Ethical norms

The editorial board of "Scientific Journal of Lviv State University of Internal Affairs. Psychology" maintains a high level of requirements for the selection and acceptance of articles submitted for editorial purposes. Ethics guidelines of the editorial board are based on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics, as well as the principles of DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment).

ETHICAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD

  1. The Editorial Board is responsible for the scientific publication.
  2. Articles are carefully selected and reviewed. The editorial board may reject the non-compliant article and return it for revision. Any author considers the remarks of the reviewers as well as editorial board on the revision of the article.
  3. The editorial board considers all manuscripts impartially, evaluates each article properly, regardless of the racial, religious, national affiliation of the author (s), as well as the status or place of his (their) work. The editorial board makes fair and impartial decisions to ensure a fair review process.
  4. The editorial board may reject the manuscript without review if it does not correspond to the profile and subject of the collection.
  5. Editorial board of the collection is against falsification, plagiarism, sending the author of one work in several publications, using the content of the article in various works, misleading the scientific community about the real contribution of the author to the publication.
  6. The editorial board has the right to withdraw even a published article, provided that a violation of the generally accepted norms of scientific ethics is found to violate someone's rights. The editorial board informs the author and the organization in which the work was performed about the fact of deleting the article.
  7. The editor and members of the editorial board shall not provide other persons with information related to the content of the peer-reviewed manuscript, except for the persons involved in the professional evaluation of this manuscript. After a positive decision of the editor, the article is published in a collection and posted on the relevant electronic resources.
  8. In accordance with international law in terms of compliance with copyright in electronic information resources, site materials, electronic journal or project may not be reproduced in full a6o in any form (electronic or printed) without the prior written consent of the collection editorial board. When using published materials in the context of other documents, a reference to the primary source database is required.
  9. Editors, authors and reviewers should declare their interests, which may affect their objectivity in editing and reviewing article materials (in case of conflict of interest). Such may be the interests of the intellectual plan, financial, personal, political, religious interests.
  10. Prevention of illegal publications is the responsibility of every author, editor, reviewer, publisher, and organization.

ETHICAL COMMITMENTS OF AUTHORS

  1. It is the responsibility of the author to provide an accurate report on the research conducted, as well as to present its significance objectively. Authors must present the results of their research clearly and unambiguously.
  2. The authors of the articles are fully responsible for the content of the articles and for the very fact of their publication.
  3. The author should cite publications that have had a decisive influence on the essence of the work, as well as those that can quickly acquaint the reader with earlier works that are important for understanding this study. It is also necessary to properly indicate the sources of fundamentally important materials used in this work if these materials were not obtained by the author.
  4. Plagiarism and submission to the publication of a previously published article is inadmissible. In cases of revealing these facts, the authors of the provided materials are responsible for the facts.
  5. Co-authors of the article should be those who have made significant scientific contributions to the work and who share responsibility for the results obtained. The author who submits the manuscript for publication is responsible for ensuring that the list of co-authors includes those who meet the authorship criteria and assume responsibility for the consent of other authors to its publication in the collection of scientific papers.
  6. Authors should notify the editor of any potential conflict of interest that could be affected by the publication of the results contained in this manuscript.
  7. Authors must clearly indicate the sources of all cited information and must duly draw references to the literature used in the work, in accordance with the State Standard DSTU 8302: 2015.
  8. The editorial board has the right to refuse to publish the article in case of non-compliance with the requirements of the editorial board.

REVIEWERS ETHICAL OBLIGATIONS

  1. Reviewing manuscripts is an important step in the publishing process. Every scholar is required to do some work in the peer-review process.
  2. All articles submitted to the printing must be reviewed by the author's supervisor(s), the scientific institution where the work was performed, and appointed reviewers.
  3. The Editorial Board reserves the right to appoint an additional independent reviewer.
  4. The reviewer should provide an objective assessment of the quality of the manuscript, as well as determine whether the manuscript meets high scientific and literary standards. The reviewer must respect the intellectual independence of the authors.
  5. All members of the editorial board with reviewers.
  6. Manuscript sent for review, with a confidential document.
  7. The reviewer must substantiate his conclusions convincingly enough.
  8. The reviewer should draw the editor's attention to any significant similarities between the submitted manuscript and another article either published or only a manuscript.
  9. The reviewer must provide timely feedback on the manuscript.
  10. The reviewer should not use or to disclose unpublished information contained in the submitted manuscript without the consent of the author or authors.

 

The Editorial Board recognizes research integrity as a fundamental basis of scholarly activity and does not tolerate any forms of misconduct that may affect the reliability, objectivity, and transparency of scientific results.

Research misconduct includes, in particular:

Fabrication of data
Inventing data, research results, or experiments and presenting them as real.

Falsification
Manipulating research materials, equipment, processes, or altering or selectively omitting data with the purpose of distorting research results.

Citation manipulation
Artificially increasing the number of references to specific sources, journals, or authors in order to enhance scientometric indicators; including irrelevant references; or deliberately ignoring significant sources.

Guest/Gift authorship (Artificial authorship)
Including as authors individuals who have not made a substantial intellectual contribution to the research, or excluding those who have made such a contribution.

Other violations
Plagiarism, self-plagiarism without proper disclosure, failure to disclose conflicts of interest, duplicate publication, and deliberate violation of peer review procedures.

 

In accordance with the principles of DORA, the Journal:

  • evaluates manuscripts solely on the basis of their scientific quality, originality, methodological soundness, and contribution to the advancement of knowledge;

  • does not use journal-based metrics (including the Impact Factor) as a criterion for assessing individual articles or the scientific quality of an author;

  • does not encourage artificial inflation of citation metrics;

  • supports the responsible use of scientometric indicators.

 

Plagiarism Policy

The journal considers only original manuscripts that have not been previously published (in whole or in part) and are not under consideration elsewhere.

Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable. All submissions are checked using StrikePlagiarism.com software provided by Plagiat.pl.

 

Conflict of Interest Policy

A conflict of interest refers to any financial, professional, institutional, or personal relationships that may influence or appear to influence editorial decisions or manuscript content.

Disclosure is mandatory for:

authors (financial and non-financial relationships);

reviewers (potential competing interests);

editors (when handling manuscripts involving their institution or colleagues).

If a potential conflict is identified:

the editor or reviewer must recuse themselves;

an independent handling editor is appointed;

independent reviewers are assigned;

decisions and justifications are documented.

Submissions by Editors or Editorial Board Members

Manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief or editorial board members:

are handled by an independent editor;

undergo standard double-blind peer review;

exclude author involvement in editorial decisions;

include a published COI disclosure statement.

 

Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Scientific Publications

The journal supports innovative technologies, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the preparation of scientific publications. At the same time, we emphasize the necessity of adhering to principles of academic integrity, transparency, and responsibility when using AI tools.

Authors are required to clearly indicate in the publication text where and how AI tools have been used (e.g., for text generation, data analysis, preparation of illustrations, etc.). Submissions fully generated by AI without significant author contribution to the scientific content and its interpretation are prohibited. Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and quality of the materials, even if part of the work was performed with the help of AI.

The editorial office may use AI tools to assist in plagiarism detection, text preparation, fact-checking, and other aspects of the editorial process. Decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of articles remain solely with the editors and reviewers, regardless of the results obtained through the use of AI.

The use of AI must not violate copyright, confidentiality, or lead to data manipulation. Concealing the fact of AI use or misleading readers about the origin of the text or research results is prohibited.

Authors, reviewers, and editors are responsible for complying with this policy. In case of violations, corrections, rejection of publication, or retraction of articles may be applied in accordance with the editorial policy.

 

Policy on Ethical Approval of Research Involving Human Participants

The academic journal adheres to the requirements of the current legislation of Ukraine and international ethical standards governing the conduct of research involving human participants, the use of personal or confidential data, biological materials, or research involving animals.

If a study submitted for publication falls under the scope of Ukrainian legislation on bioethics, personal data protection, or other relevant regulatory acts, authors are required to provide confirmation of approval obtained from an authorized body, in particular an ethics (bioethics) committee or another competent authority of the institution.

For research involving human participants, authors must ensure compliance with the principles of voluntary informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, and the prevention of harm to research participants. In cases involving the collection and processing of personal data, compliance with the legislation of Ukraine on personal data protection must be ensured.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to request additional documents from authors confirming compliance with ethical standards and legal requirements, as well as to reject manuscripts that fail to meet these standards.

 

Retraction Policy

The Editorial Board follows retraction policy to warn readers about self-plagiarism (authors submit the same data in several journals), academic plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification, disguise the conflicts of interests, which would affect the interpretation of data or recommendations for their use. The retraction of the scientific article is the mechanism of correcting published data and alerting readers about articles with serious gaps or invalid content, incl. unreliable one. The publication of such data may be accidental or intentional misconduct.

The retraction’s goal is to inform readers about the article which contains unreliable data.

Based on the Recommendations of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), journal staff is guided by the below policy of retraction of previously published articles.

Editors should consider retracting a publication if:

  • it contains material or data without authorization for use;
  • the research findings have previously been published;
  • the article has serious errors (e.g., the misinterpretation of research findings) which call into question scientific value;
  • authorship is invalid (the inclusion of persons who do not meet the authorship criteria, or no one is worth being the author);
  • the author(s) failed to disclose a conflict of interests (as well as other violations of publication ethics);
  • the article was republished with the consent of the author(s);
  • there are other violations of ethics.

Grounds for initiating article retraction:

  • the author’s request to retract the article;
  • the request of the third parties (e.g., participants in the conflict of interests) who have evidence of the violations of academic ethics by the author of the article published in the journal;
  • the editorial board has found ethics violations by the article’s author.

Information on article retraction is available on the journal’s web-site.

Retracted articles remain accessible but are clearly marked as “Retracted.”

The decision reasoning article retraction is sent to the author (s).