Regulations on the Ethics

The Editorial Board of the scientific journal "Reports of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine" in its work is guided by ethics of international scientific publications, including the concepts of integrity, confidentiality, oversight of publications and prevention of possible conflicts of interest and so on.
The Journal follows the Core Practices and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Compliance with the rules of publications ethics of the all parties of the publishing process helps to ensure the intellectual property rights of creators, improvement of publication quality and prevention of possible misuse of copyrighted material for the benefit of individuals.
This Regulation meets the policy of the journal and is one of the main components of article review and journal publishing.

1. Duties of authors

The authors are personally responsible for submitted to the journal manuscript and must observe the following principles:
1. Provide reliable results of the conducted research. False or fraudulent statements are equal to unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
2. At the request of the Editorial Board provide baseline data for editor review. Authors must provide free access to such data and store this data for a reasonable time after their publication.
3. Ensure that research results contained in the manuscript, are an independent and original work. When using fragments of others’ work and/or borrowing statements of other authors, the article should have appropriate references with the obligatory indication of the author and the source. Excessive borrowing and plagiarism in any form, including incomplete references, paraphrasing or appropriation of rights to the results of others’ research is unethical and unacceptable. Articles which are a compilation of material published by other authors without own creative processing and author thinking are not accepted by the editorial.
4. Realize that the author(s) is (are) responsible for the initial novelty and reliability of the results of scientific research.
5. Recognize the contribution of all persons who influenced in any way the course of the study or determined the nature of the presented scientific research. In particular, the article should have references to publications that had some significance for the study. Information obtained privately through conversations, correspondence and discussions with third parties should not be used without written permission of the representative of its source. All sources must be open. Even if written or illustrative material of a large number of people is used, the permission to do so must be obtained and submitted to the editor.
6. Present in the journal only the original manuscript. Do not submit to the journal articles that have been sent to another journal and are now pending review, as well as articles published previously in another journal. Failure to observe this principle is regarded as gross misconduct of publication ethics and gives reason for removing the article from the review. If elements of the manuscript were previously published in another article, the authors are obliged to refer to their earlier work and specify how the new work is significantly different from the previous one. Verbatim copying of own work and its paraphrasing is unacceptable, it can only be used as a basis for new conclusions.
7. Ensure the correct composition of the list of co-authors. The co-authors of the article should include all the persons who have made a significant intellectual contribution to its concept, structure and in the conduct or interpretation of results of the presented work. Other persons (or organizations) who participated in some aspect of the work must be expressed gratitude. The author must also ensure that all co-authors are familiar with the final version of the article, approve it and agree to its submission for publication. All of the authors of the article have to bear public responsibility for the content of the article. If the article is a multidisciplinary work, co-authors are responsible each for their own contribution, leaving a collective responsibility for the overall result. It is unacceptable to include persons in co-authors who were not involved in the research.
8. In the event of emergence of significant errors or inaccuracies in the article at the stage of its review or immediately following its publication notify the editorial of the magazine and make a joint decision to recognize errors and/or correct them as soon as possible. If the journal becomes aware that a published work contains a significant error, the author is obliged to prepare for publication in the journal a report on the relevant error correction or submit proof of correctness of the information they provided.
9. The author should clearly indicate situations in their work where research is related to chemicals, physical and chemical processes or equipment, during which there is a risk to human or animal health. If the research involves the use of animals or humans as subjects, the author must ensure that all procedures were conducted according to the relevant laws and institutional principles, as well as the fact that the relevant government agencies have given their approval. The presented paper should include application and confirmation from the relevant authorities on consent to experiments with people. The right of the person involved in the experiment to privacy must always be followed.
10. Specify in their manuscripts all sources of financial support for the project, information about the employer, patent applications/registrations, grants and other types of funding.
11. Disclose in their works about any information about significant conflicts of interest that could affect the results of the study or their interpretation. All potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest stage possible.

2. Ethical Principles of the Reviewer

The reviewer provides scientific expertise of copyrighted materials to objectively evaluate the quality of the submitted article and determine its compliance with scientific, literary, and ethical standards. Submitted manuscripts undergo a mandatory single-blind peer review procedure. In assessing the article, the reviewer must be impartial and observe the following principles:

  1. Expert evaluation should help the author improve the quality of the text, and assist the Editorial Board in making an objective decision regarding publication.

  2. A reviewer who does not consider themselves an expert in the subject matter of the article or knows that they cannot submit a review in a timely manner must notify the Editorial Board and decline to review.

  3. The reviewer cannot be the author or co-author of the work presented for review. This also applies to supervisors of candidates for a scientific degree and/or staff of the department or division in which the author works.

  4. Any manuscript received by an expert from the editors for review is a confidential document. It must not be discussed with third parties.

  5. The reviewer must be objective. It is unacceptable to make personal remarks towards the author in the review. The reviewer should express their views clearly and reasonably.

     

  6. The reviewer must identify published articles related to the reviewed manuscript that have not been cited by the author. Any statement in the review that an observation, conclusion, or argument has previously appeared in the literature must be accompanied by an accurate bibliographic reference to the source. The reviewer must also draw the attention of the Editorial Board to any significant similarity or partial overlap between the reviewed manuscript and any other previously published work.

     

  7. In the event of a reviewer suspecting plagiarism, authorship manipulation, or data falsification, they must contact the Editorial Board with a proposal for collective consideration of the author's article.

  8. The reviewer must not use information or ideas from the manuscript submitted to them for review for personal gain, strictly adhering to the principle of confidentiality.

  9. The reviewer shall not accept manuscripts for review in cases of a conflict of interest caused by competition, collaboration, or other relationships with any authors or institutions associated with the article.

3. Principles of Professional Ethics in the Work of the Editorial Board

Members of the Editorial Board and the editorial staff are responsible for the publication of the submitted manuscript, guided by the following fundamental principles:

  1. When deciding on publication, the Editorial Board, headed by the Editor-in-Chief, is guided by the authenticity of the submitted data and the scientific significance of the reviewed work.

  2. Members of the Editorial Board must not have personal interests or conflicts of interest in relation to the articles they reject or accept.

  3. The Editorial Board bears collective responsibility for decisions regarding which of the submitted articles will be accepted for publication and which will be rejected. In doing so, it is guided by the journal's policy, the principles of transparency, and adheres to legal foundations, preventing copyright infringement and plagiarism.

  4. The Editorial Board evaluates the submitted article solely by its scientific content, regardless of the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious convictions, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, origin, social status, or political views.

  5. Editorial staff and members of the Editorial Board must not disclose information about a manuscript submitted to the journal to anyone other than the author(s), assigned and potential reviewers, other editorial staff, and (if necessary) the publisher.

  6. Unpublished data obtained from manuscripts submitted for consideration must not be used by members of the Editorial Board or the editorial staff for personal purposes or transferred to third parties without the written consent of the authors.

  7. The Editorial Board does not allow the publication of a submitted article if there is sufficient reason to believe that it contains plagiarism.

  8. In case of approval for publication, the article is placed in open access, with copyrights reserved by the authors.

  9. The Editorial Board, together with the publisher, will not leave unanswered claims relating to reviewed manuscripts or published materials. In the event of a conflict situation, they take all necessary measures to restore infringed rights, and if errors are detected, they facilitate the publication of corrections or refutations.

  10. The Editorial Board and the editorial staff ensure the absolute confidentiality of names and other information relating to reviewers.

4. Principles of Professional Ethics in Publisher Activity

The publisher is responsible for the publication of authors' works, adhering to the following fundamental principles and procedures:

  1. Facilitate the implementation of ethical responsibilities by the editorial office, editorial-publishing group, Editorial Board, reviewers, and authors in accordance with these requirements.

  2. Provide support to the journal in reviewing claims regarding the ethical aspects of published materials and help interact with other journals and/or publishers.

  3. Observe the position that the activity of the journal is non-commercial and does not intend to obtain a profit.

  4. Facilitate the process of publishing corrections, explanations, refutations, and apologies when needed.

  5. Provide the journal with the opportunity to retract publications containing plagiarism and inaccurate data in accordance with the journal's retraction policy.

  6. The publisher does not influence editorial decisions.