Ethical principles regarding publications in academic journals
As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and being part of the Wolters Kluwer international publishing house, the Wolters Kluwer Polska publishing house applies the organization’s standards and recommendations in the publishing process.
Ethical principles for authors
We only accept original, previously unpublished manuscripts for publication. The submission of the same manuscripts to more than one journal is considered inappropriate. The author represents that he/she has not expressed and will not express consent for another journal to publish the manuscript. If this representation is found not to be true, the editorial board has the right to refuse to publish the manuscript.
Authors may only submit their own original manuscripts for publication. Plagiarism and data fabrication are inadmissible.
Information should be provided (in the footnote) about the sources of financing of the given publication, such as national or international grants or subsidies from foundations, associations or commercial institutions.
If manuscripts (i.e., an article or commentary) submitted to the journal’s editorial board are a result of research projects, scholarships and academic internships, or research funded by academic/research institutions, they should contain an appropriate clause stating this, providing information about the licence under which – according to the requirements of these institutions – they can be published. The clause should be included with the manuscript that is submitted to the editorial board.
In the case of co-authorship, the percentage contributions of the individual authors to the publication need to be stated.
The author is responsible for the current legal status of the manuscript, as well as the cited regulations, judgments and literature. If the author discovers an error or inaccuracy in the article after it has been submitted, he/she is required to notify the editorial board of this forthwith.
The author is required to make reference to the publications which bore an influence on the manuscript that was submitted in the form of quotations and in the attached bibliography.
The author warrants that the copyright to the manuscript, which is transferred to the publisher upon the editorial board’s acceptance of the manuscript, will not be limited by any third party rights and that the publisher’s use and handling of the manuscript will not breach any personal interests or rights of third parties.
Manuscripts submitted by the authors shall be published on the basis of publishing agreements with authors, which govern all copyright law issues.
Ghostwriting. In order to counteract cases of ghostwriting (i.e. situations in which a person not contributing to the preparation of the publication or, more broadly, to obtaining the published research results is included as an author) and guest authorship (i.e. situations in which a person who made a significant contribution to the manuscript or, more broadly, to obtaining the published research results, is not listed an author), authors are required to disclose to and notify the editorial board about the contributions of individual authors to the preparation of the publication (stating their affiliations and contributions, i.e. who the author is of the conceptions, assumptions, methods, protocol, etc. used in the preparation of the publication), for which the author submitting the manuscript shall bear the main responsibility. The editorial board declares that ghostwriting and guest authorship are signs of academic misconduct and any cases discovered will be exposed and the respective entities (institutions employing the authors, academic societies, associations of academic editors, etc.) will be notified.
Conflict of interests
In the event of a conflict of interests, Wolters Kluwer Polska shall apply the Recommendation of the Committee on Legal Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences on the disclosure of conflicts of interest in legal academic publications of 3 February 2021.
Notion of conflict of interests
Authors, who believe that their roles outside the university can influence or can be perceived by third parties as influencing their objectivity while conducting the research or presenting its results, shall report conflicts of interest to the editorial board.
A conflict of interest may arise if authors are associated with an institution, enterprise or public office (hereinafter referred to as an institution) which has a direct interest or benefit in the acceptance of a specific interpretation of the law. This refers to associations which involve:
- working for a given institution, including under a specific task or personal service contract, representing it as a proxy for compensation, or acting for it or on its behalf as an expert (during the work on the article or within the previous three years), especially when the article submitted for publication is a repetition or modified version of a pleading or opinion prepared for that institution;
- the author taking part in the issuance of a judgment or ruling of a court or other authority, which they then analyse in the academic publication that is submitted;
- the use of the institution’s funds to conduct research – both the subject of the article and other past (conducted within the last three years) or current research, including covering the costs of its publication.
Publication procedure taking into account conflicts of interest
When submitting manuscripts to the journal, authors are required to inform the editorial board of whether they believe a conflict of interest, as described above, can take place.
The appearance of a conflict of interest does not mean that the manuscript that has been prepared cannot or should not be published, provided, however, that the above associations with the institutions do not affect the reliability and correctness of the evidence or the quality of the research presented in the academic publication.
The reviewer must be informed that the conflict of interest has been reported (without disclosing its nature). This will enable the reviewer to assess whether – despite the reported conflict – the manuscript has been prepared reliably from an academic point of view and whether it contains objective analyses and research results.
The failure to disclose a conflict of interests constitutes a breach of ethical principles and good academic practice.
Responsibilities of the editorial board
The editorial board documents all cases of academic misconduct, especially violations and infringements of the principles of ethics that are applicable in the academia, as well as information provided by the authors regarding conflicts of interest.
See below for detailed rules on conduct in the event of the discovery of plagiarism.
A decision to publish an article is based on the reviews, the opinion of the thematic editor and the editorial college. The decision on whether or not to publish is also influenced by the risk of copyright infringements.
Originality, academic quality and consistency with the journal’s subject area are important in the decision-making process regarding the acceptance or rejection of a given academic manuscript.
In accordance with the publication procedure, no member of the editorial board may disclose any information about any submitted manuscript to any person other than its author, the reviewers, potential reviewers or the publisher.
The editorial board does not disclose the details of the reviewers to the authors.
Information obtained in the process of evaluating publications, as well as rejected manuscripts or their parts, may only be used in research conducted by members of the editorial board or reviewers with the author’s express written consent.
The editorial board shall not appoint anyone, who directly reports to the manuscript authors or who is in any other direct personal or professional relationship with them to an extent that can result in conflicts of interests, as reviewers.
Responsibilities of reviewers
Manuscripts are reviewed before publication.
The names of the reviewers of the individual manuscripts are not disclosed to the authors. The list of reviewers working with the journal is published on the journal’s website and in the printed version once a year without identifying which reviewer reviewed a given manuscript.
Each selected reviewer who is unable to review a manuscript or knows that it will not be possible to quickly prepare a review is required to inform the managing editor about this.
Reviews must be objective. Personal criticism of the author is considered inappropriate. Reviewers are required to express their views clearly, supporting them with appropriate arguments.
All manuscripts reviewed must be treated as confidential documents. They may not be shown to or discussed with anyone other than the managing editor, who is authorized for this.
Confidential information or ideas inspired by the review must be kept secret and may not be used for personal gain. Reviewers must not receive manuscripts with respect to which there is a conflict of interests arising from a relationship with the author, company or institution in connection with the manuscript.
Reviewers are required to identify the publications to which the author of the manuscript failed to refer. The reviewer is also required to inform the managing editor about any significant similarity, partial overlap of the content of the manuscript under review with any other published work known to the reviewer or a suspected plagiarism.
Detailed rules regarding conduct in the event of the discovery of plagiarism
The editorial board uses anti-plagiarism software to discover borrowed material in manuscripts that are submitted.
Plagiarism can be reported by a member or associate of the editorial board, a reviewer or a reader. This can be done with respect to a submitted manuscript or previously published material.
If plagiarism is discovered, the procedures presented in the COPE diagrams, Plagiarism in a submitted manuscript and Plagiarism in a published article, are applied.