Code of Ethics
Code of Ethics
The Editorial Team of the Polish‐German Annual strives to maintain the highest standards of quality of the texts published and undertakes measures to counteract any negligence of standards. All parties involved in the publication process, whether it is an author, an editor, a reviewer or a publisher, are obliged to abide by the principles of ethics in scientific publications.
Responsibilities of the Editorial Team
Decision‑Making Process Concerning Publication
The Editor‐in‐Chief takes full responsibility for all the materials published in the journal. Decisions concerning the acceptance or rejection of a paper are made based on the importance, originality and transparency of the submitted text, moreover the validity of research and its relevance to the subject matter of the journal is taken into account.
Fair Play Principle
The submitted articles are evaluated based on their quality and importance for the journal irrespective of the author’s nationality, ethnicity, political views, gender, race or religion.
Confidentiality
The Editorial Team must protect the confidential information including but not limited to all materials submitted, all findings, determinations associated with the publication process at its every stage, except for information disclosed by the journal itself.
Disclosure of Information and Conflict of Interest
Information obtained during the publishing process should not be used neither by editors nor reviewers without a written permission of the author.
Engagement and Cooperation Handling Misconduct Allegations
The Editorial Team will pursue suspected or alleged research and publication misconduct.
Responsibilities of the Reviewers
Participation in the Decision‐Making Process
The Reviewer supports the Editor in making editorial decisions in the publication process.
Timeliness
The Reviewer should agree to review a manuscript for which he/she has the appropriate knowledge and only if he/she is fairly confident that a review can be completed within the proposed time‐frame.
Confidentiality
The Reviewer is required to respect the confidentiality of review and not reveal any details of a manuscript or its review.
Standards of Objectivity
Reviews should constitute an objective and constructive assessment and feedback. Personal criticism and derogatory personal comments to authors are inappropriate behavior.
Confirmation of Source
The Reviewer should identify any published texts not cited by the Author. Any resemblance of the evaluated manuscript to the work of other authors should be reported to the Editor.
Disclosure of Information and Conflict of Interest
Information obtained in the review process cannot be used for the personal benefits. Reviewers are obliged to inform the Editor if there is any potential conflict of interest (the Reviewer must not have any collaborative or close personal connections, including kinship with the Author).
Responsibilities of the Authors
Access and Storage of Data
The Author should keep accurate records of the source data associated with the submitted manuscript and may be asked to provide access to this data during the publishing process.
Originality and Plagiarism
The Author shall confirm that the submitted manuscript is original and all cited works of other authors shall be presented in an appropriate manner. Plagiarism is treated as unethical and improper behavior.
Duplication and Competitiveness
The Author shall confirm that the manuscript submitted for publication has been neither previously published nor is in the process of verification/review in any other journal. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal is unethical and unacceptable behavior.
Confirmation and Reliability of Sources
The Author shall cite and indicate all sources and publications, which he/she used to write the manuscript. The intellectual contribution of other people shall be confirmed by their express written consent.
Authorship
Authorship shall be limited to persons who substantially contributed to study conceptualization, data realization and interpretation. The Author is required to indicate all co-authors contributing to the publication, as well as to obtain written consent for publication from them.
Disclosure of Information and Conflict of Interest
The Author shall disclose any information about the sources of financing the publication, the contribution of scientific and research institutions, associations and other entities, and report any potential conflicts of interest.
Errors in Published Papers
The Author shall immediately notify the editors if he/she notices significant errors in the submitted material. In cooperation with the Editor‐in‐Chief and the Publisher, an erratum, annex, correcting or withdrawing the publication shall be introduced.
The regulations above have been developed based on the COPE guidelines described in the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and in COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers as well as in a study “Good Practices in Review Procedures in Science”, Warsaw 2011.
