Ethical Principles

Ethical guidelines related to the publishing of scientific works


      In order to ensure compliance with the principles of good research practice, the editorial team of Tematy i Konteksty adopted the following ethical guidelines related to the publishing of research works in the journal.
      These guidelines have been formulated on the basis of ethical rules specified by the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org) and in accordance with The Code of Ethics for Scientists (Kodeks Etyki Pracownika Naukowego http://info.ath.bielsko.pl/files/informator/Kodeks_etyki_pracownika_naukowego.pdf).

Obligations of authors

  1. The journal Tematy i Konteksty publishes only original articles which have not been previously published in any other journal or academic monograph.  
  2. Authors shall present the results of their research in a reliable, clear and precise manner so that they can be verified by other scholars.
  3. Authors shall accurately and reliably refer to results of other scholars’ works.
  4. In the case of co-authored publications, the order of authors’ surnames shall be accepted by all co-authors of the work intended for publication.
  5. Stating untrue information, falsifying research results, or manipulating data are considered unethical and deemed a scientific misconduct.
  6. The phenomena of ghostwriting (which occurs when someone significantly contributed to the publication without disclosing his/her participation as one of the authors, or remaining uncredited in the acknowledgements section of the publication) and guest authorship (which occurs when the author’s participation is marginal or non-existent altogether, and yet he/she is listed as the author or co-author of the publication) are considered unethical and deemed a scientific misconduct. Each author shall grant a separate consent for publication of the article in the journal Tematy i Konteksty.
  7. The phenomenon of plagiarism is considered unethical and deemed a scientific misconduct.

Obligations of the Editorial Team

  1. While deciding on qualifying the submitted texts for publication, the editorial team of Tematy i Konteksty considers their scientific character, the thematic profile of the journal, as well as the principles of scientific conduct.
  2. The discovered cases of scientific misconduct and unethical behaviour shall be disclosed by the editorial team, which shall subsequently notify about the misconduct the institutions employing the authors concerned.
  3. In the case of suspected misconduct and in the case of submitted justified complaints about violation of the abovementioned ethical guidelines, the editorial team shall notify the author/authors in writing about the allegations and request them to take a stance towards this issue. If the misconduct is confirmed (or if the author/authors fail to respond to the allegations), the editorial team shall withdraw from the publication of the submitted work, and shall notify about the case the institution employing the author/authors concerned. In the case when the misconduct is unequivocally confirmed after the work has been published, the published article shall be supplemented with a relevant commentary (in the electronic version available on the journal’s website), and the institution employing the author/authors concerned shall be notified about the issue.

Obligations of reviewers

  1. Every article submitted for publication in the journal Tematy i Konteksty is reviewed by two independent reviewers. Reviewers sign a declaration stating that there is no conflict of interests in relation to the authors of articles reviewed by them.
  2. The reviewing process of scientific publications in the journal Tematy i Konteksty is described in detail on the journal’s website. When evaluating an article submitted for publication the reviewer shall consider: the originality of the topic, the research value, the substantive correctness, the clarity of composition, and the stylistic correctness.
  3. Reviewers shall not agree to evaluate works discussing topics which are beyond the scope of their competences, or if they are unable to produce a review within the deadline specified by the editorial team.
  4. Any text submitted for publication is considered confidential. Reviewers shall keep their opinions and evaluations confidential until the articles reviewed by them appear in print. Without the author’s/authors’ consent reviewers must not use ideas or research results presented in the reviewed work.
  5. Reviews shall be precise, reliable and objective, and the assessment marks shall be justified.
  6. A reviewer notifies the editorial team of Tematy i Konteksty about the suspected scientific misconduct (including plagiarism) of the person submitting the text for publication, indicating relevant fragments or presenting relevant evidence.