Publication Ethics and Editorial Policy

Interdepartmental thematic scientific collection "Phytosanitary safety"

Editorial Board of the Interdepartmental thematic scientific collection "Phytosanitary safety" is guided by the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Compliance with these requirements is a guarantee for the publisher, authors and reviewers of their rights and responsibilities.

Research Involving Plants

Experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild) including collection of plant material, must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines. We recommend that authors comply with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

If experiments are conducted on animals, authors must indicate whether international and national recommendations for the care and use of laboratory animals have been followed.

For research involving humans, animals or their biomaterials, personal or confidential data, authors must provide a conclusion from the institution where the research was conducted, confirming compliance with international and national bioethics standards, protection of the dignity, rights and safety of participants.

Ethics, rights and responsibility of authors

The author guarantees that the article has not been previously published and will not be published anywhere in the publication by its publisher, and that the copyrights for its publication were not transferred to other publishers.

The author guarantees that the article is the original work of the author and is not a copy of any other work.

The author guarantees that he has received all the necessary permissions to use the materials in his article protected by copyright.

The author guarantees that all participants who participated in the study are reflected in the manuscript as co-authors or thanks are expressed to them.

The author guarantees that all co-authors are familiar with the manuscript, agree to its publication and responsibility for the content of the article.

If the manuscript is a continuation of a series of works, you must refer to an earlier publication to justify the differences between the new work.  It is unacceptable to literally copy and rephrase your own work.

If the author finds a significant mistake or inaccuracy in his already published work, it is his responsibility to urgently notify the editor-in-chief of the journal and collaborate with him in order to provide a refutation or correction of the article in the next issue. Authors of an article may also request a retraction of their manuscript or publication.

If the manuscript is a literary review (compilation of materials), the author must necessarily rely on his own research and personal reflection.

If there is a possibility of a conflict of interest that could affect the interpretation of the results and judgments of reviewers, the author should state this.

If, when reviewing a work, additional questions arise that indirectly relate to the text of the work, the author must provide all additional information for the reviewer and publisher upon request.

The author must indicate all sources of funding for the work.

Reviewer Ethics

The publisher shares the opinion of that all scholars who want to submit articles for publication undertake to review other people's articles in the field of research.

The most important thing in the activity of the reviewer is his impartiality, professionalism and confidentiality.

Review is the main tool for determining the quality of the manuscript, improving the author’s text and is the main argument for the editorial board when publishing

The reviewer never discusses his attitude to the author, examines only the text of the manuscript.  Clearly, objectively and reasonably expresses his own opinion and brings it to the author and the editorial board.

If the reviewer doubts his professionalism in this field of science or if he has a conflict of interest with the author or organization, has submitted the manuscript for consideration, or if there is simply not enough time to familiarize himself with the work, he is obliged to notify the publisher about it and refuse to review.

In the case when the reviewer is sure that part of the text, drawings, etc. have already been published, that is, there is plagiarism or verbatim copying of the author’s earlier works, he must provide confirmation of his findings in the form of bibliographic references.

The manuscript received by the reviewer is confidential information that cannot be used for personal purposes.  The ideas and provisions of the manuscript are not discussed with outsiders.

A reviewer cannot be a co-author of a peer-reviewed work, as well as a supervisor of scientific degree applicants (who are co-authors) and / or an employee of the unit where the author works.

Ethics of the chief editor, editorial board, editorial staff

The activities of the chief editor, members of the editorial board and the editorial staff of the journal are directly related to the observance of ethical standards in relations with the author and reviewer.

The editor-in-chief, the editorial board should not have a conflict of interest regarding articles that they reject or accept, they should also avoid involving experts who are highly likely to be involved in any conflicts for external review.

The editor-in-chief and the editorial board evaluate the manuscript solely by its scientific content - regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, nationality, citizenship, origin, social or political views of the authors.

The decision to publish is made on the basis of scientific reviews and opinions of members of the editorial board.

The editor is guided by the guidelines developed by the editorial board of the journal.  Information on the submitted manuscript can be provided only to the author, reviewers, potential reviewers, members of the editorial board, publisher.

If the editor-in-chief from a third party finds out about a significant inaccuracy in the published work and informs the author about it, the latter's duty is to urgently refute or correct the article or provide the editor-in-chief with evidence of the correctness of the published material.

If the author informs the editors of a significant error or inaccuracy in his already published work, the editors publish a rebuttal or correction of the article in the next issue.

COMPLAINT REVIEW PROCEDURE

All complaints submitted (including those submitted anonymously) regarding manuscripts under review or published articles will be reviewed in accordance with the publisher's policy, which is consistent with the principles and recommendations of COPE.

The review will be initiated only if there is substantiated evidence. If the complaint is defamatory and not supported by evidence, a request for substantiated evidence will be submitted first.

If the complaint concerns an already published article and its validity is proven, the article retraction policy will be applied.

Editorial Policy

EDITORIAL DUTIES

The Editor, Editor-in-Chief, and Editorial Board review all manuscripts submitted for publication without prejudice, evaluating each one properly, regardless of race, religion, nationality, or the position or affiliation of the author(s).

The editor and the editorial board reserve the right to decide to reject submitted manuscripts if they do not meet the requirements of the journal.

In accordance with the requirements of paragraph 6, subparagraph 6 of the Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine No. 32 of January 15, 2018 “On Approval of the Procedure for Forming the List of Scientific Professional Publications of Ukraine”, the editorial board submits all scientific articles for independent review by scientists who conduct research in the relevant specialty. The editorial board conducts double-blind peer review: the personal data of the authors/reviewer are not disclosed to the reviewer/authors. At least two reviewers are assigned to each article. The responsible and balanced approach of the editorial board to the selection of manuscripts for publication is based on the recommendations of reviewers.

The review indicates: compliance of the article content with the topic stated in the title; relevance and novelty of the research, its practical significance; validity of the conclusions drawn by the authors.

Reviewers may recommend the article for publication, reject it, or send it back to the authors for revision.

Articles subject to revision are sent to the authors together with the text of the review without identifying the reviewers. The corrected version of the article is sent for re-review, which results in a recommendation to accept or reject the article.

The editor and editorial staff have no right to use unpublished materials presented in the submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The manuscript is confidential information that cannot be used for personal purposes. The ideas and provisions of the manuscript are not discussed with outsiders.

ARTICLE PROCESSING TIMELINE

1. Checking the relevance of the article to the journal's subject matter and the correctness of its layout. The editorial board notifies the authors of the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript within 1-4 working days from the date of receipt of the article.
2. Verification of the originality of the text takes 3-4 working days.
3. The review procedure can take 20-60 days, taking into account the time for correction by the authors and for re-review.
4. The editorial board notifies the authors of the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript within 4 working days from the date of the decision.

DUTIES OF THE AUTHORS

By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree to comply with the editorial policy of the journal.

The authors guarantee that the manuscript is their original work, has not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to another journal is a violation and excludes the manuscript from consideration. The publication of preprints on preprint servers or in repositories is not considered a preliminary publication. Authors should disclose the details of preprint placement when submitting the manuscript. This should include a link to the location of the preprint. If the submission is published, the authors are expected to update the information related to the preprint version on the preprint server/repository to show that the final version has been published in the journal, including the DOI that links directly to the publication.

If the manuscript has been previously submitted elsewhere, authors should provide information about the previous review process and its results. This provides the authors with the opportunity to describe in detail how previous reviews were taken into account in subsequent editions and why certain comments of reviewers were not taken into account. Information about the author's previous reviewing experience is an advantage for the author: it often helps editors to select more appropriate reviewers.

If the submitted manuscript is the result of a research project or its previous version was presented at a conference in the form of an oral presentation (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the project, conference, etc. is provided in the Acknowledgments.

It is the responsibility of each author to ensure that manuscripts submitted to the journal “Plant Quarantine and Protection” are written in accordance with the ethical standards of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics).  The authors confirm that the manuscript does not contain unreasonable or illegal statements and does not violate the rights of third parties.

The journal asks all authors submitting articles to register an account with an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID). The ORCID numbers for all authors and co-authors must be added to the author's data and will be published with the submitted article.

STANDARDS OF RESEARCH DESCRIPTION

The journal “Plant Quarantine and Protection” strives to ensure that all articles have sufficient information and references (research methods used, description of the conditions and location of research, climatic and weather conditions, etc.) to allow reviewers and subsequently readers to verify the statements made. Authors are obliged to provide information on how the data were collected and analyzed. Intentional misrepresentation is a violation of ethical standards.

Authors are solely responsible for the content of their submissions and should ensure that they have permission from all parties involved to publish the content.

AUTHORSHIP

Authors should ensure that only those contributors who have made a significant contribution to the submission are listed as authors.

If persons other than the authors have participated in important aspects of the research project and preparation of the manuscript, their contributions should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section.

ORCID registration provides a unique and permanent digital identifier for an account that ensures accurate attribution of authorship and improves the discovery of published articles, ensuring that the author receives proper credit for their work.

REFERENCES

Authors are obliged to correctly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research.

INFORMATION ON FUNDING

If the article is the result of a funded project, the authors should indicate the sources of funding.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other material conflict of interest that could affect the results presented or their interpretation. If there is no conflict of interest to declare, a standard sentence should be added after the Funding section: “Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.”

Examples of competing interests:

• persons who receive funding, salary or other forms of payment from the organization or own shares or stock in a company that may financially benefit (or lose) from the publication of the findings;
• individuals or their financial organization or employer who have (or are applying for) relevant patents;
• official affiliations and membership in interest groups related to the content of the publication;
• political, religious or ideological competing interests.

Publications in the journal should not contain advertising of any commercial products.

DISCLAIMER

The editorial board may publish materials without sharing the author's opinion.

The authors are legally and morally responsible for the ideas expressed in the articles.

The publisher is not responsible for any costs, liabilities, or damages resulting from the acceptance or rejection of a publication.