Ethics rules

Journal “De Securitate et Defensione. Security and Defense Journal" applies the rules consistent with the recommendations of COPE - The Committee of Publication Ethics, which apply to authors submitting texts for publication in the journal, as well as reviewers and editorial board.

DUTIES OF THE EDITORIAL TEAM

The editorial board's decision whether to publish the article is based on the article's compliance with the thematic profile of the journal as well as the reviewers' opinions. The articles which receive positive reviews of the two external reviewers are submitted for publication. If the reviewers imply it is necessary to introduce some changes or to supplement the article the author or authors will receive written information concerning the need to make substantive corrections which provides for conditional admission for publication. A negative opinion issued by two reviewers is tantamount to rejecting  the text. The author is informed about such a decision in writing.

  • Confidentiality and impartiality

The text which is submitted for a review is regarded as confidential which means that the members of the Editorial Team cannot reveal any information concerning the submitted texts to anyone except other members of the Editorial Team, Reviewers and the Publisher. All the information regarding the reviews of the particular articles is also treated as confidential.

The Editorial Team takes a decision with regard to the publication of the submitted text taking into account the scientific character of the presented analysis and the article’s compliance with the thematic profile of the journal.

  • Responsibility

The editors fight against copyright and other intellectual property rights infringement, plagiarism as well as guest authorship and ghostwriting.

If the editors receives a complaint concerning a violation of the ethics of publication, the author or authors are informed in writing about the objections with a request to respond to them. If the authors do not respond, the editors send information about the problem to the institution the author(s) is/are affiliated

 

THE AUTHORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

The author(s) is/are obliged to present original results of the conducted scientific research in a reliable, credible, honest way which does not raise any doubts. The objectivity of the analysis is the crucial criterion of the assessment of the submitted texts. Under no circumstances should articles contain false statements that are not supported by reliable scientific results. Falsifying test results and data manipulation are considered unethical and are not accepted. The literature review presented in the articles should also have an objective character.

  • Text submission standards

Journal publishes only scientific articles of original character which have not been published or submitted for publication in other journals, monographs, collective works or anywhere else. Submitting the same text for publication in several places is regarded as unethical and it is not accepted.

When the results of the research or data elaborated or published by other authors are referred to in the text, such an excerpt must be in the form of a quotation and must be accompanied by a footnote. The submitted texts should clearly indicate references to the work of other authors.

The author/authors should prepare the text with reference to the latest literature on the subject. Information obtained in conversation with third parties may be included in the text after obtaining their written consent. Such information should also be included in the submitted material in the form of a footnote.

  • The authorship of the text

The cases of the so-called guest authorship and ghostwriting are treated as absolutely unethical and they are not accepted. The authorship should be limited to the people who have had a significant influence on defining the conception and the research methods as well as conducting the research.

If the text is written by several authors, each of them must give a separate consent for the submission of the material for publication and they are required to submit a statement about the contribution to the creation of the text.

  • Conflict of interests

In order to avoid a potential conflict of interest, the author or authors should disclose all the sources of financing of the conducted research with the information on other support for the carried out research.

  • Mistakes discovered after the publication of the text

If the author discovers a significant mistake in the article which has already been published, he is obliged to notify the editors and cooperate in order to withdraw or correct the text.

  • The originality of the texts and plagiarism

All the forms of plagiarism are considered unethical and they are not acceptable. If there is suspicion of plagiarism, the editors use the checking procedure. The person or persons who submitted the text and the reviewers take part in this procedure.

The confirmation of an unlawful attribution of someone else’s texts, copying and paraphrasing the results of other people’s research is tantamount to rejecting the text (not accepting the text for publication). The author or authors are informed about it in writing. If there is no response from the author or authors, the institution in which the author or authors are affiliated is notified of the problem.

When the author or authors enclose in the submitted for publication articles the passages from the texts which they published previously (the so-called autoplagiarism), the text is rejected due to the lack of original character of the analysis. The editors informs the author(s) about it in writing.

 

THE REVIEWERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

All the scientific articles submitted for publication are reviewed by two independent external reviewers with the principle of double-blind review process in which neither the authors nor the reviewers know their identity. The reviewers do not review articles if there is a conflict of interests which results from the relations with the author or the institution related to the article.

  • Meeting deadlines

The reviewer chosen by the editors to evaluate the submitted text is obliged to inform the editorif he or she cannot assess the article due to the lack of qualifications, time or any other important reason. In this case the editors appoint another reviewer.

  • Confidentiality and objectivity

The text which is sent to a reviewer is regarded as confidential material. The reviewer must not show and/or discuss the text with anyone else than the members of the editorial team of “De Securitate et Defensione. Security and Defense Journal”. The results of the research, data and opinions contained in the reviewed text cannot be used by the reviewer in his own research until the material is published.

The primary responsibility of the reviewer is to evaluate the text in an objective way. All the comments, evaluations and suggestions should be indicated clearly and they should be supported with the appropriate arguments. Criticism or remarks because of personal reasons are not acceptable.

Only the substantive content of the submitted material and its compliance with the thematic profile of the journal may influence the decision concerning its publication. The following criteria are taken into account in the review process: the original and scientific nature of the submitted material, the compliance of the material with the thematic profile of the journal, clearly defined research problem and the purpose of the article, the use of the appropriate style and terminology, adequate verification of the hypotheses and the justification of the conclusions and finally a proper use of the literature on the subject of the article.

  • Plagiarism detection

The reviewers ought to evaluate the sources used in the article in order to identify their similarity to other texts. The reviewer informs the editorial team about the suspicion of plagiarism or autoplagiarism by the person(s) submitting the text for publication, indicating the passage(s) of text which raise doubts.

Detailed guidelines of the reviewing procedure adopted by “De Securitate et Defensione. Security and Defense Journal” are posted on the website of the journal in the “For the authors” bookmark in the “Review procedure”.