ETHICAL PRINCIPLES APPLIED IN “STUDIES ON THE FAMILY”

The ethical standards applied in “Studies on the Family” are based on the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics Code of Conduct). The editorial board is convinced that ensuring the highest ethical standards serves the freedom of scientific research. The journal “Studia nad Rodziną” applies the following principles to all persons and institutions involved in the publishing process (editors, reviewers, authors, publishers, and readers). In the event of a breach of ethical principles, the editorial board of Studia nad Rodziną reserves the right to terminate cooperation with the persons who committed the breach and to inform the institutions where these persons are employed about the reprehensible practices.

The Editorial Board of the journal Studia nad Rodziną (Family Studies):

1. meets the expectations of authors, reviewers, and readers;
2. ensures the substantive and formal quality of published materials;
3. ensures the efficient functioning of editorial procedures;
4. makes all decisions regarding the publication of materials based solely on substantive and formal criteria in accordance with ethical principles;
5. supports freedom of scientific discussion and, if necessary, allows the publication of polemical responses to articles published in the journal “Studia nad Rodziną”;
6. prevents violations of ethical principles;
7. publishes all requirements for authors of submitted texts;
8. provides authors, even after the publishing process is complete, with the opportunity to make corrections or even withdraw an article from the journal's website;
9. enables authors to publish explanations or apologies related to previous publications;
10. informs readers about the funding of research whose results are published in “Studia nad Rodziną”;
11. presents clear criteria for the evaluation of peer-reviewed articles to experts;
12. develops procedures to ensure the anonymity of reviews and avoid conflicts of interest;
13. responds promptly to complaints and indicates the appeal mechanism against the Editorial Board's decisions;
14. keeps publishing documentation.

The Scientific Council of the journal Studia nad Rodziną (Family Studies):

1. ensures that the journal maintains a high scientific standard;
2. supports the editorial board of Studia nad Rodziną in determining the directions and areas of research whose results are published in the journal;
3. promotes the journal in the national and international scientific community;
4. supports the Editorial Board in all matters referred to the Scientific Council, as far as possible.

Rules concerning improper practices

In the event of allegations concerning materials published in the journal Studia nad Rodziną, the Editorial Board shall consider them by vote and respond to the interested parties by email to the address provided by the author when submitting the article. If the allegations concern the editorial board of the journal Studia nad Rodziną, the editorial board, after responding to them, will forward them for consideration by the dean of the Faculty of Family Studies at UKSW.

Rules concerning authorship and originality

The person submitting an article to the editorial office of the journal Studia nad Rodziną confirms that they are the author of the article, that it is original, i.e. it has not been previously published in any language and has not been simultaneously submitted to any other editorial office. In the case of a team of authors, they submit a statement in which they assign a specific percentage of contribution to the preparation of the article to individual authors and indicate the scope of work performed by individual team members. This statement is signed by the submitting author. The editorial board of the journal “Studia nad Rodziną” strongly opposes reprehensible practices that violate the ethical principles of scientific research, such as guest authorship, ghostwriting, and plagiarism.

The editorial board of the journal “Studia nad Rodziną” checks the originality of submitted articles using the iThenticate system and the JSA (Uniform Anti-Plagiarism System). This system has been introduced by the Ministry of Education and Science as mandatory in all scientific institutions in Poland.

Rules for appealing against decisions made by the Editorial Board of the journal Studia nad Rodziną

Authors who disagree with the position of the editorial board of the journal Studia nad Rodziną may appeal against it to the dean of the Faculty of Family Studies at UKSW. If the dean deems it appropriate, he or she may request an opinion from the Faculty Committee for Scientific Research and Domestic and International Cooperation. The dean is the ordinary appeal authority, and his or her decisions are final.

Conflict of interest policy

The editorial board of Studia nad Rodziną attaches great importance to 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 editorial board of Studia nad Rodziną; and 3) conflicts that may arise as a result of a lack of information about the entities financing the research whose results are published in Studia nad Rodziną.

The editorial board of Studia nad Rodziną ensures that the review process of submitted articles is as objective as possible, i.e., reviewers do not know the authors' personal details and vice versa. There is also no professional, family, friendly, or other relationship between them. In addition, the author submitting an article may ask the editorial board to ensure that a specific person does not review their text, providing appropriate justification.

If the author submitting an article is related to a member of the editorial board of the journal Studia nad Rodziną, that person shall not participate in the vote by which the editorial board decides whether to accept or reject the article. The same procedure applies if the author of the submitted text is a member of the editorial board of the journal Studia nad Rodziną.

In order to avoid conflicts of interest, the author is required to submit a statement on the entities financing the research, the results of which he or she has submitted for publication in the journal Studia nad Rodziną. This information should be made available to the reader by including it in the published article.

Any allegations of conflict of interest, both before and after publication, should be reported to the Editorial Board, which will consider them and inform the reporting party of the results. The parties then have the right to submit their objections to the Dean of the Faculty of Family Studies at UKSW.

Rules for sharing materials published in Studia nad Rodziną

Materials published in the Studia nad Rodziną journal are available in print and electronic form. The UKSW Scientific Publishing House sells the journal in print. In consultation with the UKSW Scientific Publishing House, the editorial office makes all published texts available on the journal's website immediately after they appear in print. The editorial office makes selected articles available on its website even before they are published. The materials made available on the Studia nad Rodziną website have open access status and are made available under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-ND 4.0 International) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/deed.pl). Authors may deposit the following versions of their articles in institutional or other repositories of their choice without any embargo: 1) submitted, 2) accepted, and 3) published.

Ethical guardianship rules

The editorial board of the journal Studia nad Rodziną attaches great importance to respecting ethical principles, especially those that protect the privacy and dignity of every human being. In addition, the editorial board ensures that research on humans and animals, the results of which are published in Studia nad Rodziną, is conducted in accordance with ethical principles. Therefore, if an opinion from the relevant ethics committee is required, authors are required to submit it to the editorial board of the journal Studia nad Rodziną. In cases of doubt, the editorial board of the journal Studia nad Rodziną refers to the Ethics and Bioethics Committee of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University.

The editorial board of the journal Studia nad Rodziną also ensures compliance with privacy policies and protects the personal data of persons cooperating with the editorial board. This data is used exclusively for purposes related to the publishing process. Detailed information on the personal data protection policy at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University is contained in the information clause available on the website. Violations of personal data protection can be reported via the website.

Intellectual property rules

The copyright policy for materials published in journals issued by UKSW is as follows: authors retain the copyright to published materials, but they are required to sign an agreement for the publication of the article by Wydawnictwo Naukowe UKSW. A template of the agreement is available on the Studia nad Rodziną website. Materials made available on the Studia nad Rodziną website have open access status in accordance with the terms of the CC BY-ND 4.0 International license. The author is not obliged to bear the costs associated with the publication of the article, nor does he or she receive any financial remuneration for this. However, the author is entitled to a free author's copy of the journal volume in which his or her text was published.

Journal management rules

Studia nad Rodziną (Family Studies) is a journal published by the Institute of Family Sciences at the Faculty of Family Studies at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. The editor-in-chief and other members of the editorial board are appointed by the dean of the Faculty of Family Studies after consultation with the Council of Family Sciences at UKSW. All financial matters related to the functioning of the editorial board of the journal “Studia nad Rodziną” are decided by the authorities of UKSW.

Rules for evaluation

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

1) The editorial board conducts a preliminary assessment of the submitted article's compliance with the journal's profile and formal requirements. During the academic year, the editorial board informs the author within one week whether the article has been accepted for further evaluation.

2) Two independent external experts conduct a substantive and formal evaluation of the submitted articles. This process usually takes about two months.

3) Based on the experts' reviews, the Editorial Board decides whether to accept, reject, or return the article to the author for revision in accordance with the experts' suggestions. In the event of radically different assessments by the experts, the Editorial Board may request an assessment from a third expert and decide on the qualification of the article based on all reviews. This decision is made by a vote, by an absolute majority of votes. In the event of a tie, the editor-in-chief has the casting vote. The editorial board makes a decision on the publication of the article within 2 weeks of receiving the last review and informs the author thereof.

The editorial board periodically evaluates the quality of reviews and develops guidelines for experts in order to improve the substantive level of reviews and standardize the criteria for evaluating articles.

Once a year, the editorial board publishes on the journal's website a list of reviewers with whom it has collaborated on specific volumes of the journal.

Where possible, members of the editorial board and persons involved in the publishing process participate in training courses to improve their qualifications necessary to maintain the 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 decides on such matters is the Editorial Board of the journal “Studia nad Rodziną” (Family Studies). If the author disagrees with the Editorial Board's decision, the matter is referred to the dean of the Faculty of Family Studies, who takes a position on the matter.

Rules regarding discussion and corrections after publication of an article

In the event that a publication receives justified criticism, the Editorial Board allows the author to withdraw or correct the article in the electronic version available on the website of the journal “Studia nad Rodziną” (Family Studies). For those interested in a public debate on the published text, the Editorial Board allows the publication of a polemical article in the journal “Studia nad Rodziną” as soon as possible.