Publication Ethics

Rules applicable to authors

  1. Principle of scientific integrity

The author is obliged to conduct and present scientific research in a reliable way and to interpret it objectively. The text should disclose sources of data and information that will allow the research to be replicated.

  1. Principle of originality

The text should be the author’s intellectual property. Plagiarism, autoplagiarism, the falsification and making up of data and research methods are inadmissible. If the author has made use of other works, these should be properly referenced in order to remove any doubts concerning the authorship of the work or any part thereof. Information obtained privately (e.g., in a conversation, correspondence, discussion) may not be used without the written consent of its author.

  1. Principle of data availability

The editorial board does not collect research data and the presentation of the research data management plan does not constitute a requirement for a paper to be published. However, in certain circumstances authors may be asked to provide research data, also after the publication of their paper.

  1. Principle of preventing conflicts of interest

Conflicts of interest are relationships that entail professional subordination and economic dependence as well as social relations, which can affect impartial assessment of the merits of the text. The editors require the author to make a statement on the lack of conflict of interest and provide information that will help to prevent such conflict.

  1. Principles of authorship

The authorship of a work should be limited to persons who have made a significant contribution to the text. In order to prevent cases of academic dishonesty, such as "ghost-writing” and "guest authorship”, all persons who have made a contribution to the publication should be mentioned as co-authors. All authors must approve the final version of the work and agree to its publication. In their written statement, the authors indicate their contribution to the creation of the work submitted. All persons who have taken part in certain important aspects of creating the work (e.g. language verification) should be identified. If there are others who participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be mentioned, for example, in the “Acknowledgements”. The authors assume collective responsibility for their work. The authors should also provide the editorial board with information on the sources of financing of the publication, contribution of academic research institutions, associations and other entities (“financial disclosure”).

  1. Principle of source reliability

The publications that influenced the author’s work should be properly referenced. Information obtained privately may not be used without the written consent of the author. 

  1. Ethical supervision

If the scope of the published consent covers research on humans and/or animals, the author should provide the consent of the Ethics Committee or another appropriate authorisation for such research.

  1. Principles concerning errors in published works

If the author notices significant errors in their publication, they should immediately notify the Editor-in-Chief. An erratum, annex or correction should be published in cooperation with the Editor-in-Chief and the Publisher; alternatively, the publication should be withdrawn.

  1. Principle of avoiding multiple, redundant or concurrent publications


Results of research may not be published in more than one journal. Submitting a paper for publication is understood as a declaration that the text has never been previously published anywhere, also in electronic form, and that it has not been submitted for publication in other journals nor is a part of a non-serial publication, such as a monograph.

Principles concerning members of the Editorial Board

  1. Responsibility

The editorial board decides which papers will be published, takes care to ensure the quality of published material and, if necessary, is ready to publish a revision, erratum or correction if need be. The editorial board accepts responsibility for all the content featured in the journal.

  1. Principle of fair play

The papers are assessed on the basis of their merits and importance for the journal, regardless of the affiliation of the author of the work, their nationality, ethnicity, political views, gender, race or religious denomination. 

  1. Principle of confidentiality

The editorial board of the journal is under the obligation to keep confidential any information related to the editorial process.

  1. Complaints and appeals

A complaint against the Journal and/or the Editorial Board should be made in writing and, if it concerns the journal or the conduct of the editorial board members, to the Editor-in-Chief. If it concerns the conduct of the Editor-in-Chief, the complaint should be addressed to the Publisher (tnkuladm@kul.pl) and sent in cc to the Editor-in-Chief. The Publisher is supervised by the President of the Learned Society of KUL and the Vice-Rector for Science and Education of KUL. The subject of the complaint may be, for example, the infringement of the interests of the complaining party, negligence, delayed response or lack of response on the part of the editorial board. The complaining party should receive written information on the resolution of the matter submitted within 30 days of the complaint.

  1. Verification of materials already published and prevention of conflicts of interest

The editorial board may withdraw a paper from publication or make a decision to amend materials that have already been published. Unpublished materials may not be used in the publishing process without the written consent of the author.

  1. Discussion and corrections

The editorial board uses the Open Journal System, which permits a comprehensive, electronically-based editorial process, under which the editor, reviewer and author of the text may conduct a discussion and make corrections at each stage of the publication process.

  1. Decisions concerning the publication

The decision to publish or not to publish the text is made by the editorial team. The decision of the editorial team is determined, first of all, by the academic merits of the text and its compliance with the thematical scope of the journal.

  1. Principle of scientific integrity

Members of the editorial board are obliged to take care to ensure scientific integrity of the published works. If dishonest practices are suspected, the editors are obliged to withdraw the text from publication and to take steps to explain and remedy the situation. The detected cases of ethics violation (plagiarism, falsification of research results, manipulation of research results, inventing research results, etc.) should be reported in writing to the journal’s Editor-in-Chief (e-mail: jacek.wojtysiak@kul.pl).A violation can be submitted by a member of the editorial board, reviewer, journal reader or any other person who holds suspicions as to the integrity of the text. The editorial board acts in compliance with the principles formulated by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) https://publicationethics.org. In the event that the violation of ethical principles concerns a text that has already been published the editors will remove the paper from the website, providing information on the reasons for the withdrawal and, in the case of a text published in print, the editors will publish an appropriate statement in the next edition of the journal. The editorial board will notify the author, the institution he/she is affiliated with, reviewers, the aggrieved parties and also, if necessary, other ethics supervisory bodies. If ethics violations in the text are minor, it will be possible to republish the corrected text. If there is a conflict of interest within the editorial board, the report should be submitted to the Publisher (tnkuladm@kul.pl).

Rules applicable to reviewers

  1. Cooperation with the editorial team

Reviewers participate in the editorial process at the review stage and have an influence on the decisions made by editors with regard to the publication of the text. They also may, in consultation with the authors, decide about the final form of the paper.

  1. Principle of timely performance

Reviewers are required to meet a set review deadline. The reviewer should immediately inform the editorial board of the reasons for delays or of withdrawal from reviewing the text.

  1. Principle of confidentiality

Only authorised persons, that is, the editors, authors and reviewers have access to the reviewed works.

  1. Principle of objectivity

The review should concern only substantive and formal aspects of the text. Any remarks concerning the authors are inadmissible.

  1. Principle of source reliability

The reviewer should disclose all cases that indicate the similarity of the reviewed work to other works and indicate which works have not been referenced by the author.

  1. Principle of preventing conflicts of interest

Reviewers may not use the reviewed texts for their own needs and benefits. If there is a conflict of interest between reviewer(s) and author(s) of the text, such reviewers should be excluded from the review procedure.

 

Rules applicable to the Publisher

To ensure the highest quality of its publications and to prevent unfair publication practices (plagiarism, autoplagiarism, ghost-writing, guest authorship or courtesy authorship), the Learned Society of KUL and the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, as the Owners and Publishers of the journal  Roczniki Filozoficzne, apply the principles of publication ethics in compliance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin provides its journals with support in this regard, in the form of: 1) A system that checks the similarity of texts – iThenticate (http://www.ithenticate.com/); it checks similarity with 91% of the most often quoted journals and provides the option to view the content of papers, makes it possible to detect a potential plagiarism before starting the review process and solve problematic issues. Final Similarity Reports make certain that the published papers are original.The content of journals is indexed within the CrossRef – a Similarity Check initiative, the purpose of which is to prevent academic and professional plagiarism. 2) Open Journal Systems (OJS) – a platform for managing the publishing process and for publishing journals online. OJS provides mechanisms that make it possible to: hold a discussion between the author and the editor and between the editor and reviewers; revise, correct or withdraw papers after their publication. 3) In the event that unfair research practices are detected, the Publisher encourages the editorial boards to use a solution map available in the form of COPE flowcharts (https://publicationethics.org/resources/translated-resources/polish-all-flowcharts). Moreover, the Publisher also provides expert legal assessment of the situation and advice on unfair publishing practices.