Policies

The journal follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The requirements apply equally to authors, reviewers and the editorial office.

Authors

• Submissions must be original, previously unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere.
• Data must be reported accurately and honestly; fabrication and falsification are prohibited.
• Ideas, data and text of others must be properly cited.
• Only persons who made a substantial contribution are listed as co-authors.
• Funding sources and conflicts of interest must be disclosed.
• Authors must promptly notify the editors of any significant error found in a published paper.

Reviewers

• Treat manuscripts as confidential documents.
• Provide objective, well-reasoned and constructive assessments.
• Decline to review in case of a conflict of interest or lack of expertise.
• Submit their reports on time.

Editors

• Decide solely on the basis of scientific merit, relevance and fit with the journal's scope.
• Treat all authors equally regardless of nationality, gender, religion, political views or position.
• Keep information about manuscripts and reviewers confidential.
• Investigate any reported ethical concerns.

Misconduct

Plagiarism, data falsification, duplicate publication or improper authorship lead to rejection; published papers are retracted with an official notice.

All research papers undergo double-blind peer review: authors and reviewers remain anonymous to each other.

Stages

1. Initial screening. The executive secretary checks scope and formatting.
2. Originality check with plagiarism-detection software.
3. Reviewer assignment. The editor-in-chief or a board member assigns at least two independent expert reviewers.
4. Review. Reviewers assess relevance, novelty, methodology, soundness of results and presentation. Typical time: 2–4 weeks.
5. Decision: accept, minor revision, major revision and re-review, or reject.
6. Revision. Authors upload the revised manuscript and a point-by-point response via the online dashboard.
7. Production. Accepted papers are copyedited, typeset and published in the next issue.

For authors

Manuscript status is visible in the dashboard. Reviewer comments are shared anonymously. Authors may submit a reasoned appeal against a decision.

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism in any form.

Screening

• All manuscripts are checked with plagiarism-detection software before peer review.
• Required originality is at least 75% (properly formatted quotations and references excluded).
• The editors may re-check papers after publication.

What counts as plagiarism

• using someone else's text, ideas or data without citation;
• reusing one's own published text without citation (self-plagiarism);
• translating a text without acknowledging the source;
• publishing the same study in more than one journal.

Consequences

Plagiarised manuscripts are rejected. If plagiarism is found after publication, the paper is retracted and a notice is published.

The journal supports the responsible use of artificial intelligence tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, translation and editing software, etc.).

Authors

• An AI tool cannot be an author or co-author, as it cannot take responsibility for the work.
• Any use of AI for editing, translation, coding or data analysis must be disclosed in the Methods or Acknowledgements section (tool name and purpose).
• Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of AI-assisted text, data and references. Citing non-existent sources is a breach of publication ethics.
• AI-generated images and figures must be labelled as such.

Reviewers

Manuscripts are confidential and must not be uploaded, in whole or in part, to public AI services. Review reports must reflect the reviewer's own expert judgement.

Editors

If undisclosed AI use is suspected, the editors may ask the authors for clarification and, if necessary, reject the paper.

The journal follows the Open Access model: all published articles are free to read and download without registration.

Licence

Articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence: anyone may read, copy, distribute and reuse the work provided the authors and the original source (journal, issue, pages) are properly credited.

Copyright

• Authors retain copyright.
• Authors grant the journal the right of first publication and distribution.
• Authors may post the published version on personal pages, institutional repositories or academic networks with a reference to the journal.

Archiving

All issues are permanently kept in the archive on the journal website.

Personal data provided during registration and submission (name, e-mail, phone, affiliation, ORCID) are used solely for journal operations: manuscript handling, peer review, publication and communication with authors.

• Data are not shared with third parties or used for any other purpose.
• Published papers show only the author's name, affiliation and, if the author wishes, e-mail and ORCID.
• Reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors.
• The site uses an anonymous identifier to count visits; no personal tracking tools are used.
• Users may update their profile or request account deletion at any time.

Please contact the editorial office with any questions.