Publication ethics

Provisions on publication ethics and its violations

General Provisions.

1. The publication of an article in a journal is an essential contribution to the development of the world system of knowledge, so the editorial policy of a scientific journal is most closely connected to the ethics of scientific activity. Ethical standards regarding publication guarantee public confidence in the scientific findings presented in the article materials and recognition of the author’s idea, thus ensuring the high quality of scientific publications. Scientific-technical and production journal «Vestnik of Kazan State Power Engineering University» (hereinafter — the Journal) is included in the VAK List of peer-reviewed journals, which obliges the Journal editorial board and its editorial board to a number of important moral and ethical principles and organizational norms. All parties involved in the publication process — the author, reviewer, editorial board, members of the editorial board and publisher — must comply with the moral and ethical principles that guide scientists in their work and ensure the functioning of science itself. Articles that do not comply with the norms and rules of scientific ethics cannot be allowed for publication. The editors, reviewers, and editorial board must evaluate the intellectual content of manuscripts regardless of the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious views, origin, citizenship, social status, or political preferences of the authors. The editorial board and the editors must guarantee that all the information presented in the manuscripts under consideration is kept confidential until publication within the existing legal framework of the Russian Federation. The editorial board respects the rights of the authors of manuscripts sent for publication, which are protected by Russian laws and international acts. The legal basis of the journal’s publication ethics is ensured by international standards: — regulations adopted at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity (Singapore, July 22-24, 2010); — regulations developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE); — regulations of the Chapter 70 «Copyright» of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. All correspondence regarding violations of ethical norms and rules is kept in the Journal’s editorial office for 3 years.
2. Principles that should guide the author of scientific publications
   Authors of manuscripts with the results of original research should provide a rationale for the relevance of the research and an objective discussion of its significance. The article should present: the subject of the research, accurate source data. The work should contain references that will allow other researchers to reproduce its results. The authors of the manuscript should guarantee that the material submitted for publication is completely original, and if the authors have used the work of words or elements of other authors, appropriate references are made to them. If there are other contributors to the research project, they should be mentioned in the acknowledgements or listed as assistants or sponsors. The author of the manuscript with whom the correspondence is carried out must guarantee that the list of authors of the article is complete, all authors have approved the final version of the article and have signed the consent for publication. If the author finds a significant error or inaccuracy in his published work he should immediately notify the editorial board and/or the editorial board of the journal and cooperate with them to eliminate the errors or inaccuracies and to correct the article.
   The following may be considered a violation of the rules and regulations of scientific ethics:

• fabrication and falsification of data presented in the article;
• plagiarism;
• submitting an article to several journals (duplicate publications);
• violation of intellectual property rights in relation to the work of another author, protected by copyright;
• improper determination of authorship.
• In accordance with the editorial policy of the journal, it is not allowed:
• plagiarism;
• incorrect paraphrasing of another person’s work;
• using the results of another person’s original research (figures, tables, dependencies, etc.) without citing the source, indicating authorship or using quotation marks;
• paraphrasing, verbatim or partial copying of own works describing essentially the same research and previously published in another article, including foreign publications in a foreign language. If elements of the manuscript were previously published in another article, the authors must refer to the earlier work, indicating the significant differences of the new work and its relation to the research results and conclusions presented in the previous publication. The journal editorial board may ask for primary data related to the material presented in the manuscript for editorial review. This data should be prepared for public access. Ethical violations in scientific research do not include actions characteristic of research processes, unconscious research errors, data conflicts, different interpretations and interpretations of the findings and experimental designs.

3. Principles to guide the journal’s editorial board
   In its activities, the editorial board of the journal is responsible for the publication of authors’ works, which imposes the need to follow the moral and ethical principles that guide scientists in their work. In deciding whether to publish, the journal’s editorial board is guided by the reliability of the data presented and the scientific significance of the work in question.
   The editorial board should evaluate the intellectual content of manuscripts regardless of the origin, citizenship, social status, political and other preferences of the author. The editorial board should not allow information to be published if there are sufficient grounds to believe that it is plagiarism.
   In cases of revealing the facts of violation of norms and rules of scientific ethics and other facts of unacceptable behavior in the publication of scientific materials, the editorial board has the right to impose the following sanctions on the authors:

• to refuse to publish the submitted manuscript;
• impose a ban on publication in the journal for a certain period of time.
  In case the violation of ethical norms was revealed after the publication of scientific materials, the announcement about the revealed fact of violation should be placed on the official website of the Journal and in the next issue of the Journal within three days. The right to make a decision to apply sanctions in each individual case belongs to the editorial board of the journal upon presentation by the deputy editor-in-chief and/or the person responsible for the direction corresponding to the published article. In case any sanctions are applied, the editorial board sends a copy of the decision of the editorial board and a reasoned refusal to publish the article to the author. The editorial board has the right to inform the editors of other journals of related topics about the cases of violations of ethical norms and rules and to report the names of the authors who violated them. Unpublished materials submitted to the editorial board cannot be used by any of the parties involved in the publication process for their own purposes without the written consent of the author.
  Ethical Principles in Reviewer Performance
  The editorial board assumes that each reviewer of the journal assumes the obligation to follow the following ethical principles of reviewing:
• a reviewer may not act as a member of a long-term scientific team, which includes the authors of the reviewed work, as well as a repeated co-author of any of them on other papers;
• a reviewer must not act as a scientific adviser of any of the authors applying for the degree; — a reviewer must not use information about the content of the work in his own interests before it is published;
• all manuscripts subject to review are considered as a confidential document. They should not be shown to third parties and discussed with them, with the exception of persons appointed by the editor-in-chief of the journal or his deputy;
• reviewers must work objectively. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. The review should objectively evaluate the scientific article and contain a comprehensive analysis of its scientific and methodological advantages and disadvantages. Reviewers must express their views clearly, reasonably, with justification and evidence;
• if there is a conflict of interest with the author or organization, the reviewer should notify the deputy editor-in-chief and/or the person responsible for the field and refuse the process of reviewing the manuscript;
• if the reviewer considers himself/herself insufficiently competent to review the scientific research presented in the manuscript or knows that a timely review of the material is not possible, he/she should notify the deputy editor-in-chief and/or the referral officer within three days of the submission of the manuscript and abandon the article review process.

4. Journal’s policy on author’s contribution
   For the journal’s editorial board, the author’s contribution in the papers submitted for publication is determined on the basis of the following conditions:

• significant scientific contribution to the design, direction, concept, and structure of the research;
• significant contribution to the execution, analysis or interpretation of the scientific research presented;
• significant contribution in writing the text of the article or making fundamental changes to it;
• approval of the final version of the manuscript that is submitted for publication.
  Research data include any factual material recorded in any medium used in the process of obtaining research results, in digital or non-digital form. This includes tabular data, code, images, documents, maps, processed and/or raw data. This policy applies to research data that may be required to confirm the validity of the research results presented in the articles published by the journal «Vestnik of Kazan State Power University». Research data includes information obtained directly by the authors («primary data») as well as data from other sources analyzed by the authors in the course of the study («secondary data»).

The Journal’s Complaint Policy
The editors of the scientific journal «Vestnik of Kazan State Power Engineering University» should promptly respond to complaints received from authors of publications and do their best to resolve the controversial issue. Editors must follow the Code of Conduct for Journal Editors COPE.( https://publicationethics.org/).

Journal Appeal Policy
Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of articles.
Appeal Mechanism
If the author does not agree with the decision of the editorial board regarding the acceptance or rejection of an article, the author appeals to the editorial board in writing, indicating the reasons for the appeal. The Conflict Resolution Commission of the relevant journal considers the appeal of the author. Changes in the decision of the editorial board regarding the article is possible in the following cases:

• The author has provided additional factual findings that were not considered in the initial review of the article;
• The author provided additional material to the manuscript that was not considered in the initial review of the article;
• The author has provided conflict of interest information that was not provided in the initial review of the article; The author has provided information about the conflict of interest that was not provided in the initial review of the article;
• The author expresses concerns about a biased review.
  If there are sufficient grounds, the Conflict Resolution Commission of the respective journal makes a proposal to the editorial board to change or leave in force the initial decision regarding the publication of the article.
  If necessary, the Editorial Board may engage an additional reviewer to make the final decision.
  The decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of an article based on the results of the revision of the primary decision is made by the editorial board of the corresponding journal.
  The editorial board’s decision on review of the initial decision is final and is not subject to re-appeal.

Disclosure Policy and Conflicts of Interest
Unpublished data obtained from manuscripts submitted for review may not be used in personal research without the written consent of the Author. Information or ideas obtained in the course of reviewing and related to possible benefits must be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.
Reviewers should not participate in the review of manuscripts if there are conflicts of interest due to competitive, collaborative and other interactions and relationships with any of the Authors, companies or other organizations related to the submitted work.

The journal’s policy on data sharing and reproducibility
Authors’ provision of access to the data obtained in the course of their research that substantiate the content of their publications is welcome but not mandatory. Authors’ consent to provide access to research data does not affect the decision to publish.

Journal policy on intellectual property
The Editorial Board respects the intellectual property rights of the Authors and does not allow the transfer of copyrighted materials to third parties, other than reviewers and editorial staff, without the consent of the author.

Journal’s policy on handling errors in published works
If a significant error or inaccuracy is found in a published work (with or without notice to the Author), the Editorial Board will cooperate with the Author to withdraw or correct the article accordingly. If a correction is deemed appropriate, the Editorial Board reserves the right to correct the published material and include the dated error.