Journal of Ophthalmology (Ukraine) is a journal that follows the ICMJE's Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.(ICMJE's for the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors).

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

(compiled in accordance with COPE’s Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors)

 

Duties of Editors

Publication decision - the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

Fair play - the Editor-in-Chief and the reviewers evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to the author’s race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, citizenship, or political ideology.

Confidentiality - the Editor-in-Chief and the members of the editorial staff must ensure that all material submitted to the journal remains confidential while under review. The Editor-in-Chief and the editorial staff must not disclose any information about the submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher.

Disclosure and Conflicts of interest - unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a Chief Editor/Editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decision - peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.

Promptness - any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

Confidentiality - any manuscripts received for review should be treated with strict confidentiality. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except when authorized by the Editor-in-Chief.

Standards of Objectivity - reviews should be conducted objectively. There shall be no personal criticism of the author. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Source - reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest - privileged information or ideas obtained through the peer review process must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other connection with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the manuscript.

Duties of Authors 

Reporting standards - the authors of manuscripts should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the manuscript. The manuscript should contain sufficient details and references to permit others to replicate the study. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention - authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and Plagiarism - the authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication - an author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of Sources - proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of the Paper - authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made contributions should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are listed in the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects - if the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript. If the work involves the use of animal or human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) has approved them. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest - all authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works - when an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

CORRECTION AND RETRACTION POLICIES

Correction.  Notification of an important error made by the journal or the author(s) that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors or of the journal. We expect authors to inform the journal’s Editors of any errors they have noticed (or have been informed of) in their article once published as print or electronic correspondence. We recognize our responsibility to publish a correction notice as soon as possible detailing changes from and citing the original publication; the correction is published on a numbered print page to ensure proper indexing. We also post a new article version with details of the changes and the dates on which the changes were made.

Scientific misconduct. Scientific misconduct includes but is not necessarily limited to data fabrication; data falsification, including deceptive manipulation of images; and plagiarism. When scientific misconduct is alleged, the editors initiate appropriate procedures and if the investigation proves scientific misconduct, we publish a retraction of the article. Retracted articles remain in the public domain and are clearly labelled as retracted.

Expressions of concern.  When scientific misconduct is alleged, or concerns are otherwise raised about the conduct or integrity of work described in submitted or published papers, the editors may choose to publish an expression of concern pending the outcomes of those procedures. EoCs specifies clearly the nature of the concern, which differentiates possible misconduct from honest error. EoCs indicates which aspects of the paper are problematic (i.e., which specific data or conclusions are invalid) and indicates what factors (feedback from readers, individuals, institutional officials, etc.) ultimately led to the publication of the EoC. Expression of concern is included in the journal’s table of contents with page number and freely available.

Retraction. Notification of invalid results that affect the reliability of a previously published article. Retractions are considered by journal editors in cases of evidence of unreliable data or findings, plagiarism, duplicate publication, and unethical research. The original article is marked as retracted but remains available to readers, and the retraction statement notifying readers of the invalidity of the published paper is bi-directionally linked to the original published paper. The text of the retraction explains why the article is being retracted and includes a complete citation reference to that article.

POLICY ON DUPLICATE PUBLICATION

Authors are expected not to submit the same manuscript, in the same or different languages, simultaneously to more than one journal. When authors submit a manuscript reporting work that has already been reported in large part in a published article or is contained in or closely related to another paper that has been submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere, the letter of submission should clearly say so and the authors should provide copies of the related material to help the editor decide how to handle the submission.

Authors who attempt duplicate publication without such notification should expect at least prompt rejection of the submitted manuscript. If the editor was not aware of the violations and the article has already been published, then the article might warrant retraction with or without the author’s explanation or approval.

Secondary publication is acceptable if the authors have received approval from the editors of both journals; the paper for secondary publication is intended for a different group of readers; the secondary version informs readers, peers, and documenting agencies that the paper has been published in whole or in part elsewhere

FEES

No fees or charges are required for manuscript processing and/or publishing materials in the journal. However, authors are offered to pay for editorial services to help prepare a submission-ready manuscript.