ETHICS FOR AUTHORS

Integrity and scientific ethics: Authors are obliged to prepare a thorough presentation of their scientific work and to interpret their research results in an objective manner. Their papers should include the necessary information enabling identification of sources of data, and rendering it possible for others to repeat the studies. Presenting and interpreting data that is inconsistent with the ethical principles is unacceptable and may result in a text being withdrawn from publishing.

Studies involving people or animals must be conducted in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Helsinki Declaration) and with the Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council.

If materials containing data that enable patient identification are to be presented, the authors are obliged ensure their anonymization. If anonymization is not possible, consent has to be obtained (and submitted to the editorial board) from the patient whose image is to be used.

 

Originality of the work: Authors may only submit their own texts for publication. Studies and/or information obtained from other researchers must be marked as such, with clear references to cited passages. Plagiarism or data falsification is unacceptable.

 

Availability of data: If requested to present raw study results, used in their manuscripts, authors are obliged to make them available, also at a later stage, once their paper has already been published.

 

Authorship: Authors who submit multi-author texts for publication are obliged to reveal the contributions of the individual authors. All of the authors are held responsible for the content presented in the publication, and thus, they have to be familiar with the final version of the text, and grant their approval for publication.

Ghostwriting and guest authorship are manifestations of lack of scientific integrity, and as such should be reported to the competent authorities, including the institutions that employ the authors in question, as well as scientific societies, associations of scientific editors, etc.

 

Integrity of sources: Authors are obliged to include all the publications used in their work in the reference list.

 

Correcting errors in the published papers: If the authors discover significant errors or inconsistencies in their texts, they are obliged to inform the publisher immediately. The mistakes will then be corrected in the form of an erratum.