Ethical policy

Ethics guidelines of the Editorial Board of journal "History & Archaeology"

General provisions

Ethics guidelines of the editorial board are based on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics, as well as the principles of DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment).

The editorial board considers the monitoring of ethics of the manuscripts as one of the aspects of its activities and the peer-review process.

Editors don’t approve the materials which contain insulting statements, manifestations of aggression or any discrimination, or incite ethnic and racial hatred, violate international legal norms and current legislation of Ukraine.

Editors are not responsible for opinions, judgments, results and conclusions made by the authors of articles and published in the journal. They do not represent the point of view of the editorial board.

Editors are not liable to the authors and/or third parties and organizations for possible damage caused by the publication of the article.

The authors are responsible for the originality or any unfair use of the intellectual property of other authors, as well as for the reliability of information, the accuracy of names, surnames, etc.

Editors reserve the right to review the above ethical principles to amend them.

Ethical guidelines for editors

▶ editors take responsibility for everything they publish and thus, all submitted materials are subject to careful selection and peer review. Editors reserve the right to reject an article or send back for improving;

▶ editors should make fair and unbiased decisions independent from commercial consideration and ensure a fair and appropriate peer review process within a reasonable time;

▶ editors are entitled to reject a manuscript without peer-reviewing if it doesn’t meet the editorial policy, ethics and requirements for manuscripts;

▶ editors shall not provide information related to the content of a manuscript under consideration to other persons, except ones involved in the professional evaluation of this manuscript;

▶ editors are authorized to withdraw the electronic version of the article published in the printed version of the journal, if someone’s rights or generally accepted rules of scientific ethics are violated. The editors inform the author who provided the article and the organization where the work was performed about the fact of withdrawal of the article. Editors also publish a notice of the fact of withdrawal of the article in the next issue of the journal;

▶ editors allow distributing any articles or extracts from the journal in electronic social networks, but reference to the original source is mandatory. The third parties or organizations are prohibited to publish and / or distribute the journal materials in paper form and data storage devices.

Ethical guidelines for authors

▶ the research being reported should have been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and should comply with all relevant legislation. Authors should mention dangerous manifestations and risks associated with the research;

▶ researchers should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation.

▶ researchers should adhere to publication requirements that submitted work is original, is not plagiarised, and has not been published elsewhere;

▶ a manuscript can involve scientifically grounded criticism of a paper of another researcher. The personal comments are not regarded as relevant;

▶ funding sources and relevant conflicts of interest should be disclosed. Authors should guarantee a lack of the contractual relations or
property considerations, which could influence the publication of information contained in a manuscript;

▶ authors should indicate the sources of cited information, which should be properly acknowledged and referenced.

Ethical guidelines for peer-reviewers

▶ if an appointed peer-reviewer is not confident that his qualification meets the level of research, he/she should give the manuscript back immediately;

▶ a reviewer should be impartial when evaluating a manuscript, its experimental and theoretical parts, interpretation and statement, as well as take into account the correspondence of the research compliance with the high scientific and literature standards. The reviewer should respect the intellectual independence of authors.

▶ a reviewer should take into account a possibility of the conflict of interests if a particular manuscript closely relates to the reviewer’s current or published paper. If there are doubts, the reviewer should refuse to review the manuscripts referring to the conflict of interests;

▶ a reviewer should assess a manuscript if he/she has personal or professional relations and if such relations can influence the impartiality;

▶ a reviewer shouldn’t show a manuscript under review others or discuss it with colleagues, only if the reviewer needs professional advice;

▶ reviewers should adequately explain and justify their judgments so that editors and authors can understand the reasons their comments are based on;

▶ a reviewer should indicate any cases of a lack of citations of the papers of other scholars, any significant similarity between the relevant manuscript and any published article or any manuscript simultaneously submitted to another journal;

▶ a reviewer should provide a review without undue delay;

▶ reviewers should not use or disclose unpublished information, arguments, or interpretations contained in the manuscript without the consent of the author.

 

The Editorial Board recognizes research integrity as a fundamental basis of scholarly activity and does not tolerate any forms of misconduct that may affect the reliability, objectivity, and transparency of scientific results.

Research misconduct includes, in particular:

Fabrication of data
Inventing data, research results, or experiments and presenting them as real.

Falsification
Manipulating research materials, equipment, processes, or altering or selectively omitting data with the purpose of distorting research results.

Citation manipulation
Artificially increasing the number of references to specific sources, journals, or authors in order to enhance scientometric indicators; including irrelevant references; or deliberately ignoring significant sources.

Guest/Gift authorship (Artificial authorship)
Including as authors individuals who have not made a substantial intellectual contribution to the research, or excluding those who have made such a contribution.

Other violations
Plagiarism, self-plagiarism without proper disclosure, failure to disclose conflicts of interest, duplicate publication, and deliberate violation of peer review procedures.

 

In accordance with the principles of DORA, the Journal:

  • evaluates manuscripts solely on the basis of their scientific quality, originality, methodological soundness, and contribution to the advancement of knowledge;

  • does not use journal-based metrics (including the Impact Factor) as a criterion for assessing individual articles or the scientific quality of an author;

  • does not encourage artificial inflation of citation metrics;

  • supports the responsible use of scientometric indicators.

 

Plagiarism Policy

The journal considers only original manuscripts that have not been previously published (in whole or in part) and are not under consideration elsewhere.

Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable. All submissions are screened using StrikePlagiarism.com software provided by Plagiat.pl.

 

Conflict of Interest Policy

A conflict of interest refers to any financial, professional, institutional, or personal relationships that may influence or appear to influence editorial decisions or manuscript content.

Disclosure is mandatory for:

authors (financial and non-financial relationships);

reviewers (potential competing interests);

editors (when handling manuscripts involving their institution or colleagues).

If a potential conflict is identified:

the editor or reviewer must recuse themselves;

an independent handling editor is appointed;

independent reviewers are assigned;

decisions and justifications are documented.

Submissions by Editors or Editorial Board Members

Manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief or editorial board members:

are handled by an independent editor;

undergo standard double-blind peer review;

exclude author involvement in editorial decisions;

include a published COI disclosure statement.

 

Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Scientific Publications

The journal supports innovative technologies, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the preparation of scientific publications. At the same time, we emphasize the necessity of adhering to principles of academic integrity, transparency, and responsibility when using AI tools.

Authors are required to clearly indicate in the publication text where and how AI tools have been used (e.g., for text generation, data analysis, preparation of illustrations, etc.). Submissions fully generated by AI without significant author contribution to the scientific content and its interpretation are prohibited. Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and quality of the materials, even if part of the work was performed with the help of AI.

The editorial office may use AI tools to assist in plagiarism detection, text preparation, fact-checking, and other aspects of the editorial process. Decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of articles remain solely with the editors and reviewers, regardless of the results obtained through the use of AI.

The use of AI must not violate copyright, confidentiality, or lead to data manipulation. Concealing the fact of AI use or misleading readers about the origin of the text or research results is prohibited.

Authors, reviewers, and editors are responsible for complying with this policy. In case of violations, corrections, rejection of publication, or retraction of articles may be applied in accordance with the editorial policy.

 

Retraction Policy

The Editorial Board follows retraction policy to warn readers about self-plagiarism (authors submit the same data in several journals), academic plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification, disguise the conflicts of interests, which would affect the interpretation of data or recommendations for their use. The retraction of the scientific article is the mechanism of correcting published data and alerting readers about articles with serious gaps or invalid content, incl. unreliable one. The publication of such data may be accidental or intentional misconduct.

The retraction’s goal is to inform readers about the article which contains unreliable data.

Based on the Recommendations of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), journal staff is guided by the below policy of retraction of previously published articles.

Editors should consider retracting a publication if:

  • it contains material or data without authorization for use;
  • the research findings have previously been published;
  • the article has serious errors (e.g., the misinterpretation of research findings) which call into question scientific value;
  • authorship is invalid (the inclusion of persons who do not meet the authorship criteria, or no one is worth being the author);
  • the author(s) failed to disclose a conflict of interests (as well as other violations of publication ethics);
  • the article was republished with the consent of the author(s);
  • there are other violations of ethics.

Grounds for initiating article retraction:

  • the author’s request to retract the article;
  • the request of the third parties (e.g., participants in the conflict of interests) who have evidence of the violations of academic ethics by the author of the article published in the journal;
  • the editorial board has found ethics violations by the article’s author.

The Academic Integrity Commission of Kherson State University decides about article retraction by relying on the decision of the Editorial Board.

Information on article retraction is available on the journal’s web-site.

Retracted articles remain accessible but are clearly marked as “Retracted.”

The decision reasoning article retraction is sent to the author (s).

 

Ethical Requirements for Research Involving Humans, Animals, and the Use of Biomaterials and Personal Data

In the case of submitting manuscripts to the journal that contain results of research involving the use of archival materials, oral testimonies, personal data, biographical information, or other sources related to specific individuals or communities, authors must confirm that such research was conducted in accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine, international ethical standards, and the rules for working with historical sources.

If the research involves the use of oral history, interviews, or eyewitness testimonies, the authors must indicate in the manuscript that:

  • respondents were informed about the purpose of the research and the possibility of using their testimonies in scientific publications;
  • voluntary consent was obtained for recording, processing, and using interviews or oral testimonies;
  • if necessary, the anonymity of respondents was ensured or other measures were taken to protect their identity.

When archival materials, museum collections, funds, or archaeological findings are used, authors must comply with the requirements of the institutions where these materials are stored, as well as with the rules of proper source citation and the conditions for their scholarly use.

If the research contains personal or confidential data, authors must ensure that such data are used in accordance with legislation on personal data protection and respect the privacy rights of individuals mentioned in the study.

In cases where archaeological research or fieldwork is conducted, authors must confirm that such work was carried out in accordance with current legislation, with the necessary permits, and in compliance with regulations for the protection and preservation of cultural heritage.

The editorial board reserves the right to request documentary evidence from authors confirming compliance with ethical research standards (including permits for archaeological work, the use of archival materials, or the conduct of interviews), if this is necessary to verify the integrity of the research.