Principles of ethics in publishing

Principles of ethics in publishing

The editorial staff of the Studia Iuridica Toruniensia applies the principles of publication ethics resulting from current law and the Basic Practices developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) - https://publicationethics.org/core-practices. To this end, it adopts and implements in its activities the principles of publication ethics specified below and the procedures in the event of their violation. The standards apply to all those involved in the publishing process.

ACTORS INVOLVED IN THE PUBLICATION PROCESS

The subjects to whom the following provisions are addressed are all those involved in the process of publishing academic papers (hereinafter referred to as works) that appear in "Studia Iuridica Toruniensia". Among them are:

• Authors - individuals who have submitted a work to the journal;
• Editorial Board - a team appointed by the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Administration of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and responsible for planning the journal's publishing policy;
• Academic Council - a collegiate body made up of specialists who ensure that the objectives of the journal are met;
• Reviewers - specialists in a given field of knowledge whose task is to verify the formal and substantive aspects of the submitted work, to indicate the need for changes, and then to issue an opinion and decide on the rejection or acceptance of the work for publication in 'Studia Iuridica Toruniensia';
• The Editor-in-Chief - a member of the Editorial Board who manages it and the work of the Editorial Secretariat, supervises the academic level, ascertains whether the submitted work meets the requirements for 'Studia Iuridica Toruniensia' and approves it for publication;
• The Deputy Editor-in-Chief - a member of the Editorial Board who, as directed by the Editor-in-Chief, deals with the day-to-day coordination of the work of the Editorial Secretariat;
• The Editorial Secretariat - a team responsible for the substantive and technical preparation of individual volumes of 'Studia Iuridica Toruniensia';
• Editorial Team - the Editorial Board and the Editorial Secretariat, represented by the Editor-in-Chief.

PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS IN PUBLISHING

Integrity

• The Editorial Team is committed to maintaining integrity. In its actions, it does not tolerate plagiarism and discrimination - direct or indirect - or other unethical behaviour.
• Those involved in the publication process, according to their role in the publication process:
  1. should remove an article that was written in violation of ethical principles;
  2. should decide to report, through the Editor-in-Chief, an Author's dishonest conduct to his or her affiliation unit;
  3. should not publish articles that raise suspicions about the author's integrity.
• Authors are required to:
  1. submit a statement confirming that:
     1. they are entitled to copyright in the submitted work,
     2. the work does not infringe the rights of third parties,
     3. the copyright in this work is not restricted,
     4. the submitted work has not been submitted for publication in another publication and has not yet been published,
  2.  appropriately cite the work of others they used in developing the work.

• A work is considered to have been published previously if one of the following circumstances applies:
  1. it has already been published in full,
  2. large excerpts from the Author's published works were used in the submitted work.
• An author is a person who has made a significant contribution to the concepts, assumptions, and methods used in the Work. Anyone who has made a significant contribution to the Work should be identified as a co-author. Authors should declare:
  1. that there is no ghostwriting or guest authorship in the work submitted for publication;
  2. the percentage contribution of each author to the work submitted for publication;
  3. what the sources of funding were for the research and preparation of the Work;
  4. that they are aware that ghostwriting and guest authorship are manifestations of academic dishonesty, and that any cases detected by the Editorial Team will be disclosed, including notification of the relevant institutions (including those employing the authors).
• Reviewers:
  1. should clearly express their opinion about the work, using substantive arguments;
  2. evaluate the work objectively. Ad personam criticism is not acceptable;
  3. may not, for their own benefit, use information and ideas with which they are familiar during the performance appraisal;
  4. maintain confidentiality as to the content of the reviewed work and should not discuss it with other experts without the permission of the Editor.

Transparency

• The editors are committed to transparency when undertaking their activities. This applies to the acceptance, review, editing, and publication of works. In the course of its work, the Editorial Team:
  1. provides useful, factual, understandable and reliable information;
  2. informs the authors of the course of the review process and justifies any change to it;
  3. informs authors of the stage in the publishing process which the submitted work is at, including the conclusions of the review;
  4. publishes a list of all cooperating reviewers once a year,
  5. supports an open access policy.
• The editors encourage authors to archive their research data in open research data repositories and to cite their research data correctly in their publications, in particular to include a DOI number or other research data identifier.

Confidentiality

• Members of the Editorial Team shall maintain confidentiality. Those involved in the publication process shall maintain the confidentiality of all information obtained in the performance of their tasks. This includes in particular:
  1. maintaining the secrecy and confidentiality of information about each submitted work;
  2. not disclosing the identity of the author to the reviewers and the identity of the reviewers to the author. (double blind review);
  3. sharing information on the submitted work only with the authors, candidate reviewers, reviewers, and members of the Editorial Team involved in the publication of the Work;
  4. not using unpublished material in their own research and work without the author's written permission.

Responsibility

• The editors are guided by the principle of responsibility in their work and promote this attitude among their contributors.
• Editorial:
  1. defines and makes public the review procedure, including the assessment criteria;
  2. decides on the need for any revisions, the rejection or acceptance of a work for publication, taking into account only its originality, relevance, the clarity of the argument presented, and its compatibility with the scope of the journal;
  3. ensures that the content of published works is of a high standard and, if necessary following clarification, includes corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies;
  4. does not tolerate plagiarism or other unethical behaviour and, if necessary, removes any article that has been written in breach of ethical principles;
  5. decides to present detected unethical conduct to the Author's affiliation unit.
• The author undertakes to:
  1. inform about the existence of conflicts of interest that may affect the content of the work or its reception;
  2. disclose the sources of funding for his/her research;
  3. promptly inform the Editor-in-Chief of any perceived error or material inaccuracy in his or her work that has been published, and to cooperate in correcting it;
  4. comply with the editorial requirements adopted by the Editorial Board.
• Reviewers:
  1. should notify the Editor-in-Chief if there is a conflict of interest that will prevent a piece from being reviewed;
  2. may not evaluate the work if there is such a conflict of interest;
  3. should only assess the substantive content of the work, and critical comments should be justified in the review form;
  4. should immediately notify the Editor-in-Chief of any circumstance that indicates a breach of the journal’s editorial ethics;
  5. should notify the Editor immediately if they are unable to meet the deadline for the review.

PROCEDURES IN THE EVENT OF BREACHES OF ETHICS

• The editors exercise the utmost care in implementing the aforementioned principles in the publication process. However, these rules of conduct are adopted in the event of a suspected or occurring breach of them.
• If a breach of ethics is noticed or suspected, each party involved in the publication process is obliged to inform the Editor without delay, either through the Editor-in-Chief or by sending it to sit@umk.pl.
• Any behaviour contrary to the Editorial Board’s principles of publishing ethics, including unlawful behaviour, shall be considered a breach of ethics.
• Once the Editor becomes aware of a breach of ethics or suspected breach of ethics, the Editor shall undertake an investigation. In doing so, the editors shall exercise diligence and confidentiality and ensure that the investigation is conducted without undue delay and takes into account the positions of all parties concerned, in particular the Author and the Reviewer. In taking action, the editors shall base their actions on the relevant conduct diagrams developed by COPE, available at https://publicationethics"https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts.
• The Editorial Team shall inform all interested parties of the results of the investigation undertaken. If an infringement committed by the Author(s) of the Work is found, the Editor-in-Chief will decide to notify the affiliate of the Author(s) of the infringement.
• Any objections and complaints concerning the activities of the journal 'Studia Iuridica Toruniensia', in particular concerning the principles of publication ethics applied, can be submitted by e-mail to: sit@umk.pl.