The editors of the journal “Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica” declare that as regards the duties, responsibilities and rights of editors, reviewers, authors, and publishers, they apply ethical principles in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
SCOPE OF DUTIES, RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS OF EDITORS, REVIEWERS AND AUTHORS
Duties, responsibilities and rights of editors
Editorial reliability and independence
Editors evaluate the manuscripts sent by the authors only in terms of their scientific value (significance, originality of the approach, validity of research, transparency) and their relevance to the topic taken up in the magazine. They apply the principles of equal treatment of authors (without differentiation into race, gender, ethnicity, citizenship, institutional affiliation, etc.). Decisions regarding the publication of submitted manuscripts are made only by the editors of the journal. The editor-in-chief decides about all content published in the journal and the dates of their publication.
Confidentiality
Editors and editorial staff are required not to disclose any information about the manuscript sent to the editor. Exceptions are: designated correspondent author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and, in justified cases, publisher.
Disclosure of information and conflicts of interest
Editors and editorial staff are required not to use unpublished information contained in the manuscript sent to the editor for their own research purposes unless they obtain the appropriate written consent of the authors. In addition, the information provided in the editorial process is not used for their personal benefit and is treated as confidential. Editors are required to withdraw from manuscript reviews in the event of a conflict of interest arising from competitive activities, cooperation, or other connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with published content; in this case, another editorial board member reviews the manuscript.
Decisions regarding publication
The editors declare that all manuscripts submitted and considered for publication are reviewed by at least two reviewers who are experts in the given field. The editor-in-chief is responsible for deciding which of the manuscripts sent to the journal will be published, taking into account the opinions of reviewers, the significance of the article for other researchers and readers, and in accordance with copyright laws and compliance with anti-plagiarism verification requirements. The editor-in-chief can make this decision together with the reviewers.
All manuscripts sent to “Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica” are checked for violation of the author's personal rights - plagiarism using the Similarity Check service (https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/), a service enabling editors to view published and sent content in terms of originality by providing access to Turnitin iThenticate software. Cases of suspected misconduct, including plagiarism and duplication of publications, are dealt with in accordance with the basic practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
Engagement and cooperation in research
Editors, in cooperation with the publisher, commit themselves to take appropriate action in the event of ethical doubts regarding an article sent or already published. Any reported unethical publishing behavior will be analyzed, even if it is detected many years after the article is published. The editor-in-chief of the journal's “Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica” follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics. In the event of a breach of ethics by any of the authors, the Ethics Committee meets in the editorial office of "Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica" and considering a specific case, applies penalties appropriate to the degree of breach of ethics, from rectification and apology in the magazine, to withdraw or delete an already published article, with information on the journal's page about its withdrawal.
Duties, responsibilities and rights of reviewers
Contribution to editorial decisions
The opinions sent by the reviewers help the editor-in-chief to make decisions on publishing the content sent by the authors, and through contact with the authors, they are important in the process of improving and refining the content of manuscripts and constitute an important element underlying improvement of the quality of published scientific papers. The editors of “Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica” share the view that there is an obligation of a thorough review in the scientific process.
Review time
Any invited reviewer who feels he or she does not have sufficient knowledge about the content presented in the manuscript or knows that its quick assessment will be impossible, should immediately notify the editors and decline the invitation to review so that it is possible to contact other reviewers. Review time depends on the time and knowledge of the reviewer.
Confidentiality
Manuscripts submitted for review are confidential documents and must be treated as such. The reviewers agree not to disclose their content and not to discuss them with other people. They can do this only in exceptional circumstances and only if they obtain the consent of the editor-in-chief. This also applies to reviewers who declined the invitation to review.
Standards of objectivism
Reviews should be carried out objectively, and reasoning opinions clearly formulated so that the authors can use them to improve the manuscript. The authors' personal criticism is inappropriate.
Confirmation of sources of literature
Reviewers in the evaluation process should identify published papers that have not been cited by the authors. Each statement, which is an observation, conclusion or evidence submitted in previous publications, should be accompanied by a relevant source from the literature. The reviewer should also notify the editor-in-chief of any significant similarities in the reviewed manuscripts, overlapping with other manuscripts / sources of which he is aware.
Disclosure of information and conflicts of interest
An invited reviewer who has a conflict of interest resulting from competitive relationships, cooperation or other connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions related to the content described in the manuscript should immediately notify the editors and decline the invitation to review so that it is possible to contact other reviewers.
Unpublished content contained in the submitted manuscript may not be used for the reviewer's own research unless he obtains the appropriate written consent of all authors. Information or ideas obtained through peer review must be confidential and may not be used for the personal benefit of the reviewer. This also applies to reviewers who decline a review invitation.
Duties, responsibilities and rights of the authors
Standards for content publication
Original, research papers - authors should present a detailed description of the work and its results, and then objectively discuss the meaning of the work. The manuscript should contain detailed information and relevant sources from literature to allow others to repeat the research.
Review articles - should be reliable, objective and comprehensive, and editorial "opinions" clearly distinguished. False or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are inadmissible.
Data access and storage
Authors may be required to provide raw research results along with a manuscript for editorial review and should be prepared to make them public, if possible. Authors should ensure the availability of such data after publication to other specialists, provided that the confidentiality of study participants can be protected and the rights arising from the collection of proprietary data do not preclude their disclosure.
Originality and plagiarism
The authors declare that the manuscript sent for publication is an original work, and in cases of using the work and / or excerpts from other people's work, provide appropriate citations. The authors are also required to quote publications that had an impact on determining the scope of content published in the submitted work.
Plagiarism can take many forms, from "presenting" another work as your own, by copying or paraphrasing large parts of another work (without quoting), to appropriate the results of research carried out by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
Authorship of the manuscript
Due to the need to be responsible for the content published in the manuscript, only a person / persons who meet the following authorship criteria can be mentioned as the author / authors:
- contributed / significantly contributed to the concept, design, implementation, data collection or analysis / interpretation of the results of the presented research; and
- developed the manuscript or made a critical review in terms of relevant content; and
- approved the final version of the article and agreed to submit it for publication.
The Editorial Board requires that all persons who participated in the work related to the creation of the manuscript (i.e. technical assistance, assistance in writing and editing), but do not meet the criteria for authorship, be listed by name (without providing employment) in the "Acknowledgments" after receiving their written consent and determining their contribution to the publication. The correspondent author should ensure that all co-authors are on the list of authors, and should check that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to submit it for publication.
Disclosure of information and conflicts of interest
Authors are required to disclose any conflicts of interest that could be interpreted as affecting the results contained in the manuscript or their interpretation. Potential conflicts of interest that should be disclosed include, but are not limited to: fees, scholarships or other funds, equity participations, and paid expert opinions, as well as personal or professional relationships. All sources of financial support relevant to the job should be disclosed (including the grant number or other if any).
Confirmation of sources of literature
Authors should make sure that they properly cite publications that have influenced the content published in the submitted work.
Ethical considerations
In the work describing human experiments, the authors are required to indicate the procedures used in accordance with the ethical standards of the Human Experiments Committee (institutional or regional) or the Declaration of Helsinki 1975, amended in 2000. In case of doubt, whether the study was conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki, the authors are required to explain and justify their approach and demonstrate that the institutional control body has explicitly approved the questionable aspects of the study. When reporting animal experiments, they are required to declare compliance with the recommendations of the institution or the National Research Council or national regulations regarding the care and use of laboratory animals for testing. Authors should attach to the manuscript a statement that informed consent has been obtained for human experiments with a commitment to respect the participants' privacy rights.
Review
Authors are required to participate in the process of mutual evaluation and full cooperation by responding quickly to the requests of editors for the results of conducted research, explanations and statements of the authors, a declaration of conflict of interest and others. In the case of the first decision on "necessary corrections", the authors should systematically answer, point by point, to the comments of the reviewers and correct and send the corrected manuscript at the appointed time.
Mistake corrections in published works
If authors discover significant mistakes or inaccuracies in their published works, they have to immediately notify the Editor-in-Chief. They are obliged to cooperate with him in order to publish an errata or withdraw the work. If the editor receives such information from third parties, he decides, after contacting the authors, to immediately publish an errata or withdraw the work, or to present evidence of the correctness of the work.
Publisher duties
Proceedings regarding unethical publishing behavior
The publisher and the editor-in-chief take reasonable steps to prevent scientific abuse and identify publications that are of scientific misconduct. In the case of alleged or proven inappropriate scientific behavior or plagiarism, the publisher, in close cooperation with the editor-in-chief, will take all measures to clarify the situation. To this end, he convenes the Ethics Committee in the editorial office of “Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica” and, when considering a specific case, applies penalties appropriate to the degree of breach of ethics, from rectification and apology in the magazine, to withdraw or delete an already published article, with information on the page of the magazine about its withdrawal.
Access to the content of the journal
The publisher undertakes to the constant availability of published content as part of the external repository and its own resources on the website.