Ethical Principles Applied in Prawo Kanoniczne (Canon Law) Quarterly

The ethical standards of Prawo Kanoniczne (PK) are based on the COPE Code of Conduct (Committee on Publication Ethics Code of Conduct). The journal Prawo Kanoniczne applies the following principles to all individuals and institutions involved in the publishing process (editors, reviewers, authors, publishers, and readers). In the event of a breach of these ethical standards, the Editorial Board of Prawo Kanoniczne reserves the right to terminate cooperation with the offenders and inform the institutions employing these individuals about the unethical practices.

Editorial Board of Prawo Kanoniczne (PK):

• meets the expectations of authors, reviewers, and readers;
• ensures the content and formal quality of published materials;
• ensures the smooth operation of editorial procedures;
• makes decisions regarding the publication of materials solely based on substantive and formal criteria, in accordance with ethical principles;
• promotes freedom of scientific discussion and, where appropriate, allows for the publication of polemical contributions to articles published in PK;
• prevents breaches of ethical standards;
• makes public all requirements for authors of submitted texts;
• provides authors with the opportunity, even after the publishing process is completed, to make corrections or withdraw their article from the journal's website;
• allows authors to publish clarifications or apologies regarding previous publications;
• informs readers about the funding of research whose results are published in PK;
• provides clear criteria for experts when evaluating peer-reviewed articles;
• develops procedures to ensure the anonymity of reviews and avoid conflicts of interest;
• responds promptly to complaints and provides a mechanism for appealing editorial decisions;
• maintains publication records.

Scientific Council of Prawo Kanoniczne (PK):

• ensures that the scientific excellence of the journal is maintained;
• monitors the activities of the Editorial Board concerning the publication process and the development of the journal;
• supports the Editorial Board of PK in setting the directions and areas of research, the results of which are published in the journal;
• promotes the journal within the national and international scientific community;
• as far as possible, supports the Editorial Board in all matters brought before it by the Editorial Board.

Malpractice Policy

If allegations are made regarding materials published in Prawo Kanoniczne (PK), the Editorial Board will review them and respond to the concerned parties via email, using the address provided by the author during the article submission process. If the allegations concern the Editorial Board of Prawo Kanoniczne (PK), the Editorial Board, after addressing the issue, will forward the matter to the Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at UKSW for further consideration.

Authorship and Originality

The person submitting an article to the Editorial Board confirms their authorship of the article and affirms its originality, meaning that it has not been previously published in any language nor simultaneously submitted to any other editorial office. In the case of a co-authored work, the authors submit a declaration specifying the percentage of contribution made by each author to the preparation of the article and detailing the scope of work done by individual team members. This declaration is signed by the submitting author. The Editorial Board particularly opposes unethical practices that violate the principles of scientific research, including so-called guest authorship, ghostwriting, and plagiarism.

Principles of Appealing Against Decisions of the Prawo Kanoniczne Editorial Board

Authors who disagree with the decisions of the Editorial Board of Prawo Kanoniczne (PK) may appeal to the dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at UKSW. If the dean deems it appropriate, he/she may seek the opinion of the director of the Institute of Canon Law. The dean serves as the primary appellate body, and his/her decisions are final.

Conflict of Interest Policy Principles

The Editorial Board places great importance on avoiding conflicts of interest in the publishing process. This primarily concerns conflicts of interest between: (1) authors and reviewers; (2) authors and members of the Prawo Kanoniczne (PK) Editorial Board; and (3) ensuring that such conflicts do not arise due to a lack of information about the funding bodies of the research whose results are published in PK.

The Editorial Board takes appropriate measures to ensure the highest possible impartiality in the review process, meaning that reviewers do not know the authors' identities and vice versa. There is also no hierarchical, familial, or institutional relationship between them. Additionally, an author submitting an article may request that the Editorial Board exclude a specific person from the evaluation process, providing appropriate justification.

In the case of hierarchical dependence between the author submitting an article and a member of the PK Editorial Board, that member of the Editorial Board is excluded from the decision process regarding the acceptance or rejection of the article. The same procedure applies if the author of the submitted text is a member of the Editorial Board.

In order to avoid conflicts of interest, the author is required to submit a statement regarding the entities funding the research, the results of which he/she has submitted for publication in PK. This information should be disclosed to the reader through its inclusion in the published article.

All allegations related to conflicts of interest, arising both before and after publication, should be reported to the Editorial Board, which will review them and inform the complainant of the outcome. Subsequently, the parties have the right to submit objections to the dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at UKSW.

Principles of Sharing Materials Published in Prawo Kanoniczne

Materials published in PK are available in both printed and electronic formats. The UKSW Press sells the printed version of the journal. In consultation with the UKSW Press, the Editorial Board makes all published texts available on the journal's website immediately after they have appeared in print. The Editorial Board also shares selected articles on the website, even prior to their official publication. Materials available on the PK website are open access and are made available under the terms of the Creative Commons licence (CC BY-ND 4.0 International). Authors are allowed to deposit: (1) the submitted version, (2) the accepted version, and (3) the published version of their articles in an institutional or other repository of their choice, without embargo.

Principles of Ethical Guardianship

The Editorial Board places great importance on respecting ethical principles, particularly those that safeguard privacy rights and the dignity of each individual.

The Editorial Board also ensures compliance with the privacy policy and protects the personal data of individuals cooperating with the Editorial Board. This data is used solely for purposes related to the publishing process. Detailed information about the personal data protection policy at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw is provided in the information clause available on https://uksw.edu.pl/en/university/personal-data-protection/. Any breach of personal data protection can be reported via the UKSW website.  

Intellectual Property Rights Policy

The policy regarding the copyrights of articles published in Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University journals is as follows: copyright of published articles is retained by the authors; however, they are required to sign a publication agreement with the UKSW Press. A model contract is available on the website. Materials made available on the PK website are open access, under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-ND 4.0 International) license. Authors do not incur any costs associated with the publication of their articles, nor do they receive financial compensation. However, they are entitled to a free author’s copy of the journal volume in which their text was published.

Journal Management Principles

PK is a journal published by the Institute of Canon Law at the Faculty of Canon Law at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. The Editor-in-Chief and other members of the Editorial Board are appointed by the director of the Institute of Canon Law after consulting the Canon Law Discipline Council at UKSW. All financial matters related to the functioning of the PK Editorial Board are handled by the UKSW authorities.

Evaluation Principles

The article qualification process follows a three-step evaluation procedure:

• The Editorial Board performs a preliminary evaluation of the compliance of the submitted article with the journal’s profile, its originality, and fulfillment of formal requirements. The Editorial Board will inform authors about the acceptance of their articles for further evaluation stages within 10 days.
• Two independent, external experts (not institutionally affiliated with the author) conduct substantive and formal evaluations of the submitted articles.
• The Editorial Board will decide whether to accept, reject, or return the article to the author for revision based on expert reviews. In the case of radically different expert opinions, the Editorial Board may request a third opinion and decide on the qualification of the article based on all reviews. This decision is made by voting, with an absolute majority of votes. In the event of a tie, the vote of the Editor-in-Chief prevails. The Editorial Board will decide on the publication of the article within 14 days from receiving the last review (if no significant changes are required by the reviewers) or 14 days after receiving the revised version of the article (in accordance with the reviewers' suggestions), and will inform the author of the decision.

The Editorial Board periodically evaluates the quality of reviews and develops guidelines for experts to enhance the substantive quality of reviews and standardize the criteria for evaluating articles.

The Editorial Board publishes a list of reviewers who have cooperated in the publication of specific volumes once a year on the journal’s website. The list of reviewers is also published in the last issue of each volume of the journal.

As far as possible, the members of the Editorial Board and those involved in the publishing process participate in training to enhance their qualifications, which are necessary to maintain a high organizational and substantive level of the Editorial Board's activities.

The author may challenge the position expressed during the publishing process. The PK Editorial Board is the body responsible for resolving such issues. If the author disagrees with the Editorial Board's decision, the matter is referred to the dean of the Faculty of Canon Law, who will provide a final decision.

Principles of Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections

If the publication receives justified criticism, the Editorial Board allows the author to withdraw or correct the article in its electronic version available on the PK website. The Editorial Board also allows the publication of a polemical article on PK for those interested in public debate about the published text as quickly as possible.