Publishing Ethics

Making every effort to maintain good academic reputation, all the series of St. Tikhon's University Review (further on – Journal) are committed to principles of publishing ethics accepted by the Association of Science Editors and Publishers (Russia) (Declaration of the Association of Science Editors and Publishers) The Editorial Staff of the Journal adheres to upholding international standards of publication ethics that are presented in guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics. 

Ethics of the Journal

1.1. All publications in all the series of St. Tikhon's University Review are free of charge.

1.2. The Journal does not accept previously published materials, including published partially, or in foreign languages.

1.3. Materials are selected for publication after being reviewed according to criteria of the Journal, which follow standards of academic ethics as well as legal requirements, namely the exclusion of libel, plagiarism, autoplagiarism, falsification and violation of intellectual property rights.   

1.4. The evaluation of submitted materials is carried out free of bias as to the race, sex, ethnicity, nationality, religious and political views of the author.

1.5. Materials submitted to the Journal are reviewed by appropriate experts.

1.6. The policy of double-blind reviewing is employed, i.e. the identity of the author is concealed from the reviewer, and vice versa. The decision as to the publication, rejection or revision is taken within three months since the submission.

1.7. In the case of a favorable decision, the Journal informs the author about the estimated time of publication. In the case of rejection or the need of revision, the author is provided with sufficient reasons for this decision.

1.8. If the reviewer does not recommend a paper for publication, the review is presented to the author on demand with no indication of the reviewer's name.

1.9. Submitted materials are automatically checked for inappropriate borrowings and plagiarism. 

1.10. The Journal is obliged to take measures in the case of complaints of the ethical character related to submitted or previously published materials. The complaint has to be considered by and discussed with the administration of the Journal, with the consequent publication of correction, refutation or a relevant explanation.

1.11. The Journal reserves the right for the retraction of papers. The term retraction implies the withdrawal of a paper submitted to the Journal, which can take place in the in following cases:

1) revealing facts of fabrication or falsification of the data presented in the paper,

2) revealing borrowings that are unjustified in terms of the content and the volume (including autoplagiarism).

The procedure of retraction can be implemented both during the editorial work on the paper and, if the facts listed above became known later, after the publication. In this case, the paper is retracted both from the Journal and its official website and from academic databases where the paper was uploaded. The relevant information is published in the next issue following the procedure of retraction.

1.12. The Journal does not disclose information on the submitted material to anybody except the author, reviewers, potential reviewers, staff members of the publishing office.

1.13. The Journal is obliged not to employ the submitted material in the work of the members of the Editorial Board, reviewers and other staff dealing with the manuscript.

1.14. The Journal is obliged not to publish the submitted material if the conflict of interests takes place. The Journal is also obliged to request information from the author as to the possibility of the conflict of interests.

1.15. The Journal stimulates discussions and gives the opportunity for expressing opposing opinions.

1.16. In case of rotations in the editorial board the Journal undertakes to preserve the decision on acceptance.

Authors' ethics

2.1. The author should demonstrate the relevance of his/her study for the contemporary scholarship and guarantee the tenability, correctness and unbiased character of data given in the submitted material.

2.2. The author should guarantee the original character of the submitted material and make appropriate references according to Submission Guidelines of the Journal.

2.3. The author should guarantee the absence of any form of plagiarism, autoplagiarism, falsification in the submitted material.

2.4. The author should guarantee that the submitted material has not been submitted to other Journals, not is it under consideration for publication elsewhere.

2.5. The author should mention in the submitted material all persons having contributed to the research in question, either by means of including them in the number of co-authors or by expressing gratitude to them in the text of the submitted material. 

2.6. The author should guarantee that all co-authors agree with the final version of the submitted material.

2.7. The authors are advised to mention organisations and foundations that have provided funding for their research.

2.8. The author should promptly notify the Editorial Board of any inaccuracies and mistakes detected in the submitted material.

Reviewers' ethics

The reviewer giving opinion on the scientific merit of the paper submitted to the Journal is invited to provide the following:

3.1. To give objective and unbiased decisions;

3.2. To ensure confidentiality, i.e. unpublished papers must not be shown to or discussed with other persons, except those authorised by the editor;

3.3. Not to use for self-profit the information obtained from the paper during the reviewing;

3.4.To withdraw from reviewing and notify the Editorial Board thereof if his/her qualification appears unsufficient for considering the paper subject to reviewing, or if the failure to meet the deadline for submitting the review may take place;

3.5. To take decisions based on solid facts and provide evidence for his/her decision;

3.6. To attract the attention of the Editorial Board to significant or partial similarity of the paper reviewed to some other paper, as well as to point out to the Editorial Board the absence of relevant references to papers previously published by the same author or other authors;

3.7. To assist the author in enhancing the paper;

3.8. Not to use data from the unpublished paper in his/her own research.