Academic integrity is of great importance for the development of science, scholarly publications, and universities. Compliance by authors with the requirements of academic integrity is a prerequisite for the successful development of the journal/collection, the increase of its citation rate, and the expansion of its readership.

According to subparagraph 31 of paragraph 1 of Article 58 of the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education,” academic, research, and teaching staff are obliged to “observe academic integrity in the educational process and in scholarly (creative) activity and to ensure its observance by students of higher education.”

In accordance with Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine “On Education,” “academic integrity is a set of ethical principles and legally established rules that participants in the educational process must follow during learning, teaching, and scholarly (creative) activity in order to ensure trust in learning outcomes and/or scholarly (creative) achievements.”

Violations of academic integrity that may be identified during the editorial and publishing process include:

• academic plagiarism — the publication (in whole or in part) of scholarly (creative) results obtained by other persons as the results of one’s own research (creative work), and/or the reproduction of published texts (or disclosed works of art) of other authors without attribution;

• self-plagiarism — the publication (in whole or in part) of one’s own previously published scientific results as new scientific results;

• fabrication — the invention of data or facts used in the educational process or in scientific research;

• falsification — the deliberate alteration or modification of existing data relating to the educational process or scientific research;

• deception — the provision of knowingly false information regarding one’s own educational (scientific, creative) activity or the organization of the educational process; forms of deception include, in particular, academic plagiarism, self-plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, and cheating by authors

(Paragraph 4 of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine “On Education”);

• the provision or receipt by a participant in the editorial process, or an offer to provide or receive, money, property, services, benefits, or any other material or non-material advantages in order to distort the publication process and secure a positive decision on publication of an article;

• biased evaluation of a submitted work — the deliberate overestimation or underestimation by reviewers or editors of the results or content of the research;

• making changes to the text of a submitted manuscript without the authors’ consent.

All allegations of violations of academic integrity must be referred to the Editor-in-Chief. In cases of suspected academic misconduct, the Editors-in-Chief will act in accordance with the relevant COPE guidelines and the internal documents of the journal’s founder, namely the Ethical Aspects of Research and Data Protection policy.

If reviewers or editors provide comments indicating a potential violation of academic integrity, the authors will be invited to provide an explanation. If the explanation is satisfactory and the issue is the result of an error or misunderstanding, the problem may be resolved easily. If not, the manuscript will be rejected or retracted, and the editorial board may impose a ban on publication by the author(s) in the journal/collection for a certain period of time.

In the event of published plagiarism or duplicate publication in several journals/collections, a notice explaining the situation will be issued.

If the allegations concern authors, the review and publication process for their submission will be suspended until the matter is resolved. The investigation will be conducted even if the authors withdraw the manuscript.

If the allegations concern reviewers or editors, they will be replaced in the review process during the ongoing investigation.

For violations of academic integrity, authors, reviewers, and/or editors may be subject to the following academic sanctions:

• refusal of publication, with notification to the institution of the author’s or reviewer’s primary affiliation regarding the violation of academic integrity identified during the editorial process;

• deprivation of the editor’s or reviewer’s right to participate in the work of the journal’s editorial office.

The procedure for considering violations of academic integrity by authors, editors, or reviewers of the scholarly journal/collection who are employees of the Institute предусматривает the participation of the head of the relevant Institute subdivision in which the accused person or group of persons works, as well as the Editor-in-Chief, the handling editor of the journal, and staff of the Coordination Center.

Any person against whom the issue has been raised that they violated academic integrity / failed to observe academic integrity has the following rights:

• to ознакомитися with all materials of the review concerning the establishment of the fact of violation of academic integrity and to submit comments on them;

• to provide oral and written explanations personally or through a representative, or to refuse to provide any explanations, and to participate in the examination of evidence of academic misconduct;

• to know the date, time, and place of, and to be present during, the consideration of the issue of establishing the fact of violation of academic integrity and imposing academic responsibility;

• to appeal the decision on the imposition of academic responsibility to the body authorized to consider appeals or to a court (Paragraph 8 of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine “On Education”).

An honest mistake or a difference of opinion does not constitute a violation of academic integrity.