Ethical obligations of the journal’s editorial board

1. The editorial board is responsible for the quality of all material published in the journal; to this end, it selects and reviews all material submitted for publication.

2. The editorial board reserves the right to reject articles if it considers that the work does not fit the journal’s profile or that the authors have breached formal legal requirements or the ethical standards set out below, or to return it for revision. In the latter case, the author is obliged to revise the article in accordance with the editorial board’s comments. The final decision on the publication of a scientific article in the journal is made by the editor-in-chief, and the contents of the issue are approved by the Academic Council of the Institute.

3. The editorial board reviews manuscripts submitted for publication without prejudice, regardless of the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, nationality, political views, or place of employment. Members of the editorial board must respect the intellectual independence of the authors.

4. The Editorial Board, in conjunction with the reviewers, ensures the exclusion of cases of fabrication, plagiarism and self-plagiarism (within the meaning of Part 4 of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Education’), the repeated copying of similar information in different articles, the erroneous attribution of authorship, and misleading the public regarding the authors’ true contribution to the publication.

5. The editorial board reserves the right to make stylistic edits to the manuscript. The final text of the article is agreed with the author in advance.

6. Submitted materials will not be returned and may not be published in other academic journals.

7. Members of the editorial board are not permitted to disclose to third parties any information regarding the content of a manuscript under consideration, except to the relevant author, reviewer, other editorial consultants, members of the Institute’s Academic Council and, where necessary, the publisher. Unpublished material used in a manuscript submitted to the journal must not be used in the personal research of editorial board members or other persons involved in the publication of the collection without the author’s written consent. Confidential information or ideas obtained during the review process must remain confidential and must not be used for personal gain. Editors, authors and reviewers must disclose any competing interests that may affect the objectivity of the editing and reviewing of article materials. These may include intellectual, financial, personal, political, religious and other interests. If a conflict of interest is discovered after publication and has led to a breach of the review process, appropriate measures must be taken where necessary, such as the publication of corrections, retractions or apologies.

8. When an ethical complaint is lodged regarding a manuscript or a published article, the Editor-in-Chief must take reasonable and appropriate measures. Such measures include contacting the author of the article (and, where necessary, the relevant academic institution) and conducting a proper, objective and thorough investigation of the complaint or grievance. In the event of a conflict of interest, the Editor-in-Chief must recuse themselves and instruct the responsible editor or another member of the editorial board to handle the review of the complaint or claim. If convincing evidence is presented that the main content or conclusions of a work previously published in the journal are erroneous, or that the author has breached other ethical standards, the editorial board is obliged to publish a corresponding notice indicating the inaccuracy of the content or conclusions, and if the publication has not yet been released, — to correct the errors or refuse publication. The relevant retraction notice may be written by the person who identified the error or by an independent author. Every report of unethical conduct should be investigated, even if it is received years after publication.