Publication Ethics

The Journal of Geology, Geography and Geoecology adheres to all the standards of free access and aims to adhere to the highest standards of ethics. The electronic version of the Journal is accessible after the printed variant is published. The editorial board of the scientific edition Journal of  Geology, Geography and Geoecology supports the policy of Elsevier (Publishing Ethics) orientated towards adhesion to the principles of the publishing ethics and operates according to the guidelines of the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE), Law of Ukraine (Laws of Ukraine “On Information”, “On Education”), Ethical Code of Scientists of Ukraine, adheres to the publishing principles of  Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK), Principles of Academic Integrity, Requirements of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine concerning scientific editions, based on the valuable experience of reputable scientific journals and editions. An important condition for acceptance of an article is presence of new original previously unpublished scientific results. In cases when the materials have been already published earlier, the author must provide the edition with the bibliographic references to the previous publications and substantiate the relevance of the publication of the new variant of the article. Any disputed issues (financial, academic, personal, etc) are considered by the members of the Editorial Board. In cases when suspicions regarding possible plagiarism are confirmed, the article is rejected. The Journal allows the authors to maintain the copyright without any limitations. All questions regarding the issues of publishing ethics which arise between the authors and editorial board of the Journal and are not regulated by this document are regulated by the generally accepted international standards of the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). All the authors, editors, reviewer experts, publishers and owners of the journals are responsible for the adhesion to the ethical standards at all stages of their participation in the process of submitting the manuscript and further publication in the edition. Our standards of integrity always reflect our mutual goals, our traditions and the values of Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, of which we are a constituent part. Our purpose should never be achieved other than by adherence to the highest ethical standards. The Journal does not tolerate any forms of bribery and corruption, including payments for helping the publication.

Authorship and conflict of interests
An author is considered to be a researcher who has made a significant intellectual contribution to the theoretical development, systematic or experimental design and/or analysis and interpretation of the study-related data included in the article; contributed to the development of the article and analyzed its content; approved the final version of the article which is ready for publication, including references. If you collaborate with other authors towards publication of an article, you should determine which author will be the author responsible for the correspondence. The responsible author is the single contact link between the authors and the publication to which the article is submitted . If, during the interval of time between the submission of the manuscript and the moment of its publication, changes need to be made in the list of authors, the responsible author should contact the edition and mention the reason for the changes.

While submitting the materials for publication in the scientific journal Journal of Geology, Geography and Geoecology the authors agree that in case of receiving a positive review and acceptance of the manuscript for the publication, the article, after the corresponding editorial processing, can be placed in the electronic data bases with obligatory indication of authorship and maintenance of the copyright by the authors to full extent. At the same time, the author/authors provide the Journal with the right of first publication, allowing distribution of the material with indication of the authorship and first publication in the scientific journal Journal of Geology, Geography and Geoecology. The author/authors are responsible for the novelty and reliability of the results of the scientific study, and also adherence to the principles of academic integrity, which requires the author/authors of the article to provide reliable results of the conducted studies. Falsified statements are unacceptable; author/authors should guarantee that the results of the studies in the manuscript are entirely original. Borrowed fragments or statements should be presented with the obligatory reference to the author and original source. Excessive borrowings, as well as plagiarism in any form, including unacknowledged quotations, re-phrasing or appropriation of results of studies by other researchers are impermissible; author/authors recognize the contribution of all persons who in one way or the other have influenced the course of the study. The article should contain references to all the works used in the process of the study; author/authors have no right to submit to the Journal a manuscript or its parts which has been sent to other editions and is being considered, and also cannot offer materials already published in other sources; all researchers who contributed to the structure of the manuscript should be mentioned as co-authors; if the author discovers significant errors or inaccuracies in the article at the stage of its consideration or after its publication, he should contact the Journal as soon as possible.

To avoid conflict of interests, general principles are followed. In each case of possible conflict of interests, the Journal tries to openly reveal it in order to allow the readers to judge whether a certain conflict of interest has affected the work of the author, editor or reviewer. The scientific publication the Journal of Geology, Geography and Geoecology takes into account all possible conflicts of interests during the process of writing, reviewing, publishing of articles and provides maximum transparency. Conflict of interest is a situation when the professional judgment of a person can be affected by various factors, such as financial benefit, material interest or other personal and professional interests, including any other factors which negatively affect objectivity and impartiality, or could be met as interference into the process of reviewing, decision-making regarding the publication, publication and presentation of the manuscript.

For us as publisher of the JGGG, it is important to avoid all possible conflict of interest. Every participant – author, editor or reviewer – who assumes he or she might have a conflict of interest is obliged to declare this in order that the publisher should know about the possibility of such effect. Conflict of interests can be determined at different stages of the process of publication. All the authors are obliged to disclose any existing or possible conflict of interest, including financial, personal or any other relations which could affect their scientific work. The authors should disclose conflict of interest during the submission of the manuscript, though in exceptional cases they can do so at any moment of analysis of the manuscript. For collectively prepared manuscripts, the responsible author should disclose conflict of interest of the other authors who contributed to the manuscript.

 

Obligations of the editorial board and editors
The editors of the JGGG follow the highest standards of behaviour described in the recommendations of the Committee on the Publishing Ethics (COPE), which include obligations about transparent announcement of any possible conflicts of interest which could take place. For the manuscripts submitted by the editor or scientist, a responsible person is assigned for the analysis and evaluation of the manuscript. The identity of the assigned editor or reviewer is not revealed to the person submitting in order to maintain the impartiality and anonymity of the review. The work of the editorial board is based on the principles of ethics of scientific publications formulated by COPE. The editorial board of the Journal works on the basis of the principles of the Helsinki Declaration and requires their observance in research involving people. Conflicts of interest of authors and third parties are resolved according to the Law of Ukraine. The principles of professional ethics in the work of the editor are as follows: 

  • In decisions on publication of the article, the editor of the Journal is guided by its scientific significance and the credibility of the presented data;

  • He evaluates the content of the manuscript of the article regardless of nationality, racial identity, sex, political beliefs, institutions to which the author (authors) belongs.

  • Non-published data included in the article should not be given to third parties without written consent of the author, except the reviewers;

  • The editor does not allow the article to go forward for publication if he has sufficient reasons to conclude that it is tarnished with plagiarism.

  • The editor should solve the issues of conflict situations, take all the necessary measures for prevention of violations of copyrights and intellectual property.

Obligations of the reviewers
Among the many models of reviewing, the editorial staff of the Journal of GGG chose the double-blind review. The reviewer is obliged to disclose possible conflict of interest at the beginning of the process of evaluation. If the reviewer notices that he or she can have material, financial or any other conflict of interest regarding the analyzed manuscript, he or she is obliged to declare this, and if necessary, demand exclusion from the process of further evaluation. Potential conflicts of interest of reviewer are mentioned in the review and presented to the editor. Then, it is decided whether the claimed conflicts of interest have a significant effect on the review.

Risks of a conflict of interests can usually occur at two levels: organizational and personal levels. Conflict of interests can be divided into the following categories (but are not limited only to the mentioned ones): personal and professional conflicts of interest.

Financial conflict of interests can be related to the study grants (from any financial source), patent submissions (cash or expected), including applications of institutes the author is related to and has profit from; honoraria, gifts and rewards of any kind.

All persons who are related to the manuscript, comment or evaluate this material (authors, editors, reviewers and readers) should declare the presence of conflict of interests. If due to personal relations with the author, the reviewer is unable to objectively evaluate the manuscript – he should recuse himself from the task. If, in the editors` opinion, conditions are present which could affect impartial review, the Journal will not involve such a reviewer in the process. The Journal remains the right not to publish the manuscript if the declared conflict of interests compromises the objectivity and credibility of the assessment of the study. If the Journal finds a conflict of interests which was not claimed during submission – the manuscript can be rejected. If a non-declared conflict of interest is found after publication, if necessary, the article may be corrected or deleted.

Obligations of publishers
The publisher realizes that publishing a scientific journal is a non-profit project and does not aim at obtaining profit. The publisher monitors the fulfillment of the abovementioned ethical requirements by the editorial board, reviewers, editorial-publishing group and authors. The publisher supports the Journal and helps in adhesion to the ethical aspects of publication of materials, helps to interact with other journals and publishers. The publisher contributes to publishing corrections, explanations, refutations and apologies. The publisher supports the Journal in the work on avoiding publishing plagiarism in any its manifestations or pseudo-scientific articles.

Privacy
The editor is bound to protect the confidentiality of all materials the Journal receives and all the messages from the reviewers if other conditions are not approved with the corresponding authors and reviewers. In exceptional conditions and with agreement of the publisher, the publisher can share limited information with editors of other journals, if it is necessary for investigation of suspicions of violations of research ethics. Non-published materials presented in the submitted manuscript should not be used in the editor`s own studies without written agreement of the author. Privileged data or ideas obtained by expert evaluation should be kept secret and not used for individual benefit.