Rules of publishing ethics

Principles of Publishing Ethics and Good Practices of the Quarterly Journal of Public Health, Nursing and Medical Rescue

Journal of Public Health, Nursing and Medical Rescue is guided by the ethical principles adopted by The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) presented on COPE Code of Conduct and best practice Guidelines for Editors on: www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.

1. General rules

  1. The editors stands by the observance of ethical standards of the editorial and publishing processes and strive to effectively eliminate practices contrary to accepted standards.
  2. In the case of any potential violations, the editors implement procedures based on the standards developed by COPE. These rules are transparent.
  3. The editorial office provides on its website the tips for authors and reviewers. The guidelines explain the various stages of editorial and publishing processes and inform about the rights and obligations of the authors and reviewers.
  4. The editors ensure an appropriate selection of reviewers for the edited work, taking into account the reviewers’ scientific and research work as well as their competences.
  5. The editors have the right to withdraw the work at any stage of the editorial and publishing process if: a) there is evidence of falsification or distortion of data or in case of errors, regardless of the author's intentions, which would lower the reliability of the research; b) work has the characteristics of plagiarism or significantly violates the principles of publishing ethics.

2. Editorial policy

  1. The editorial policy is independent from the owner or the editor.
  2. Decisions about accepting the material for printing are taken by the Editorial Board. The rules for qualifying the articles for printing are transparent.
  3. When making a decision about accepting an article or rejecting it, the Editorial Board takes into account its scientific and educational value as well as the manner in which it presents the subject, without any interference of third parties.
  4. The editors apply all available means to prevent plagiarism, abuse or publication of false data.
  5. Procedures are in place to ensure high content and editorial quality of published articles.
  6. All articles in the quarterly Journal of Public Health, Nursing and Medical Rescue are peer-reviewed.
  7. Editors and Publishers ensure the confidentiality and security of personal data.

3. Duties of authors

  1. The Journal of Public Health, Nursing and Medical Rescue website has detailed guidelines for authors and rules for the qualification of articles for publication – tips for authors and rules for the qualification of articles for publication.
  2. The author makes a statement that the text submitted for publication is an original work, does not violate the rights of third parties, has not been published anywhere and was prepared independently. All borrowings, quotations, tables and comments used in the text should bear the appropriate footnotes.
  3. The editors require the determination of the author's contribution in case of more than one author of the article.
  4. The editors counteract “ghostwriting” and “guest authorship”.
  5. Whoever misappropriates or misleads about the authorship of all or part of the work is subject to liability in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act (consolidated text: Journal of Laws of 2006 No. 90, item 631, as amended).
  6. After accepting the manuscript, the Author (Authors) transfers (transfer) copyrights to the Journal of Public Health, Nursing and Medical Rescue. All published materials become the property of the magazine and cannot be published without the written permission of the publisher. The author (authors) submits (submit) an appropriate statement on the transfer of copyright to the publisher and grants (grant) the publisher a license to distribute the article and expresses (express) their consent to the processing of personal data. – link to the statement.

4. Rules for reviewing texts

  1. The reviewing procedure is carried out in accordance with the principles of peer-review of scientific texts.
  2. Each article submitted for publication of the Journal of Public Health, Nursing and Medical Rescue is subject to a two-stage qualification procedure (initial assessment and substantive assessment -review).
  3. The preliminary assessment of the submitted work is made by the members of the Editorial Board in terms of scientific and educational values ​​as well as the method of presentation of the subject. Works that do not meet the basic conditions of publication are rejected. Incomplete texts or texts prepared in a way inconsistent with the rules required by the journal are sent back to the Author (Authors) without any substantive evaluation (review).
  4. After a positive initial assessment, the work is sent to an independent review of two reviewers from outside the scientific unit in which the Author (s) is/are affiliated. Authors and reviewers do not know their identity (double blind review). If this condition is met, the reviewer confirms the absence of a conflict of interest, kinship, professional subordination, direct scientific cooperation during the two years preceding the review.
  5. The reviewers are appointed from the list of reviewers taking into account their scientific and research achievements and their competence in the field of the subject of work. The names of reviewers of individual publications or issue numbers of the journal are not disclosed, but once a year, the Editors publish the list of cooperating reviewers.
  6. The reviewers, acting independently of each other, evaluate the publication and send their opinions to the editing office.
  7. The reviewing rules are posted on the magazine's website together with the review sheet – link
  8. The review should contain a clear application on the conditions of the article's admittance: without corrections, after taking into account the corrections indicated by the reviewer, after introducing thorough corrections and changes, or a request to reject the article.
  9. The Editorial Board, on the basis of assessments made by reviewers, decides to reject the publication, accept it for publication or send it back to the author in order to mark the corrections; in the latter case, along with the publication, the editors send the author the text of the review - after removing the information about the identity of the reviewers.
  10. After receiving a review with critical remarks, the author is obliged to address them and possibly make appropriate changes to the text of the publication.
  11. The author sends to the Editorial Board the corrected text of the publication, along with the responses to the comments of the reviewers, and after that the Editorial Board makes the final decision to reject or accept the publication.
  12. In the event that the reviewers present contradictory opinions or when there is justified concern about their reliability, the Editorial Board may appoint another reviewer.
  13. Reviewers are asked to disclose possible plagiarisms, infringements, manipulations, sources and up-to-date legal provisions or quoted data.
  14. The reviewers pay attention to the reliability of content and the originality and usefulness of work for science and practice in a given field.
  15. Reviewers carry out the reviewing procedure in accordance with the principles of fairness, objectivity, reliability, and according to their knowledge.
  16. Editors and Publishers protect the data of reviewers and authors and provide confidentiality of materials submitted to the Editors during the reviewing period.

5. Duties of members of the Editorial Board

  1. Members of the Editorial Board retain objectivity and impartiality.
  2. They show care for the scientific, educational and editorial value of the works appearing in the Journal of Public Health, Nursing and Medical Rescue.
  3. They make all the necessary effort to search for the authors and reviewers most highly valued in the scientific community and look for the right selection of topics.
  4. Members of the Editorial Board strive to constantly improve the quality of the journal, promote freedom of expression and exclude business benefits that may violate ethical and intellectual standards.
  5. Members of the Editorial Board perform the initial evaluation of the submitted articles, help the Editor-in-Chief in the selection of appropriate reviewers, care for their anonymity and ensure the confidentiality of materials sent to the Editor in the review and editorial process. Members of the Editorial Board are also responsible for accepting or rejecting the article. They accept only texts for which they are sure that they contain reliable, real research results and information based on reliable sources. They make every effort to detect plagiarism and support authors whose copyrights were infringed and they implement sanctions against dishonest authors. They try to avoid conflicts of interest with regard to rejected or accepted articles.
  6. The Editorial Board allows the publication of a critical comment referring to a previously published article in the journal, inspires discussions, allows the authors of the questioned texts to reply in the journal. In the case of errors contained in an already published article, it is possible to correct them and provide appropriate explanations.
  7. It is the responsibility of the editorial office and each of its members to protect personal data in accordance with GDPR / GDPR tab /.

6. Editorial duties

  1. The duty of the Editorial Board is the protection of personal data.
  2. The editors are required to take action, consisting not only of rejection of the article if they suspect that the article is plagiarised. This obligation covers both published and unpublished materials. If the answer of the person suspected of plagiarism is not satisfactory, the Editors ask the relevant institutions to investigate the matter. The editorial staff makes every effort to solve the problem.
  3. The editors have management systems used in the event of conflicts of interest between employees, authors, editors and reviewers.

7. Publishing ethics and intellectual property

  1. The editors monitor the observance of ethics by authors, reviewers and members of the Editorial Board.
  2. Ethical and intellectual standards are preserved.
  3. The integrity of scientific records and editorial standards is preserved.
  4. In the case of inaccuracies or erroneous statements in the published material, the editorial staff publishes properly displayed explanations, corrections, and apologies, if necessary.