The future of science in general and the scientific publishing sphere depends largely not only on compliance with legislation and regulations, but also on compliance with the principles of ethics of relationships between participants in the scientific and publishing community. This is the key to increasing the number of high-quality scientific publications, as well as the successful development of mutual cooperation between authors, publishers and readers of scientific publications. The general experience of ethical behavior is collected in a single document – the Code of Ethics of Scientific Publications (hereinafter – the Code), developed by the Committee on the Ethics of Scientific Publications.

The Code of Ethics for Scientific Publications unites and discloses the general principles and rules that should guide the interactions of participants in the scientific publication process: authors, reviewers, editors, publishers, distributors and readers.

Key terms:

Ethics of scientific publications is a system of norms of professional conduct in the relationships between authors, reviewers, editors, publishers and readers in the process of creating, distributing and using scientific publications.

An editor is a representative of a scientific journal or publishing house who prepares materials for publication and also maintains communication with authors and readers of scientific publications.

An author is a person or group of persons (a team of authors) participating in the creation of a publication of the results of scientific research.

A reviewer is an expert acting on behalf of a scientific journal or publishing house and conducting a scientific examination of the author’s materials in order to determine the possibility of their publication.

Publisher – a legal entity or individual who publishes a scientific publication.

Reader – any person who has become familiar with the published materials.

Plagiarism is the deliberate appropriation of someone else’s work of science or art, someone else’s ideas or inventions. Plagiarism may be a violation of copyright law and patent law and as such may entail legal liability.

Principles of professional ethics in the activities of the editor and publisher

In his/her work, the editor is responsible for the publication of the author’s works, which imposes the need to follow the following fundamental principles:

– When making a decision on publication, the editor of a scientific journal is guided by the reliability of the presentation of data and the scientific significance of the work under consideration.

– The editor should evaluate the intellectual content of manuscripts without regard to the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, origin, citizenship, social status or political preferences of the authors.

– Unpublished data obtained from manuscripts submitted for consideration must not be used for personal purposes or disclosed to third parties without the written consent of the author. Information or ideas obtained during editing and associated with possible advantages must be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.

– The editor must not allow information to be published if there is sufficient reason to believe that it is plagiarized.

– The editor, together with the publisher, must not leave unanswered any claims concerning the manuscripts or published materials reviewed, and, if a conflict situation is identified, take all necessary measures to restore violated rights.

Ethical principles in the activities of a reviewer

The reviewer carries out a scientific examination of the author’s materials, as a result of which his actions must be unbiased, consisting of the implementation of the following principles:

– The manuscript received for review must be considered a confidential document that cannot be passed on for review or discussion to third parties who are not authorized to do so by the editors.

– The reviewer is obliged to give an objective and reasoned assessment of the presented research results. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable.

– Unpublished data obtained from manuscripts submitted for review should not be used by the reviewer for personal purposes.

– A reviewer who, in his/her opinion, is not sufficiently qualified to evaluate a manuscript, or who cannot be objective, for example, in the case of a conflict of interest with the author or organization, should inform the editor about this and request that he/she be excluded from the review process of this manuscript.

Principles that should guide the author of scientific publications

The author (or group of authors) understands that they bear primary responsibility for the novelty and reliability of the results of scientific research, which requires compliance with the following principles:

– Authors of the article must provide reliable results of the conducted research. Deliberately erroneous or falsified statements are unacceptable.

– Authors must ensure that the research results presented in the submitted manuscript are completely original. Borrowed fragments or statements must be formatted with mandatory indication of the author and the original source. Excessive borrowing, as well as plagiarism in any form, including unformatted quotations, paraphrasing, or appropriation of rights to the results of other people’s research, are unethical and unacceptable.

– It is necessary to acknowledge the contribution of all persons who in one way or another influenced the course of the research; in particular, the article should provide references to works that were important in conducting the research.

– Authors should not submit to the journal a manuscript that has been submitted to another journal and is under consideration, or an article that has already been published in another journal.

– All persons who made a significant contribution to the study must be listed as co-authors of the article. It is unacceptable to list persons who did not participate in the study among the co-authors.

– If the author discovers significant errors or inaccuracies in the article during its review or after its publication, he/she should notify the editors of the journal as soon as possible.