific publications is a system of norms of professional conduct in the relationships of all parties (editors, publishers, reviewers and authors) involved in the process of publishing the journal.

The editor-in-chief and his deputies, the editorial board, reviewers and the publisher of the journal follow the ethical standards adopted by the international scientific community, and do everything to prevent any violations of these norms.

The editors, editorial board, reviewers and publisher of the jornal rely on the recommendations and standards developed by the Committee on Ethics of Scientific Publications (COPE), and also take into account the valuable experience of authoritative international journals and publishers.

The principles of ethical behavior are mandatory for all parties involved in the process of reviewing and publishing a scientific article: editors, the editorial board of the journal, reviewers and authors.

Compliance with the rules of the ethics of scientific publications by all participants in this process contributes to ensuring the authors' rights to intellectual property, improving the quality of the publication in the eyes of the world scientific community and excluding the possibility of misuse of copyright materials in the interests of individuals.

Ethical requirements for authors

Providing for publication the text, the author guarantees:

  • honesty in the collection and interpretation of scientific data, i.e. the absence of knowingly false information and facts, erroneous references;
  • the originality of the text, as well as the fact that the text was not published in full or in part, including by the author himself;
  • the absence in the text of incorrectly designed borrowings from other authors (plagiarism);
  • the mention of all persons (co-authors) who took part in obtaining the presented research results and writing the text in accordance with their contribution;
  • full and accurate citation of scientific works used in the process of research and writing an article;
  • the absence of the text presented in the plan for the publication of another journal or another type of publication;
  • the possibility of providing or indicating the current method of access to the research data described in the text;
  • presentation of methods for obtaining and analyzing data in a way that will allow other researchers to reproduce the described study;
  • The absence in the text of criticism or comments of a personal nature in relation to the authors of previously published works of a similar theme;
  • the mention of all funds and grants that funded the study;
  • participation in the process of preparing an article for publication, timely and correctly responding to the wishes and comments of the editorial board and providing the information necessary for publication.

Authors who present their works for publication in the journal confirm that their publication does not violate any of the existing copyright laws, and they guarantee the publisher damages in case of revealing such violations. All articles are subject to mandatory verification through the "Anti-plagiarism" system. For the convenience of distribution and implementation of the policy of use of materials, authors transfer to the publisher a non-exclusive ownership of the manuscript, including (but not exclusive) the right to publish, publish, duplicate, replicate or otherwise reproduce without restriction of the distribution territory.

Ethical requirements for reviewers

The Editorial Board asks the reviewers to observe the following principles:

  • warning of a possible conflict of interest before working with the text;
  • non-disclosure (confidentiality) of peer-reviewed materials and evaluations beyond the boundaries of the review process itself;
  • compilation of concrete, valid, correct and constructive (containing recommendations for further work with the text) reviews;
  • compliance with the deadlines for the submission of reviews agreed upon with the editorial staff;
  • timely informing the editor in the event that the reviewer considers himself insufficiently qualified to review the article or can not write a review within the allotted time;
  • within the limits of the awareness informing of the editor about presence in the given manuscript of the falsified data, a plagiarism or borrowed materials.

Ethical policy of editors and the publisher of the journal

The editorial staff and the publisher guarantee:

  • informing the authors about the receipt of the submitted manuscript within five working days from the moment it was received and providing a qualified review of the manuscript;
  • adherence to the unilateral blind review procedure - the review procedure is anonymous for reviewers;
  • confidentiality of the review process and correspondence with the authors;
  • preservation of the received texts and research data from acquaintance of unauthorized persons with them before publication;
  • timely and accurate informing the authors about the wishes and comments of the reviewer and joint determination of the timing of changes to this article in accordance with the received review;
  • the publication of correction of errors and inaccuracies, if any will be identified by the authors in the results and conclusions of the study after its publication.
  • The Editorial Board may reject the text before it is formally reviewed if it considers it to be inconsistent with the format or content of the journal or is informed that it has been published in whole or in part or is being reviewed by another publisher.

The Editorial Board is always ready to give the necessary explanations for its decision, as well as to make the necessary apologies in case it is impossible to reach a compromise between intellectual and ethical norms.

All articles are subject to mandatory verification through the "Anti-plagiarism" system.

In case of revealing facts of plagiarism, deception and other unacceptable behavior when publishing scientific materials, the editorial board of the journal is entitled to impose the following sanctions on authors:

  • refuse to publish the manuscript;
  • to ban publication in the journal for a certain period.
  • The right to decide on the application of sanctions in each case belongs to the editorial board.

The editorial board also has the right to notify editors of journal of related subjects about cases of violation of ethical norms and rules, as well as to inform the names of the authors who violated them.

All correspondence relating to cases of violation of ethical standards is stored for 3 years.

Conflict of interest

All participants in the review and publication process - authors, editors, reviewers - should report on the relationship that may contribute to the emergence of a conflict of interest.

Authors

When submitting an article, authors are responsible for disclosing all financial or personal relationships that can influence their work. All authors are required to disclose in their manuscripts potential conflicts of interest that may be perceived as having affected the results or conclusions presented in the work. At the end of the article and before the list of literature should be disclosed all sources of funding. The authors describe the impact of sponsorship support (if any) on the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; writing an article and publishing a work. If the research is carried out with the support of a grant, authors should indicate their numbers. Information about the conflict of interests is published in the full text of the article.

Editors

Unpublished data obtained from submitted manuscripts for consideration, members of the editorial board and editors undertake not to use in personal research without the written consent of the author. Information or ideas received during the review and related to possible benefits should be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.

Editors should not view manuscripts in the event of conflicts of interest due to competitive, collaborative and other interactions and relationships with authors.

Reviewers

Reviewers should not participate in the consideration of manuscripts in the event of conflicts of interest due to competitive, joint and other interactions and relationships with any of the authors, companies or other organizations associated with the work submitted. Unpublished data obtained from the manuscripts submitted for consideration can not be used in personal research without the written consent of the author. Information or ideas received during the review and related to possible benefits should be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.

The magazine adopted an electronic article review. Reviewers, agreeing to evaluate the article and gain access to its annotations, in the relevant issue of the form of review, disclose the presence or absence of a conflict of interest.

If there is a suspicion of a conflict of interest, the editorial board is guided by the COPE algorithms:

Copyright Policy in the Journal

Copyright in the content of articles and research belongs to the authors. Before the publication of the articles, the authors submit to the journal non-exclusive rights (publication, publication, duplication, duplication or other reproduction without restriction of the distribution territory) to their article on a gratuitous basis, with the condition that each copy of the article should contain the names of the authors. The authors are notified that the article will be transmitted electronically to the National Electronic Library for posting on its website (elibrary.ru).

The reason for retraction of the article is

  • detection of plagiarism in the publication;
  • replication of an article in several editions;
  • disclosure of  fraud or fabrication in the work (for example, fraud of empirical data);
  • detection of serious errors in the work (for example, incorrect interpretation of the results), which casts doubt on its scientific value;
  • revealing the incorrect composition of the authors (there is no one who is the author; persons who do not meet the criteria for authorship are included);
  • disclosure of conflicts of interest (and other violations of publication ethics);
  • republishing an article without the consent of the author.

Retraction is carried out in accordance with requirements of the Association of Science Editors and Publishers.