document Regulations on Publication Ethics and Review procedure

Review procedure

Policy of scientific articles review in journal «Vestnik of Geosciences»

General principles of publication

The Journal «Vestnik of Geosciences» (further Journal), published by the Institute of Geology of Federal Research Center Komi Science Centre UB RAS, is governed by the provisions of Chapter 70 «Copyright» of the Civil Code and the present «Regulations on Publication Ethics of Journal» developed on the recommendations and standards of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts, involving the experience of leading scientific journals and provisions adopted at the 2^ndWorld Conference on Research Integrity ( Singapore, 22—24 July 2010)

All participants for publication in Journal: authors, reviewers, members of the editorial board, editorial staff — must follow the standards of publication ethics outlined below.

Duties and responsibilities of the Editorial Board

Editorial Board is responsible for all materials published in Journal, guided by the «Charter of Journal» and «Review procedure», «Instructions for Authors» and the present «Regulations». At the same time, they must:

- ensure consideration of all the materials for publication, compliance with editorial independence and integrity in making objective decisions, regardless of individual authors (including race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, nationality, religious and political beliefs, employment status), based on the quality of materials (relevance, scientific relevance, reliability of research) and relevancy to subject areas;

- decide on acceptance or rejection of the article for publication on the basis of all the comments from independent reviewers in general. The final decision and reasons for its issuance shall be reported to authors;

- ensure compliance with academic standards and internationally recognized ethical standards for scientific publications. It must work closely with authors and reviewers to ensure a high quality of the published material;

- implement policies to systematically improve the procedures for reviewing, editing, peer review, which guarantees the accuracy, completeness, clarity, fairness and timeliness of the peer review;

- avoid conflicts of interest in relation to the articles that are to be approved or rejected. Unpublished data from submitted manuscripts should not be used for personal purposes and transferred to third parties without the prior written consent of anauthor;

- prevent the publication of information if there is a sufficient reason to believe that it is plagiarism;

- be prepared to publish corrections if necessary, refutations and apologies. If readers, authors or editors point out the errors in the published articles, then the information about the error (misprint) must be published in the next issue of Journal;

- be open to criticism from authors and to appeals from authors about decisions to reject their articles; such requests must be carefully considered, and the rejection should be justified. Editorial Board, as a rule, does not revise its decisions to refuse to publish, except cases of serious violations of the procedure.

Requirements on article formatting should be updated as necessary and be available on the website of the Institute of GeologyFRC Komi SCUB RAS in the section «Vestnik».

Relationships with the authors, terms of publication and copyright

The author (group of authors) sends to Editorial Boardthe article for publication in strict accordance with the Requirements on article formatting (including illustrations).

The authors, suggesting their papers for publication in Journal, are expected to follow the following principles.

The originality of the research.Editorial Board accepts only original research papers not published previously. The author, a representative of the entire group of authors, guarantees in written form that the article has never been published and is not under consideration in other journals. If previously published elements of manuscript have been used, the authors must refer to the previous work and indicate the difference between the new article from the previous one.

Reliability of the results of article, lack of false allegations, inerrancy of data, objective discussion of the significance of the research, accuracy of the references cited in the work — authors are responsible for all the above stated. In the submitted manuscript the authors must indicate the institution and research programs. Authors applytheir photos, personal information (place of work, position, phone number, e-mail) with authorization for publication in Journal.

Inadmissibility of personal, critical or derogatory remarks and accusations against other researchers. Articles of political nature that contain discriminatory and incorrect assessments of other scientific papers and other professionals are not accepted for publication.

Complete exclusion of plagiarism, recognizing the contribution of others, the obligatory presence of references to all external sources of information and publications relevant for this article (including own previously published articles and research materials).

Lack of privacy. The submitted article must be accompanied by the official letter (examination certificate) from the organization or company, where the first (main) author is working. This letter must confirm that the materials of this article may be published in press.

The authorship of the article. The authors should include all persons who have made a significant intellectual contribution to its concept, structure, as well as conduct or interpretation of the results of the presented work. The article must be accompanied by written consent to publication (paper and/or electronic form) from all authors, and (if necessary) from the respective companies, universities and enterprises, with the participation and/or equipment of which this work was carried out. This written consent from the authors is an automatic confirmation of the author or authors’ copyright on the published material, including the text of the article and pictures, graphics, photos and tables.

Cooperation to improve the article. The authors undertake to cooperate with the editors to improve, reduce or supplement the article in accordance with comments of the reviewers' and editorial board members, as well as to correct these inaccuracies. The author’s inability or unwillingness to consider the comments and recommendations is the ground for rejection of the article from further consideration.

Relationship with reviewers

The task of the reviewer: to express expert evaluation, which should help the author improve the text of the article andhelp the editorial board and editors to decide on the publication. The reviewer should refuse to consider the manuscript and notify the editorial board:

• if the reviewer does not consider himselfa qualified specialist to consider the proposed article;
• if the reviewer obviously knows that he will not have time to prepare a review within the specified period;
• if there is a conflict of interests from competition, cooperation or other relationships with any authors or institutions associated with the article.

Since the review is an important element in ensuring the exchange of scientific information,the following requirements are set for the reviewers:

- privacy– not to disclose information about the submitted manuscript to anyone other than the editors and Editorial Board of Journal;

- objectivity–toevaluate the manuscript comprehensively, avoiding personal criticism of the author and expressing the point of view clear and reasonable;

- impartiality– to assess the intellectual content of the manuscript, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, nationality and political views of theauthor;

- copyright–to point out the lack of references in the peer-reviewed article and pay attention to any substantial similarity or identity of the manuscript under consideration and any other known publications.

The Editorial Board, in turn, guarantees the reviewers

- Confidentiality of personal data of the reviewerin case of negative review, with positive feedback — only at the request of the reviewer;

- Timely provision of all materials and documents related to the review of the manuscripts. «Criteria for the reviewer», «Memo to the reviewer» should be available to reviewers and, if necessary, periodically updated.

Struggle against dishonesty, duplication and plagiarism

Editorial Board should find, if possible, unscrupulous and duplicate (repeated) publications, primarily in the prepress stage.

In case that the article contains elements of scientific papers by other authors (plagiarism) or facts of publication of the same article in different journals by the authors,Editorial Board shall notify the authors about this fact and reserves the right not to allow further consideration of their articles.

If plagiarism or the duplication of publication is found during the review or editing, the editorial board will address the author for clarification. In case of unsatisfactory response,the article must be returned to the authors for proper processing or rejectedin case of serious suspicion of improper behavior of the author.

If plagiarism or the duplication of publication, as well as false information are discovered after the release of Journal, the editors reserve the right to publish a clarification for the readers in the next issue of Journal, as well as to mark the page with the article in a special way in electronic form and website of the Institute of Geology of FRC Komi SC UB RAS in the section «Vestnik» or exclude this article from the electronic version (with the notice of readers).

Settlement of complaints and disputes

Personal contacts are the primary and most preferred method of communication (including disputes) between Editorial Board and authors in the process of reviewing and preparing articles for publication.

Editorial Board should follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) — http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts.

The authors, submitting a complaint to Editorial Board,must be sure that these complaints will be dealt with in a reasonable time. Editorial Board and editors should respond to all written requests from the readers, reviewers, and other concerned people.