The procedure for handling complaints on violations of academic honesty and publication ethics

The journal shall handle any kind of notices on violations of academic honesty and ethics in compliance with COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics principles). The authors and coauthors shall bear the full responsibility for compliance with the principles of academic honesty and publication ethics.

The editorial board (editorial office) of the journal shall handle the complaints pertaining to: plagiarism, falsification of data, double or multiple publication, incorrect authorship (exclusions or additions of authorship without a permission), violations of the review procedure, the existence of an undeclared conflict of interests, unethical behavior by authors, reviewers or editors, and other causes that have important social character.  

Submission of complaint. A complaint on the violation of academic honesty principles shall be sent by e-mail on the address of the editorial office, or the address of the journal’s editor-in-chief or executive secretary (on the website “Contacts”). The complaint must be clear and exact, with containing evidence of violation. Also, the notice must contain contact details of the claimant.  

Handling of complaint. The editor-in-chief or the authorized member of the editorial board shall handle the notice within ten working days. When necessary, the claimant shall be sent requests for additional details. When the complaint is deemed sound, it shall be subject to further scrutiny. 

The complaint shall be handled by the journal’s editorial board (up to two months). When necessary, independent experts shall be invited. 

The person claimed to violate the academic honesty principles shall have the eligibilities: to get acquainted with the handled materials on finding a violation of academic honesty principles, to submit comments on them; to provide verbal and/or written explanations in person or via an agent, or to refuse giving any kind of explanations, to take part in a scrutiny of the evidence on violated academic honesty principles; to attend a scrutiny of the established violation of academic honesty principles and the academic accountability.    

The following measures shall be taken depending on the handling results and confirmation of the violated academic honesty principles:

revocation of the manuscript or retraction of the published article;

publication of the official notice with the indicated violation;

notification of the entity to which the author is associated; 

ban on the submission of the manuscript to the journal for a specified period.

The claimant and the author(s) shall be informed about the results of handling the complaint on violation of academic honesty principles, when the violation is proved.

The person against whom the complaint has been filed, shall be eligible for reasoned objection or challenging the decision of the editorial board.