Ethics and publishing policy

The editorial office of the collection adheres to the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) during the acceptance, review, and publication of articles. The collection's policy is aimed at preventing unfair publication practices (plagiarism, self-plagiarism, falsification, fabrication, improper authorship, and other violations of academic integrity), in accordance with general principles and rules recognized in the scientific community and provided for by legislation and recommendations of international organizations.

Foundations of Ethical Policy The editorial office is responsible for ensuring the integrity, objectivity, and transparency of all stages of consideration, review, and publication of materials, including through systematic verification of compliance with academic integrity standards. The editorial policy takes into account the requirements of the current legislation of Ukraine regarding academic integrity, as well as recommendations of leading international organizations (in particular, COPE). The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, data falsification, improper attribution of authorship, etc., and also provides for mechanisms to respond to detected violations in accordance with procedures defined by the editorial office and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

Ethical Duties of Editorial Board Members The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the collection should be published. The Editor-in-Chief is guided by the collection's editorial policy and current legal requirements regarding plagiarism, copyright infringement, libel, etc. In making this decision, the editor may consult with other editors or reviewers. Article manuscripts are evaluated for their scientific value and content, regardless of the race, gender, religious and political beliefs, ethnic origin, and citizenship of the authors. The Editor-in-Chief and all members of the editorial board must not disclose any information about submitted article manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author and reviewers (including potential reviewers).

Author Responsibilities Authors who submit their manuscripts to the collection understand that they bear responsibility for the novelty and reliability of the results and guarantee that all persons who made a significant contribution to the presented research are listed as co-authors. Simultaneous submission of an article manuscript to more than one publication is not permitted. Authors do not have the right to submit for editorial consideration an article published previously (for example, an article translated into English that was previously published in another language).

Authors are obliged to disclose information about any actual or potential conflicts of interest that may affect research results or their interpretation. All potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed before the submission of the article manuscript. At the same time, the editorial board ensures objective and fair evaluation of the presented manuscripts and prevents the occurrence of actual or potential conflicts of interest between authors, the editorial office, and reviewers. Authors must present their research results clearly and ensure an objective discussion of their findings. The data and methods used in the study should be presented in detail and in a form convenient for analysis.

Borrowed fragments or statements must be formatted with mandatory reference to primary sources. If an article includes previously published data or images not intended for free use, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder. If errors and/or inaccuracies are detected by the authors after the publication of an article, they must immediately notify the editorial board to take appropriate measures. If the editorial board learns from a third party that a published article contains a significant error, the author, upon request, must immediately correct the error or provide the editorial office with evidence of the correctness of the original article manuscript.

Plagiarism, fabrication of data, and/or images are unacceptable. Plagiarism includes copying or paraphrasing someone else's text without attribution, ideas, images, or misappropriating research results conducted by others. Any form of plagiarism is regarded as unethical behavior. If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the article manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, the collection's editorial board may publish a correction or retract the article (with appropriate information placed on the website). Responsibility for copyright infringement and non-compliance with existing standards rests with the author/authors of the article.

Reviewer Responsibilities In order to ensure the objectivity of evaluating the quality of submitted article manuscripts, the editorial office adheres to double-blind peer review. If a selected reviewer is not sure that their qualification corresponds to the direction or level of research presented in the manuscript, they must notify the editor and return the manuscript. All article manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others, except in cases authorized by the Editor-in-Chief.

Peer review must be conducted objectively, avoiding personal criticism of the author/authors. All opinions and comments must be expressed clearly by reviewers and, if necessary, supported by relevant arguments. The expressed opinions and comments must be clear to the author/authors and the editor. If a reviewer believes that an article contains previously published data, conclusions, arguments, or images, they must confirm their opinion with a relevant reference. In case of detecting significant similarity between the article submitted for review and any previously published article (scientific work), the reviewer must notify the editor. A reviewer may not use or disclose unpublished information, arguments, or conclusions contained in the article submitted for review. The reviewer must provide feedback no later than the deadline set by the editorial board.

Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence and AI-Supported Technologies Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be used only to improve text quality, editing, or translation. When using AI, authors must:

  • ensure thorough verification and editing of the work's results, as they may contain inaccurate information;
  • indicate which AI tools were used in preparing the article, for what purpose, and where exactly they were applied.

The editorial office reserves the right to check manuscripts for the use of AI. For this purpose, automated detection tools, expert evaluation by reviewers, and additional requests to authors may be used. Editors do not use AI for decision-making that requires critical thinking or the formation of any other substantive opinion. Reviewers do not use AI for decision-making that requires critical thinking or the formation of any other substantive opinion regarding the manuscript.

Note. The policy does not apply to the use of AI tools used for checking references, grammar, and spelling. Authors bear full responsibility for the content of their article regardless of the use of AI.

Procedure for Retracting Published Articles (Retraction) Retraction of a published article may be initiated by authors, the editorial office, readers, or relevant authorized persons. In the event that there is information about a violation of publication rules, the editorial board acts in compliance with relevant recommendations. Grounds for retracting an article may include:

  • established fact of plagiarism or unauthorized borrowing of data;
  • presence of significant errors that make the results described in the article incorrect;
  • duplication of publication of previously published material without a proper reference;
  • falsification of data;
  • lack of information about a conflict of interest that affects the interpretation of results;
  • discovery of violations of ethical norms during the study.

The person initiating the retraction of a published article submits an application in written paper or electronic form with a justification of the reasons for retraction. Relevant justifications/evidence confirming the need for retracting the article are attached to the application. The application is considered by the Editor-in-Chief of the collection within 10 working days. The Editor-in-Chief creates a commission of three members of the editorial board to conduct an analysis of the information specified in the application. Authors of the article are given the opportunity to provide their explanations. The period for consideration of the application by the commission is no more than 30 calendar days. Based on the results of its work, the commission may reject the request to retract the article, suggest that the authors make corrections with their mandatory indication, or recommend a full retraction of the article.

If a decision is made to retract an article, it is marked as "retracted" in the electronic version of the collection; a retraction notice is published indicating the reasons and a link to the original article. Information about the retraction of the article is also noted in the next issue of the collection. The retracted article remains in the collection's archive with an appropriate informational label. The authors of the article are notified of the retraction, and relevant information is provided to indexing and scientometric databases. Authors have the right to receive a copy of the commission's decision, appeal its decision, and publish a comment on the retraction decision in a relevant notice on the collection's website. In the case of filing an appeal, it is considered by the Editor-in-Chief within 20 calendar days.

Procedure for Handling Complaints Regarding Violations of Ethical Norms This procedure establishes the process for considering complaints of violations of ethical norms by authors, reviewers, or members of the editorial board of the collection of scientific papers. It applies to issues related to plagiarism, manipulation, and/or unauthorized borrowing of data, conflict of interest, and other violations of academic integrity.

Submission of a complaint. The complaint is submitted in electronic form to the email address mdipk@odaba.edu.ua. The complaint must include the applicant's contact details, a link to the article or other material under consideration, and a detailed description of the violation with reference to relevant justifications/evidence. Anonymous complaints are not considered by the editorial office.

Consideration of the complaint. Within 10 working days of receiving a complaint, the Editor-in-Chief creates a commission of three independent experts for its consideration. If the complaint concerns members of the editorial board, they cannot be included in the commission. During the consideration process, the commission has the right to involve necessary experts, request additional materials and explanations, and conduct consultations with all interested parties. The period for consideration of the complaint by the commission is no more than 30 calendar days. Confidentiality is guaranteed to all participants of the process during the consideration period.

Based on the results of the complaint's consideration, the commission may take the following decisions:

  • reject the complaint as groundless;
  • recognize the violation and propose a variant for its correction;
  • recognize the violation as serious and take appropriate measures. The main options for measures include: refusing to publish the article, retracting the published article, prohibiting authors from submitting articles for a certain period, providing proposals for changing the composition of the editorial board, etc..

Parties to the conflict have the right to receive information about the complaint consideration process, present their explanations and evidence, and may appeal the commission's decision. The commission's decision may be appealed within 15 calendar days. In the case of filing an appeal, it is considered by the Editor-in-Chief within 20 calendar days. The decision of the Editor-in-Chief is final

 

ADHERENCE TO COPE, WAME, DORA PRINCIPLES, ETC 

The collection of scientific papers "Modern Structures of Metal and Wood" adheres to ethical standards defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), namely:

  • transparency in the process of submission, review, and publication of articles;
  • impartiality and independence of editors and reviewers;
  • academic integrity: avoidance of plagiarism, falsification, duplicate publications, etc.;
  • correct authorship: determining the contribution of each of the authors;
  • handling complaints: availability of open procedures for considering appeals and complaints regarding ethics;
  • retraction and correction of articles: availability of open procedures for retraction, corrections, and error notifications.

The editorial office of the collection takes into account the recommendations of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), principles for editors of all sciences applied in a broader context:

  • editorial independence: editor decisions are made without pressure from management, sponsors, institutions, or commercial interests;
  • conflicts of interest: all authors, reviewers, and editors are obliged to declare them;
  • peer review: ensuring objective, fair, and timely expert evaluation;
  • funding transparency: disclosure of information about grants, sponsors, and research funding sources;
  • support for young scientists: promoting publications of researchers at the initial stage of their careers.

The collection supports the principles of fair assessment of scientific activity of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA): not being limited to bibliometric indicators, but evaluating research by its quality, novelty, and contribution to science; valuing different types of research results—software, data, algorithms, technical solutions, and not just articles; recognizing interdisciplinary research as equivalent to classic publications; encouraging open science—publication of preprints, open access to data and codes.

The editorial office of the collection takes into account other modern principles, in particular:

  • Open Access—promoting open access to scientific results;
  • FAIR principles for data (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable)—ensuring the possibility of finding, accessing, interoperability, and reuse of data;
  • Plan S—support for the policy of publications in open journals and archives;
  • Ethical principle regarding the use of artificial intelligence—maintaining transparency and responsibility in case of the application of artificial intelligence in research.
 

OPEN ACCESS PRESERVATION POLICY

The collection of scientific papers "Modern Structures of Metal and Wood" is an open-access journal, meaning that all its content is available free of charge to all readers and their institutions.

Access Rights All articles published in open access will be permanently available for reading, downloading, copying, and distribution. The editorial office of the collection takes measures aimed at ensuring permanent access to content placed on the website: backup; monitoring of technological aspects to prevent possible format conversions or obsolete software; use of digital object identifiers (DOI), etc. In addition, for long-term digital preservation of articles, the collection of scientific papers "Modern Structures of Metal and Wood" places metadata and full texts of articles in various national and international repositories.

User Rights Authorized reuse by third parties is defined by the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) user license, which allows users to copy, create extracts, abstracts, and new works from the article, modify and adapt the article, and conduct commercial use of the article (including reuse and/or resale of the article by commercial structures), provided that the user provides a relevant reference (with a link to the official publication via the corresponding DOI), provides a link to the license, indicates if changes were made, and the licensor is not represented as endorsing the use of the work.

Author Rights Authors retain copyrights along with rights to scientific use, while the collection of scientific papers "Modern Structures of Metal and Wood" receives publication and distribution rights. Full-text access to the collection's scientific papers is presented in the "Archive" section. This meets the open access requirements of the Budapest Open Access Initiative's definition of Open Access.