Dealing with unethical behaviour

Every individual or institution can, at any time, inform the editor in chief or editorial board about the violation of ethical standards and other irregularities. They have to provide credible information and proofs about this in order the investigation can be initiated. The procedure of checking the given proofs is carried out in the following way:

• the editor in chief makes a decision on initiating the investigation;
• during this procedure, all proofs are considered to be confidential material and they are represented only to the persons directly covered by the case;
• the suspects are given an opportunity to respond to the charges being made;
• if it is determined that some irregularity has occurred, it is judged whether we are talking about a miner offense or gross violation of ethical standards.

Miner offenses without consequences for the integrity of the magazine itself, for example the misunderstanding or misuse of publicity standards, are solved through a direct communication with the authors and reviewers without including the third persons. It is done in some of the following ways:

• a warning letter is sent to the authors and reviewers;
• the paper correction is notified, for example, in the case when the sources being cited in the text itself in an adequate way are omitted in the list of references;
• the erratum is notified, for example, if the mistake has been made by the oversight of the editorial board.

In the case of a gross violation of ethical standards, the editor in chief can take different kinds of measures:

• she publishes a statement or editorial in which a case is described;
• she officially informs the affiliation organization of the authors and reviewers;
• she withdraws the published paper in the way described under the section The withdrawal policy;
• she pronounces to the author the ban of publishing papers in the magazine during a determined period of time;
• she presents a case to the competent organizations and regulatory bodies in order certain measures from their jurisdiction to be taken.

These measures can be applied individually or simultaneously. In the process of solving the case there can be consulted relevant expert organizations, bodies or individuals.

By resolving ethical disputed proceedings, the editorial board is directed by the guidlines of the Committee of publishing ethics (COPE).