Publication ethics

The journal follows guidelines for ethical and transparent scientific publishing identified by leading scientific organizations promoting best practices in scientific publishing: the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

Authorship

Authorship is attributed to natural persons who have contributed significantly to the creation of the work and are responsible for it. The authors guarantee that they have participated in the creation of the work responsibly and that they have not infringed any legal rights of other authors and that their contribution does not infringe copyright.

Securing research funding, collecting data, or supervising the work of a research team does not in itself constitute authorship of a scientific text. Authorship belongs only to those who have contributed significantly to the conception, interpretation of results, or the writing or scientific revision of the manuscript and who are responsible for its content.

Co-authorship

The authors themselves are responsible for determining the order of authorship. Negotiations on authorship should begin at the start of the project, and decisions may be revised during the course of the project. Persons who do not meet the criteria for authorship (participate in data collection, coordinate research activities, support the contribution with general consultations, obtain funding, etc.) are listed in the acknowledgments.

Author's fee

Authors of articles are not paid royalties.

Allegations of misconduct

In the event of a dispute over authorship (the author is credited with the work against their will, the author's name has been wrongfully omitted, etc.), the author should contact one of the journal's editors-in-chief. After discussing the matter with the other authors, the editor will publish a correction to the article.

In the event of suspected ethical misconduct, the editor is always obliged to investigate such suspected misconduct by the author and take appropriate action.

Complaints of misconduct in research, such as data falsification, plagiarism, undisclosed conflicts of interest, deceptive or undisclosed use of artificial intelligence tools, or misuse of confidential information, as well as complaints of an administrative nature, such as inconsistencies in editorial processes or complaints about the lack of response from members of the editorial board, will always be investigated by the journal's editors without undue delay. The editors will contact the parties involved in the dispute regarding the procedure.

The editors can be contacted at:

pavel.kubanik@ff.cuni.cz
helena.sadilkova@ff.cuni.cz

Conflict of interest

Editors, authors, reviewers, and all members of the editorial board should declare any conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest is considered to be anything that interferes with or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with the complete and objective presentation, review process, or decision-making regarding research papers submitted to the journal. Conflicts of interest may be financial or non-financial, professional or personal, and may arise in relation to an organization or another person.

Data sharing and reproducibility

We recommend that authors share data in accordance with the principle of "as open as possible, as closed as necessary," i.e., to consider the possibilities for sharing with regard to privacy, personal data protection, confidentiality, legitimate business interests and intellectual property rights of third parties, national security or other legitimate interests, and other legitimate restrictions. We recommend archiving research data in trusted repositories.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is considered to be the presentation of someone else's text, data, or ideas as one's own, without proper attribution or acknowledgment. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their work is entirely original, and if they have used someone else's copyrighted work, they are responsible for properly citing it.

Multiple, duplicate, or concurrent publication

Concurrent submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Errors in published texts

In the event of an error discovered after publication, a correction notice will be published in the News section of the journal's website, and in more serious cases, a decision may be made to retract the article.

 

Responsibilities of editors

  • Editors are responsible for all published content in the journal;
  • they decide which contributions will be published;
  • their decision to publish an article is based on the relevance of the article to the objectives of the journal and is not influenced by political or commercial interests;
  • the outcome of the review process is relevant to their decision to publish an article
  • they are responsible for resolving any complaints, publishing corrections, apologies, and, if necessary, removing articles.

Authors' responsibilities

  • Authors present the results of their scientific work honestly and without falsification or fabrication of data.
  • Authors are responsible for ensuring that their contribution does not infringe copyright.
  • Authors submit only original work that is not plagiarized or self-plagiarized and has not been published elsewhere.
  • Authors shall properly cite all relevant sources and follow the rules set out in the Instructions for Authors.
  • Authors are required to disclose the source of funding and any conflicts of interest.
  • Authors shall include their affiliation, contact details, and ORCID identifier, if they have one, and ROR with their contribution.

Reviewers' responsibilities

  • Reviewers are objective, provide constructive feedback, act professionally, and avoid inappropriate and personal insults.
  • They evaluate contributions honestly, fairly, and impartially.
  • Reviewers adhere to the deadline agreed upon for the preparation of the review.
  • In the event of a conflict of interest, they must immediately notify the editorial board.
  • If they do not feel sufficiently qualified to evaluate the research covered by the manuscript or know that they will not be able to complete the review within the required deadline, they are obliged to inform the editors immediately so that other reviewers can be contacted.

Principles for the use of artificial intelligence

Authors may use artificial intelligence tools (e.g., for language correction or stylistic editing of the text) when preparing their manuscripts, but their use must be clearly stated in the manuscript. Artificial intelligence cannot be listed as an author or co-author of the article and is not responsible for its content. The authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and ethical integrity of the text.