Academic Integrity Violations Policy

Policy on Violations of Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is very important for the development of science, scientific publications and universities. Compliance by authors with the requirements of academic integrity is a guarantee of the successful development of the journal, increasing its citation rate and expanding the circle of readers. According to the provision of clause 31, clause 1, article 58 of the Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education", scientific and pedagogical, scientific and pedagogical workers are obliged: "to observe academic integrity in the educational process and scientific (creative) activities and ensure its observance by applicants for higher education".
According to article 42 of the Law of Ukraine "On Education" "academic integrity is a set of ethical principles and rules defined by law that must be guided by participants in the educational process during training, teaching and conducting scientific (creative) activities in order to ensure trust in the results of training and/or scientific (creative) achievements".
Violations of academic integrity that may be detected during the editorial and publishing process are:
academic plagiarism - publication (partially or fully) of scientific (creative) results obtained by other persons as the results of one's own research (creativity) and/or reproduction of published texts (published works of art) by other authors without indicating authorship;
self-plagiarism - publication (partially or fully) of one's own, previously published, scientific results as new scientific results;
fabrication - fabrication of data or facts used in the educational process or scientific research; falsification - deliberate change or modification of existing data related to the educational process or scientific research;
fraud – providing knowingly false information regarding one’s own educational (scientific, creative) activities or organization of the educational process, the forms of which are, in particular, academic plagiarism, self-plagiarism, fabrication, falsification and copying (clause 4 of article 42 of the Law of Ukraine “On Education”);
providing or receiving by a participant in the editorial process or an offer to provide (receive) funds, property, services, benefits or any other benefits of a material or intangible nature to distort the publication process and make a positive decision on the publication of the article;
biased assessment of the work submitted for publication – deliberate overestimation or underestimation of the results, content of the research by reviewers or editors;
making changes to the text of the submitted manuscript without agreement with the authors.
According to clause 4.1 of the Code of Ethics of the University Community, violations of academic integrity also include:
deliberate dissemination of false or biased information regarding scientific research;
distortion of research data;
use of scientific and educational materials for dishonest purposes;
use of research data, methods, hypotheses and provisions of other scientists, other people's texts (in whole or in part) without proper indication of the author and source;
inclusion in the list of authors of scientific or educational work the names of persons who did not directly participate in obtaining the results;
falsification or distortion of data or quotations in any field of academic activity, forgery of signatures in documents (reports, agreements, grade books, applications, etc.);
preparation to order and/or sale of academic texts (tests, coursework, qualification papers, dissertations, educational literature, etc.);
appropriation of academic texts that were completed by other persons to order.
All statements about violation of academic integrity must be submitted to the editor-in-chief. In case of suspicion of violation of academic integrity, the editor-in-chief will act in accordance with the relevant COPE instructions and the internal documents of the founder of the publication - the Code of Ethics of the University Community and the Regulation on Ensuring Academic Integrity at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
If reviewers or editors provide a comment about a potential violation of academic integrity, the authors will be asked to provide an explanation. If the explanation is satisfactory and the problem is the result of an error or misunderstanding, the problem can be easily resolved. If the problem cannot be resolved, the manuscript will be rejected or withdrawn, and the editorial board may impose a ban on the publication of such author(s) in the journal for a certain period.
In the case of published plagiarism or double publication in several journals, an announcement will be made explaining the situation. If the allegations concern the authors, the review process and publication of their article will be suspended until this process is completed. The investigation will be conducted even if the authors withdraw their manuscript.
If the allegations concern reviewers or editors, they will be replaced in the review process during the ongoing investigation of the case.
For violation of academic integrity, authors, reviewers and/or editors may be held academically liable, including:
refusal to publish with notification of the institution - the main affiliation of the author or reviewer regarding the violation of academic integrity, which was discovered during the editorial process;
deprivation of the editor, reviewer of the right to participate in the work of the editorial board of the publication.
The procedure for considering violations of academic integrity by authors, editors, reviewers of a scientific journal - employees of the University, in accordance with clause 5.2 of the Code of Ethics of the University Community, provides for the participation of the head of the relevant department of the University, where the person or group of persons accused of the violation works, as well as the chief or responsible editor of the journal.
Each person in respect of whom the question of violation/non-compliance with academic integrity has arisen has the right:
to familiarize themselves with all materials of the inspection to establish the fact of violation of academic integrity, to submit comments on them;
personally or through a representative to provide oral or written explanations or refuse to provide them without any explanation, to participate in the study of evidence of a violation of academic integrity;
to know about the date, time and place and to be present during the consideration of the issue of establishing the fact of a violation of academic integrity and bringing it to academic responsibility;
to appeal the decision to bring it to academic responsibility to the body authorized to consider the appeal, or to the court (clause 8 of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine "On Education").
Violations of academic integrity do not include "honest error" or differences of opinion.