Editorial Ethics and Journal Policy

The journal editorial board follows the provisions of Chapter 70 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation "Copyright", adheres to the international standards for the ethics of scientific publications (http://publicationethics.org/resources/international-standards), developed by the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE), and takes into account the experience of authoritative international journals and publishers.

The journal editorial staff does the best to comply with ethical norms accepted by the international scientific community to prevent any violation of these norms both in their own work and in relations with all participants in the process of scientific publications.

Duties of Authors

Requirements for the research results publication

The article should provide accurate data confirming the got results. The submission of knowingly fraudulent facts is considered as the ethics code violation and is unacceptable.

Originality and Plagiarism

The authors of the article must ensure that they have written a completely original work, and if the authors used the work and/or words of other authors, this should be appropriately marked with a reference or indicated in the text.

Plagiarism in all its forms is an unethical behavior when published and is inadmissible.

The presentation of the same manuscript in more than one journal at the same time is an unethical behavior when published and is unacceptable.

The author is not allowed to submit for consideration an already published in another journal article.

The authors should take into account the work of other researchers in this field, referring to the used material.

The editorial board refers the following to the forms of plagiarism:

• the use (literal citation) of any materials in any volume without indicating the source;
• the use of images, drawings, photographs, tables, graphs, diagrams and any other forms of graphical representation of information without indicating the source;
• the use of images, drawings, photographs, tables, graphs, schemes and any other forms of graphical representation of information published in scientific and popular publications without reconciliation with the copyright holder;
• the use of materials without written permission whose authors or copyright holders prohibit the use of their materials without special reconciliation.

Authorship of the article

The authorship should be limited to those persons who made a significant contribution to the concept, planning, implementation or interpretation of the described research.

If a person participated in any significant part of the work, then he should be appreciated, or he should be included in the list of co-authors.

The author undertakes to indicate all co-authors who meet these requirements and do not specify co-authors who do not meet these requirements, and also ensure that the final version of the article and its submission for publication was approved by all co-authors.

The article, if accepted for publication, is placed in the public domain; copyrights are reserved for authors.

Disclosure of information and conflict of interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or any other significant conflict of interest that could be interpreted as affecting the results of their manuscript evaluation. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Significant errors in published articles

If the author finds a significant error or inaccuracy in his published article, it is his duty to notify at once the journal editor-in-chief about it and cooperate with the editor-in-chief in order to publish a refutation or correction of the article. If the editor-in-chief finds out from the third part that the published work contains a significant error, the author's duty is to promptly refute or correct the article.

Plagiarism detection

The journal editorial board undertakes the obligation to assist the scientific community in all aspects of the policy implementation on compliance with publishing ethics, especially in cases of suspicion of duplicate submission of the article or plagiarism. In order to ensure the quality of published materials and the observance of copyright, all incoming articles are checked through the "Antiplagiat" system and only after that they are sent for review. The articles accepted for publication undergo the necessary editorial processing.

The received articles are tested in the "Antiplagiat" system, as well as through other, network search system on the Internet. If the editorial board has grounds for more detailed testing, additional tools may be used to search for borrowings.

The journal editorial staff does not recommend strongly the use of any technical means to improve the evaluation of the text in the "Antiplagiat" system.

The articles, where the signs of technical artificial modifications to enhance the uniqueness of the text are found, will not be published in the journal, even if they are follow-up revised. The editorial board informs the referee about all such facts and, in case that the author works in an educational institution, his chief executive officer.

Duties of the editor-in-chief

These guidelines are consistent with the journal editorial policy and the standards of the COPE's Best Practices Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Decision to publish the article

The decision to publish is taken by the editor-in-chief on the basis of the editorial board members scientific reviews and opinions. When deciding on publication, the editor-in-chief is guided by the reliability of the data presentation and the scientific significance of the considered work in question. The evaluation of papers is based solely on their content and scientific results quality, regardless of the author’s sex, race, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, religion, citizenship or political views. The information on the submitted manuscript is available only to the author, reviewers, potential reviewers, the editorial board members. Unpublished data obtained from the manuscripts submitted for consideration is not used for personal purposes and is not transferred to third parties without the written consent of the author. The information or ideas obtained during editing and related to possible benefits are kept confidential. The information is not allowed for publication if there are sufficient grounds for believing that it is plagiarism. The editor-in-chief, together with the publisher, do not leave unanswered claims concerning the manuscripts or published materials, and in the event of a conflict situation they take all necessary measures to restore the violated rights.

Study of ethical complaints

The journal editor-in-chief should take measures when receiving ethical complaints with respect to the submitted manuscript or published article. In the case of confirmation of the validity of the complaint, a correction, a refutation or other appropriate statement is published. Every ethical complaint must be considered, even if it is received several years after the publication.

Citing the journal in which the article is published

The editor-in-chief under no circumstances must compel the authors to cite the journal as a prerequisite for accepting the article manuscript for publication. Any recommendations for citing paper should be based on their scientific importance and pursue the goal of improving the material presented. The members of the editorial board can recommend sources to authors in the framework of the review procedure, but such recommendations can not be reduced to the instructions to cite the journal.

Responsibilities of reviewers

Each article is reviewed by at least two experts who have all opportunities to express their reasoned criticisms freely regarding the level and clarity of the presented material, its relevance to the journal's profile, novelty and reliability of the results.

The allowed volume of citations (correct borrowing) is no more than 30% of the article total volume. The editorial board on the individual basis considers reviews and other articles for objective reasons requiring more citations.

Articles that contain more than 30% corresponding to the author other scientific materials (monographs, previous publications in journals and collections of articles) are not accepted for the publication.

Participation in the decision to publish

The review procedure assists the editor-in-chief in deciding on publication, and the editor-in-chief can also communicate with the author of the work. Reviewing is an integral element of scientific communication and the basis of the scientific method.

Confidentiality

Any work accepted for reviewing is considered a confidential document. Works are not subjected to demonstration and discussion with other persons, except for the persons authorized by the editor.

Standards of objectivity

Reviews should be objective. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. Reviewers are required to express their opinion clearly and support it with appropriate arguments.

Design of sources

The reviewer responsibility is to recognize the fragments of published papers, cited without an appropriate reference. Any statement that a certain observation, conclusion or argument was made earlier must be accompanied by an appropriate reference. The reviewer is also obliged to draw the attention of the editor-in-chief to the presence of the similarity of the submitted article with any other known to the reviewer published work.