Academic honesty means demonstrating and supporting the highest integrity and honesty in all academic work you do as part of educational institutions.
The editorial board of A PRIORI Journal makes the final decision on which manuscripts will be published. When making a decision, the editorial office is guided by the editorial policy, taking into account the legal regulations related to defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism.
The editorial board reserves the discretion to evaluate the received manuscripts and not to publish them, if it determines that they do not meet the prescribed content and formal criteria. In regular circumstances, the editors inform the author whether they have accepted the text within 1 to 3 months from the date of receipt of the manuscript.
The editorial board must not have any conflict of interest regarding the manuscripts it is considering. If such a conflict of interest exists, the editor-in-chief decides on the choice of reviewers and the fate of the manuscript. The editor and members of the editorial board are obliged to report the existence of a conflict of interest in a timely manner.
The editorial office is obliged to make a judgment on the manuscript on the basis of its content, without racial, gender, religious, ethnic or political prejudices.
The editor and members of the editorial board may not use unpublished material from the submitted manuscripts for their research without the express written permission of the author, and the information and ideas presented in the submitted manuscripts must be kept confidential and may not be used for personal gain.
Editors and members of the editorial board are obliged to take all reasonable measures to keep the identity of reviewers unknown to authors before, during and after the review process and to keep the identity of authors unknown to reviewers until the review process is completed.
OBLIGATIONS OF THE AUTHOR
The authors guarantee that the manuscript represents their original contribution, that it has not been published before and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript in several journals is a violation of ethical standards. Such a manuscript is currently excluded from further consideration.
In case the submitted manuscript is the result of a scientific research project or, in the previous version, it was presented at the meeting in the form of an oral statement (under the same or similar title), more detailed information about the project, conference, etc. is given in the first footnote. A paper that has already been published in a journal will not be reprinted in the journal A PRIORI.
Authors are required to adhere to ethical principles relating to scientific research. The authors also guarantee that the manuscript does not contain unfounded or illegal claims and does not violate the rights of others. The publisher will not be liable in the event of any claims for damages.
Content of the paper
The paper should contain sufficient details and references to enable reviewers and then readers to verify the statements made in it. Deliberately making false claims is a violation of ethical principles. Representations must be accurate and objective.
The authors bear all responsibility for the content of the submitted manuscripts and are obliged, if necessary, to obtain the consent of all persons or institutions that directly participated in the research presented in the manuscript before their publication.
Authors who wish to include illustrations, tables or other materials that have already been published somewhere are required to obtain the consent of the copyright holders. Material for which such evidence has not been submitted will be considered the original work of the author.
Authorship
Authors are obliged to list as authors only those persons who have significantly contributed to the content of the manuscript, ie they are obliged to list all persons who have significantly contributed to the content of the manuscript as authors. If other non-authors have participated in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be mentioned in a note or acknowledgment.
Citing sources
Authors are required to correctly cite sources that have significantly influenced the content of research and manuscripts. Information obtained in private conversation or correspondence with third parties, when reviewing project applications or manuscripts, etc., may not be used without the express written permission of the source.
Plagiarism
We warn the authors to check for plagiarism for each manuscript.
Manuscripts with clear indications that it is plagiarism will be automatically rejected and the paper will be rejected without further review.
Plagiarism, ie taking over other people's ideas, words or other forms of creative expression and presenting them as one's own, is a gross violation of scientific and publishing ethics. Plagiarism may include copyright infringement, which is punishable by law.
If a paper published in a journal is found to be plagiarized, it will be withdrawn in accordance with the procedure described under Withdrawal of Published Papers, and the author will not be allowed to publish papers in A PRIORI in the future.
Plagiarism includes the following:
- literal or almost literal downloading or deliberate paraphrasing (in order to cover up plagiarism) of parts of other authors' texts without clearly indicating the source or marking of the copied fragments (for example, using quotation marks);
- copying pictures or tables from other people's works without properly citing the source and / or without the permission of the author or copyright holders.
In addition to plagiarism, we will list the most common forms of breaches of academic integrity that are prohibited by most academic institutions:
Plagiarism in the academic environment is considered the adoption or reproduction of original intellectual creations (such as concepts, ideas, methods, data or expressions, etc.) of another author (whether it is an individual, group or organization) without proper recognition (accreditation). This can range from borrowing a particular phrase or sentence to paraphrasing someone else’s original idea without quoting. Today, in our networked digital world, the most common form of plagiarism is copying and pasting internet material without citing the source.
Common forms of plagiarism
There are ten main forms of plagiarism that students commit and they are:
1. Surrender of someone else's work as your own.
2. Taking excerpts from your own previous work without quoting.
3. Rewriting someone's work without properly citing the source.
4. Using citations, but without citing the source.
5. Interweaving different sources in the work without citing the source.
6. Cite some but not all parts to be cited.
7. Merging quoted and unquoted parts of the paper.
8. Providing appropriate citations, but failing to change the structure and text of borrowed ideas.
9. Incorrect reference to the source.
10. Too much reliance on other people's work. Failure to incorporate the original thought into the text.
As a student, you become a member of a scientific community that values other people’s ideas. In fact, you will be routinely asked to reference and discuss other people’s thoughts and writings while creating your own work. That is why it is so important to understand what plagiarism is and the steps you can take to avoid it.
Avoiding plagiarism
Here are some helpful guidelines to help you avoid plagiarism and show academic integrity in your work:
Quotes: If you are directly quoting another work, cite your source.
Paraphrase: If you translate someone else’s idea into your own words, you still need to cite the author.
Visual materials: if you provide statistics, graphs or tables from the study, indicate the source. Please note that if you did not do the original research, then you need to list the person (s) or institution, etc. that did it.
The easiest way to make sure you don’t accidentally plagiarize someone else’s work is to take careful notes as you research. If you’re researching on the web, be sure to copy and paste the links into your notes so you can keep track of the sites you visit. Be sure to list all the sources you are consulting.
Consequences of plagiarism
In academia, student plagiarism is usually considered a very serious crime that can result in penalties such as poor performance in an individual exam, an entire course, or even expulsion from an institution.
Cheating
Cheating can take the form of guns, copying by looking at someone else's work during an exam, or any forbidden form of exchanging information among students during an exam. Over the years, developed methods of cheating have been developed, namely: hiding notes in the toilet, in graphic calculators, mobile phones and other electronic devices. Cheating differs from other forms of academic dishonesty in that people can engage in cheating without any academic benefit per se. Well, for example, a student can inadmissibly help a friend during a test by sending him answers to questions and thus doing the act of cheating, while not having any benefits for himself.
Fraud
Fraud is the provision of false information to an examiner as far as academic testing is concerned. Examples of scams include taking more time to take homework than is allowed, providing unfair excuses when an extension is requested, or falsely claiming that you have submitted work.
Forging
Forgery is the fabrication of data, information or quotations in an academic assignment. This includes fabricating quotes to support arguments or fabricating quotes. Falsification is most common in the natural sciences, where students sometimes falsify data to make experiments “successful” or make false claims about research.
Conflict of interest
The authors are obliged to point out in the paper financial or any other conflicts of interest that could affect the presented results and interpretations.
Errors in published works
In the event that authors discover an important error in their work after its publication, they are obliged to immediately notify the editor or publisher and to cooperate with them in order to withdraw or correct the work.
By submitting the manuscript to the editorial board of the magazine A PRIORI, the authors undertake to respect the stated obligations.
OBLIGATIONS OF REVIEWERS
Reviewers are obliged to professionally, argumentatively, impartially and within the given deadlines submit to the editor an assessment of the scientific value of the manuscript.
Reviewers evaluate the papers in relation to the compliance of the topic with the profile of the journal, the relevance of the research area and applied methods, originality and scientific relevance of the data presented in the manuscript, the style of scientific presentation and the equipment of the text with scientific apparatus.
A reviewer who has reasonable suspicions or knowledge of a violation of ethical standards by the author is required to notify the editor. The reviewer should recognize important published papers that the authors have not cited. He should also warn the editor of important similarities and similarities between the manuscript under consideration and any other published work or manuscript that is in the process of being reviewed in another journal, if he has personal knowledge about it. If there is information that the same manuscript is being considered in several journals at the same time, the reviewer is obliged to inform the editor.
The reviewer must not have a conflict of interest with the authors or sponsor of the research. If there is a conflict of interest, the reviewer is obliged to inform the editor immediately.
A reviewer who considers himself incompetent for the topic or area in which the manuscript deals is obliged to inform the editor.
The review must be objective. Comments concerning the author's personality are considered inappropriate. The judgment of the reviewers must be clear and supported by arguments.
Manuscripts sent to the reviewer are considered confidential documents. Reviewers may not use unpublished material from submitted manuscripts for their research without the express written permission of the author, and the information and ideas presented in the submitted manuscripts must be kept confidential and may not be used for personal gain.
RESOLUTION OF DISPUTED SITUATIONS
Any individual or institution may at any time report to the editor and / or editorial office information about violations of ethical standards as well as other irregularities and provide the necessary information / evidence.
Verification of the allegations and evidence presented
The editor-in-chief will, in agreement with the editorial board, decide whether to initiate a procedure aimed at verifying the allegations and evidence presented.
During this procedure, all presented evidence will be considered confidential material and will be presented only to those persons who are directly involved in the procedure.
Persons suspected of violating ethical principles will be given the opportunity to respond to allegations made against them.
If irregularities are found to have occurred, it will be assessed whether they should be characterized as a minor breach or a gross violation of ethical standards.
Minor offense
Situations characterized as a minor misdemeanor will be resolved in direct communication with the persons who committed the misdemeanor, without the involvement of third parties, for example:
- informing the author / reviewer that there has been a minor misdemeanor resulting from a misunderstanding or misapplication of academic standards;
- a warning letter to the author / reviewer who has committed a minor offense.
Gross violation of ethical principles
Decisions regarding gross violations of ethical standards are made by the editor-in-chief, in cooperation with the editorial board and, if necessary, a certain group of experts. The measures to be taken may be as follows:
- publishing a statement or editorial describing the case of violation of ethical principles;
- sending an official notice to the managers or employers of the author / reviewer (if an affiliation is specified);
- withdrawal of published papers in accordance with the procedure described under Withdrawal of published papers;
- authors will be prohibited from submitting papers to the journal for a certain period;
- informing the relevant professional organizations or competent bodies about the case so that they can take appropriate measures.
In resolving disputes, the editorial board is guided by the guidelines and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): http://publicationethics.org/resources/.
WITHDRAWAL OF PUBLISHED PAPERS
In case of infringement of the rights of publishers, copyright holders or authors, or violation of professional codes of ethics, ie in case of sending the same manuscript to several journals at the same time, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, data manipulation for fraud, as well as in all other cases of gross violation of ethical principles, the published work is withdrawn.
Standards for resolving situations when work must be withdrawn have been defined by libraries and scientific bodies, and the same practice has been adopted by the journal A PRIORI: in the electronic version of the original article (the one that is being withdrawn) a link is established notice of withdrawal. The withdrawn article is saved in its original form, but with a watermark on the PDF document, on each page, which indicates that the article has been withdrawn (RETRACTED).