Academic Integrity Violations Policy
Academic integrity is very important for the development of science, scientific publications and universities. Authors' and researchers' compliance with the requirements of academic integrity is the key to the successful development of the journal, increasing of its impact and reputation, and expanding the circle of readers.
According to the provision of subsection 31, paragraph 1 of Article 58 of the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education”, faculty and staff are obliged to: "observe academic integrity in the educational process and scientific (creative) activity and ensure its observance by higher education students."
According to Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine "On Education" "academic integrity is a set of ethical principles and rules defined by law, which should be guided by the participants of the educational process during learning, teaching and carrying out scientific (creative) activities in order to ensure trust in the results of studies and/ or scientific (creative) achievements".
Violations of academic integrity that may be detected during the editorial and publishing process are:
- academic plagiarism - publishing (partially or completely) scientific (creative) results obtained by other persons as the results of one's own research (creativity) and/or reproduction of published texts (published works of art) of other authors without indicating authorship;
- self-plagiarism — publishing (partially or completely) one's own previously published scientific results as new scientific results;
- fabrication — inventing data or facts used in the educational process or scientific research;
- falsification — a deliberate change or modification of already available data related to the educational process or scientific research;
- deception - provision of knowingly false information about one's own educational (scientific, creative) activity or the organization of the educational process; forms of deception are, in particular, academic plagiarism, self-plagiarism, fabrication, falsification and cheating by authors (clause 4 of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine "On Education");
- providing or receiving by a participant in the editorial process or offering to provide (receiving) funds, property, services, benefits or any other benefits of a material or non-material nature in order to distort the publication process and make a positive decision on the publication of the article;
- biased evaluation of the work submitted for publication — deliberate overestimation or underestimation of the results, research content, by reviewers or editors;
- making changes to the text of the submitted manuscript without agreement with the authors.
According to clause 4.1 of the Code of Ethics of the University Community, violations of academic integrity also include:
- deliberate dissemination of false or biased information about scientific research;
- distortion of research data; use of scientific and educational materials for an unscrupulous purpose;
- the use of other people's research data, methods, hypotheses and provisions of other scientists, other people's texts (in whole or in part) without proper indication of the author and source;
- entering the names of persons who did not directly participate in obtaining the results into the list of authors of a scientific or educational and methodological work;
- forging or distorting data or quotations in any field of academic activity, forging signatures in documents, in particular in reports, agreements, score books, statements, etc.;
- preparation to order and/or sale of academic texts (tests, term papers, qualification papers, thesis and educational literature);
- appropriation of academic texts commissioned by others.
All claims of breach of academic integrity should be forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief. In the event of a suspected violation of academic integrity, the editors-in-chief will act in accordance with the relevant COPE instructions and the internal documents of the publication's founder — the Code of Ethics of the University Community and the Regulations on Ensuring Academic Integrity at Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University.
If reviewers or editors comment on a potential breach of academic integrity, authors will be asked to provide an explanation. If the explanations are satisfactory and the problem is the result of a mistake or misunderstanding, the problem can be easily resolved. If not, the manuscript will be rejected or withdrawn, and the editors may ban such author(s) from publishing in the journal for a period of time.
In case of published plagiarism or double publication in several journals, an announcement will be made explaining the situation.
If the allegations concern the authors, the review and publication process of their submission will be suspended until the said process is completed. The investigation will be conducted even if the authors withdraw the manuscript.
If the allegations involve reviewers or editors, they will be replaced in the review process during the ongoing investigation.
Authors, reviewers and/or editors may be subject to the following academic liability for breach of academic integrity:
- refusal to publish the manuscript with the notification of the institution — the main affiliation of the author or the reviewer about the violation of academic integrity revealed during the editorial process;
- depriving the editor, reviewer of the right to participate in the editorial work of the publication.
The procedure for consideration of violations of academic integrity by authors, editors, reviewers of a scientific journal — employees of the University in accordance with clause 5.2 of the Code of Ethics of the University Community involves the participation of the head of the relevant department of the University in which the person or group of persons accused of the violation works, as well as the editor-in-chief, editor-in-chief of the journal , employees of the Coordination Center.
Each person, in relation to whom the issue of having violated academic integrity / failed to comply with academic integrity, has been raised, has the following rights:
- to get acquainted with all inspection materials regarding the establishment of the fact of violation of academic integrity, to submit comments to them;
- personally or through a representative to provide oral and written explanations or to refuse to provide any explanations, to participate in the investigation of evidence of violation of academic integrity;
- to know the date, time and place and to be present during the consideration of the issue of establishing the fact of violation of academic integrity and bringing it to academic responsibility;
- to appeal the decision to bring academic responsibility to the body authorized to consider appeals or to the court (Clause 8 of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine "On Education").
Violations of academic integrity do not include "honest error" or disagreement.
