Publication ethics, anti- plagiarism and conflict of interest

Publication ethics can be downloaded here.

In the field of editorial policy, the journal «Measurements Infrastructure» meets the high publishing standards of ethical conduct COPE Code of Conduct and Core practices approved by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) at all stages of the publishing process.

These standards define the responsibilities for publishing ethics of authors, reviewers and the editorial board of the publishing house.

Ethical authors’ obligations:

• The authors and all established co-authors approve the final version of the article as accepted for publication and are fully responsible for its content and fact of its publication.
• Authors should provide reliable research results and ensure that the research results presented in given paper are completely original.
• Authors should comply with the publication requirements. Borrowed fragments or statements should be draw up with the obligatory indication of the author and the original source. Literary sources used in the work should be properly designed in accordance with the requirements of the journal (Vancouver style). Over-borrowing as well as plagiarism in any form, especially unquoted quotations, paraphrasing or assigning rights in the results of other people's research are unacceptable. Permissions from original authors (and original publishers, if they own the copyright) should be obtained. References should be useful and relevant to the reader.
• Authors should recognize the contribution of all persons who had been influenced on the course of study in either case.
• Authors should ensure that they do not send the same manuscript to other publishers.
• If the author finds significant errors or uncertainties in the article at the stage of its consideration or after publication, he/she should immediately inform the editorial board.
• Authors and co-authors are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest when submitting their article and should be notified in Recognition Section.

The Editorial Board/Council has the right to refuse to publish the article in case of non-compliance with these requirements.

Ethical obligations of reviewers:

• The reviewers’ names are kept strictly confidential. Reviewers' identities can only be disclosed to members of the journal's editorial board, who are also assigned the maintaining confidentiality. The reviewer should not disclose his identity to the authors, including sending reports directly to the authors.
• Every scientist who submits an article for publication, shall perform a definite part of work in review.
• All members of the Editorial Board/Council are reviewers.
• Reviewer shall objectively evaluate the quality of the manuscript, presented experimental and theoretical work, its interpretation and presentation, and also consider the extent to which work meets academic standards and requirements for its design. The review should be clear and argued. Reviewer should respect the intellectual independence of authors.
• The reviewer should draw the editor's attention to the similarity of the article with any other in whole or in part.
• The reviewer is required to identify in the reviewed material statements, arguments, conclusions that have already been used in other publications earlier and were not cited by the authors. It should properly drawn up as citation. The editor reserves the right to appeal excessive citation suggestions, especially regarding the own reviewer's work. The editor reserves the right to exclude citation suggestions from reports to protect the reviewers’ anonymity.
• If the reviewer suspects that he/she knows the identity of the author/co-author, he/she should inform the editor about the potential conflict of interest. The editors will select an alternative reviewer.

Ethical obligations of the Journal’s Editorial Board/Council:

• The thoughts and proposals, mentioned in the articles, do not necessarily coincide with the editorial board’s point of view. The authors are responsible for the trustworthiness of information in the articles, the exactness of names, statistical data, surnames and quotations.
• Editorial Board reserves the right to reject an article or return it for revision. The author, in turn, is obliged to finish the article according to comments of reviewers and editorial board.
• Editorial Board/Council may reject a manuscript without review if it is considered not match the Journals’ politic.
• Evaluation of articles is provided solely on the basis of scientific and/or practical significance, validity of the submitted material and topicality for the journal respective of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious commitments, ethnic origin, citizenship or political commitments of the author.
• Editorial Board/Council may remove even already published article under finding out the violation of someone's rights or accepted norms of scientific ethics. On the fact of removing the article editors informs the author, who provided the article and the organization where the work was performed.
• Editorial Board/Council allows the spread of any Journal articles or extracts from them in electronic networks, but references to the source is required.
• According to international law in part of compliance of authors rights about informational resources, Journal materials cannot be reproduced in whole or in part in any form (electronic or printed) without the prior written consent of the authors and editors of the Journal. In fact of using the published material in the context of other documents is necessary to reference to the source.
• The Editorial Board/Council obligated not to disclose information about the manuscripts (including their obtaining, content, review status, criticism of the reviewers or final solution) to other persons except the authors and reviewers. This includes requests to use materials for legal actions.
• The editor reserves the right to appeal excessive citation suggestions, especially regarding the own reviewer's work. The editor reserves the right to exclude citation suggestions from reports to protect the reviewers’ anonymity.
• The decision to publish the paper is made by the chief editor, taking into account copyright law and the opinions of other editors or reviewers.

Preventing anti-plagiarism

The editors inform the authors that they bear full personal responsibility for the authenticity of the contents of the articles.

In order to avoid borrowing or incorrect using of the research results of third parties, editors comply with the authors the Ethics of academic citation.

In order to counteract plagiarism editor board carries out the following steps:

• By decision of the deputy chief editor the article is tested for borrowings from third parties work without proper attributions by a computer program.
• During the review of the article the reviewer concludes about the absence or presence of plagiarism in it.

If plagiarism is revealed during editing the article is returned to the author.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript should not be used in any research of the editor, reviewers or any other informed person without the written consent of the authors. Privileged information or arguments obtained through peer review should be kept confidential and not used for personal or third party advantage. Editor and any member of the editorial board should release themselves from the duties of considering manuscripts in case of any conflicts of interest resulting from collaborative, competitive, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies/institutions having relevance to the manuscripts. Editor should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests. In case of revealing the competing interests after publication, the corrections should be published. A rejection or expression of concern may be published if needed.

Privileged information or arguments obtained through peer review should be kept confidential and not used for personal or third party advantage. Reviewers should release themselves from the duties of manuscripts consideration in case of any conflicts of interest resulting from collaborative, competitive, or other relationships or connections with any of the author(s), companies/institutions having relevance to the manuscripts.

Editors will take reviewer’s misconduct seriously and investigate any evidence of confidentiality breach, non-declaration of conflicts of interest (both financial and non-financial), inappropriate use of confidential material, or delay of peer review for competitive advantage. Allegations of severe reviewer misconduct (e.g. plagiarism) will be taken to the institutional level.