These ethical principles apply to editors of the Journal, reviewers and authors of the papers as key participants of the publishing process of the Journal and its content. The principles aim at maintaining and safeguarding the integrity of the publishing process in accordance with the fundamental standards of scientific research. Ethical principles are based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE - http://publicationethics.org). The editors declare that they will act in accordance with internationally accepted standards.

 

Editor’s responsibilities

The most important responsibility of the Editor-in-chief is to make a decision on publishing or not publishing the received paper. In making the decision, the Editor-in-chief is guided solely by the quality of the text and its contribution to the Journal and scientific discourse in the focus of the Journal. This decision will in no way be influenced by the race, nationality, ethnicity, sex/gender, social status and religious and political beliefs of the author(s). In this regard, Editor-in-chief may consult other editors (members of the Editorial staff) and final decision of publishing the received article is confirmed by the Editorial board.

Confidentiality of the information

The editor should ensure the confidentiality of the information related to the received paper and identity of its author(s) before the eventual publication of the paper. Information of the received paper is available only to members of the Editorial staff, the appointed reviewers and the author(s) of the paper. In accordance with the principles of double-blind peer review process it is the responsibility of the editor to safeguard the identity of the author(s) of the paper from the appointed reviewers, and the identity of the appointed reviewers from the authors of the paper. In case the identity of the person in the relationship between the author and appointed reviewer is revealed, the review process is repeated with the new reviewer.

Disclosure or use of data or information

The editor should not use data and information from the unpublished text of the received paper for the purposes of his own research without the explicit and written consent of the author.

Conflict of interest

The editor should exempt himself from the processing of the received paper in case of conflict of interest arising from a competitive, collaborative or other relationships or connections with the author or one of the authors of the received paper, institution or company related to the paper. In that case, the editor shall transfer the processing of the received paper to another member of the Editorial staff.

 

Reviewer’s responsibilities

The publication of papers in the Journal is subject to the double-blind peer review procedure by authoritative scholars in the field of the topic of the received paper as a key part of the decision-making process on its publication or non-publication. Moreover, the double-blind peer review process including reviewers’ suggestions to the author(s), contributes significantly to the quality improvement of papers. This benefits both the Journal and the authors.

Scholarly qualification and promptness

The contacted reviewer should withdraw from the review process as soon as possible, if he/she considers that he/she is not sufficiently qualified for the topic of the received paper and if he/she considers that he/she is not able to complete a review within the specified time.

Confidentiality of the information

The reviewer is obliged to refrain from sharing information about the paper he receives for review and from discussing its content, except in case of the express consent of the Editor-in-chief. During the review process, the reviewer discusses the text of the paper exclusively with the member of the Editorial staff who contacted him.

Disclosure or use of data or information

The reviewer should not use data and information from an unpublished text of the received paper for the purposes of his own research.

Conflict of interest

The reviewer should exempt himself from the review process in case of conflict of interest arising from a competitive, collaborative or other relationship or connection with the author or one of the authors of the received paper, institution or company related to the paper.

Objectivity

The reviewers should be objective in reviewing the paper. When expressing criticism, reviewers should be clear and argumentative. Criticizing the author on a personal level is not acceptable.

Acknowledgement of sources

The reviewers are obliged to draw the author's attention to already conducted research and published literature in the field of work that is not cited in the paper. The reviewer is also obliged to draw the editor's attention to the significant similarity or overlap of the paper submitted for review with any other published work.

 

Author’s responsibilities

Standards

The text of the paper submitted for publication must meet the accepted methodological and technical standards of writing a scientific paper and Author Guidelines. The data presented in the paper must be accurate.

Originality, plagiarism and citation

The authors should submit for publication only manuscripts that are their original texts and in which they clearly and precisely cite the work and/or parts of the work of other authors. Authors are required to cite not only parts of the work of other authors directly cited in the paper but also work that served as inspiration and incentive to write the paper.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication

Papers engaged with the basically same research should in principle not be published in more than one journal. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal is considered unethical and acceptable. Authors should not submit a paper for publication if it has already been published elsewhere or is under review in another journal. It is only in justified cases and with explicit consent of the Editor-in-chief that publishing of an already published paper will be permitted.

Authorship

Only persons who have made a significant contribution to the work can be listed as co-authors of the paper. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to list as the co-authors only the persons who have significantly contributed to the writing of the paper and to ensure that the co-authors confirm the latest version of the paper and agree to its publication.

Conflict of interest and financing of the research

The authors are obliged to provide the Editorial staff with information on potential conflict of interest on any basis (e.g. employment relationship, writing reports to international and national bodies, providing legal opinions, project applications, etc.) which could be related to results of the research and conclusions presented in the paper, at the earliest stage of submitting the paper for publication. The authors are especially obliged to indicate the data on the financial support to conducting the research that is presented in the paper.

Fundamental errors in published paper

In case that the authors discover significant errors in their published paper, they are obliged to inform the editor thereof immediately so that the paper can be withdrawn or corrected as soon as possible. If the information reaches the Editorial staff from a third party, the author is obliged to provide urgent evidence of the accuracy of the data or submit corrections. In that cases, Editor-in-chief reserve the right to withdraw the paper from publication if necessary.

 

Actions in case of violations of ethical principles

In case of suspicion of violations of ethical principles or established violations of ethical principles, the Editor-in-chief, Editorial board and publisher of the Journal will take all appropriate measures to clarify and resolve the dispute as soon as possible. Some of the possible actions, depending on the specific case in question, are expressions of concern, publication of corrections to already published work and, as a last resort, withdrawal of already published work. The Editorial staff of the Journal will be open and always ready to publish clarifications, corrections and apologies when the situation arises.