Adherence to the Principles and Recommendations of COPE, WAME, DORA, etc.

The Editorial Board of the journal adheres to the following principles and recommendations of international organisations:

COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics – Ethical Standards):

  • In the processes of submission, peer review, and publication of articles.
  • Ensuring the independence of editors and reviewers.
  • Academic integrity (avoidance of plagiarism, falsification, and duplicate publications).
  • Proper authorship (clear definition of each author's individual contribution).
  • Complaint handling (availability of open and clear procedures for considering appeals and ethical complaints).
  • Retractions and corrections (a clear procedure for retractions, corrections, and expressions of concern).

WAME (World Association of Medical Editors – Principles for Editors across all sciences):

  • Editorial independence (editorial decisions are made without pressure from sponsors, institutions, or commercial interests).
  • Conflicts of interest (all authors, reviewers, and editors are obliged to declare them).
  • Peer review (ensuring objective, fair, and timely expert evaluation).
  • Funding transparency (disclosure of information regarding grants, sponsors, and research funding sources).
  • Support for young researchers (encouraging publications by researchers at the early stages of their careers).

DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment – Principles of Fair Research Assessment):

  • Not being limited to bibliometric indicators (Impact Factor, h-index), but evaluating research based on its quality, novelty, and contribution to science.
  • Recognising various types of research results including software, data, algorithms, and technical solutions not just articles.
  • Treating interdisciplinary research as equal to classic publications.
  • Encouraging open science (supporting the publication of preprints and providing open access to data and code).

ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors – General Principles for all sciences):

  • Authorship criteria. Only those who have made a significant contribution to the work are considered authors.
  • Research ethics. Compliance with norms regarding data handling, human participants, and experimentation.
  • Data openness. Encouraging authors to preserve and provide access to research data.

Other modern principles (Open Science, Plan S, FAIR Data):

  • Open access (promoting open access to scientific results).
  • FAIR Principles for data (ensuring data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable).
  • Plan S (supporting the policy of publishing in open-access journals and repositories).

Ethical use of AI (maintaining transparency and responsibility when applying Artificial Intelligence in research).

DORA Policy

 

The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) establishes standards for a responsible, non-discriminatory, and objective approach to the evaluation of research.

 

  1. Rejection of Journal-Based Metrics as the Primary Evaluation Criterion

The Editorial Board does not use the journal impact factor or other journal-level metrics as indicators of the quality of individual articles. Decisions regarding manuscript acceptance are based solely on scientific merit, originality, methodological transparency, and the quality of argumentation.

 

  1. Primacy of Data over Metrics

Manuscripts are assessed on the basis of their content rather than the authors’ affiliations, institutional prestige, or level of funding. The Editorial Board encourages comprehensive descriptions of methods, data, and analytical procedures to ensure objective evaluation.

 

  1. Support for Diverse Research Outputs

The journal recognizes the importance of not only full-length articles but also research data, software code, methodological developments, representative materials, negative results, and replication studies. Such materials are considered for publication on an equal basis, provided they meet the journal’s requirements.

 

  1. Transparency of the Review Process

Editorial decisions must be clearly justified. Double-blind peer review is conducted in accordance with the journal’s policy and the COPE recommendations.

 

  1. Prevention of Conflicts of Interest

All decisions are subject to independent expert evaluation. Members of the Editorial Board do not participate in decisions concerning their own manuscripts or those of individuals with whom they have financial, personal, or professional relationships.

 

Policy on Adherence to the FAIR Principles

 

The FAIR principles aim to ensure the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of research data and related materials.

 

  1. Findability

Metadata and data should be easy to find. Data associated with published materials should be deposited in repositories that assign persistent identifiers (e.g., DOI).

 

  1. Accessible

Data should be available in open formats or through clearly defined access procedures. Access to data must not be restricted by artificial barriers. Where full openness is not possible (e.g., due to ethical or legal constraints), authors must provide a justified explanation.

 

  1. Interoperable

Data should be presented in standardized formats compatible with international storage and analytical systems. Authors should ensure the use of widely accepted metadata structures.

 

  1. Reusable

Data are released with a clear and accessible data usage license. Authors are required to provide sufficient contextual information regarding the research, methods, and tools to enable reuse or replication by other researchers.

 

Authors’ Responsibilities

  • All authors must adhere to the DORA and FAIR principles when submitting manuscripts.
  • The manuscript must include a Data Availability statement.
  • Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the data provided and for compliance with ethical and legal standards.

 

Editorial Responsibilities

  • The journal ensures responsible, objective, and non-discriminatory evaluation of manuscripts.
  • Peer review, decision-making, and publication processes are independent of any commercial or institutional influence.
  • The Editorial Board ensures appropriate technical conditions for the storage and verification of metadata and promotes the proper implementation of the FAIR principles.

 

Policy Violations

In cases of non-compliance with the DORA and FAIR principles, the Editorial Board may request revisions, reject the manuscript, or issue appropriate corrections in accordance with the COPE recommendations.