Ethics and Malpractice
In its publication policy SAS, in compliance with the general strategy
followed by Shumen University, abides by the accepted international standards
of publication ethics. The Editorial Board regard it as its inherent obligation
to follow the rules defined in:
COPE: http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines
Authors’
rights and obligations
✔ Any form of plagiarism is strictly
prohibited. The submitted materials must be original. If the authors use parts
of their own or other people’s work, they should be cited correctly. By signing
the ethical statement, the authors confirm the authenticity and the uniqueness
of their article.
✔ It is considered unethical to present the
same article simultaneously to more than one publisher. The authors are
supposed to publish materials with identical studies already offered to other
publishers. The authors declare that the materials have not been published
before in written or electronic form.
✔ The publication or use of the material
without prior consent of the other co- authors is unacceptable.
✔ Upon detection of significant errors in
already published articles the authors are required to notify the Editorial
Board immediately and cooperate to withdraw or correct the issue.
✔ Authors should follow the citation and
formatting guidelines provided on the web site of the journal.
Reviewers’
rights and obligations
✔ Reviewers’ work is particularly
important for improving the quality of the materials submitted for publication.
Reviews play a crucial role in the decisions of the Editorial Board in
publishing any article.
✔ The reviewers must notify the editor when
they do not consider themselves qualified enough to review a particular
material, or when they are unable to examine the manuscript on time. In such
case the material is forwarded to another reviewer.
✔ The principle of confidentiality is
essential in the work of the reviewers. The reviewer must not disclose or
discuss the contents of the manuscript with another person unless s/he has
received an explicit permission from the editor.
✔ Reviews must be based on the objective
qualities of the article. The reviewers are obliged to provide an impartial,
competent and clear assessment with sufficient arguments.
✔ Reviewers are required to observe proper
citation and use of data and sources. In case of detected violations
(inaccuracies and omissions in the bibliography or finding pieces of the
material in already published articles) they should notify the editor.
✔ Reviewers should withdraw from the
reviewing process when there is a conflict of interest arising from
professional, personal, financial and other relations with the author.
Editors’
rights and obligations
✔ The Editorial Board decides which of the
submitted articles will be published in the next issue of the series. The
decision is based on criteria for publication in SAŠ, the objectives and scope
of the journal. The Editorial Board is obliged to inform the author about all
the deficiencies and inaccuracies, without the removal and correction of which
the article will not be published.
✔ The evaluation of manuscripts by the
members of the Editorial Board should be according to their scientific content
regardless of the gender, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation,
ethnicity or political beliefs of the authors.
✔ The Editorial Board has the right to
discuss the materials submitted only with the author, the reviewers and the
publisher.
✔ Editors must give up considering articles
in which they have a conflict of interest based on competitive or cooperative
relationships with any of the authors, sponsors or institutions associated with
the publication.
✔ The Editorial Board shall take immediate action upon receiving a signal of unethical behaviour, such as incorrect citation, plagiarism, inaccuracies in the data used and manipulation of the results. Measures include contacting the parties and institutions to establish the veracity of ethical violations. The result could lead to the withdrawal of the manuscript or, if the paper has already been published, to subsequent publishing of the revealed ethical violations.