Ethics and quality assurance policy

Statistics in Transition new series ethic statements concerning publication ethics and publication malpractice are based on the best practice guidelines for journal editors developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We expect all parties commit to these publication ethics, including ourselves and our devotion to maintain the integrity of the academic record, and always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed. We do not tolerate plagiarism nor fraudulent data, or other unethical behavior and will remove any manuscript that does not meet these standards.

The relevant duties and expectations of authors, reviewers, and editors are set out below:

Authors’ Responsibilities

1. Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere, in any form.
2. Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work.
3. Authors must certify that the manuscript is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
4. Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript.
5. Authors must report any errors they discover in their manuscript.
6. Authors must notify us of any conflicts of interest.
7. The authors are obliged to ensure that the submitted works are fully authentic. The Editorial Staff does not allow for any signs of authorship misconduct, including:
   • duplicating publications – re-publishing the own piece or its part;
   • plagiarism – appropriating a foreign piece or its fragment without providing information on its source;
   • fabricating data – preparing a scientific work based on untrue research results;
   • ghost authorship – not disclosing co-authors irrespective of their significant contribution to the article;
   • guest authorship – listing persons who made an infinitesimal or no contribution to the article as co-authors;
   • gift authorship – listing persons whose contribution is based on a weak relation with the research as co-authors.
8. The authors make an appropriate statement that the submitted article does not infringe upon any copyrights of third parties, has not been published or proposed to any other publishing house so far, is their original work, and they specify their contribution to the article.
9. If similar materials have been presented during a scientific conference or symposium, the authors are obliged to inform the Editorial Staff accordingly upon submitting the work for publication in SiTns.
10. The published articles should contain a list of resources that is referred to.

The Reviewers’ Responsibilities

1. Reviewers must notify us of any conflicts of interest.
2. Reviewers must keep information pertaining to the manuscript confidential.
3. Reviewers must bring to the attention of the Editor-in-Chief any information that may be reason to reject publication of a manuscript.
4. Reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify us and excuse himself from the review process.
5. Reviewers must at any time evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content – in spite of using double-blind policy, we emphasize the requirement of full objectivity and no reference to be made to (even supposed) race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

The Editorial Board’s Responsibilities

1. The Editorial Board must keep information pertaining to submitted manuscripts confidential.
2. The Editorial Board must disclose any conflicts of interest.
3. The Editorial Board must evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content.
4. In case of suspected abuses, such as:
   • suspecting redundant (duplicate) publication in a submitted manuscript or a published article,
   • suspecting plagiarism in a submitted manuscript or a published article,
   • suspecting fabricated data in a submitted manuscript or a published article,
   • changes in authorship,
   • suspecting ghost, guest or gift authorship,
   • suspecting undisclosed conflict of interest in a submitted manuscript, as pointed out by the reviewer,
   • suspecting undisclosed conflict of interest in a submitted manuscript, as pointed out by a reader
   • suspecting an ethical problem with a submitted manuscript, as pointed out by the editor,
   • suspecting the reviewer’s appropriation of the author’s ideas or data.
   the Editorial Staff proceeds according to the procedures of COPE.

The Publisher’s Responsibilities

1. Any materials published in SiTns are subject to copyrights.
2. The publisher makes the complete content of all the articles published in SiTns available on the Internet website according to the formula of open access, i.e. free of charge and without technical restrictions. Users may read, download, copy, print and use the articles published online for other purposes in accordance with the relevant provisions on the permitted use, provided they indicate a detailed annotation on the article source. Any other form of use of the article content requires the consent of the publisher. Statistics in Transition new series uses Licence CC-BY-NC-ND.
3. The publisher declares its readiness to publish corrections, explanations and apologies.