Editorial ethics – Central Russian Journal of Social Sciences

The editorial board of the journal “Central Russian Journal of Social Sciences” takes a responsible approach to the task of maintaining scientific reputation and is responsible for their compliance with the highest standards. The editorial board of the journal relies, in particular, on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), the Russian Association of Science Editors and Publishers (RASEP), as well as on the experience of reputable international journals and publishing houses. The ethical standards of our journal concern all parties involved in the publication (authors, journal editors, reviewers, publishing house and scientific society).

Ethical guidelines for Reviewers

The editorial board of the journal “Central Russian Journal of Social Sciences” shares the view that peer review is a necessary link in scientific communication. All articles submitted to the editorial board are double-blind reviewed by at least two independent experts. The reviewers are specialists recognized in the field of knowledge, who have publications on the subject of the reviewed article within the last three years. The reviewer performs scientific expertise of the author’s materials impartially, solely based on the scientific quality of the manuscript.

The review should objectively evaluate the manuscript and contain a comprehensive analysis of its scientific and methodological advantages and disadvantages. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. The reviewer carries out scientific expertise of the author’s materials according to such criteria as scientific novelty, relevance of the research, the degree of disclosure of the topic, etc. The reviewer is not allowed to criticize the author. For more details see the section “Peer-Review”.

Reviewers should identify significant published works relevant to the topic and not included in the bibliography to the manuscript. Any statement (observation, conclusion, or argument) that has been published previously should have an appropriate bibliographic reference in the manuscript. The reviewer should also draw the attention of the editorial board to the finding of significant similarities or overlap between the manuscript under review and any other published work within the reviewer’s scientific expertise.

A reviewer, who, in his/her opinion, is not qualified to evaluate the manuscript, should inform the Editor of the journal with a request to exclude him/her from the review process of the manuscript. In case of a conflict of interest, the reviewer should also inform the Editor with a request to exclude him/her from the process of reviewing the manuscript. In particular, a scientific supervisor (scientific advisor) of any of the authors – degree candidates cannot act as a reviewer.

Reviewers work with the article as a confidential material, strictly observing the author’s right to non-disclosure of information contained in the article before publication. The reviewers’ comments are sent to the author without mentioning the reviewers.

Unpublished data obtained from manuscripts submitted for review may not be used in personal research without the author’s written consent. Information or ideas obtained during the review process related to possible benefits should be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.

The decision to publish or reject an article is made by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal solely based on the results of the review and recommendations of the Editorial Board.

Ethical guidelines for Authors

The author (or team of authors) realizes that he/she bears initial responsibility for the reliability of the results of scientific research. The authors of the paper must provide reliable results of the conducted research. The data underlying the work must be presented in an unmistakable manner. The paper should contain enough details and bibliographic references for possible reproduction. False or knowingly erroneous statements are perceived as unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

An author submitting his/her manuscript to the journal accepts the ethical principles of scientific publications and accepts the rules of manuscript submission.

Authors may be asked for raw data relevant to the manuscript for review. Authors should be willing to provide open access to this kind of information, if feasible, and in any case be prepared to retain these data for a sufficient period of time after publication.

The Editorial Board of the journal strictly ensures that the published articles are original and plagiarism-free, so it asks authors to be careful about the design of references and citations. The editorial board follows the attitude that plagiarism is unacceptable in science. According to the editorial policy, the presence of plagiarism in the submitted material makes it impossible to publish the manuscript and may also negatively affect editorial decisions when considering the author’s articles in the future.

Authors should not submit to a journal a manuscript that has been submitted to another journal and is under review, nor should they submit an article that has already been published in another journal. It is unethical to submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time.

If the article was prepared as part of a research study funded by any organizations, the authors should provide an appropriate citation and indicate the source of funding.

There is no author’s fee for publication in the journal “Central Russian Journal of Social Sciences”.

Authorship

“Central Russian Journal of Social Sciences” adheres to the following criteria for authorship:

Substantial contribution to the conception or planning of a scholarly work or to the derivation, analysis, or interpretation of that work;
drafting of the manuscript or critical revision of the manuscript with valuable intellectual content;
final approval of the published version of the manuscript;
agreeing to accept responsibility for all aspects of the work and assuring that all questions relating to the accuracy and integrity of any part of the work can be adequately investigated and resolved.

In addition to taking responsibility for those parts of the work that the author performed himself or herself, the author should have an idea of which co-authors are responsible for other specific components of the work. In addition, authors should be assured of the integrity of their co-authors’ contributions. All persons designated as authors must meet all four criteria for authorship, and all persons meeting these four criteria must be identified as authors.

Individuals who do not meet all four criteria should be mentioned in the Acknowledgments section.

Contribution of authors and non-authors

The Acknowledgements section may mention people who have contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship, namely, those who

who provided support for the research,
served as a mentor,
assisted with data collection,
coordinating the study, etc.

To correctly identify contributions, journal authors can use one of the schemes recommended by COPE:

Disputes

If an authorship dispute arises, the editorial work with the article is terminated regardless of the stage (consideration, reviewing, editing or preparation for printing) it is at. All co-authors are informed about the authorship dispute by e-mail.

The Editorial Board of the journal “Central Russian Journal of Social Sciences” has the right to specify the exact period during which the authors can provide clarification on the requested issues. After the expiration of this period, the article is removed from publication with a corresponding explanation.

If a dispute has arisen regarding a published article, the editorial board of the journal publishes a correction, refutation, or withdrawal of the article, indicating the reason for making changes to the published document.

If it is necessary to add or exclude a co-author before or after publication, the Editorial Board of the journal “Central Russian Journal of Social Sciences” acts in accordance with the COPE rules .

To prevent manipulations with co-authorship, the editorial board of the journal “Central Russian Journal of Social Sciences” uses COPE flowcharts and pays attention to the following when working with an article:

it is indicated that the research was funded by an organization whose authors are absent from the general list. This requires a more thorough verification of the contribution of all authors and, if necessary, requesting necessary explanations from the responsible author.
the presence in the list of authors of scientists from another scientific field. This may indicate guest authorship.
a person is mentioned in the Acknowledgments section without specifying a specific contribution.
there is a very long or very short list of authors, which is atypical for this scientific field or type of article.
there is an incomplete description of the authors’ contribution (e.g., no information about who prepared the draft version of the manuscript or processed the data);
Anti-Plagiarism check shows that there are borrowings from the dissertation work, the author of which is not indicated in the list of authors.
articles on similar topics were published by other teams of authors.
the list of authors suddenly changes at the stage of article publication without prior discussion with the journal editorial board.
the author has a lot of publications, although his/her position does not imply such publication activity (head of department, director of an institute).
the author responsible for correspondence cannot respond to reviewers’ comments.

The editorial board of the journal “Central Russian Journal of Social Sciences” expects that organizations affiliated with the author will be willing to participate in the investigation of disputes about authorship.

If the author discovers significant errors or inaccuracies in the article at the stage of its review or after its publication, he/she should immediately notify the Editorial Board of the journal. Corrections and adjustments to a published article are made in accordance with the Corrections and Retraction Policy .

Complaints and appeals

The Editorial Board of the journal “Central Russian Journal of Social Sciences” is attentive to complaints that may concern such issues as breach of confidentiality, undisclosed conflicts of interest, misuse of confidential information obtained during the review process. Authors may also disagree with decisions regarding expressions of doubt on certain articles or complain about irregularities in editorial processes.

All complaints can be emailed to vestniksrvon@mail.ru, they will be dealt with in a general manner. The grievance process does not take more than 15 working days. The person who sent the complaint receives information about the decision made, as well as the measures to be taken and the timeframe for their implementation.

The editorial board relies on COPE guidelines in each of the following cases when handling complaints:

Post-publication discussions and corrections

In some cases there is a need to make changes to an already published article. The editorial board of the journal “Srednerussky Vestnik Sotsial’nykh Nauki” supports the practice of making changes to published materials and, in case of such necessity, acts in accordance with COPE recommendations and the Corrections and Retraction Policy.

Any necessary changes are accompanied by a post-publication notification, which will always be linked to the original version of the article so that readers can be informed about all necessary changes.