The journal’s editorial board adheres to the following principles and recommendations of international organizations:
1. COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)
The journal must follow the ethical standards set by COPE:
- Transparency in the submission, peer review, and publication processes.
- Impartiality and independence of editors and reviewers.
- Academic integrity — avoidance of plagiarism, fabrication, and duplicate publication.
- Correct authorship — clear definition of each author’s contribution.
- Handling complaints — having open and clear procedures for appeals and ethics complaints.
- Retraction and correction of articles — clear procedures for retraction, corrections, and error notices.
2. WAME (World Association of Medical Editors; principles applicable to editors in all fields)
WAME recommendations can be applied in a broader context:
- Editorial independence — editorial decisions made without pressure from sponsors, institutions, or commercial interests.
- Conflicts of interest — all authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose conflicts.
- Peer review — ensuring objective, fair, and timely expert evaluation.
- Funding transparency — disclosure of grants, sponsors, and funding sources for research.
- Support for early-career researchers — facilitating publication opportunities for researchers at the start of their careers.
3. DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment)
The journal should support principles of fair research assessment:
- Not relying solely on bibliometric indicators (impact factor, h-index), but evaluating research by its quality, novelty, and contribution to the field.
- Valuing diverse research outputs — software, data, algorithms, technical solutions, not only articles.
- Recognizing interdisciplinary research as equivalent to traditional publications.
- Encouraging open science — posting preprints, and providing open access to data and code.
4. ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors — general principles applicable across disciplines)
- Authorship criteria. Only those who have made a substantial contribution to the work should be listed as authors.
- Research ethics. Adherence to standards for handling data, human participants, and experiments.
- Data openness. Encouraging authors to preserve and provide access to research data.
5. Other contemporary principles (Open Science, Plan S, FAIR Data)
- Open Access – promoting open access to scientific results.
- FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) – ensuring data can be found, accessed, interoperated, and reused.
- Plan S – supporting policies for publishing in open journals and repositories.
- Ethical use of AI – maintaining transparency and responsibility when applying artificial intelligence in research.