Publication Ethics

PUBLISHING ETHICS
The principles of publishing ethics to prevent unfair publication practices adopted and applied by AGH University Press are in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE):
https://publicationethics.org/
RULES APPLICABLE TO THE PUBLISHER
- Controlling ethical standards: the publisher shall ensure compliance with applicable publishing standards and publishing ethics and shall prevent practices inconsistent with accepted standards.
- Fair play principle: published works are judged solely on their merits. Race, sex, religion, origin, citizenship or political beliefs of the authors do not influence the evaluation of the texts in any way.
- Criteria for acceptance of texts for publication: the publisher decides which texts will be published. When accepting texts for publication, the reviewers' opinions on the scientific value of the work, the originality of the treatment of the problem and the clarity of the argument are taken into account.
- Confidentiality: the publisher shall not disclose to unauthorized persons any information about the works submitted for publication. The persons authorized to have this information are the author, designated reviewers, editors, and other persons involved in the publishing process.
- Prevention of conflicts of interest: unpublished manuscripts may not be used by the publishing house staff or any other person involved in the publishing process without written permission from the authors.
- Withdrawal of publication: the publisher has the right to withdraw a publication after it has been published if:
there is evidence of unreliability of study results and/or falsification of data, as well as if unintentional errors (e.g., methodological errors, calculation errors) have been made; the work shows signs of plagiarism or violates the rules of publishing ethics.
RULES BINDING FOR THE SCIENTIFIC EDITOR OF COLLECTIVE PUBLICATIONS
- Criteria for accepting texts for publication: the scientific editor decides which materials will be published. In accepting texts for collective publication, the scientific value of the work, originality of the treatment of the problem and clarity of the argument are taken into account.
- The principle of scientific integrity: the scientific editor cares about the scientific integrity of the published works. In order to preserve it, he/she may make appropriate changes and corrections. In case of suspicion of fraudulent practices (plagiarism, falsification of research results), he is obliged to decide to withdraw the text from the collective publication.
- Principles of authorship of the work: it is the responsibility of the scientific editor submitting the publication to the publisher to make sure that the contributors to the publication accept its form after scientific editing.
- Withdrawal of text: the scientific editor has the right to withdraw a text from publication if:
▪ there is evidence of unreliability of research results and/or falsification of data, as well as if unintentional errors are made (e.g. calculation errors, methodological errors);
▪ the work shows signs of plagiarism or violates the rules of publishing ethics.
PRINCIPLES BINDING ON THE AUTHOR
- The principle of scientific accuracy: the author is obliged to provide a reliable description of the research work performed and to interpret the results objectively. The work should contain information that makes it possible to identify the sources of data and to repeat the research. Inconsistent presentation and interpretation of data and research results in accordance with the principles of publishing ethics is unacceptable and may result in the withdrawal of the text.
- The principle of originality of the work: the author may submit only his/her own original work for publication. Research and/or information of other scientists used in the publication should be marked in a way indicating that it is a quotation. Plagiarism or falsification of data is not acceptable.
- Data sharing rule: when asked to present the unprocessed research results used in the text, the author is obliged to provide access to the data, also some time after the publication of the paper.
- Principles of authorship of the paper:
▪ Authors submitting multi-authored texts for publication are required to disclose the contributions of the individual authors to the text (including the authors' affiliations and who authored the concepts, assumptions, methods, protocol, etc. used in the creation of the text).
▪ All persons listed in the paper as authors or co-authors should have actually contributed to the paper. Also, all persons who influenced the final form of the paper should be listed as co-authors. Ghostwriting and guest authorship are indicative of scholarly dishonesty - any instances of them that are discovered should be exposed, including notification to appropriate entities such as the author's employing institutions, scientific societies, associations of scholarly editors, etc.
- The principle of reliability of sources: the author is obliged to list in the appendix bibliography the publications that were used by him in the preparation of the text.
- If an author discovers significant errors or inaccuracies in his or her text, he or she is required to notify the publisher immediately so that the errors can be corrected in the next edition or reprint.

RULES BINDING ON THE REVIEWER
- Cooperation with the editorial team: the reviewer reviews the work on behalf of the publisher. In this way he influences the decisions made by the publisher. He may also, in consultation with the author, influence the final shape and improvement of the published work.
- The principle of timeliness: the reviewer is obliged to deliver the review within the established deadline. If for some reason (content-related, lack of time, etc.) he is unable to meet the deadline or undertake the review, he should immediately inform the publisher.
- Confidentiality principle: all reviewed papers and their reviews are confidential. Disclosure of papers and/or reviews to third parties is not permitted
(except to persons who are involved in the publishing process).
- Principle of maintaining standards of objectivity: the review should be objective in nature. Personal criticism of the author of the paper is inappropriate. All comments made by the reviewer should be adequately substantiated.
- The principle of reliability of sources: the reviewer, if necessary, should identify relevant works related to the subject of the text not cited by the author. The reviewer should indicate and report to the publisher any significant similarities of the reviewed text with other works.
- The principle of preventing a reviewer from having a conflict of interest: The reviewer must not use the reviewed work for his personal needs and benefits. Neither should they review a text where there may be a conflict of interest with the author.