ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES  APPLIED  IN "STUDIA  ECOLOGIAE  ET  BIOETHICAE"

The ethical standards adopted by Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae are modeled on the Committee on Publication Ethics Code of Conduct. The editors are convinced that ensuring the highest ethical standards serves the freedom of conducting scientific research. The journal “Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae” (SEeB) applies the following principles to all persons and institutions involved in the publishing process (editors, reviewers, authors, publishers and readers). In case of violation of any ethical principle, the Editorial Board of SEeB reserves the right to terminate cooperation with persons who have committed it and to inform the institution in which they are employed about the reprehensible practice.

Editorial Board of the journal “Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae”:

1. responds to the expectations of authors, reviewers and readers;
2. takes care of the substantive and formal level of published materials;
3. is concerned about the efficient functioning of editorial procedures;
4. takes all decisions regarding publication of materials solely on the basis of substantive and formal criteria in accordance with ethical principles;
5. supports the freedom of scientific discussion and, if necessary, enables the publication of polemical opinions for articles published in SEeB;
6. prevents ethical violations;
7. makes available to the public all requirements imposed on the authors of submitted texts;
8. enables authors with the possibility of making corrections or even withdrawing an article from the journal’s website even after the publishing process;
9. allows authors to publish explanations or apologies related to previous publications;
10. provides information on funding research whose findings are published in SEeB;
11. presents experts with clear criteria for evaluating reviewed articles;
12. develops procedures aimed at ensuring the anonymity of reviews and avoiding conflicts of interest;
13. immediately responds to complaints and indicates an appeal mechanism against the Editorial Board’s decisions;
14. keeps publishing documentation.

Scientific Council of the journal “Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae”:

1. takes care to maintain the journal’s high academic level;
2. supports the SEeB Editorial Board in setting directions and areas of research whose results are published in the journal “Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae”;
3. promotes the journal in the national and international scientific community;
4. within its means, it supports the Editorial Board in all matters with which it refers to the Scientific Council.

1. Malpractice Policy

Any allegations regarding materials published in SEeB, are considered by the Editorial Board by voting and responded to the interested parties by e-mail to the address provided by the author when submitting the article. Any allegations concerning the SEeB Editorial Board are responded by the Board and forwarded to the dean of the Department of Christian Philosophy UKSW.

2. Authorship and originality

Each person submitting an article to the SEeB Editorial Board shall confirm his/her authorship of that article, as well as its originality, i.e., that it has not been previously published in any language, or simultaneously submitted to any other editorial office. In the case of a co-authored work, the authors submit a declaration, in which they define a specific percentage contribution to the preparation of the article to individual authors and indicate the scope of work done by individual team members. This declaration is signed by the author who is submitting the article. The SEeB Editorial Board particularly opposes reprehensible practices that violate ethical principles of scientific research in the form of the so-called guest authorship, ghostwriting, and plagiarism.

The SEeB editors will check the originality of the submitted articles, using the iThenticate system and JSA system (Uniform Anti-Plagiarism System). This system has been introduced by the Ministry of Education and Science, as obligatory in all scientific institutions in Poland.

3. Principles of appealing against decisions of the SEeB Editorial Board

Authors who disagree with the decisions of the SEeB Editorial Boards may appeal against it to the dean of the Faculty of Christian Philosophy of UKSW. If the dean deems it appropriate, he/she may consult the opinion of the Faculty Committee for Scientific Research and National and Foreign Cooperation. The dean is an ordinary appeal body and his/her decisions are final.

4. Conflict of interest policy principles

The SEeB Editorial Board attaches great importance to avoiding conflicts of interest in the publishing process. It is primarily a conflict of interest between: 1) authors and reviewers; 2) authors and members of the SEeB Editorial Board; and 3) that such a conflict does not arise as a result of a lack of information on research funding bodies the results of which are published in SEeB.

The SEeB Editorial Board takes appropriate measures to ensure the highest possible impartiality of the review process, i.e. reviewers do not know the authors’ personal details and vice versa. There is also no hierarchical family or friendship affiliation between them. In addition, an author submitting an article may request the Editorial Board to exclude from the evaluating process a person indicated by him/her providing appropriate justification.

In the case of hierarchical dependence between the author submitting an article and a member of the SEeB 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 SEeB Editorial Board.

In order to avoid conflicts of interest, the author is required to submit a statement about the entities financing the research, the results of which he/she submitted for publication in SEeB. This information should be made available to the reader through its disclosure in the published article.

All allegations related to the conflict of interest, arising both before and after publication, should be reported to the Editorial Board, which shall consider them and inform the applicant about the results. Subsequently, the Parties have the right to submit objections to the Dean of the Faculty of Christian Philosophy of UKSW.

5. Principles of sharing materials published in SEeB

Materials published in SEeB are available in printed and electronic form. The UKSW Publishing House sells the printed version of the journal. The Editorial Board, in consultation with the UKSW Publishing House, provides all published texts on the journal’s website, immediately after they have appeared in print. The editors share selected articles on their website, even prior to their publication. Materials available on the SEeB website have open access status and are made available under the terms of the Creative Commons licence (CC BY-ND 4.0 International) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/deed.en). Authors are allowed to deposit: 1) submitted version, 2) accepted version, and 3) published version of their articles in an institutional or other repository of the author’s choice, without embargo.

6. Principles of ethical guardianship

The SEeB Editorial Board attaches great importance to respecting ethical principles, especially the principles guaranteeing respect for privacy rights and the dignity of each person. In addition, the Editorial Board takes care to ensure that human and animal research, the results of which are published in SEeB, are conducted in compliance with ethical principles. Consequently, if the opinion of the appropriate ethics committee is required, the authors are required to present it to the SEeB Editorial Board. In case of doubts, the Editorial Board refers to the UKSW Ethics and Bioethics Committee.

The SEeB Editorial Board also ensures compliance with the privacy policy and protects the personal data of persons cooperating with the Editorial Board. These data are used only for the purposes of the publishing process. Detailed information about personal data protection policy at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw is included in the information clause available on the website. Any breach of personal data protection can be reported via the UKSW website.

7. Intellectual Property Rights Policy

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

8. Journal management principles

SEeB is a journal published by the Institute of Philosophy in cooperation with the Centre for Ecology and Ecophilosophy at the Faculty of Christian Philosophy at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. The Editor-in-chief and other members of the Editorial Board are appointed by the dean of the Faculty of Christian Philosophy after consulting the Philosophy Discipline Council at UKSW. All financial matters related to the functioning of the SEeB Editorial Board are taken by the UKSW authorities.

9. Evaluation principles

The article qualification process is subject to a three-step evaluation procedure:

1) The Editorial Board performs a preliminary evaluation of the compliance of the submitted article with the journal’s profile and fulfillment of formal requirements. During the academic year, the Editorial Board shall provide authors with information on accepting their articles for further stages of evaluation within 1 week.

2) Two independent, external experts make substantive and formal evaluation of the submitted articles. As a rule, this process takes about 2 months.

3) The Editorial Board shall decide whether to accept, reject or send the article to the author for improvement based on expert reviews. In case of radically different expert opinions, the Editorial Board may seek the opinion of the third expert and decide on the qualification of the article based on all reviews. This decision is made by voting by absolute majority of votes. In the event of an equal number of votes, the vote of the Editor-in-chief is prevailing. The Editorial Board shall decide on the article publication within 2 weeks from receiving the last review and inform the author about the decision.

The Editorial Board conducts periodical evaluation of the quality of reviews and develops guidelines for experts to improve the substantive level of reviews and standardize the criteria for articles evaluation.

A list of reviewers cooperating in the publication of specific volumes is published by the Editorial Board once a year on the journal’s website.

As far as possible, the Editorial Board members and persons involved in the publishing process participate in trainings raising their qualifications 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 entity that resolves these types of issues is the SEeB Editorial Board. If the author disagrees with the Editorial Board’s decision, the matter is referred to the dean of the Faculty of Christian Philosophy, who presents his/her position.

The detailed review procedure (editorial screening, external peer review and editorial decision) is described in the “Peer Review Process” section in the “For Authors” menu.

10. Principles of post-publication discussions, corrections, and retractions

The SEeB Editorial Board is committed to research integrity and to maintaining a reliable scholarly record. When errors or concerns are identified in published articles, the journal applies clear rules for corrections, retractions and post-publication discussions. In these matters the Editorial Board follows, in particular, the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Raising concerns about a published article
Concerns about a published article (for example, possible errors, violations of research or publication ethics, plagiarism, redundant publication, data fabrication or falsification, or serious conflicts of interest) may be raised by authors, reviewers, readers, research institutions, or other interested parties. Concerns should be sent to the Editorial Board using the contact details provided on the journal website, with a clear description of the problem and full citation of the article.

Editorial investigation
After receiving a complaint, the Editorial Board will:
1) acknowledge receipt of the message;
2) make an initial assessment of the concern;
3) if necessary, request explanations or additional information from the authors;
4) when appropriate, contact the authors’ institution or other relevant bodies;
5) decide on the most suitable action: a correction, a retraction, an expression of concern, or no action.

The decision is taken by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Board and, when needed, with the journal’s Scientific Council or the appropriate authorities of UKSW. In disputed cases, the general appeal rules described in this document apply.

Corrections (corrigendum, erratum)
If an error in a published article does not invalidate the results or conclusions (for example, typographical errors, obvious mistakes, minor errors in a table, incomplete information in a note or method description), the SEeB Editorial Board will publish a correction:
1) as a separate notice (e.g., “Correction to: [full citation of the article]”) or an editorial note;
2) clearly linked to the corrected article (two-way linking);
3) with a precise description of what has been corrected.

The online version of the article will be updated and the correction will be clearly indicated so that the reader is aware of the change.

Retractions
A published article may be retracted, in particular when:
1) there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable (for example, as a result of data fabrication or falsification, or a serious methodological error);
2) it has been published in violation of research or publication ethics (for example, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, redundant publication);
3) the research was conducted in an unethical way, including a breach of ethical safeguards for humans or animals;
4) there is a serious, unresolved conflict of interest that significantly undermines the integrity of the publication;
5) there are other serious reasons consistent with COPE retraction guidance.

The Editor-in-Chief decides on retraction after the investigation is completed. The authors are informed about the outcome. Retraction is intended to correct the scholarly record and should not be regarded as a personal punishment for the authors.

Retraction notice and labelling of the article
In the case of retraction, the SEeB Editorial Board:
1) publishes a separate retraction notice, available in open access, stating the title and full citation of the article, a brief reason for retraction, and who is issuing the retraction (author, editor, institution);
2) keeps the original article available online but clearly labels it as RETRACTED on the article page, in the metadata and in the PDF file;
3) updates all electronic versions of the article controlled by the publisher so that they contain a link to the retraction notice.

Expression of concern
When serious concerns have been raised, but the investigation is not yet conclusive (for example, pending an institutional inquiry or when essential data are not available), the Editorial Board may issue an expression of concern linked to the article. After the investigation is completed, the notice will be updated or replaced by a correction or a retraction.

Withdrawal of a manuscript before publication
Authors may, for justified reasons, request withdrawal of their manuscript during peer review or before publication. The Editorial Board considers such a request, taking into account, among other things, the stage of the publishing process and any suspicion of misconduct (for example, simultaneous submission to several journals or plagiarism). In case of confirmed misconduct, the Editorial Board may refuse withdrawal and take other actions provided for in these Ethical Principles.

Scientific discussion and polemical texts
For those interested in public debate on a published text, the SEeB Editorial Board enables, as far as organizationally possible, the publication of a polemical article in the journal in the nearest possible issue. In this way, the Editorial Board supports fair scientific discussion and the correction and clarification of published research findings.