Publishing Ethics
Legal framework that guaranties publication ethics is provided by international standards: statements approved by the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, 22–24 July and the regulations contained in Chapter 70 “Copyright” of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
Editors of the annual “The Earliest States of Eastern Europe” published by the Institute of World History, RAS, vouches to adhere to:
- Ethics of the publication of academic papers;
- Ethics of authorship of academic papers;
- Ethics of peer reviewing of academic papers;
- Ethics of editing of academic papers.
Ethics of the publication of academic papers
Editorial board of the annual “The Earliest States of Eastern Europe
- ensures that all submitted materials would be considered; guarantees the editors’ independence and integrity in decision making without discrimination of authors on grounds of ethnicity, religious beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, citizenship, political opinions or position of the author;
- makes decisions on acceptance or refusal to publish the submitted materials (articles, sources, reviews, etc.) on the bases of expertise appraisals of independent reviewers. The refusal to publish materials before their reviewing is possible on occasions when the theme of the material does not correspond to the Annual’s subject area; the material does not compile with scholar requirements; the material has been already published in the Russian language in another place;
- implements the policy to ensure that materials published in the Annual make a substantial contribution to scholarship (in the field of Russian and world history of the Antiquity and the Middle Ages (up to the 14th century), source criticism, history of culture and religion;
- implements the policy of inviting high qualified scholars to be members of editorial board and editorial council who can actively contribute to the development of the Annual.
AUTHORSHIP ETHICS
- By submitting a paper, the authors confirm their authorship of the submitted material and guarantee that a) all those who have participated in contributing to the submitted material (in research or writing the text) are acknowledged as co-authors, and b) the list of authors include only those who substantially contributed to the preparation of the submitted material. Each co-author takes public responsibility for the content of the article.
- The materials submitted to the Annual should not be under consideration in any other publication or having been published previously in the Russian language as a material defended by copyright.
- By submitting a manuscript, the author agrees that the copyright will be transferred to the Annual “The Earliest States of Eastern Europe” if the manuscript and associated multimedia are accepted for publication. The author retains the rights to the fair use (e.g., teaching and nonprofit uses) of the published material.
- Financial support of the research presented in the submitted materials as well as any other kind of support should be clearly stated in the manuscript.
- All sources of information substantial for the submitted material (including author’s own previously published articles) are to be stated in the form of citations and/or references.
- Any form of plagiarism is inadmissible. Self-plagiarism (i.e. re-publication of parts of earlier published works) is undesirable.
- Authors should endeavor to ensure that the submitted material contains no fictitious data, reference omissions, or false statements.
- In case a major mistake or inaccuracy is discovered in the submitted material, be it approved for publication or already published, authors should promptly notify the editors.
- Authors should follow applicable copyright laws and conventions. Copyright materials (i.e. tables, pictures, etc.) could be reproduced only with the appropriate permission of their owners which should be acknowledged in the text.
- Authors should follow academic forms of polemics and avoid offensive, disparaging and personal criticism and accusations of other researches.
PEER REVIEW ETHICS
- The editorial board guarantees that independent peer-reviewing of the submitted materials is conducted in the way that ensures an objective estimation of scholarly value of the submitted materials.
- The peer-reviewing is conducted mainly by the members of the editorial board and the editorial council, if necessary, by invited external experts. The editorial board invites independent reviewers to evaluate the materials submitted for publication in the Annual by selecting those scholars who have sufficient experience in the relevant field of studies and lack the conflict of interests with reviewed research, the authors of the reviewed materials or the institutions financing the relevant research.
- Reviewers should supply well-reasoned expertise appraisal for each material under consideration. Reviewers should name relevant publications that have not been cited by the author(s) in the submitted materials and attract editor’s attention to any significant similarity or coincidence of the reviewed materials and any publication known to the reviewer.
EDITORIAL ETHIC
- The editorial board makes decisions on acceptance or refusal of the submitted materials for publication basing on the expertise appraisals of independent reviewers. The editors are obliged to inform the author of the decision; in case the submitted material is declined, the author is to be informed about the reasons for refusal of the submitted materials.
- The editors should guarantee that the published materials conform to the international scholarly level and satisfy international standards of scholarly and publishing ethics.
- The editorial board approves the submitted materials for publication in the Annual in accordance with their conviction in their conformity to the requirements of the Annual. The editors should guarantee high quality of the published materials and their intellectual value as well as publish emendations, explanations and apologies in case of necessity.
- The editors should have no conflicts of interests with the authors of the submitted materials.
- The editorial board should protect the confidentiality of materials submitted by authors and inform reviewers that they are under obligation to keep the materials confidential as well. Editors should not inform any other than authors of a paper of its status.
- The editorial board should protect the confidentiality of personal information of the reviewers.
- Meetings of the editorial board are held once a year; all members of the editorial board and the editorial council are invited to the meetings. At the meetings the editorial policy of the Annual is established, the received materials are discussed and decisions are made on the acceptance or rejection of the submitted materials. Decisions are made on the basis of preliminary examination carried out on the basis of blind review by at least two experts.