Discourses on Culture Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

The Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement for Discourses on Culture
has been compiled in accordance with COPE’s Core Practices and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. In case any form of malpractice is uncovered, the journal’s editors follow the workflow specified by the Committee on Publication Ethics (for more information, please see: https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts).

Journal information
Discourses on Culture is a semi-annual, open access journal, published by the University of Social Sciences. There are no associated subscription charges or pay-per-view fees.

Publication Decisions
The Editor-in-Chief decides which manuscripts submitted to Discourses on Culture are suitable for publication. The editor’s decision to accept or reject a submission is based on the work’s importance, originality, clarity, and its relevance to the scope of the journal, as well as the quality of the language used, and observance of all relevant legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.
Editors are open to discussions on articles published in the journal, and these debates can also be published in subsequent issues. Authors of papers under discussion are given the right to respond appropriately.
Fair Play
The Editor-in-Chief shall not consider the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, nationality, or political philosophy as pertinent to the selection of articles for publication in Discourses on Culture. The author’s affiliation or academic title does not have any impact on any publication decisions. All decisions are made without any interference from the University.

Confidentiality
This journal uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. While under review, the Editor-in-Chief or the editorial staff shall not disclose any information about the submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, peer reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest 

Without the author’s written consent, all unpublished original materials featured in the submitted manuscript will never be used by the Editor-in-Chief or the members of the editorial staff for their own research purposes.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS
Contribution to Editorial Decisions
Peer reviewers shall provide the Editor-in-Chief with information that will allow them to make an informed decision concerning the potential publication of the manuscript in Discourses on Culture.

Promptness
Peer reviewers shall deliver their reviews promptly (recommended timeframe: 4-6 weeks), or shall notify the Editor-in-Chief about any circumstances that prevent them from delivering their reviews in a timely manner.

Standards of Review
Peer reviewers shall provide the author with relevant feedback on the submitted manuscript.  This will allow the author to revise the contribution to meet the highest standards of academic quality, as well as offer the author the opportunity to improve their academic writing in the future.

Standards of Objectivity
Peer reviewers shall be wholly impartial when evaluating the submission. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Peer reviewers should express their views clearly and constructively to support their comments. Under no circumstances should peer reviewers use their reviews to bolster their own academic or professional status.

Confidentiality
All manuscripts received for peer review are treated with the utmost confidentiality. Submissions must not be shown to or discussed with other parties, except where prior authorisation is given by the Editor-in-Chief.
Acknowledgement of Sources
When evaluating submissions, peer reviewers are obliged to identify cases where they believe sources  have been insufficiently or incorrectly identified, or where they believe potential plagiarism may have occurred. In this event, peer reviewers must notify the Editor-in-Chief.
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
Peer reviewers must make the Editor-in-Chief aware of any potential conflicts of interest that may impact the reviewing process (for more information, please see the relevant policy on identifying competing interests, http://dyskursy.san.edu.pl/docs/conflict-of-interest-statement.pdf). Peer reviewers should not assess manuscripts where there are any competitive, collaborative, or other links with authors, companies, or institutions connected to the submitted manuscript.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF AUTHORS
Reporting Standards
In submitting their manuscript to Discourses on Culture, authors undertake to offer an honest and precise description of their research procedures as well as an objective discussion of the study’s importance to the wider research community. Authors must present reliable and verifiable data, and the manuscript should contain sufficient details and references to permit others to replicate the study.
Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication
Authors should not submit manuscripts describing identical research projects to more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is wholly unacceptable.
Data Access and Retention
Upon request, authors shall provide the raw data used in their study for assessment by the Editorial Board, supported by an expert in the field represented by the contribution. If necessary, and if permitted to by law (assuming individual, including proprietary and confidentiality rights, are not imperilled), then authors should also be prepared to make this data available for public consumption.

Originality and Plagiarism
Authors must ensure that the submitted manuscript is entirely their own original and unpublished work. In the event that the work and/or words of others have been used, then these need to be acknowledged appropriately in citations or quotations. Authors agree that plagiarism is not only a crime, but also a degrading act within academia as a whole. Therefore, authors must take special care to ensure that the highest level of academic integrity is maintained in all manuscripts which are submitted for consideration.

Work by others must always be acknowledged in the proper format. Authors must cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of their study.

Anti-plagiarism measures
In order to guarantee the originality and high quality of the articles published in Discourses on Culture, the journal follows established procedures regarding plagiarism, and is a member of the Uniform Anti-Plagiarism System service. The aim of the Uniform Anti-Plagiarism System is to provide publishers with professional support to prevent plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct. It is a high-quality tool for comparing documents against the largest database of academic content in the world, which is based on contributions obtained from numerous publishers.
Where academic misconduct is suspected, the individual(s) in question will be contacted and asked to provide clarification. Authors who inform the editors that they are the victims of plagiarism will always receive assistance from the Editorial Board.

Authorship of the Paper
Authorship shall be limited to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the manuscript submitted to Discourses on Culture, whether in terms of data, conception, methodology, or the execution of the research study. All individuals who have performed work substantially related to the contribution shall be given proper credit as co-authors, irrespective of their status in the academic hierarchy, with research assistants and students being no exception to this rule.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works
The Editor-in-Chief must be notified in the event of  authors discovering any fundamental errors or inaccuracies in their own work. Authors must submit a request to retract or correct the article in question.

Copyright
Subject to the acceptance and publication of their work, authors retain the copyright for articles published in Discourses on Culture, with first publication rights granted to the journal. Authors agree that their work will be disseminated under the provisions of the Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

 Archiving
In the event the journal ceases publication, all content will be stored in a password-protected computer on the University of Social Sciences server. This server is managed by the University’s server administration in accordance with the University's requirements regarding the protection of sensitive data. Unless data from these files is used for further research, electronic backup files will be kept for ten years from the date of the journal’s final publication.  

Based on: Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Core Practices and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Accessed at https://publicationethics.org/core-practices.