Procedure for the Examination of Complaints Regarding Breaches of Academic Integrity and Publication Ethics
These Rules set out the procedure to be followed by the Editorial board of the Journal "State and Law" when examining complaints or reports concerning breaches of academic integrity and publication ethics.
Legal basis: the Constitution of Ukraine; the laws of Ukraine "On Academic Integrity", "On Education", "On Higher Education", "On Scientific and Scientific-Technical Activity"; other regulatory and legal acts of Ukraine and legislative acts adopted for their implementation; international treaties of Ukraine, the binding nature of which has been ratified in accordance with the established procedure, the principles of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and the Regulations on the observance of academic integrity by researchers and students at the V. M. Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
The Editorial board operates on the basis that:
when producing an academic work, the author must adhere to the values, principles and rules of academic integrity;
if an academic work utilises the results of another person's intellectual creative activity (text, images, ideas, developments, statements, information, opinions, etc.), this must be indicated in the academic work with a reference to the relevant source of information and/or the relevant author;
references to sources of information must be made in a manner that allows the author's contribution to the academic work to be distinguished from the results of the intellectual creative activity of others;
an academic work must contain only reliable information, without any data fabricated or falsified by the author;
where assumptions or unproven statements are made, this must be indicated in the academic work;
all authors must be named in the published academic work;
where an object generated by artificial intelligence is used in an academic work, the author must state this in the work, specifying the generation method and/or providing a reference to the relevant computer programme or its description in accordance with the requirements for the formatting and/or publication of such academic works, as determined by the relevant academic body;
in a published academic work, in addition to the authors, other individuals who contributed to the work (by providing recommendations, advice, editing, formatting, conducting experiments, performing calculations, translating, etc.) must be acknowledged, with the nature of each individual's contribution specified;
information about the reviewer(s) of an academic work may not be published in accordance with the publisher's editorial policy;
if an author uses their own previously published research results (in part or in full) in a new academic work, this must be explicitly stated in that new academic work.
A complaint or report regarding breaches of academic integrity and publication ethics may be submitted by any person engaged in scientific or scientific and technical activities. A person who has evidence indicating signs of a breach of academic integrity has the right to report this in writing (in paper or electronic form) to the Editorial board, providing: a clear description of the nature of the breach; evidence (references to sources, copies of documents, extracts from texts, etc.); and the complainant's contact details. A complaint shall be considered if the information contained therein includes verifiable factual data indicating a possible breach of academic integrity and publication ethics. Otherwise, the Editorial board has the right to leave the report unconsidered.
Principles and basic rules for responding to breaches of academic integrity: the obligation to respond and to do so in a timely manner; an impartial (non-discriminatory) attitude towards persons in respect of whom a report has been received regarding a possible breach of academic integrity; the obligation to establish the person's guilt in committing a breach of academic integrity; proportionality between the violation and the response measures; holding individuals academically accountable solely for acts (actions or omissions) which, at the time of their commission, violated established requirements or prohibitions; transparency of procedures for considering reports of breaches of academic integrity and determining response measures to established breaches.
Consideration of complaints regarding breaches of academic integrity and publication ethics
Within 10 working days of receiving a complaint, the Editorial board shall:
decide whether to initiate consideration of the complaint or to dismiss it, and notify the complainant accordingly;
send/provide a copy of the complaint to the person against whom it was lodged and, no later than three working days before the date of the hearing, inform them of the date, time and place of the hearing.
Where there are grounds for doing so, the Editorial board shall initiate an internal investigation. The Editorial board considers: the nature of the violation (plagiarism, data fabrication, duplicate publication, improper authorship, violation of the peer-review procedure, etc.); the scale and consequences of the violation; and the available evidence. Members of the Editorial board, reviewers or independent experts may be involved. The author is given the opportunity to provide an explanation regarding the comments raised. Where necessary, text-checking software may be used.
In order to prevent conflicts of interest during the consideration of a complaint, researchers from other educational institutions or scientific organisations may be invited as experts at the Editorial board's discretion. A person with a conflict of interest may not participate in the decision-making process regarding the establishment of a breach of academic integrity by an individual.
The author is given the opportunity to provide an explanation regarding the comments raised. The person against whom the complaint is being considered has the right, either in person or through a representative: to be informed of the commencement of the complaint review procedure; to be informed of the date, time and venue, and to be present during the review of the complaint; to examine all materials relating to their breach of academic integrity and publication ethics, and to comment on them; to provide oral and written objections, explanations, or to decline to provide them; to participate in the examination of evidence of a breach of academic integrity and publication ethics.
If the person against whom the complaint is being considered admits to the breach of academic integrity, no further verification or examination of evidence shall be conducted. The admission of the breach of academic integrity shall be taken into account when reaching a decision.
Based on the results of the review, the Editorial board may take one of the following decisions:
to reject the complaint as unfounded;
to invite the author to make corrections or clarifications;
to reject the manuscript;
to publish a corrigendum or a retraction;
to retract the published article;
to notify the academic institution, employer, or other competent authorities of the recorded breaches;
to refuse the author further publication in the Journal for a specified period (sanction).
A decision to hold a person academically accountable must be substantiated, that is, based on evidence that has been fully and thoroughly examined during the investigation of the report, or on the person's admission of the breach of academic integrity, and must specify the nature of the breach of academic integrity and the sanction imposed for such a breach.
The Editorial board shall inform the complainant and the author of the outcome of the complaint. Information regarding the consideration of the complaint shall be treated as confidential and shall be disclosed only to the extent necessary for the decision-making process.
The person in respect of whom a breach of academic integrity has been established and a decision has been taken to hold them academically accountable, as well as the person who submitted the report, have the right to appeal against such a decision in accordance with the procedure established by law or by the academic institution. The author or complainant has the right to lodge an appeal within 30 days of receiving the decision. The appeal shall be considered by the Editor-in-chief and, where necessary, by members of the Editorial board or external experts.
A decision adopted in accordance with the established procedure shall take effect from the date of its publication, and in the event of an appeal, from the date of publication of the decision by the body considering the complaint.
