Publication ethics

Publication ethics and malpractice statement

Authors' responsibilities:

• The authors are obliged to participate in peer review process, respond to reviewers' comments and make suggested modifications based on these comments. In disputable cases they can appeal to editors of the journal with particular objections or retract the paper respectively.
• The collective of authors should only comprise those members, who have significantly contributed to achievement of research results presented.
• The main topic of the paper must not be published in some other journals.
• The authors have to follow the instructions for authors and observe the citation rules laid down.
• The authors must sign a statement that all data in their article are real and authentic.

Editorial responsibilities:

• The editors are responsible for the content of the journal and quality of articles published.
• The editors maintain objectivity with all articles submitted, i.e. they are obliged to avoid conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject/accept, and respect the main criteria of article selection: professional level and relevance of the article; conformity of the topic with professional focus of the journal.
• The editors are obliged to preserve anonymity of both reviewers and authors within the peer review process.
• In cooperation with editorial board, the editors address possible appeals of the authors against reviewers' comments and other complaints.
• The editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.

Reviewers' responsibilities:

• The reviewer has to be objective in his/her assessment.
• The reviewer must not misuse information stated in the article under review for personal or other gain.
• The reviewer can reject to assess a paper for reasons of competing professional interests: professional, financial or personal benefit from accepting/rejecting the paper under review; cooperation on given project in the past five years; fundamental difference in opinions on the main topic of the paper under review; close professional or personal relationship to the author or some member of the collective of authors.
• Unless the reviewer rejects to make an assessment for the above reasons, editorial office takes it for granted that no conflict of interests exists.
• The reviewer should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited by the author.

Responsibilities of editorial board:

• Editorial board constantly makes efforts to improve the professional and formal quality of the journal, supports the freedom of speech, and in compliance with generally accepted ethics it is always willing to publish corrections, retractions and apologies by prior arrangement.
• Editorial board issues instructions concerning the whole editorial work (instructions for authors, guidelines for peer review process and reviewers etc.).
• Editorial board guarantees observation of the above rules.