Editorial Ethics

General guidelines

  1. The publishing ethics policy of the Journal is the code of conduct and guidelines which should be followed by all participants of the academic publication process, including authors, peer reviewers, editors, publishers, distributors, and readers. It is based on the recommendations of the Russian Committee on the Ethics of Scientific Publicationsand the International Ethics Committee of the Committee of Publication Ethics(COPE).
  2. The Editorial Board abides by the copyright law and anti-plagiarism regulations of the Russian Federation as well as the set of the ethical principles shared by the community of academic publishers. The Editorial Board is responsible for publishing and disseminating manuscripts.
  3. The founder and publisher of the Journal is St Petersburg State University. Relations between the editorial board and the Publishing House of St Petersburg State University are based on the principles of editorial independence. The Editorial Board takes decisions on the publication of articles, based solely on the scientific quality of the material and its compliance with editorial policy, without any pressure from the founder.
  4. Publication of materials is free of charge. Remuneration to authors and reviewers is not paid. The fee for publication is not charged.
  5. Publications are freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, research, download, copy, print, distribute, or link to the full texts of the papers, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from publisher or the author. The fee for the use of materials is not charged.


Ethical guidelines for editors

The Chief Editor and Editorial Board are responsible for publishing manuscripts. This means that they should adhere to the following basic guidelines:

  • Editors’ decisions to accept or reject a manuscript should be based on the validity and academic importance of the study;
  • Editors should consider research characteristics of the manuscripts regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnicity, nationality, social background or political beliefs of the author;
  • the journal editors commit themselves to fair and impartial decision making independent of commercial interests and to organizing the process of impartial reviewing;
  • Previously unpublished data disclosed in the manuscript should not be used for personal purposes or forwarded to third parties without the written consent of the author;
  • the journal editors conduct an editorial policy ensuring maximum transparency and full accountability to the author;
  • Information or ideas obtained in the course of the editing process, leading to any kind of benefit, should be kept confidential and should not be used for personal advantage;
  • incoming manuscripts are checked for textual matches in the anti-plagiarism system (https://text.rucont.ru); Editors should not publish the information if there is reasonable ground to suspect that it was plagiarised;
  • retractions are used to correct the published material and alert readers to publications that contain seriously flawed or erroneous data that their findings and conclusions cannot be relied upon;

The journal editors should consider retracting a publication if:

- they have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error)

- the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication)

- it constitutes plagiarism

- it reports unethical research

  • The Editor and publisher shall respond to every appeal concerning submitted manuscripts or published articles. In the event of conflict, they shall take all necessary steps to defend violated copyright.


Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers

The reviewer is an expert acting on behalf of the research journal or the publisher and providing scientific evaluation of author’s work in order to consider their publishing.

Impartial peer reviewing of submitted manuscripts should be guided by the following principles:

  • The manuscript submitted for peer review should be regarded as a confidential document. It cannot be transferred to third parties for review and discussion unless permission to transfer was obtained from the Journal;
  • Peer reviewer should provide objective and sound evaluation of the conducted research, refraining from making personal comments about the author;
  • Previously unpublished data disclosed in the manuscripts shall not be used for the reviewer’s personal gain;
  • The reviewer should inform the editor and decline to review the manuscript when: he/she does not have the subject expertise required to carry out the review of the manuscript; or if he/she feels unable to provide unbiased review (for example, because of conflicting interests with the author or affiliated institution).


Ethical guidelines for authors

The author is a person or a group of persons (group of authors) who produce a manuscript that contains the results of their scientific research.

The author (or authors) shall be responsible for the originality and validity of research they submit. This means they have to abide by the following guidelines:

  • The authors should report valid research results, refraining from fabrication or falsification of data;
  • The authors should guarantee that the results presented in the submitted work are original;
  • All borrowed fragments and statements should be acknowledged and referenced, with the indication of its author and the source of information: citation manipulation as well as plagiarism of any kind, including hidden or disguised quotations, paraphrasing or usurpation of copyright is unethical and unacceptable;
  • It is compulsory to acknowledge the contribution made by all those who influenced the research in any way. The academic works that affected the author’s research, should be cited in the manuscript;
  • The authors should not submit manuscripts that are currently under consideration for publication in any other journal or have already been published elsewhere;
  • All major contributors to the research should be listed as authors; it is not allowed to list those who did not contribute to the current research as authors;
  • If the author discovers an error or inaccuracy in any submitted or published work, he/she should declare it immediately to the editorial staff.