Editorial ethics

The editorial ethics of the scientific political journal Public Administration is a set of rules to regulate the relations between authors, editors and reviewers in the process of reviewing and publishing articles. The observance of these rules by everyone involved in the editorial process ensures the protection of rights of the authors to intellectual property, guarantees high quality publications, and excludes violation of legislation and conflicts of interest. When developing the editorial ethics principles, the Public Administration journal was guided by the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Declaration of the Association of Scientific Editors and Publishers “Ethical Principles of Scientific Publications” and the experience of other publications.

Responsibilities of the editor-in-chief

The editor-in-chief is responsible for general management of the publication and for decisions on which of the articles submitted to the editorial board should be published. The decision to publish is made on the basis of scientific reviews and opinions of the editorial board members. When making a decision on an article, the editor-in-chief is guided by the accuracy of the data and the scientific significance of the work in question. Evaluation of works is based solely on their content and the quality of scientific results, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, religion, citizenship, or political views of the author. The editor-in-chief ensures the protection of editorial secrets: information about the submitted manuscript is available only to the author, reviewers, potential reviewers, members of the editorial board, and the publisher. Unpublished data obtained from submitted manuscripts is not used for personal purposes and is not transferred to third parties without the written consent from the author. Information or ideas obtained during editing and related to possible benefits are confidential. Information is not allowed to be published if there are sufficient grounds to believe that it is plagiarized. The editor-in-chief, together with the publisher, will not leave unanswered claims regarding the reviewed manuscripts or published materials and will take all necessary measures to restore the violated rights in a conflict situation.

Responsibilities of the reviewers

The reviewer carries out scientific expertise (reviewing) of copyright materials, as a result of which his actions are unbiased in nature, consisting in the implementation of the following principles. The reviewer necessarily refuses to participate in the review if there is a conflict of interest related to competition, cooperation or other relationships with any of the authors, companies or institutions related to the article, as well as in the case of incompetence on a particular scientific problem. The reviewer contributes to the author in terms of improving his or her work. The manuscript under review is treated as a confidential document. It is not allowed to discuss work with other persons except those authorized by the editor-in-chief. The reviewer gives an objective and reasoned assessment of the stated research results. Personal criticism of the author is excluded. The reviewer does not use unpublished data obtained from submitted manuscripts for personal purposes. To ensure the confidentiality of the review the editors should send the article to the reviewer without specifying its author. The reviewer takes the responsibility not to use the information obtained from unpublished materials for personal purposes.

Responsibilities of the authors

Authors are required to submit only original works. If they have used in the preparation of articles the works and/or fragments of text by other authors, the corresponding references to the published materials are obligatory. If the information was taken from the Internet, the links to the websites where this information is located are obligatory. Excessive borrowing, as well as plagiarism in any form, including unformed quotes, paraphrasing, or appropriation of rights to the results of other people’s research, is unethical and unacceptable. The originality of the material is checked with the Antiplagiat system. Authors cannot submit to the Journal a manuscript that has been sent to another journal and is being reviewed there, as well as the article already published in another journal. This is considered a gross violation of editorial ethics. Co-authors of the article should indicate all persons who have made a significant contribution to the study. Among the co-authors, the indication of persons not participating in the study is unacceptable. If the author finds significant errors or inaccuracies in the article at the stage of its consideration or after its publication, he or she should notify the editors of the Journal as soon as possible.