Ethical principles of the participants in the process of publishing articles in the journal «Spacecrafts & Technologies»
When working on the Journal, the editorial board follows the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
General obligations of the Editorials of the journal:
- The desire to satisfy the needs of readers and authors;
- The desire to constantly improve the journal;
- The presence in the working process of procedures ensuring the quality of published materials;
- Protection of freedom of opinion;
- Keeping faith in the principles of scientific honesty;
- Preventing commercial interests from compromising intellectual and ethical standards;
- Readiness to publish corrections, explanations, refutations (withdrawal of articles) and apologies when necessary;
- A survey of readers, reviewers and members of the editorial board in order to improve the work of the journal;
- Encouraging studies of the effectiveness of review processes, as well as publication of the working procedures adopted in the journal and reassessing them in the light of new discoveries;
- Negotiating with the publisher on providing the necessary resources and assistance from experts (designers, lawyers, translators);
- Support for initiatives aimed at reducing unscrupulous behavior in research and preparation of publications;
- Support for initiatives to train researchers in the ethics of publications;
- Assess the impact of journal policy on the behavior of authors and reviewers, and, if necessary, review this policy to encourage their responsible behavior and not encourage unfairness.
Obligations of the Editorials of the journal before the readers:
- Informing readers about who funded the published study, and also whether sponsors played any role in the research and publication of its results, and if so, what was the role;
- Ensuring that all published articles and reviews are reviewed by specialists with the necessary qualifications;
- Use of procedures that encourage the accuracy, completeness and clarity of research, including technical editing and the use of suitable manuals and process maps;
- Consideration of opportunities to develop a policy of transparency in order to encourage maximum disclosure of information on the origin of non-research articles;
- The use of an authorization system that encourages the application of best practices (such that the lists of authors accurately reflect who performed the work) and which prevents unfair practices (for example, anonymous authorship or gift authorship);
- Informing readers about the steps designed to ensure that the articles of journal staff or members of the editorial board receive an objective and impartial assessment.
Obligations of the Editorials before the authors:
- Acceptance or refusal to publish an article is based on the importance of the article, its originality, clarity of presentation, the reliability of the information contained in it and its proximity to the subject matter of the journal;
- Adherence to the adopted decision to publish the article, unless serious problems arise in connection with its publication;
- Adherence to the new edition of decisions on the publication of articles adopted by the previous version, unless serious problems arise in connection with their publication;
- A clear formulation of the procedure for reviewing articles by other researchers, and the editorial staff is always ready to justify any meaningful deviation from the procedure described;
- The existence of a clearly defined mechanism for the authors to file an appeal against the editorial decisions;
- Publication of full requirements for the authors of articles. These requirements should be regularly updated and should have a link or hyperlink to these ethical principles;
- The disclosure of the criteria used to determine who can be considered the author of the article and who can be considered the person who contributed to it, in accordance with the standards adopted in the relevant field;
- Regular revision of instructions for authors and provision of links to relevant manuals;
- Ensuring the effective selection of reviewers for articles;
- Respect for the wishes of the authors that a person should not review their work, if such a request is justified and feasible;
- Publication of information on how issues are resolved in the presence of suspicion of dishonest behavior;
- The announcement of the date of submission of articles to the editorial board and the adoption of decisions on their publication.
Obligations of the Editorials before the reviewers:
- The publication of full requirements for reviewers, including the requirement to keep the peer-reviewed material confidential. These rules should be updated regularly and should have a link or hyperlink to these ethical principles;
- Request from the reviewer to disclose any information on a possible conflict of interest before agreeing to review;
- Availability of procedures for protecting the anonymity of reviewers;
- Stimulating reviewers to write comments on ethical issues and the likelihood of dishonest behavior in connection with the article under review;
- Encouraging reviewers to comment on the degree of originality of the article being analyzed and to pay attention to the possibility of duplicating publications and plagiarism;
- Providing reviewers with tools to access publications relevant to the article under review (hyperlinks to the articles cited);
- Message to the authors of all comments about their work, made by reviewers, unless they contain offensive or libelous remarks;
- Mark the contribution of reviewers to the activities of the journal;
- Encouragement of scientific institutions to review work on review as part of their academic process;
- Review the quality of the work of reviewers and take steps to ensure that it is at a high level;
- Development and maintenance of a database of suitable reviewers and updating it based on analysis of the results of the work of reviewers;
- Refusal to cooperate with reviewers who constantly write disrespectful, belated and poor in content reviews;
- Ensuring that the reviewers database reflects the community of their journal, and adding new reviewers if necessary;
- Use a wide range of sources to search for new reviewers;
- Adherence to COPE schemes in the event of a probability of unfair behavior of reviewers.
Obligations of the editors of the journal before the editorial board:
- Informing new members of the editorial board of everything that is expected from their activities, and notifying existing members of all changes in the approaches and procedures applied;
- The formation of procedures to ensure that the articles of the members of the editorial board are also considered unbiased, as are the articles of third-party authors;
- Determining which of the members of the editorial board is capable of actively contributing to the improvement of journal management;
- On a regular basis, the composition of the editorial board;
- An accurate explanation for members of the editorial board of their functions and responsibilities, which may include:
- Performance of the functions of the representatives of the journal;
- Support and promotion of the journal;
- Search for the best authors and the best works and active activities to invite these authors to submit their articles to the journal;
- Analysis of articles submitted to the journal;
- Acceptance of instructions for writing editorial articles, reviews and comments on works in the field of their specialization.
- Active participation in the work of the editorial board meetings, periodic consultations with the members of the editorial board to get their opinions on the work of the journal, inform them about changes in the journal's policy and determine the goals for the future.
Obligations of the Editorials before the publisher:
- The basis of the editorial relationship with the publisher of journals on the principle of editorial independence;
- Making decisions on which articles to publish, solely on the basis of their quality and proximity to the subject matter of the journal without interference from the publisher;
- Clear formulation of relations between the publisher of the journal and the editorial board in the Charter of the editorial board;
- Compliance with the Charter of the Editorial Board of the Code of Conduct for COPE journal editors;
- The formation of mechanisms for resolving disputes between the editorial staff and the publisher of a journal describing the necessary procedures;
- Regular exchange of information with the publisher of the journal.
The processes of editing and reviewing articles by the Editorials of the journal:
- Ensuring fair, impartial and timely review of articles proposed for publication;
- The use of procedures to ensure the confidentiality of logged materials during the review process;
- Ensuring that people included in the editing process (including themselves) have sufficient qualifications and are aware of the current rules, recommendations and facts relating to the review and management of the journal;
- Knowledge of recent research on peer review and new tools that can be used in the process of writing reviews;
- Adoption of peer review methods, most suitable for the journal and the community of researchers that the journal serves;
- Periodic analysis of approaches to review for possible improvements;
- The COPE message on emerging issues, especially if problematic issues are not addressed through COPE schemes or new types of unfair behavior are revealed during publication.
Quality assurance by the Editorials of the journal:
- Taking all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the published material;
- The use of fraudulent data detection procedures (for example, inappropriately processed photographs or plagiarism) to all submitted articles;
- The formation of the style of the journal on the basis of objective methods, and not only on an aesthetic basis or personal preferences.
Protection of personal data by the Editorials of the journal:
- Obedience to laws on confidentiality. Protection of confidentiality of individual information received during professional activities. Obtaining written consent for publication from people who can recognize themselves or be recognized by others. It is possible to publish personal information without clear consent, if public interests outweigh possible damage, it is impossible to obtain consent and a reasonable person would most likely not object to publication;
- The formulation of its policy regarding the publication of personal data and a clear explanation of such policy to the authors.
Promotion of ethical research by the Editorials of the journal:
- Making efforts to ensure that the research in the published article was conducted in accordance with internationally recognized ethical standards;
- Making efforts to obtain confirmation that published studies have been approved by the relevant body;
- If there are reasonable doubts, to request evidence of the existence of appropriate research permits published in the article;
- The presence of an ethics adviser for counseling in specific cases and a periodic review of the journal's policy.
Actions of the Editorials of the journal in case of suspicion of dishonesty:
- Taking certain measures when there is a suspicion of unfair behavior or if there is a charge of dishonest behavior. This duty applies to both published and unpublished material;
- The editorial board is not entitled to refuse publication of the article if suspicions arise in the possibility of dishonest behavior. Ethically, the editorial staff is obliged to respond to such situations;
- Adherence to COPE schemes;
- An explanation request from the authors of such articles. If an unsatisfactory response is received, the editorial staff will ask their employer or the relevant organization (possibly the regulatory body) to investigate;
- Taking all reasonable steps to ensure proper investigation; If this can not be done, the editorial staff will do everything possible to solve the problem. This is a very burdensome but significant duty.
Providing the Editorials of the journal with scientific reliability in publications:
- Correction of mistakes or misleading statements with notification to a wide audience;
- Adherence to COPE schemes when withdrawing articles;
- Taking measures to reduce the veiled duplication of publications.
Intellectual property
- The Editorials is attentive to issues relating to intellectual property and interacts with the publisher in resolving cases of possible violations of laws and agreements on the protection of intellectual property;
- The use of plagiarism detection tools in articles proposed for publication;
- Support for authors whose copyright has been violated, or those who have become victims of plagiarism;
- Willingness to work with the publisher to protect copyright and to prosecute violators, regardless of whether such a case is related to copyright infringement of the journal.
Encouraging discussions
- The Editorials encourages and readily considers the justified criticism of the works published in the journal;
- Authors of criticized materials have the opportunity to respond to criticism;
- Work reporting only negative results can also be published;
- The Editorials is open to research, which is challenged by previous works published in the journal.
Complaints
- The Editorials quickly responds to incoming complaints and does everything possible to have a way for those unsatisfied with the consideration of their complaints to advance their complaints further;
- The Editorials follows the procedures described in the COPE schemes.
Commercial Considerations
- The Editorials applies a policy that ensures that commercial considerations do not affect editorial decisions;
- Clear formulation of the journal's policy regarding interaction of advertising with the content of the journal and with respect to the publication of sponsored articles;
- Publication of repeated copies in the original form, except for cases where amendments to the text are necessary. In this case, the opportunity to identify the corrected places is added;
- Publication of a general description of the sources of income of the journal;
- Ensuring that peer-reviewed articles are reviewed in the same way as ordinary articles;
- Ensuring that sponsored articles are accepted only on the basis of their quality and interest to readers, and not for commercial reasons.
Conflicts of interest
In developing ethical principles, the editorial staff of the journal was guided by the publication: