Ethical norms

Ethics guidelines of the Editorial Board of
“Bulletin of Academician Stepan Demyanchuk International University
of Economics and Humanities. Series: Pedagogy and Psychology”

 General provisions

Ethics guidelines of the editorial board are based on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics, International standards for editors and authors, and Ethical Code of Ukrainian Researcher.

The editorial board considers the monitoring of ethics of the manuscripts as one of the aspects of its activities and the peer-review process.

Editors don’t approve the materials which contain insulting statements, manifestations of aggression or any discrimination, or incite ethnic and racial hatred, violate international legal norms and current legislation of Ukraine.

Editors are not responsible for opinions, judgments, results and conclusions made by the authors of articles and published in the journal. They do not represent the point of view of the editorial board.

Editors are not liable to the authors and/or third parties and organizations for possible damage caused by the publication of the article.

The authors are responsible for the originality or any unfair use of the intellectual property of other authors, as well as for the reliability of information, the accuracy of names, surnames, etc.

Editors reserve the right to review the above ethical principles to amend them.

Ethical guidelines for editors

▶ editors take responsibility for everything they publish and thus, all submitted materials are subject to careful selection and peer review. Editors reserve the right to reject an article or send back for improving;

▶ editors should make fair and unbiased decisions independent from commercial consideration and ensure a fair and appropriate peer review process within a reasonable time;

▶ editors are entitled to reject a manuscript without peer-reviewing if it doesn’t meet the editorial policy, ethics and requirements for manuscripts;

▶ editors shall not provide information related to the content of a manuscript under consideration to other persons, except ones involved in the professional evaluation of this manuscript;

▶ editors are authorized to withdraw the electronic version of the article published in the printed version of the journal, if someone’s rights or generally accepted rules of scientific ethics are violated. The editors inform the author who provided the article and the organization where the work was performed about the fact of withdrawal of the article. Editors also publish a notice of the fact of withdrawal of the article in the next issue of the journal;

▶ editors allow distributing any articles or extracts from the journal in electronic social networks, but reference to the original source is mandatory. The third parties or organizations are prohibited to publish and / or distribute the journal materials in paper form and data storage devices.

Ethical guidelines for authors

▶ the research being reported should have been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and should comply with all relevant legislation. Authors should mention dangerous manifestations and risks associated with the research;

▶ researchers should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation.

▶ researchers should adhere to publication requirements that submitted work is original, is not plagiarised, and has not been published elsewhere;

▶ a manuscript can involve scientifically grounded criticism of a paper of another researcher. The personal comments are not regarded as relevant;

▶ funding sources and relevant conflicts of interest should be disclosed. Authors should guarantee a lack of the contractual relations or
property considerations, which could influence the publication of information contained in a manuscript;

▶ authors should indicate the sources of cited information, which should be properly acknowledged and referenced.

Ethical guidelines for peer-reviewers

▶ if an appointed peer-reviewer is not confident that his qualification meets the level of research, he/she should give the manuscript back immediately;

▶ a reviewer should be impartial when evaluating a manuscript, its experimental and theoretical parts, interpretation and statement, as well as take into account the correspondence of the research compliance with the high scientific and literature standards. The reviewer should respect the intellectual independence of authors.

▶ a reviewer should take into account a possibility of the conflict of interests if a particular manuscript closely relates to the reviewer’s current or published paper. If there are doubts, the reviewer should refuse to review the manuscripts referring to the conflict of interests;

▶ a reviewer should assess a manuscript if he/she has personal or professional relations and if such relations can influence the impartiality;

▶ a reviewer shouldn’t show a manuscript under review others or discuss it with colleagues, only if the reviewer needs professional advice;

▶ reviewers should adequately explain and justify their judgments so that editors and authors can understand the reasons their comments are based on;

▶ a reviewer should indicate any cases of a lack of citations of the papers of other scholars, any significant similarity between the relevant manuscript and any published article or any manuscript simultaneously submitted to another journal;

▶ a reviewer should provide a review without undue delay;

▶ reviewers should not use or disclose unpublished information, arguments, or interpretations contained in the manuscript without the consent of the author.

Responsible Research Assessment Policy (DORA)

The journal adheres to the principles of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and promotes a responsible, transparent, and quality-based approach to the evaluation of scholarly publications.

In line with these principles, the journal’s editorial policy is based on the understanding that the primary criterion for assessing manuscripts is their scientific value, rather than quantitative bibliometric indicators.

The journal:

– evaluates manuscripts solely on the basis of their scientific quality, originality, methodological rigor, and contribution to the development of the relevant field of knowledge;
– does not use journal-level metrics (such as Journal Impact Factor, CiteScore, h-index, etc.) as criteria for assessing individual articles or determining an author’s scientific quality;
– does not assess research outputs based on the publication venue or the perceived prestige of journals in which an author’s previous works have appeared;
– does not encourage artificial citation inflation, self-citation practices, or other forms of manipulation of bibliometric indicators;
– supports the responsible and ethical use of bibliometric indicators only as supplementary tools for the overall analysis of research activity, rather than as decisive measures of quality.

The editorial board supports the development of high-quality science based on the content of research, its impact on the field, and its practical significance, rather than on quantitative metrics.

The journal also encourages the academic community to adhere to DORA principles and to implement best international practices in research assessment.

Ethical Approval Policy for Research

The journal adheres to international ethical standards for the conduct of scientific research and requires that all studies submitted for publication comply with the principles of academic integrity, respect for human dignity, and responsible research practice.

Where research involves human participants, personal data, biological materials, or other sensitive information, authors are required to confirm that ethical approval has been obtained from an appropriate ethics committee (institutional or national). Such approval must be secured prior to the commencement of the research.

The manuscript must clearly state information regarding ethical approval, including the name of the approving institution, the protocol number (if applicable), and the date of approval. If ethical approval is not required for a particular study, authors must provide a clear justification.

Research involving human participants must comply with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and other internationally recognized ethical standards governing the protection of participants’ rights, safety, and dignity.

For studies involving animals, authors must confirm compliance with relevant international and national standards for the humane treatment of animals, as well as the existence of approval from an appropriate ethics committee.

The editorial board reserves the right to request additional information regarding ethical approval or to reject a manuscript in cases where ethical violations are identified.

The journal promotes responsible research conduct and is committed to ensuring the highest standards of ethical practice in scientific publishing.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage Policy

The journal recognizes the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies as a supporting tool in academic and publishing activities, while strictly adhering to the principles of academic integrity, transparency, and author responsibility.

The use of AI tools (including for language editing, translation, data analysis, or information retrieval) is permitted only as an auxiliary step in manuscript preparation. The authors bear full responsibility for the content, accuracy, validity, and originality of the submitted work.

Authors are required to disclose the use of AI tools in the preparation of a manuscript if such tools have influenced the content, interpretation of results, or text formulation. This information should be clearly indicated in the manuscript (e.g., in the Methods or Acknowledgements section).

Artificial intelligence systems cannot be listed as authors or co-authors of a manuscript, as they cannot assume responsibility for the content, ethical compliance, or scientific integrity of the work.

The use of AI to generate fabricated data, manipulate research results, or produce fully AI-generated scientific texts without proper scholarly input from the author is strictly prohibited.

The editorial board reserves the right to review submissions for inappropriate use of AI tools and may request additional clarification from authors when necessary.

The journal supports the responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence technologies in accordance with international publishing standards and the recommendations of leading scholarly publishing organizations.