Publishing Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
The Publishing Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement of "Az-buki" National Publishing House are based on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and aim to incorporate good practices and standards for ethical behavior among all participants in the publication process – authors, reviewers, editors and publisher.
All materials submitted for publication are subject to a rigorous review process by at least two anonymous independent reviewers, who are experts in the scientific field of the manuscript. The decision for publication is based on the significance and value of the manuscript and the comments and recommendations of the reviewers, as well as on the adherence to the requirements and guidelines of the journal.
Authors’ Responsibilities
Multiple, repeated or simultaneous publication
The manuscripts submitted to the journal for publication must be original research which has not been published before and has not been submitted for review in other journals. Submitting the same manuscript to two or more publications simultaneously is strictly prohibited.
Presenting the research
Authors must present accurate information for the submitted research and its results, as well as objective motivation for their significance. The manuscript must contain sufficient details and references, so as to accommodate potential recreation of its methodology and results.
Authorship of the publication
Only persons with significant contribution towards the conceptualization and execution of the scientific research, or who participated in the creation of the final version of the text and in its submission for publication, may be included as authors.
Any and all changes to the list of authors must be approved by all authors, including the ones removed from said list.
Originality, plagiarism and citation
Authors must guarantee that they have written and submitted entirely original manuscripts and that they have adequately referred to all sources used in the research, as well as publications by other authors which have had significant impact on the research process.
Using others’ work, fully or partially, without accurately and scrupulously citing the course, is strictly prohibited.
Access to and saving data
Authors may be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the manuscript for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable.
Authors should ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals after publication – with respect to the proprietary legal rights and data authorship.
Assistance in the peer review process
Authors are obligated to answer editors’ inquiries about the raw research data, clarifications on the manuscript’s text or authors’ rights, in a timely manner.
Authors must answer to reviewers’ comments in a timely manner, as well as to edit their manuscript and re-submit it within 14 days of receiving the review. They should adhere to the recommendations, or otherwise provide a written motivated explanation as to why they have not been taken into consideration.
Authors are to be notified of the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript as soon as the review process is finished.
Conflict of interest and financial support transparency
Authors must declare any and all possible professional, financial or personal interests from other sides, as well as any other conflict of interest which might be interpreted as interfering with the results or their analysis in the manuscript. The declaration of potential conflict of interest is a mandatory step in the process of submitting the manuscript. Materials with undeclared conflict of interest which are later found to contain such may be rejected.
The sources of funding (should there be any), whose support the text is prepared with, must be clearly stated.
Publication mistakes and corrections
In case the authors find significant mistakes or inaccuracies in their own text, it is their obligation to immediately notify the editors or publisher and to assist them to correct or, in case that is necessary, withdraw the article.
If a third party reports a significant mistake or inaccuracy in a published text, the authors are obliged to immediately correct or withdraw their manuscript, or otherwise provide the editors with proof of the text’s correctness.
Reviewers’ Responsibilities
Privacy
All manuscripts submitted for review are private documents and should be treated as such. They must not be shown to or discussed with other parties, which have not been authorized by the editor-in-chief. This rule also concerns reviewers who have declined an invitation to review a manuscript.
Timeliness
Any invited referee who does not feel qualified enough to review a manuscript must notify the editors immediately and decline the invitation, so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.
Any invited referee must agree to review a manuscript only if they are certain that they can return the review within the proposed or mutually agreed upon timeframe, and must notify the editors immediately if an extension is needed.
Assistance in the decision for publication
The review assists the editors in taking editorial decisions and, through communication between the editors and authors, may help the authors improve their manuscripts.
Objectivity
The reviews must be objective and the conclusions must be clearly formulated and supported by arguments, so that authors may use them to improve their manuscript. Personal critique toward the authors is strictly prohibited.
Correctness in regard to the sources and ethical violations
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors and notify the editors – also of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other manuscript of which they have personal knowledge.
Reviewers must immediately notify the editors, should they find any irregularities, in case of uncertainty about the ethical aspects of the work, in case of knowledge of simultaneous submission of the manuscript in another journal or an already published article, or in case of suspicion of misconduct during the research itself or the writing and submission of the manuscript.
Conflict of interest and procedure transparency
Any invited referee who has conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the manuscript should immediately declare their conflicts of interest to the editors so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.
Unpublished material, described in the submitted manuscript, must not be used in any research by the reviewers without the express written consent of the authors. Privileged information or ideas acquired during the process of reviewing must remain private and must not be used for personal reasons by the reviewers. This rule also concerns reviewers who have declined an invitation to review a manuscript.
Editors’ Responsibilities
Decision to publish
The editors of the journal accept and evaluate manuscripts based on their scientific merit (originality, clarity, topicality, relevance), regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, political or religious philosophy, social or institutional affiliation.
Prior to sending any received manuscript for review, the editors discern whether the article fits the profile and topics of the journal, whether it has been correctly prepared and meets the basic technical requirements. If that is not the case, the manuscript is returned to the author(s).
The editors guarantee that all submitted manuscripts that are being considered for publication are reviewed by at least two reviewers, who are experts in the respective field.
The editors should always consider the interests of the authors and the readers when working on publication improvement or making corrections when needed.
All decisions for editing or for the publication of a text are made by the Editorial Board with no outside interference.
Privacy
Editors and editorial staff will not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the people, directly involved in the evaluation and publication process - corresponding author, reviewers or the publisher.
The editors and the members of the Editorial Board will not use or distribute to third parties any unpublished information about a manuscript without the written consent of the authors. The information received in the process of editing the manuscript is considered confidential and will not be used for personal gain.
Conflict of interest
The editors declare that they will not participate in the process of evaluating manuscripts that can lead to a conflict of interest – including, but not limited to, competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with the author or the institution they’re affiliated with. In such cases the affected editor will ask another member of the Editorial Board to handle the manuscript.
Ethical violations and complaints
The editor is obligated to take the appropriate course of action in case of submitted complaints, concerning the ethical aspects surrounding a submitted manuscript or a published article. This includes contacting the author of the article и thorough examination of the submitted complaint.
In case the complaint is upheld, recommended courses of action include publishing corrections, retraction of the article, a statement of opinion, refuting the complaint, etc.
Publisher’s responsibilities
In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation. If necessary, this includes the prompt publication of an erratum, clarification or - in the most severe case, the retraction of the affected work.
The publisher is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and ensures accessibility by partnering with organizations and maintaining own digital archive.
The publisher commits to guaranteeing the autonomy of editorial decisions with no interference by advertisers or other commercial partners.
The publisher assists in communications with other journals and/or publishers, provided this benefits the publishing activity.
The publisher collaborates with other publishing houses and organisations in the creation of standards for publication ethics.
Identifying and handling misconduct
Plagiarism
Plagiarism in all its forms is considered unethical and inappropriate behavior. All manuscripts sent for publication are examined using specialised instruments (such as StrikePlagiarism) to discover potential similarities between the submitted materials and other publications. The journal reserves the right not to publish a text which, upon examination, reveals a degree of similarity higher than 20%.
If plagiarism is discovered during the review process, the manuscript may be rejected.
If plagiarism is discovered after publication, there will be an investigation and appropriate action will be taken, according to the publishing house’s policies.
Fabrication and falsification of data
Materials for which it is discovered that the authors have fabricated or falsified the results, including the manipulation of images, will not be accepted; if such violations are discovered in already published articles, those articles will be retracted.
Manipulation of citations
Materials for which it is discovered that the authors have included references for the sole purpose of increasing the number of citations of a particular author’s article of articles in a particular journal, will not be accepted.
Preprints
The author may freely share the manuscript in the version which was originally submitted to the journal for consideration. Should the text be accepted, after publication the author must add to the shared manuscript the name, volume and number of the journal in which the text has been published.
Copyright and access policies
By sending a text and/or an illustration to the Editorial Board, the author agrees to give up the rights of their announcement, publication and distribution with the purpose of promoting the publishing house’s other journals, to the publisher – "Az-buki" National Publishing House.
The author agrees to give "Az-buki" National Publishing House the exclusive rights to use any text and/or illustration published in the journal for the duration of three years, regardless of the territory on which the publisher has the right to use the text in accordance with Bulgarian Copyrights law.
The version of the manuscript accepted for publication, as well as the published version in PDF format should not be distributed freely, including through academic and social networks aimed at sharing the results of scientific research (e.g. ResearchGate.net and Academia.edu).
The printed and online version of the article are distributed through a subscription service.
Open access is provided for the contents of every first issue of the journal for the respective year, as well as for the abstracts and keywords of the articles.
Should the author (or the institution they represent) wish for their article to be accessible to all readers as a full text, the journal can accommodate that through its webpage – after the payment of a protection fee that covers the costs associated with the article.
Publication fees
Publication in the journal is free for both the authors for and their scientific or educational organisations.
Advertisement policy
The journal permits restricted, adequate and occasionally targeted advertisement on its final pages. The advertisements must be independent form the editorial decisions and clearly discernible from the content of the article.
The editors reserve the right to reject or retract any advertisement that raises suspicion of contradicting the ethical principles or the good practices of scientific publication.
The journals are published by "Az-buki" National Publishing House, which is a secondary distributor with budget appropriations toward the Ministry of Education and Science. The editorial independence is observed strictly, while the strategy and practices of publishing are the sole responsibility of the Editor-in-chief and of the Editorial Board. In this and in every other regard, commercial reasonings are not taken into account.
