The editorial board of the scientific journal “Superhard Materials” is guided in its work by international ethical rules for scientific publications, which include rules of decency, confidentiality, supervision of publications, consideration of possible conflicts of interest, etc. In particular, by the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics and the Publishing Ethics Resource Kit of Elsevier, and also relies on the experience of reputable international publishers. Compliance with the rules of ethics for scientific publications by all participants in the publishing process contributes to ensuring the rights of authors to intellectual property, improving the quality of the publication and preventing the possibility of unauthorized use of author’s materials in the interests of individuals.
In turn, the editorial board of the journal encourages and motivates authors to adhere to the appropriate level of formal and ethical requirements for the preparation and publication of articles submitted to the editorial board of the journal.
- Ethical obligations of authors
Authors are personally responsible for the text of the manuscript submitted to the journal and adhere to the following principles:
1.1. Provide reliable results of the research. Knowingly false or falsified statements are equated with unethical behavior and are considered unacceptable.
1.2. Guarantee that the research results presented in the manuscript are independent and original work. In the case of using fragments of other people’s works and/or borrowing statements from other authors, the article must contain appropriate bibliographic references with the obligatory indication of the author and the original source. Cite those publications that have influenced the essence of the work. Excessive borrowing, as well as plagiarism in any form, including unformatted quotes, paraphrasing or assignment of rights to the results of other people’s research, are unethical and unacceptable actions. In cases of detection of the above facts, the authors of the submitted materials are responsible. Articles that are a compilation of materials published by other authors without their creative processing and their own author’s interpretation by the editorial board of the journal are not accepted.
1.3. Be aware that the author(s) bear(s) primary responsibility for the novelty and reliability of the results of the scientific research.
1.4. Ensure the correct composition of the list of co-authors of the work. The author who submits the manuscript for publication is responsible for ensuring that the list of co-authors includes only those persons who have made a significant intellectual contribution to its concept, structure, as well as to the conduct or interpretation of the results of the submitted work, and assumes responsibility for the consent of other authors of the article to its publication in the journal. Other persons (or organizations) who participated in some aspects of the work should be thanked. The author must also ensure that all co-authors are familiar with the final version of the article, approve it and agree to its submission for publication. All authors named in the article must bear public responsibility for the content of the article. If the article is a multidisciplinary work, the co-authors are each responsible for their personal contribution, while retaining collective responsibility for the overall result. It is unacceptable to indicate among the co-authors persons who did not participate in the research.
1.5. Recognize the contribution of all persons who in one way or another influenced the course of the research or determined the nature of the presented scientific work. In particular, the article must include bibliographical references to publications that were of some importance in conducting the research. Information obtained privately through conversation, correspondence and discussion with third parties should not be used without the express written permission of the representative of its source. All sources must be open. Even if written or illustrative materials of a large number of people are used, permission for this must be obtained and submitted to the editors.
1.6. Authors must inform the editors of any potential conflict of interest that could be affected by the publication of the results contained in this manuscript. All potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed at the earliest possible stage.
1.7. Submit only the original manuscript to the journal. Do not submit to the journal an article that has been sent to another journal and is currently under consideration, as well as an article previously published in another journal. Failure to comply with this principle is regarded as a gross violation of publication ethics and gives grounds for removing the article from review. If elements of the manuscript have previously been published in another article, authors are required to refer to their earlier work and indicate how the new work differs significantly from the previous one. Verbatim copying of one’s own works and their paraphrasing are unacceptable; they can only be used as a basis for new conclusions.
1.8. The author must clearly indicate in his work the situation when the research is related to chemicals, physico-chemical processes or equipment, under during work with which there is a risk to human or animal health. If the research involves the use of animals or humans as test subjects, the author must ensure that all procedures were carried out in accordance with relevant laws and institutional principles, as well as that the relevant government agencies have approved them. The submitted article must include a statement and confirmation from the relevant authorities of consent to experiments with humans. The right of the person involved in the experiment to confidentiality must always be respected.
1.9. Indicate in their manuscripts all sources of financial support for the project, information about the employer, patent applications/registrations, grants and other types of funding.
1.10. In the event of returning the article for revision, the author is obliged to revise it in accordance with the comments of the reviewers or the editorial board, otherwise the editorial board has the right to reject the article.
- Ethical principles in the activities of reviewers
In order to improve the quality of scientific articles published in the journal, the Editorial Board appoints anonymous review for both the reviewer and the author. All members of the Editorial Board are reviewers.
The reviewer carries out scientific expertise of the author’s materials in order to objectively assess the quality of the submitted article and determine the level of its compliance with high scientific, literary and ethical standards. When evaluating an article, the reviewer must be impartial and adhere to the following principles:
2.1. Expert evaluation should help the author improve the quality of the article text, and the editor-in-chief – to make a decision on publication.
2.2. A reviewer who does not consider himself an expert in the field of the article’s subject or knows that he will not be able to submit a review of the article in a timely manner must notify the editor-in-chief and refuse to review.
2.3. The reviewer cannot be the author or co-author of the work submitted for review. This also applies to the scientific supervisors of candidates for a scientific degree and/or employees of the department in which the author works.
2.4. Any manuscript received by an expert from the editorial office for review is a confidential document. It cannot be discussed with other persons, except for the specified persons.
2.5. The reviewer must be objective. It is unacceptable to make personal remarks to the author in the review. The reviewer must convincingly and with reasoned arguments justify his own conclusions.
2.6. The reviewer must identify published articles that are relevant to the reviewed article and not cited by the author. Any statement in the review that some observations, conclusion or argument from the reviewed article has already been encountered previously in the literature must be accompanied by an accurate bibliographic reference to the source of information. The reviewer must also draw the editor-in-chief’s attention to significant similarity or partial coincidence of the reviewed article with any other previously published one.
2.7. In the event that the reviewer suspects plagiarism, authorship or falsification of data, he must necessarily contact the editorial board with a proposal for collective consideration of the author’s article.
2.8. The reviewer must provide an objective conclusion on the sufficiency of citing articles already published in the literature on this topic.
2.9. The reviewer must not use information and ideas from the article submitted to him for review for personal gain, observing the principle of confidentiality.
2.10. The reviewer must not accept a manuscript for consideration if there is a conflict of interest caused by competition, cooperation or other relationships with any authors or organizations related to the article.
2.11. The reviewer must provide timely feedback on the manuscript.
- Principles of professional ethics in the activities of the editorial board of the journal
Members of the editorial board and the editorial staff of the journal are responsible for the publication of the submitted manuscript, guided by the following fundamental principles:
3.1. All materials submitted for publication undergo careful selection and anonymous review by the editorial board.
3.2. The editorial board, justifying its decision, reserves the right to reject the article or return it to the author (authors) for revision.
3.3. When making a decision on publication, the editor-in-chief of a scientific journal is guided by the reliability of the submitted data and the scientific significance of the work under consideration.
3.4. The editor-in-chief must not have any personal interests in the articles that he rejects or accepts.
3.5. The editor-in-chief of the journal is responsible for deciding which of the submitted articles will be accepted for publication and which will be rejected. In doing so, he is guided by the journal’s policy and adheres to legal principles, preventing copyright infringement and plagiarism.
3.6. The editorial board objectively and impartially reviews all manuscripts submitted for publication, evaluating each article solely on its scientific content, regardless of the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, nationality, citizenship, origin, social status or political views. 3.7. The editor-in-chief, members of the editorial board and editorial staff of the journal should not communicate information about the article submitted to the journal to anyone except the author(s), appointed and potential reviewers, other editorial staff and (if necessary) the publisher.
3.8. Unpublished data obtained from manuscripts submitted for consideration should not be used by the editor-in-chief, members of the editorial board or editorial staff for personal purposes or transferred to third parties (without written consent).
3.9. The editor-in-chief should not allow the submitted article to be published if there are sufficient grounds to believe that it is plagiarized.
3.10. The article, if accepted for publication, is placed in the public domain, the copyright remains with the authors.
3.11. In accordance with international law regarding compliance with copyright on electronic information resources, materials of the site, electronic journal or project cannot be reproduced in whole or in part in any form (electronic or printed) without the prior written consent of the journal editorial office. When using published materials in the context of other documents, a reference to the original source is required.
3.12. The editor-in-chief and the journal editorial staff must ensure the confidentiality of the names and other information related to reviewers.
- Principles of professional ethics in the activities of the publisher
The publisher is responsible for the publication of author’s works, adhering to the following fundamental principles and procedures:
4.1. To promote the fulfillment of ethical duties by the editorial office, editorial and publishing group, editorial board, reviewers and authors in accordance with these requirements.
4.2. Provide support to the journal editorial board in considering claims regarding the ethical aspects of published materials and assist in interacting with other journals and/or publishers if this facilitates the fulfillment of the editors’ duties.
4.3. Adhere to the provision that the journal’s activities are not a commercial project and are not aimed at making a profit.
4.4. Facilitate the process of publishing corrections, clarifications, refutations and apologies when necessary.
4.5. Be always ready to publish corrections, clarifications, refutations and apologies when necessary.
4.64.. Provide the journal editorial board with the opportunity to withdraw publications containing plagiarism and unreliable data.
The Regulations on the Ethics of Scientific Publications were approved by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Superhard Materials”, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine V.Z. Turkevich September 13, 2019