Academic Integrity Violations Policy
Academic integrity is very important for the development of science, scientific publications and universities. Authors’ and researchers’ compliance with the requirements of academic integrity is the key to the successful development of the journal, increasing of its impact and reputation, and expanding the circle of readers.
According to the provision of subsection 31, paragraph 1 of Article 58 of the Law of Ukraine >On Higher Education</a, faculty and staff are obliged to: “observe academic integrity in the educational process and scientific (creative) activity and ensure its observance by higher education students”.
According to Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine On Education “academic integrity is a set of ethical principles and rules defined by law, which should be guided by the participants of the educational process during learning, teaching and carrying out scientific (creative) activities in order to ensure trust in the results of studies and/ or scientific (creative) achievements”.
Violations of academic integrity that may be detected during the editorial and publishing process are:
- academic plagiarism – publishing (partially or completely) scientific (creative) results obtained by other persons as the results of one’s own research (creativity) and/or reproduction of published texts (published works of art) of other authors without indicating authorship;
- self-plagiarism – publishing (partially or completely) one’s own previously published scientific results as new scientific results;
- fabrication – inventing data or facts used in the educational process or scientific research;
- falsification – a deliberate change or modification of already available data related to the educational process or scientific research;
- deception - provision of knowingly false information about one’s own educational (scientific, creative) activity or the organization of the educational process; forms of deception are, in particular, academic plagiarism, self-plagiarism, fabrication, falsification and cheating by authors (clause 4 of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine On Education);
- providing or receiving by a participant in the editorial process or offering to provide (receiving) funds, property, services, benefits or any other benefits of a material or non-material nature in order to distort the publication process and make a positive decision on the publication of the article;
- biased evaluation of the work submitted for publication – deliberate overestimation or underestimation of the results, research content, by reviewers or editors;
- making changes to the text of the submitted manuscript without agreement with the authors.
All claims of breach of academic integrity should be forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief. In the event of a suspected violation of academic integrity, the editors-in-chief will act in accordance with the relevant COPE instructions and the internal documents of the publication’s founder – the Regulation on academic integrity of postgraduate students, doctoral students, applicants for scientific degrees and researchers of the Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the Regulation on Academic Integrity of the Institute).
If reviewers or editors comment on a potential breach of academic integrity, authors will be asked to provide an explanation. If the explanations are satisfactory and the problem is the result of a mistake or misunderstanding, the problem can be easily resolved. If not, the manuscript will be rejected or withdrawn, and the editors may ban such author(s) from publishing in the journal for a period of time.
In case of published plagiarism or double publication in several journals, an announcement will be made explaining the situation.
If the allegations concern the authors, the review and publication process of their submission will be suspended until the said process is completed. The investigation will be conducted even if the authors withdraw the manuscript.
If the allegations involve reviewers or editors, they will be replaced in the review process during the ongoing investigation.
Authors, reviewers and/or editors may be subject to the following academic liability for breach of academic integrity:
- refusal to publish the manuscript with the notification of the institution – the main affiliation of the author or the reviewer about the violation of academic integrity revealed during the editorial process;
- depriving the editor, reviewer of the right to participate in the editorial work of the publication.
The procedure for consideration of violations of academic integrity by authors, editors, reviewers of a scientific journal, including employees of the Institute of Higher Education, in accordance with clause 7.1 of the Regulation on Academic Integrity of the Institute, involves the participation of a commission consisting of 5 people, namely a representative of the Institute’s management, the editor-in-chief, the executive secretary of the journal, and two invited experts on the issue under consideration.
Each person, in relation to whom the issue of having violated academic integrity / failed to comply with academic integrity, has been raised, has the following rights:
- to get acquainted with all inspection materials regarding the establishment of the fact of violation of academic integrity, to submit comments to them;
- personally or through a representative to provide oral and written explanations or to refuse to provide any explanations, to participate in the investigation of evidence of violation of academic integrity;
- to know the date, time and place and to be present during the consideration of the issue of establishing the fact of violation of academic integrity and bringing it to academic responsibility;
- to appeal the decision to bring academic responsibility to the body authorized to consider appeals or to the court (Clause 8 of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine On Education).
Violations of academic integrity do not include "honest error" or disagreement.
