Ethical Principles

 

Ethical Principles Governing the Publication of Scholarly Works

 

In the interest of upholding good practices in scientific research, the Editorial Board of “Tematy i Konteksty” has adopted the following ethical principles governing the publication of research articles in the journal. These principles have been developed in accordance with the guidelines of COPE (Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, Committee on Publication Ethics: http://publicationethics.org/) and the Code of Ethics for Researchers (http://info.ath.bielsko.pl/files/informator/Kodeks_etyki_pracownika_naukowego.pdf).

 

The standards presented below pertain to the ethical responsibilities of Authors, Editors, Reviewers, and the Scientific Council at every stage of the publication process in our journal.

 

I. Authorship and Co-authorship

  1. Only original articles that have not been previously published in another journal or scientific monograph are published in “Tematy i Konteksty”.

  2. Authors must present the results of their research in an honest, transparent, and accurate manner, including a description of the research procedures used, so that the findings can be verified by other researchers.

  3. Authors must properly and accurately cite the work of other researchers whose results have contributed to the submitted text.

  4. Authors must not submit works containing falsified data or misrepresent the statements of other authors.

  5. In the case of multi-authored publications, the order of listed authors must be agreed upon by all co-authors of the work submitted for publication.

  6. Authors are required to submit a declaration outlining their individual contribution (in percentage) and the nature and extent (also in percentage) of any artificial intelligence involvement (e.g., AI Smodin) in the creation of the text.

 

II. Complaints

  1. In the case of a complaint being made by an author regarding a received review, the Editorial Board assesses the validity of the complaint.

  2. If the complaint is deemed valid, the editors forward the complaint to the reviewer responsible for the review, requesting a written response to the author's complaint.

  3. If the editors determine that the complaint is unfounded, they reject it and inform the author of their decision.

 

III. Conflict of Interest

  1. Reviewers sign a declaration stating lack of any conflict of interest in relation to the authors of the reviewed publications.

  2. Authors and co-authors are obligated to disclose any conflict of interest related to the processing of their article.

  3. A conflict of interest occurs when personal and professional interests, or private and professional matters, overlap, leading to bias in the article’s review process.

 

IV. Access to Scientific Data

  1. Due to the nature of publications in the discipline of literary studies, the Editorial Board does not require authors to provide access to scientific data (such as statistics, notes, text databases, etc.).

 

V. General Ethical Principles

  1. Presentation of false claims, falsification of research results, or manipulation of data is considered a manifestation of scientific dishonesty and unethical behaviour.

  2. The phenomena of ghost-writing (when someone makes a significant contribution to the publication without being disclosed as one of the authors or without being mentioned in the acknowledgments) and guest authorship (when an author's contribution is minimal or non-existent, yet they are listed as an author or co-author) are recognized as forms of scientific dishonesty and unethical conduct. Each author must individually consent to the publication of the article in “Tematy i Konteksty”.

  3. Scientific plagiarism is considered a form of scientific dishonesty and unethical behaviour.

  4. The Editorial Board monitors compliance with ethical standards and principles throughout the process of publishing scholarly texts and actively works to prevent practices that violate the accepted norms.

  5. The Editorial Board of “Tematy i Konteksty” makes the final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of articles submitted to the journal. The main criteria for acceptance include: the scholarly nature of the article, the originality of the problem's approach, the article’s scientific relevance, its alignment with the thematic profile of the journal and the current issue, recommendations made by Reviewers during the peer review process, and compliance with ethical standards. Factors such as the author's gender, race, religion, citizenship, or political beliefs must not influence the evaluation of the article. The editorial secretary is responsible for informing the author of the outcome of the article's evaluation.

  6. The Editorial Board requires the submission of a declaration (Appendix 1) detailing the author’s individual contribution to the creation of the submitted text.

  7. The Editorial Board requires disclosure of the sources of funding for the publication (financial disclosure) as well as any institutional support received for the research the results of which are to be published.

  8. Detected cases of scientific dishonesty and unethical behaviour will be exposed by the Editorial Board, including notifying the institutions employing the authors involved.

  9. In the case of suspected dishonesty, or if the Editorial Board of “Tematy i Konteksty” receives legitimate complaints about the violation of the above-mentioned ethical principles of scientific publication, the Editorial Board will inform the author(s) in writing about the allegations and request a response. If scientific dishonesty is confirmed (or if there is no response from the author(s)), the Editorial Board will withdraw the submitted work from publication and notify the institution employing the author(s). If the dishonesty is confirmed after the work has already been published, the published article will be marked with an appropriate comment (in the electronic version available on the journal’s website), and the author(s)’ institution will be informed.

  10. Members of the Editorial Board are required to maintain confidentiality until the time of publication; that is, they must not disclose any information about submitted works or the identities of the submitting authors to unauthorized persons (except for necessary information shared with the Authors themselves, Reviewers, Members of the Scientific Council, the Publisher, and proofreaders or technical editors).

  11. Unpublished original articles submitted to the editorial office may not be used by members of the Editorial Board or any other individuals involved in the publication process without the explicit consent of the Author (in accordance with the principle of preventing conflicts of interest involving Authors).

  12. The Editorial Board is responsible for selecting Reviewers, basing its decisions on the Reviewers’ research interests and academic achievements in the relevant disciplines. When appointing a Reviewer, the Editorial Board also adheres to the principle of avoiding conflicts of interest.



VI. Copyright

    1. Upon the acceptance of the paper for publication, the Author agrees to transfer non-exclusive proprietary copyrights to the Publisher, which include unlimited in time use of the paper in the country and abroad, in whole or in part, both in the electronic products of the Publisher, including electronic databases (datasets) and products including databases accessible through multimedia networks, e.g. of the Intranet and Internet, as well as in other products, including the publications of the Publisher (in particular in book editions), for an unlimited period of time, as separate products or together with other products (including publications, and in collective products, including databases) in the fields of exploitation defined in Article 50 of the Copyright Law, in the following fields:

  1. with respect to recording the paper without any quantitative limitation by means of any technology, including printing, reprographic, magnetic or digital recording;

  2. with respect to trading in the original or in copies in which the work has been recorded - placing the original or copies on the market, lending, or renting the original or copies;

  3. with respect to the dissemination of the work in a manner other than that specified in point (b) - public performance, exhibition, display, reproduction, as well as broadcasting and rebroadcasting, and making the work available to the public in such a way that anyone may access it at a place and at a time individually chosen by them.

  4. the Publisher is also entitled to use the paper and its fragments for information, promotion and marketing purposes.

    1. If the article successfully passes the peer review process, is accepted, and published, the Author retains the rights to the material while simultaneously granting third parties the right to use the material in accordance with the license (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en).

    2. The publisher of the journal is Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego (Rzeszów University Press), located at ul. prof. S. Pigonia 6, 35-959 Rzeszów.

    3. Authors cannot publish reprints in “Tematy i Konteksty”.

 

VII. The Principles of Publishing Corrections/Errata to the Published Texts

  1. Corrections issued by the journal’s editors regarding oversights and errors in a given issue are printed in the next issue as an attached erratum.

  2. The editors allow for a discussion of the published articles in the form of polemical articles printed in subsequent issues, in response to the article that triggered the debate.